Spain

The Real Maestranza de Ronda (RMR) celebrated its traditional prize-giving ceremony for this year’s winners of the 6th Spanish Eustory competition round. The topic of the competiton was "My Family in History".

Competition winners from all over Spain gathered in the Maestranza’s Library to claim their diplomas and rewards. The ceremony was presided by Jorge Edwards, Chilean ambassador to France and prestigious poet and writer.

The winning work of this year’s competition was a collective piece submitted by Andrés, Javier and Rafael Jimenez, entitled “The voice of memory” and deals with family history through the eyes of their grand-uncle, from the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera to today’s Spain.

This year’s competition saw the participation of many non-Spanish citizens living in Spain. This is the case of the author of the second prize, Bartlomiej Kokot, a Polish student from Murcia, who, through a cross interview of Polish family relatives and grand-parents of a Spanish friend, drew an impressive comparison between the Franco- dictatorship and the communist reign in Poland. Another student of Russian origin, Alexis Korb, wrote the account of his family during the October Revolution. The RMR was particularly satisfied with these two submissions, showing the transnational European character of EUSTORY Spain.

Another second prize was awarded Alicia and Juan Enrique Fraguas whose work deals with immigration to the Americas at the beginning of the 20th century. This has been a popular topic for the Spanish competition over the years and has served to create and introduce the new topic for the 7th and 8th editions of the competition: America.

Additionally, to celebrate this particular topic and explore the historical links between Spain and the Americas in more depth, any student (high school and vocational training) from any state of the Americas will be allowed to participate in the upcoming editions.