Survivors Demand Justice: Spain's Forgotten Victims of Dictatorship

In 2025, Marina Freixa learned the shocking truth about her family's past. Her mother, Mariona Roca Tort, revealed that she had been detained in a reformatory as a teenager under Spain's decades-long dictatorship, which ended in 1975. Mariona's parents had reported her to the authorities for her nonconformist behavior, and she was sent to one of the Patronato de Protección a la Mujer (Women's Protection Board) institutions, where girls and young women deemed "in need of re-education" were confined.

Mariona endured a grueling routine of prayers, cleaning, and forced labor, as well as psychiatric "treatments" like electric shock therapy and "insulin coma therapy" that left her with lasting memory loss. After her release, Mariona vowed never to live with her parents again, and she went on to forge a career as a TV director, though her relationship with her family remained strained.

Now, 50 years after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, Mariona and other survivors of the Patronato are demanding an official inquiry into the network of institutions that imprisoned nonconforming women. Marina's documentary film about her mother's experience has helped raise awareness and contributed to the growing calls for justice and recognition of these forgotten victims of Spain's dictatorship.