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Mysteries of the Abandoned (2017) Season 12 Episode 5- Revolution in El Paso
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00:00A derelict compound in Texas, once the epicenter of a violent revolution.
00:07It was exciting, but it was also dangerous.
00:09Bullets were flying, artillery shells were going off.
00:12They had front row seats to this amazing battle.
00:16A top secret facility outside Berlin,
00:19used by a ruthless dictator to escape justice.
00:23This place should have lost all relevance,
00:25but it had one final dramatic mission to carry out.
00:30And an aristocratic party palace that became an IRA stronghold.
00:36The women would use these statues,
00:38these symbols of colonial oppression, as target practice.
00:52In downtown El Paso, Texas,
00:55a hollow construction holds a revolutionary history.
00:59It's a very attractive, stately, old building.
01:09But once you go inside, it's a pretty sad state of affairs.
01:13There's wires hanging out of the ceiling.
01:15Windows are taken out of their frames and stacked up.
01:18Nearby, right next to the freeway, which straddles the border,
01:22a second abandoned building was embroiled in the same dramatic struggle.
01:28It's a huge warehouse-style building.
01:32It looks like it might have once been a small industrial operation of some kind.
01:36The rooftop is a prime vantage point to look right across the border
01:40into the neighboring Mexican city of Juarez.
01:44And if you look closely, you'll see that there's damage on the walls.
01:48Pivotal in the birth of the Mexican state,
01:52these bullet holes are remnants of a time when El Paso was caught in violent crossfire.
01:58So the question is, how are these two buildings?
02:02This one here on the border, this one here in the city, how are they connected?
02:06These buildings might look a little forlorn today,
02:08but there was a time when this town was a hotbed of international intrigue.
02:12From here, a revolution was planned and a war was launched
02:17while citizens watched from their rooftops.
02:23El Paso was once Spanish territory,
02:26but it became part of the United States when America annexed Texas in 1845.
02:32It began as a trading post and became one of the most important points of contact
02:38between the U.S. and Mexico.
02:41Between 1890 and 1910, the population of El Paso quadruples.
02:46You see this explosive growth as kind of a window on America's southern border
02:50and an outlet and an inlet for trade.
02:53This once ornate structure was born during that early prosperity.
02:58Richard Caples was a former mayor of El Paso and kind of a local big shot.
03:03He had big plans for the city and wanted to help it grow.
03:06Construction began on this building in 1909.
03:10It was planned as a five-story office building with retail on the ground floor.
03:15It was built at tremendous cost, $135,000 at the time,
03:19which works out to be four and a half, five million dollars today.
03:22This is the Caples building, named after its owner.
03:29It was still under construction when the abandoned warehouse half a mile away
03:33hosted an iconic meeting of presidents.
03:36The gathering took place out front of the El Paso laundry, which sits right on the border.
03:43There was an historic international meeting between Mexican President Porfirio Diaz and American President William Taft.
03:51This was an important turning point in Mexican-American relations.
03:55People crowded around this street.
03:58There was a lot of pomp, a lot of ceremony.
04:01Viva Taft, viva Diaz, viva Mexico, viva the United States.
04:06David Dorado Romo understands the subtext of this event.
04:10There seemed to be a lot of agreement and harmony, but that was just for public show.
04:20Diaz was really the archetype of a corrupt dictator.
04:25He maintained his power by crushing dissent, not really allowing free press, favoring certain elites.
04:32He was also known to be in the pocket of big American businesses.
04:38In El Paso, Diaz was seeking to further cement American support along the border in the run-up to a crucial election.
04:46His rival was intent on bringing democracy to Mexico, something Diaz had no intention of allowing.
04:55Diaz had thrown his main political opponent, a formidable man by the name of Francisco Madera, in jail during the proceedings.
05:05Madero actually had managed to escape from prison, and he headed across the border to El Paso.
05:11At that time, that wasn't a major division.
05:14There was no barbed wire, there was no fence.
05:16Mexicans could cross freely.
05:18So Madero snuck into El Paso, disguised as a laborer,
05:24and took up residence on the top two floors of the newly completed Capels Building.
