A child's return to Franco's Spain

During the Spanish Civil War, the fascist dictator Francisco Franco rose to power.

Around half a million people fled the fighting, but some chose to return even as the conflict continued.

One of them was eight-year-old Felisa Umbon San Vicente. In 1937, her mother brought the family back from France to their village near Bilbao, in Spain’s northern Basque Country, close to the French border.

Felisa tells Ivana Davidovic about starting school and growing up during the war, as her region fell to Franco’s forces.

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(Photo: Felisa with her mother. Credit: Felisa Umbon San Vicente)

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