Lourdes Rial Muñoz / Arrecifes, Argentina. Anamari Solanes is the daughter of Cesar Solanes, who is the son of Olga Aurtenechea, who was the granddaughter of a victim in the bombing of Gernika. Eighty years ago Anamari’s great-great-grandmother died in one of the most devastating actions of Franco’s forces, along with the Germans and the Italians against a civilian population. Eighty years afterwards, her great-great-granddaughter was invited to tell her story in the Basque Country in a documentary that will begin recording in Arrecifes and will finish at Picasso’s painting “Guernica,” in the Queen Sofia Museum in Madrid, Spain.
In the coming days, a production team will arrive at Anamari’s house so that she can begin to tell the story that her grandmother Olga told her, and who in turn had heard it from her mother’s mouth.
-The original idea was for Grandma Olga to be part of the documentary, Anamari explained, and as my grandmother is already gone they asked for someone who had never been to the Basque Country, and my father, Cesar, had already gone, as well as one of his sisters, and so for various reasons, they chose me.
-So they are not only going to come to Arrecifes, but they will also take you to the Basque Country to the sites where the events took place.
-Yes…I think that they will also be surprised when they come and see our relationship with being Basque here. The (Basque Country) Basques don’t have any idea about the Diaspora (Basques around the world), and they are going to be surprised. Where I live, that used to be my Grandma’s house, there is a reproduction of Picasso’s “Guernica” that if you remove from the wall, you will see its print, this is how long it has been hanging there, surrounded by txapelas, lauburus, Basque flags in the homes of the entire family…they have no idea how Basque we are.
-Will it tell the story of many descendants of those victims?
-No, in reality, I will be the focus of the painting, but they will interlace my story with people close to the painting by Picasso. They are going to use the painting as the thread of the documentary. In fact they asked me if I had a reproduction of it…
-And so the documentary will begin with the reproduction that you have at home and will end in front of the original in Madrid. Did you already image yourself in Gernika?
-It is very strong. I see myself there, and I see all time. From the first news that I have had, until now, I have talked to friends who have traveled there, with my mother, and all say the same thing…when you get there you will become emotional in front of the tree, in front of the Juntetxea, in your family’s home…I am going to shelters, to my grandmother Olga’s grandmother's farmhouse, and from there we will go to Madrid…it’s crazy. I am fascinated and what I regret the most is that my grandmother isn’t here, because we know how fascinated she would have been with all of this.
Knowing Anamari’s sensitivity, we know that it will be an incredible experience, the one she will live, as well as the one people who see the documentary she is a part of will live throught her.
The singer, Anamari Solanes just received unexpected news, that makes you feel like you are living someone else’s story. When the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Gernika is celebrated in the Basque Country, she will be a part of a documentary, the great-great-granddaughter of one of the victims of Franco’s attack on the Basques.
(published in Minuto Arrecifes)
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