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The Basque Government and the Provincial Government of Bizkaia honored “child of war,” Paulita Lopez Gonzalez, with a visit from Director of the Basque Community Abroad, Gorka Alvarez, and the Deputy of Social Action in Bizkaia, Isabel Sanchez, at her residence.  Born in 1928, Paulita was evacuated to the Soviet Union when she was only 9.  Now at the age of 90, she is back in Bizkaia where she lives at a residence in her hometown of Trapagaran.

Trapagaran, Bizkaia.   The Basque Government communicated through a note that for the purposes of the law 8/1994 regarding relationships with communities and Basque clubs abroad, people born in the Basque Country who were evacuated a result of the Spanish Civil War, “children of war,” are part of the Basque communities for which the Directorate of the Basque Community Abroad is responsible.

Paulita was born in 1928, in Trapagaran and age the age of nine was evacuated to the former Soviet Union in 1937, due to the Civil War.  She lived the majority of her life there but her greatest wish was to return to her hometown.  In 2017, the Basque Government began the process of repatriation and in 2018, at the age of 90, Paulita has seen her dream of returning to Euskadi come true.

Following the outbreak of the civil War in 1936, thousands of Basque children had to flee into exile and were separated from their parents.  Some returned at the end of the war, but many spent all, or most of their lives abroad, far from their families.

In Paulita Lopez Gonzalez’s case, she was evacuated to the Soviet Union, today, Russia. This visit from heads of the Basque Government and the Provincial Government of Bizkaia is “a memory and a tribute to her and to all of the “children of war,” Gorka Alvarez Aranburu said.