A child's return to Franco's Spain

Summary

Witness History – "A Child's Return to Franco's Spain"

Date: July 17, 2026
Host: Ivana Davidovic
Guest/Witness: Felisa Umbon San Vicente

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Episode Overview

This episode commemorates 90 years since the start of the Spanish Civil War by revisiting the personal story of Felisa Umbon San Vicente, who returned to Spain as a child refugee during the rise of Franco's dictatorship. Through her firsthand account, the episode explores daily life under Francoist oppression, the erasure of Basque identity, community suspicion, and the hardships of post-war Spain, offering listeners a vivid, personal glimpse into history.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Spanish Civil War and Basque Displacement

• Context:
  • The war pitted Republicans (pro-government) against Nationalists, led by Franco.
  • Civilians suffered immensely: "Already it's estimated that 25,000 have been killed. But less than half of those have died on a battlefield... men are torn from their weeping families, lined up and shot." — BBC News Reporter [00:46]
• Felisa’s Early Refugee Experience:
  • At age 8, Felisa fled with her family from the Basque region to France.
  • Her mother decided to return, longing for home despite the danger.

Life Under Franco’s Regime

• Suppression and Indoctrination:
  • School routine was starkly different:
    "I was supposed to start school before the war... And then when I came back... I had to learn all the fascist songs. El Carazol. We had to sing with the hands, like that." — Felisa [02:29] "With a raised hand." — Ivana [02:48]
    "Viva Franco. Viva Francois. Yeah, so it wasn't nice." — Felisa [02:56]
• Cultural Repression:
  • The Basque language and identity were forbidden:
    "We couldn't speak Basque. We couldn't even sing an Ethan in Basque. We have to be careful. So you were told before you go out, do not talk about that." — Felisa [03:32]
  • Parents silenced themselves around children for fear of accidental betrayal.

Community Fear, Betrayal, and Violence

• Atmosphere of Suspicion:
  • Neighbor denounced neighbor; some Basques worked for the regime:
    "A lot of people they were denouncing even neighbors for one thing or the other. They pay them." — Felisa [04:23]
• Loss and Violence:
  • Felisa’s cousins, left-wing supporters, were executed:
    "They shot him in front of the children because they were left wing and there were two brothers." — Felisa [04:03]
• Franco’s Visit:
  • Franco’s visit to the Basque country left a threat:
    "Franco went once and the Basque didn't want him. And he said he was going to make them suffer. And he did. He never went back." — Felisa [04:45]

The Broader European Context & Postwar Hardship

• Fear of Another War:
  • Fearful of rising Hitler and another conflict:
    "They were completely, all the time talking about [Churchill, Hitler]. They were worried that we were going to start going in the war as well. But then we just finished one, we don't want another one." — Felisa [05:34]
• Hunger Years (“Los Años del Hambre”):
  • Daily deprivation deeply marked people:
    "I remember I was walking in Bilbao with my mother and I said, look, he's eating the bananas or the orange salt peel... it was a man picking up that and eating from the floor. So there were people hungry." — Felisa [06:04]
  • Relatively rare relief came from Felisa’s father working abroad:
    "We have coffee, we have sugar from Cuba... my mother will be toasting the coffee in the house with all the windows closed." — Felisa [06:30]
  • "Because she didn't want the neighbors to know she has coffee... You can't feed the whole world and you feel guilty." — Felisa [06:45]

The Impact on Children

• Coping With Trauma:
  • Children’s resilience amid horror:
    "You don't even cry. You know something is very wrong. And you know that crying is not going to give you peace or anything. You just keep quiet and watch." — Felisa [07:19]
  • "You don't even miss the things you used to have... I didn't even think of my toys or nothing at all." — Felisa [07:19]

Life After Franco

• Leaving Spain:
  • Felisa moved to London in 1954, worked as a nanny, married, and had children.
• Relief at Franco’s Death:
  • The Basque community’s long-awaited celebration:
    "The people that have champagnes in the fridge waiting for him to die... And the day he died, I don't know how many bottles of champagne they were drunk in the in the Welsh county." — Felisa [08:41]
• Life Today:
  • Felisa, now 97, lives independently in London.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "We couldn't speak Basque. We couldn't even sing in Basque. We have to be careful." — Felisa [03:32]
• "They shot him in front of the children because they were left wing..." — Felisa [04:03]
• "You don't even cry... you just keep quiet and watch." — Felisa [07:19]
• "The people that have champagnes in the fridge waiting for him to die..." — Felisa [08:41]

