Sunset on the big Trench
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
Sunset on the big Trench
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Sunset on the big Trench.
The sun sets on the old grass and fern covered trenches dug by the fascists as they advanced against the Republicans during the Spanish civil war in the heart of the Basque Country. These positions and others in nearby mountains were used to bomb my hometown, although most of the damage was made by Italian and German airplanes. The city was destroyed beyond recognition, to the point that us who were born after the reconstruction do not recognize the old streets anymore.
Decades after, the grandsons of the defeated roam these lands free again as the scars of land and hearts slowly cure and fade with the men and women that suffered the war in their own flesh.
I run along these hills almost every other day and, three generations after, I know the facts but feel no resentment. I am just sad for all the needless suffering sometimes man brings onto himself.
Be it as it may, for the wrong or right reasons, people died here. They gave their lives for what they believed right, or because they were given no choice but to fight. I do not care whether they were friend or foe anymore. I just see young men who lost everything and more. Whoever died here, to me, this is sacred land now.
Not because of the war, but yet again because of it too, in an ambivalent way of forgiving, forgetting and reclaiming at the same time, some day, hopefully in a distant future, my loved ones will bring my ashes here and I will return to mother earth and become this mountain forever.
Cannot imagine a better place for me to spend eternity, than the top of this beautiful but scarred hill, above my hometown, in the heart of my land.
You can learn more about what drives me in my blog:
http://inspiringthoughtsandimages.com/
Weston Westmoreland.
Uploaded
February 25th, 2014
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