05:30He made it the epicenter of his endeavors, and he really only had one goal, and that was to violently overthrow the Diaz regime.
05:41So on this floor, the international headquarters of the Mexican Revolution was situated in early 1911.
05:51So this was a place that would have served for diplomatic, administrative, but also arms smuggling, and of course recruitment.
06:00Madero even managed to gain the support of legendary Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, which earned him some significant clout.
06:15With an open border, these headquarters were at the heart of an explosion of activity.
06:21El Paso then really became this hub of different revolutionary groups who all set up shop in different bars, restaurants, and buildings throughout the city.
06:36Despite Madero advocating democracy, the U.S. government eventually issued a warrant for his arrest.
06:43But in reality, just like American big business, they turned a blind eye as they waited to see how the chaos would play out.
06:52During my research, I found more than 80 buildings that are still standing here in El Paso that have connections to the Mexican Revolution.
07:00There were probably hundreds, if not thousands, of spies.
07:04A lot of people have compared El Paso to East and West Berlin during the Cold War.
07:11You had Madero and his associates plotting, raising money, building support.
07:17Diaz had his spies gathering information.
07:20No one really knew who was on what side or who you could trust.
07:24And it was all building to a truly violent conflict.
07:28April 7, 1911.
07:31Madero made his move.
07:33Madero leads an army into the city of Juarez to launch this reconquest of Mexico from the dictatorship of Diaz.
07:44Madero had put together a force of 2,500 men.
07:49But Juarez was well defended by 700 Mexican federal troops who were in a very good defensive position.
07:56They had artillery, they had plenty of weapons.
07:59Madero was happy to just call it a stalemate and start negotiating.
08:04But one notorious gunslinger in the rebels' ranks had come for a fight.
08:10The time for talking was over.
08:12In 1911, the Capel's building served as the headquarters of Mexican revolutionary Francisco Madero,
08:25as he launched an assault on the city of Juarez just across the border.
08:30Damage to the roofs of buildings across El Paso are testament to the chaos that followed.
08:37While Madero sought to negotiate a surrender, the more aggressive Pancho Villa disobeyed orders.
08:46He went ahead and led his troops on the attack, and a raging battle commenced.
08:53In the city of El Paso, this was very exciting. They were right on the border.
08:58People climbed to the rooftop of the laundry building where they had front row seats to this amazing battle.
09:04So this was one of many rooftops in El Paso where people would stand on top.
09:10There were some where you would have to pay a quarter to a dollar to watch the revolutionary scenes.
09:17They were treated to a spectacle straight out of the Wild West.
09:22One story is that one moment, one of the federal soldiers dropped his gun,
09:26and one of the revolutionaries got out his lariat and lassoed the guy.
09:30He was able to, like a Mexican cowboy, bring him in together with his gun.
09:36And people on the rooftop started applauding, just like if it were some kind of ringside seat.
09:41But it ended up becoming a much more deadly spectator sport.
09:46These citizens didn't realize how close they were to the danger,
09:50and five were killed and 18 wounded in El Paso from fighting that was taking place in Juarez.
09:58Today we just let the newscasters take that danger.
10:02Back then everybody wanted to be part of the act.
10:05So these bullet holes actually have a lot more significance than meets the eyes.
10:10They were part of the story of the Mexican Revolution.
10:15Eventually, after two days of intense fighting, the Juarez garrison was forced to surrender.
10:22This battle of Juarez became the decisive battle of the revolution.
10:27It was enough to show that the forces loyal to Diaz could not control the revolutionary troops.
10:33Diaz fled Mexico, leaving its leadership up for grabs.
10:38Madero eventually came to power in late 1911, but he proved to be too moderate.
10:45By 1913, another Mexican general led a U.S.-backed coup, and unfortunately, Madero died in the resulting conflict.
10:57What initially was a relatively bloodless revolution is going to become ten years of incredible civil strife,
11:06and you're going to have hundreds of thousands of Mexican refugees crossing to the United States.
11:12David's grandparents were among them.
11:16America's role in the revolution was a sign of things to come.
11:22That's a story that's going to repeat itself for decades in Latin America, where you have U.S. military intervention,
11:31or you have the CIA overthrow democratically elected governments.
