During the 13th century there were a group of
people in Southwestern France known as the Cagots. The Cagots were of an
unknown origin with speculation that they may have descended from the Visigoths
who conquered the Romans during the 4th century, or the offspring of
Moors who once occupied this region. No one knows the exact reason why, but the
Cagots were deemed untouchable and cast off to the malarial side of the river.
They were not allowed to walk around with bare feet like the other peasants
could, leading to speculation that they had webbed toes. Because of this, they
had to display a goose foot on their lapel so that everyone knew they were ‘different.’
When they went to church to worship, they had to enter through a side door, had
their own separate font and had to take communion on long wooden spoons so the
clergymen would not have to get near them. Because of the severe rules placed
upon them, the only trades they were allowed to practice were to be the drawers
of water and the hewers of wood. All of these restrictions were placed upon the
Cagots from the 13th century all the way until the time of the
French Revolution (1789-1799). Still, not much is known of them as they were so
ashamed of who they were because of how they were treated, they destroyed their
own history. We drove from church to church in all of the small towns of
Southwestern France trying to figure out if the side entrances were the ones
once used by them, and even if they weren’t, it still opened a door to history
and got us thinking about the unfortunate circumstances of an entire group of
people.
Gurs Internment Camp
Also in the Southwest region of France, but years after the
demise of the Cagots, there was an internment camp built in 1939. This camp was
built to house Spaniards fleeing Franco, Basque nationalists, German Jewish,
gypsies, homosexuals and many more. Upon arriving at the camp, the initial wave
of sadness falls upon you as you see the railroad tracks leading directly to
the camp. The images of people packed in train cars not knowing where they were
going, wondering what the fear was like in their minds or if some of them knew
they may not ever come back, was too much to bear. As we walked around silently
looking at the gravestones of those who were lost, you couldn’t help but wonder
who they could’ve been. Did they ever know what it felt like to be in love? Did
they experience the world before they were taken too soon? One man was eighty
five years old when he passed away in that camp, having lived his whole life
only to perish in such a manner. There was also a little baby named Ella who
never got to experience life because of where and when she was born. In 1946,
after 63,929 were interred there, the camp was closed, but the memories of what
happened to these people will be etched upon our hearts forever.
Guernica
Since time immemorial, the Basque people have met at the oak
tree of Guernica to create their fueros, which are basic codes by which their
people lived their lives accordingly. When kings and queens of the past needed
the help of the Basque people, they would meet at the oak tree here. On April
26, 1937, Francisco Franco had the town of Guernica destroyed through an aerial
bombardment with the help of German and Italian troops. Most of the people in
this quaint little town had never seen airplanes or tanks, so the confusion and
fear they must have felt upon seeing something so foreign to them must have
been palpable. Unfortunately for the people of this town and the surrounding
areas, the bombing took place on market day. All of the people from the nearby
villages had gathered in the town to sell and purchase goods, which meant many
innocent civilians lost their lives. Pablo Picasso created a work of art in
memory of this fateful occurrence, and through his genius, was able to
encapsulate the chaos and tragedy of this event in history. The oak tree
remains, in part anyhow, but it was one of the only pieces of this town still
standing. Seeing Guernica today, eighty one years later, it speaks to life
being resilient. Nature rebuilds itself, and in the end we realize that we all
want the same things out of life. We all want to survive and to love and to be a part of
something greater than ourselves. The reason for visiting the scenes of our haunting
past is so that we remember what people gave to stand up for what they believed
in, or that innocents are casualties of war, or that people were, and still
are, persecuted for their lineage. Those that were lost are never forgotten,
and their sacrifice may bring a greater appreciation for life in knowing what
others had to go through so that we may flourish in our own lives.
