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Spain Designates Franco-Era Tefía Camp as First LGTBIQ+ Place of Memory

The move embeds the persecution of LGTBIQ+ people under Franco into Spain's official memory program.

Overview

  • At the ceremony, the central government also honored José Antonio Nielfa, known as 'La Otxoa', for decades of LGTBIQ+ rights advocacy.
  • Nielfa used the event to recall being imprisoned under the dictatorship for being gay.
  • The former Colonia Agrícola Penitenciaria de Tefía in Fuerteventura operated roughly from 1954 to 1966, holding homosexual and trans people in forced-labor conditions reported as inhumane.
  • Officials described the designation as Spain’s first officially recognized LGTBIQ+ place of memory.
  • The government situated the step within a broader expansion of democratic memory sites, noting additional designations under way, including the Masonic Temple of Tenerife.