11:36And as a result, you're going to have social chaos, people fleeing into the United States.
11:41While the laundry would continue to operate for many more years, the Capels Building endured long periods of vacancy before both were eventually abandoned.
11:55These structures are symbolic of tensions that remain along the border to this day.
12:01But a developer has purchased both properties and hopes to transform them into apartment buildings.
12:07If that happens, the future residents can certainly claim that they live in a location of historic intrigue.
12:14In eastern Germany, just 25 miles from Berlin, a secretive complex lies hidden in the woods.
12:34The forest that we are driving through was a restricted area until 1994.
12:39Looking at the security around this place, this must have been one of the most closely guarded places in all of East Germany.
12:51If you came here, you risked the threat of the death penalty.
12:56As you delve deeper into the heart of the site, its scale becomes apparent.
13:02We can see here that nature has reclaimed something, and it has reclaimed something big.
13:09You see a collection of buildings that could house a city of thousands.
13:14But as with any ghost town, you have to ask yourself, what happened to all the people?
13:19You go inside cobwebs, trash, crumbling masonry, tumble-down structures that are fading or flecked or graffitied.
13:28But through the thick foliage, a different style of structure begins to emerge.
13:35We've got something, it's boarded up, and yet you can tell what it is.
13:40This is a control tower. This is an airfield.
13:43There's one massive building near the runways, clearly an aircraft hangar.
13:50This facility would provide shelter and an escape route for a ruthless dictator desperately fleeing justice.
13:58Sven Uwe Storm grew up nearby, and was always eager to understand why this site was out of bounds.
14:13The area was very large, yet fenced off with a wall. It was a no-go area.
14:18And access is still forbidden due to the high risk of unexploded ordnance.
14:24That's because this location has a long history as a weapons test site, which began in the late 1800s.
14:33We are standing here on an area that has been under artillery fire for decades.
14:40There are a lot of shells in the ground.
14:45This was a place where they tested rifles, artillery, rockets.
14:50And this was a place where Werner von Braun, the father of German rocketry, came to test his missiles.
14:59They even conducted experiments on uranium for a German atomic bomb.
15:05But in April 1945, Soviet troops were rapidly approaching through these thick forests, as the Allies closed in on Berlin.
15:16In the aftermath of the Second World War, this complex was incorporated into Soviet territory.
15:23Germany was carved up among the victorious Allies, with the Soviets occupying East Germany.
15:30They split Germany with the Western powers, but they also split the city of Berlin, which is inside the Soviet zone.
15:36Initially, just a line drawn on a map. In time, it would become a physical wall, as the two camps polarized along ideological lines.
15:46The formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, in 1949, was seen by the Soviets as a hostile act.
15:57West Germany joined NATO in 1955, and Khrushchev formed the Warsaw Pact in response.
16:04So now you have these two opposing alliances, one Western, one Eastern, and it feels like things are hotting up.
16:11And for the Soviets, this is the front line in the clash with the Western powers in the Cold War.
16:18With a thousand miles separating Moscow from Berlin, this location was earmarked to supply that front line.
16:26This is Sparenberg Airfield, the key link between East Germany and the Soviet Union.
16:31During the first phase of construction in 1958, the site was converted into a military airfield capable of handling huge transport planes.
16:44Anything that the Soviets were bringing into Germany to prepare to fight against NATO came into this airport.
16:53In the 1960s, the boundary dividing Berlin was fortified by the East German government.
17:00Desperate to prevent its citizens from fleeing into West Germany, they installed guard towers and ordered any escapees to be shot and killed.
17:11Overseeing its construction was Erich Honecker, and he soon turned his attention to Sparenberg Air Base.
17:18Honecker was one of the key people in building the Berlin Wall, a ruthless dictator who subjected all of East Germany to his unquestioned rule.
17:34Honecker and the Soviet army initiated a new phase of construction at Sparenberg, turning it into a military air base of unparalleled proportions.
17:47And it would come to Honecker's rescue when his enemies were circling.
17:51During the Cold War, Sparenberg was turned into the mightiest Soviet air base in East Germany, under the leadership of ruthless dictator Erich Honecker.
