How the Spanish Civil War affected my Family

Rique Llanares gave Carnforth Rotarians a very interesting talk on how the Spanish Civil War affected his family. He told us how his mother, a Liverpudlian, met a Spanish Orange grower, were married in London and went to live in Spain. Rique was actually born in France when his mother went to visit relatives. He was about 18 months old when the Civil War started in 1936. In the middle of 1936, about 350,000 refugees passed through his hometown of Portbou. It was only when a bomb exploded in the next door garden which threw Rique into the wall, that his mother decided they had to move away. They moved across France with basic items to Liverpool. Arriving Christmas Eve, 28/10/36.

However, his mother decided that they had to move back to be with their father, so they sailed from Liverpool to Morocco where they had an orange farm. One day two men arrived at the farm and took his father away. They never saw him for over 30 years and still don’t know happened on that day. The family returned to London in 1938, eventually moving back to Liverpool, where WWII prevented their return to Spain. The children were evacuated to N Wales, where they were able to look across the estuary to see the bombings in Liverpool. Rique, being the young lad he was, thoroughly enjoyed his time away and found it difficult returning to his original family life.