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Important Timestamps

• 00:46 – BBC News Report sets the brutality of the war
• 01:05 – Felisa’s background and return to Spain
• 02:29 – Felisa describes school indoctrination
• 03:20 – Hiding Basque identity
• 04:03 – Execution of Felisa’s cousins
• 05:34 – Fear of war spreading to Spain
• 06:04 – Los Años del Hambre (The Hunger Years)
• 07:19 – Psychological toll on children
• 08:41 – Reaction to Franco's death

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Tone & Style of the Episode

The episode maintains a somber, reflective, and intimate tone. Audio archives transport listeners to the era, while Felisa’s voice alternates between vivid anecdotes and understated, poignant observations. Ivana gently guides Felisa’s recollections, allowing her to tell her story with dignity and emotion.

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Summary

This episode of Witness History paints a compelling personal account of a young girl’s return to Franco’s Spain and the enduring scars of totalitarian rule. Felisa Umbon San Vicente’s memories illustrate the loss, fear, resilience, and subtle acts of cultural survival experienced by civilian families caught between warring ideologies and repression. Her story is a moving reminder of the human cost of conflict and the quiet strength found in survival.

Transcript

[Ivana Davidovic]

This is Witness History from the BBC World Service. I'm Ivana Davidovic. If you're not new to us, you can skip this bit, but if you are welcome. We're the podcast that takes you back to a moment in history by speaking to those who were there. Episodes are just nine minutes long and come out every weekday. If that sounds like something you'd listen to, why not subscribe and turn your push notifications on? To mark 90 years since the start of the Spanish Civil War, we're going to tell the story of a young refugee who returned home to her country, which was on the brink of dictatorship.

[BBC News Reporter]

Spain's atrocity spangled civil war burns and butchers into its ninth week. Already it's estimated that 25,000 have been killed. But less than half of those have died on a battlefield. Night after night all over Spain, men are torn from their weeping, families lined up and shot. Scores of cities, towns and villages have been bombarded and burnt.

[Ivana Davidovic]

The war was fought between the Republicans, who supported Spain's elected left leaning government, and the Nationalists, a right wing rebel coalition led by General Francisco Franco. While half a million refugees initially fled Franco's fascist forces, around half chose to come back while the war was still raging on. One of Those returnees was 8 year old Felisa Umbon San Vicente, from the village of Urdulis, next door to Bilbao in the northern Basque country. It's an autonomous community in the Western Pyrenees, straddling the Spanish French border on the Bay of Biscay. It has its own ancient language called Eusquera. Felisa had already spent several months as a refugee in neighbouring France with when in 1937, her mum decided she'd rather bring her children back home.

[BBC News Reporter]

Bilbao falls at the feet of the conquering insurgents lies the capital of the Basque province. And as the tide of war rolls closer, inhabitants flee and the victors enter their car list levies from the neighboring province of Navarre, their moors from across.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

I was basking the bus. People didn't support Franco with Bilbauer.

[Ivana Davidovic]

Now under Franco's rule, little Felisa settled into a routine. But it was nothing like she had expected it to be.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

I supposed to start school before the war starts and I was excited because I was going to go with my sister. So I didn't. And then when I came back and I went to school, all I did had to learn all the fascist songs. El Carazol. We had to sing with the hands, like that.

[Ivana Davidovic]

With a raised hand.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

Raised hand.

[Ivana Davidovic]

Do you remember any of the songs still,

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

you know, the Music, All that. Yeah. And then you finish, Viva Franco. Viva Francois. Yeah, so it wasn't nice.

[Ivana Davidovic]

While at school they loudly cheered, Long live Franco. Long live Spain. Felisa and her friends and family had to hide their Basque identity. And parents were scared to speak in front of their children.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

We couldn't speak Basque. We couldn't even sing Ethan in Basque. We have to be careful. So you were told before you go out, do not talk about that. The grown ups, they never wanted to go in front of the children. We were sent out because they were afraid we were going to repeat things.

[Ivana Davidovic]

And the consequences of speaking carelessly could be deadly. People would be imprisoned and some would never return, including Felisa's cousins.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

We they shoot him in front of the children because they were left wing and there were two brothers.

[Ivana Davidovic]

In this atmosphere of fear, people were even distrustful of their own community.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

It was a lot because so a lot of people they were denouncing even neighbors for one thing or the other. They pay them.