18:05The real expansion is in the 1970s, when you see Soviet bombers, Soviet fighters, Soviet combat helicopters, and lots of Soviet civilian airliners that are shuttling personnel.
18:16It was the fastest and most direct link between Berlin and Moscow, and the only Red Army airport that also had a civilian terminal building for use by families, as well as musicians brought in for troupe entertainment.
18:32Five thousand people had to be accommodated here. Children from kindergarten to school, cinemas, and shops.
18:43The Sparenberg base became the most valuable military airfield in East Germany. There's no doubt about that.
18:50But just as Sparenberg had gone through a major upgrade, the Soviets' iron grip of East Germany began to loosen.
18:59Numerous pro-independence groups began to form as people demanded things like democratic elections, freedom of speech, and the withdrawal of Soviet troops.
19:10Tonecker refused to shift his ground at all and kept insisting that using the security service to Stasi, which had informers everywhere and thousands of agents, that he would just repress all dissent in East Germany.
19:25And he nearly pulled it off. East Germans were one of the last Warsaw Pact nations to rebel.
19:30The Berlin Wall was being ripped down by Berliners East and West.
19:35As the Soviet Union began the mammoth task of withdrawing 360,000 troops and their families from across Eastern Europe, the new government brought charges against Honecker.
19:51As East Germany frees itself from the one-party control, the hunt is on for these creatures of the Communist regime, chief among them Honecker.
20:01Everybody knew that Honecker had approved orders for East German border guards to shoot to kill if anybody tried to escape East Germany.
20:18That meant that Honecker had a noose around his neck.
20:23On the run, and desperate to avoid a show trial, Honecker turned to his overlords in Moscow.
20:32The last thing anybody needs is a trial with Erich Honecker talking about the truth of the East German Communist regime.
20:42So, Sperenberg, throughout this period, is in Soviet hands, as they shuttle people home using this airbase.
20:49You know, hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops and family that were housed in East Germany.
20:55So, in March 1991, Soviet communists see an opportunity to spirit Honecker out of East Germany.
21:01Under the cover of darkness, he was brought to Sperenberg by Soviet troops.
21:08We are in the former reception building of the VIP lounge.
21:14This is the actual living area of Erich Honecker and Margot Honecker.
21:20The personal security would have been very tense during that time.
21:28The couple then boarded a plane on the airstrip, right beside the building, destined for Moscow.
21:35Honecker was later extradited from Russia to stand trial in Berlin, appearing in court in November 1992.
21:43Honecker was defiant until the end, claiming that the Berlin Wall had saved lives,
21:50that it prevented World War III, which would have killed millions.
21:54The trial was quickly abandoned due to his deteriorating health, and he died two years later.
22:01At that point, in 1994, the last of the Soviet equipment and people were still being moved out of Sperenberg.
22:09But since then, the site has remained abandoned and largely untouched.
22:20Local residents have formed a museum association offering guided tours
22:26and are pushing for the 2,000-acre complex to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
22:32In the Republic of Ireland lie the remains of a doomed vanity project.
22:50We're in County Carlow, an hour south of Dublin, in a wet and windy Irish countryside.
22:55One structure casts a long shadow over the surrounding landscape.
23:01When you first see the building, you almost can't believe it's still standing.
23:06The place has been hollowed out, but the walls are still intact.
23:10It's got the parapets and battlements of a medieval castle.
23:14Anybody looking up at this tower would realize that these people were in charge,
23:19in charge of their lives and in charge of their destiny.
23:22But the owners of this residence felt the ground shifting under their feet.
23:27The building once housed a powerful and influential family,
23:32but a tide of change was coming to Ireland, and this place was caught in the middle of it.
23:37It went from an aristocratic party palace to an IRA stronghold.
23:41But one organization took up residence here, whose role in Irish independence has been almost entirely forgotten.
23:50It's really a privilege to have this at our doorstep, and lots of people in Carlow don't actually know that it's here.
24:01Danny McDade has dedicated much of his time to researching this site, and dispelling the many myths that surround it.
