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They donate to Dénia the miniatures that José Bañó carved for his daughter from a Francoist prison

19 2021 April - 12: 08

At the end of the Civil War, the Dianense José Bañó, affiliated with the CNT, was retaliated by the Franco regime and sentenced to 7 years in prison in the Alicante adult reformatory. There he must have coincided with many other dianenses who suffered the same misfortune, such as Gabriel Pérez, Antonio Ballester, Jaime Fornés or Francisco Blanquer, as well as with the 19 prisoners from Dénia who were shot.

During his stay in prison, Bañó dedicated part of his time to making crafts for his daughter, Maria Bañó. These are objects made with small pieces of wood that he cut with a knife or with strips of skin. Some of them are engraved with the initials of the recipient, MB

This legacy, which the family has treasured for years as a precious memory, has been donated by Maria's son, Bernat Cardona Bañó, to the Dénia City Council to be incorporated into the set of materials related to the Civil War and Franco's repression that it guards the Municipal Historical Archive.

The objects given are a box made of colored leather strips, a small plane attached to a safety pin to hook it to clothing, a ring, wooden souks, high-heeled slippers and two baskets.

This set could be seen in 2018 in the exhibition Dénia, Time of War and Repression, 1936-1939 organized by the Municipal Archive at the La Estación Art Center, donated by the family for the occasion.

José Bañó was sent home before the end of his sentence, "4 or 5 years after being locked up in prison," for suffering from tuberculosis, explains his grandson. A disease that he contracted due to the terrible conditions of the closure and that would cause his death in 1955.

Now, thanks to the family's initiative, the objects that José Bañó created with such appreciation in mind of his daughter will always remain in the memory of the city and will be preserved as a witness to history.

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