[Ivana Davidovic]

So were there also Basque people that were working for the regime?

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

Yeah, of course. Yeah. In the Basque country. It was terrible. It was Franco.

[Ivana Davidovic]

Do you remember Franco ever visiting your town?

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

Well, Franco went once and the Basque didn't want him. And he said he was going to make them suffer. And he did. He never went back.

[Ivana Davidovic]

The political situation in Europe was also weighing heavily on everyone's minds. Just as their own civil war was ending, Spaniards were terrified of what was happening in the rest of Europe. Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany accelerated its aggressive expansionism and racial persecution, culminating in the invasion of Poland in September.

[BBC News Reporter]

The responsibility lies on the shoulders of one man. By his latest act of naked aggression, Hitler has committed a crime not only against Poland, but against the whole human race. Already German troops, guns and planes have crossed the Polish border to kill and to destroy.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

I heard all about Churchill, Hitler, all the snakes they were completely, all the time talking about. They were worried that we were going to start going in the war as well. But then we just finished one, we don't want another one. Everything was rationed. Terrible.

[Ivana Davidovic]

That rationing led to what became known as Los Anos del Ambre, the hunger years.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

I remember I was walking in Bilbao with my mother and I said, look, he's eating the bananas of the orange salt peel. And my mother told me off. It was a man picking up that and eating from the floor. So there were people hungry.

[Ivana Davidovic]

Felisa was one of the luckier ones, as her father got work abroad and managed to send money to his family, even for little Luxuries.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

And then when my father starts back again to normal, we have coffee, we have sugar from Cuba, we have everything. So my mother will be toasting the coffee in the house with all the windows closed.

[Ivana Davidovic]

Why did she keep all the windows closed?

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

Because she didn't want the neighbors to know she has coffee. When you have something you can give to a neighbor or something, something. But you can't feed the whole world and you feel guilty. You are having and they are not having.

[Ivana Davidovic]

The Spanish Civil war ended in 1939 with a total victory of Nationalist forces led by General Francois. It's estimated around half a million people died during the conflict. Looking back, what was living through all of that death and destruction like for Felisa?

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

Funny enough, I realize when I see the war and children, they go through hell and they don't cry. And that's what they do. You don't even cry. You know something is very wrong. And you know that crying is not going to give you peace or anything. You just keep quiet and watch. And I think that's what I did, nothing else. Because you can see your parents, the grownups, everybody's worried, everybody is nervous. Everybody is not normal. Nothing is happening that's normal. And then you don't even miss the things you used to have. You just even forget. I think, you know, I didn't even think of my toys or nothing at all. So it's very strange. How we behave in cases like that is very, very sad.

[Ivana Davidovic]

Felisa eventually moved to the UK, to London in 1954 when she was 25. She was working as a nanny and then married and had children. Although when Franco died in 1975 and living under his rule was two decades behind her, she says she could hear celebrations all the way from Bilbao.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

The people that have champagnes in the fridge waiting for him to die when he got ill. And the day he died, I don't know how many bottles of champagne they were drunk in the in the Welsh county.

[Ivana Davidovic]

Apart from a few years living in Paris, Felisa Unbon San Vicente now Portelli has made London her home for the past 70 odd years. She still lives independently. At the age of 97, she was speaking to me, Ivana Davidovich, for Witness History. If you've enjoyed this, please let your friends know about us and make sure you search out some of our other amazing personal stories from Spanish Civil War, like the ones about refugees settling in Britain or the fall of Madrid. Make sure you hit. Subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Thank you for listening. Goodbye from the brilliant and bizarre.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

It was really surreal.

[Ivana Davidovic]

It was a surreal kind of atmosphere there.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

You couldn't really see anybody.

[Ivana Davidovic]

To the shocking and unexpected.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

I'm just wondering, what are we going to do now?

[Ivana Davidovic]

This was really my worst fear. He found 100% horse meat that was labeled as beef. Witness the stories that have shaped our world, told by the people who were there. When he went to the factory, the poodle went in front of him.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

So the workers only, oh, the boss is here.

[BBC News Reporter]

Many people had many things to lose by our victory.

[Felisa Umbon San Vicente]

The future was not so bright.

[Ivana Davidovic]

Witness history. We had a designer, he bought in a fully storyboarded idea about how the queen would arrive by jumping out of a helicopter. And we all said, that's brilliant, but it's never going to happen. Witness [e-mail] witness history or wherever you get your podcasts.