24:11When you look upon this house now, you see a ruin, a Gothic mansion which has suffered horrendous damage.
24:17But for me, looking upon it, I see life, I see what it was.
24:23This is Duckett's Grove, historical home of the Duckett family.
24:28The Ducketts were married into the Protestant elites, and moved to Ireland during the years of English plantation and colonization.
24:35With the marriages that they made, and the money that they made, they built the Georgian-style house, a very square, basic house.
24:47But then, in the 1820s, the Duckett family starts to massively expand it and makes it into this Gothic dreamland castle.
24:56The family had a reputation that matched the extravagance of the building.
25:01The last of the Duckett line was a man named William Duckett, and he was known as quite the eccentric, quite a philanderer.
25:09He married a much, much younger woman.
25:12Maria Duckett and William Duckett liked nothing more than to party.
25:18They loved a good party.
25:20And then William Duckett would have ran downstairs to play the organ, to welcome the people in.
25:26Some of the parties would have lasted for days.
25:28During the Irish Famine, Protestant William Duckett extended his generosity to residents across the county, regardless of their faith.
25:40He was generally well-liked for a British landlord.
25:45He provided food for the workhouses and paid good wages.
25:49Here in Carlow, the death rate during the famine was less than in other counties, in part due to Mr. Duckett.
25:55But while he offered charity to his Catholic neighbors, his wife Maria, a staunch Protestant, held a different attitude, one born of bigotry and paranoia.
26:08She felt that she was way above everybody else.
26:12She had almost a disdain for local people.
26:15She had a big distrust and probably a big fear of Catholics.
26:20She was always looking over her shoulder at her Catholic staff and the grounds workers.
26:25Anti-British and anti-Protestant sentiment was sweeping Ireland, stoking Maria's fears.
26:32And that was soon compounded by the death of her husband.
26:35William Duckett died in 1908.
26:40But when he died, this house died with him.
26:45Maria Duckett stopped all the parties.
26:48She fell out with some of her neighbors.
26:50So for eight years, Maria Duckett led a very solitary life.
26:54And her worst fears were soon realized.
26:59In April of 1916, Irish Republicans launched an armed insurrection against British rule known as the Easter Rising.
27:08You can only imagine.
27:11If she was paranoid before, this must have felt like the end of the world.
27:14She believed that she'd be rounded up and be killed.
27:17So she packed it all in, abandoned, stuck at Scrove and leaves for England.
27:22The house became vulnerable as the newly formed Irish Republican Army prowled the countryside.
27:30In their fight for independence, the IRA targeted big houses like this, which stood as a symbol of British colonial oppression.
27:37Between just 1919 and 1923, the IRA looted and burned almost 300 of these country mansions across Ireland.
27:47But William Duckett's lasting reputation in the county ensured a different fate for his grand house.
27:54Because they had supplied food into Carlow during the famine, and because they had kept employment high,
28:02the local people asked the IRA not to burn Duckett's Grove.
28:06Instead, the army devised a use for the sprawling mansion that would grant it a new life.
28:13It's practically already a fortress.
28:17You've got these walled gardens where you can garrison troops.
28:20There's this giant tower where you can see everywhere from over a hundred miles.
28:25The property was turned into an IRA training center.
28:29Soon, three new arrivals would make their mark on the mansion.
28:32During the Irish War for Independence, three women were locked up in the Mount Joy prison in Dublin.
28:39Mayburg, Aetna Coyle and Linda Kearns.
28:42They were imprisoned for various Republican activities.
28:46Trading guns, possessing seditious materials, generally aiding the revolution.
28:51What happened next made international headlines.
28:56And a story straight out of the great escapes in World War II.
29:01They fastened ropes and ladders, and they escaped.
29:05When they broke out of Mount Joy jail in Dublin, they stole bicycles.
29:09And they cycled from Dublin to Duckett's Grove.
29:14The escape plan was orchestrated by Michael Collins, the IRA's Director of Intelligence.
29:20Three of the women cycled the 50 miles to find the previously abandoned mansion transformed.
29:26It was now a fully fledged IRA base, occupied by 400 men.
29:33The women quickly set about getting the camp in order.
29:38They set up an officer's mess, nursed the wounded back to health, and even organized concerts to keep up morale.
29:45But they weren't just here to support the troops.
29:47They were part of what was known as Common Le Mans.
29:51Common Le Mans was the Irish Republicans Women's Association.
29:55They were at the heart of the rebellion in Ireland.
29:58They ran guns. They supplied intelligence.
30:01They worked in Dublin Castle, supplying Michael Collins with information.
30:05But the War of Independence would soon turn into a bloody civil war.
30:11As the IRA fractured, Collins was struck down by his former comrades.
30:15In October 1921, three women from the Irish Independent Army escaped prison and fled to Duckett's Grove.
30:28An abandoned mansion converted into an IRA base.
30:33The escape was orchestrated by IRA leader Michael Collins.
30:38They used Duckett's Grove as a command control centre for operations against the British.
30:42You might see in old paintings that there were statues once covering the grounds of Duckett's Grove, but most of them are gone now.
30:51The women would use these statues, these symbols of colonial oppression, as target practice, blowing them to smithereens.
30:58One particular photo of the women survives, rifles in hand, standing triumphantly in the door of the house, with the Union Jack firmly under their boots.
31:08In December 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed by Michael Collins, and the IRA training grounds were dissolved.
31:18But the treaty partitioned the island into the largely Protestant North and the predominantly Catholic South, which would be named the Irish Free State.
31:27Its status was somewhere between a province of the British Empire and an independent republic.
31:35Collins knew this was a compromise many of his comrades wouldn't abide, and reportedly said,
31:41I may have just signed my actual death warrant.
31:46This prophecy came true just months later, as the IRA split in two, and he was assassinated by anti-treaty forces.
31:56Ireland was plunged into a terrible civil war, brother against brother.
32:01After that, the fledgling Irish state needed money, so they were selling off lands belonging to these big houses all across Ireland.
32:09And Ducat's Grove was no different.
32:13The mansion was sold and its contents auctioned off.
32:17Stripped of its original grandeur, it then suffered further humiliation when it was consumed by fire.
32:24I believe the cause of the fire was financial, either insurance or taxes, because the bigger the house, the more taxes people had to pay.
32:34And if a house didn't have a roof, you didn't pay taxes.
32:37But this magnificent house was left in ruins in 1933.
32:48Many big houses in Ireland remain derelict.
32:52But the work of volunteers like Danny has opened Ducat's Grove up to the public.
32:57The building is wonderful, but it's the story behind the building.
33:01It's the people that truly bring it to life.
33:05The role of the women's army is becoming more widely acknowledged.
33:09But the full scope of their activities may never be known.
33:13As they grew older, the women who had participated in revolutionary activities were very secretive and silent about their role.
33:19So sadly, because no one documented what women did because of patriarchy, we'll probably never know the full extent of their role in the revolution.
33:28In a secluded region of western Spain, a peninsula juts out over a vast, shimmering lake.
33:38We're in about 180 miles west of Madrid.
33:48It's a beautiful area, a glorious green landscape.
33:51It's picturesque.
33:53It's peaceful.
33:54It's like something out of a fairy tale.
33:56Except that there's not a single soul to be seen.
33:59This imposing ghost town displays all the hallmarks of an ancient stronghold.
34:06The whole town is protected by this high stone wall, and it's even got its own kind of castle tower near the gates guarding it.
34:15Within the walls, the town is laid out around a large central plaza, which is bounded by grand townhouses and civic buildings.
34:23You can imagine that this place was once bustling with life, but not anymore.
34:26It's a classic frozen in time scenario. Everyone just up and vanished.
34:32There's general decay, but no big obvious clue as to what caused this abandonment.
34:42Not many people are left to keep alive the story of what happened here.
34:47But sisters Vicenta and Rosario are some of the last, and recall a vibrant community.
34:53We're in the town square. We used to come here to dance at the fiestas, and as children, we used to come here to play.
35:04The square has been a focal point since medieval times, when the town adopted its name, Granadilla.
35:12The walls went up in the 12th century. A couple of hundred years later, the imposing castle was added.
35:21By the 20th century, this town was home to over a thousand inhabitants.
35:26It had evolved over more than a millennium into a bustling community with 300 family homes.
35:32Oh, what a thrill to see my house! How exciting!
35:39Though she was young, Vicenta still fondly recalls family life in her now ruined home.
35:47You entered a courtyard, and on the right there was a kitchen with a small fireplace.
35:52We would sit by the fire, and my mother would tell us stories at night.
35:59Life here was rooted in agriculture.
36:03My father had three farms, and he had 25 olive trees.
36:08We picked the olives, and we took them to the mill.
36:11And then we also had some chickens. We had eggs. We had a little donkey.
36:16And we would go to the river to fetch water.
36:20But in 1955, Vicenta's childhood was shattered.
36:26This ancient town was about to have the life sucked out of it.
36:33In the 1950s, sisters Vicenta and Rosario enjoyed an idyllic childhood in the Spanish town of Granadilla.
36:42But their home was about to be stolen away, thanks to a dictator who came to prominence in the 1930s.
36:57The Civil War was brutal. A bloody and violent conflict that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
37:03General Francisco Franco, aided by his fascist allies Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, emerged as leader in 1939.
37:14But the country had torn itself apart.
37:21Poverty, poor housing, disease, drought, and famine were rife.
37:26The challenges that Spain faced must have seemed insurmountable.
37:32Essentially, Franco needed to turn around the battle-scarred country's fortunes.
37:37So, one of the approaches that General Franco took was to back these vast civil engineering projects.
37:45Central to this plan was advances in irrigation.
37:48Over 600 dams were built between 1939 and 1975.
37:55This was construction on an immense scale.
37:59The largest of these hydroelectric dams was to be in the Alagon River, just 24 miles from Granadilla.
38:07In 1955, officials declared the town a flood zone and ordered its inhabitants to evacuate.
38:17When they told us we had to leave, people were very upset.
38:23And where could we go? We had never left the village.
38:26Some began leaving, but to force the remainder out, the government declared that the land, including the town and the farms, would become state property.
38:39And insisted that not even a chair be left behind.
38:43When they forced us to leave, of course they compensated us, but they paid us very little.
38:49And my father, as he had three young daughters, they didn't give him a house because the girls couldn't work in the fields.
38:59So he was left with nothing.
39:01Can you imagine what that must have felt like?
39:04Just to be told to get up and leave what had been your family's home for generations?
39:08It must have been absolutely devastating.
39:11The situation here was far from unique.
39:13The same approach was being taken to towns and villages right across Spain to make way for these grand infrastructure projects.
39:23In 1963, the dam was complete, and the floodgates opened on Granadilla.
39:30Well, at first it was flooded little by little.
39:34It flooded the land underneath, and those that had sheep and cattle found that they had all drowned.
39:41It completely altered the surrounding landscape.
39:48These roads that used to lead into this town kind of slipped beneath the rising tide.
39:54And the bridge was covered, the oil mill was covered by water, the wheat mill was covered too.
40:00But there would be a cruel twist to this tale.
40:04The rising waters turned the hill on which the town sat into a kind of peninsula.
40:10But that's as high as the water got.
40:13The town was completely cut off.
40:15It was surrounded.
40:17But the town itself never actually flooded.
40:21This was the plan all along, and engineers would have known that the town wouldn't flood.
40:27In the end, it was either bureaucratic blunder or bureaucratic deception.
40:32Either way, for the people there, what happened was unforgivable.
40:36People took it very badly.
40:40We're a bit calmer now, but there's still a lot of anger because we had to leave our village.
40:45The key question here is, why hasn't anyone come back?
40:58We asked for the houses to be given back to us.
41:01But of course, as there was no support, it was just left there.
41:07In order to prevent the residents from ever returning to Granadilla, the flood zone status is still in effect, ensuring no one can live here permanently.
41:17The town is now a tourist site and a monument to the many communities across Spain that suffered a similar fate at the hands of the dictatorship.
41:27The living rule, is the permanence of America.
41:29Back to the underground land.
41:30Only all the authorities will make up for more.
41:31Instant and GL vilified.
41:32For moreradactationship.
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