A dream come true
A group of children has managed to make Republican teacher Antoni Benaiges’ dream of showing the sea of Mont-roig del Camp to his students come true. The Benaiges School association, through the Antoni Benaiges Mission project, has taken thirty children between eight and thirteen years old from the Cartuja neighborhoods of Granada and Cañada Real in Madrid to Catalonia to share an unforgettable vacation and claim the figure of the teacher. This experience has been the first time that some of the children have seen the sea, while for others it has been the longest trip of their lives. With this emotional pilgrimage, the entity has fulfilled Benaiges’ promise 88 years after his murder.
The teacher from Tarragona destined for Burgos
Antoni Benaiges, a teacher from Tarragona, was assigned to the rural school of Bañuelos de Bureba, in Burgos, in 1934. During his time there, he implemented an innovative pedagogical method and won the affection of children and families. Benaiges promised his students to take them to see the sea and, for two years, the students wrote in a collective notebook what they imagined it would be like to touch the sand and sea water. However, just when he was about to fulfill his promise, the teacher was shot by Franco’s troops and buried in a mass grave in Briviesca.
Keeping the promise after 88 years
Almost 90 years after Benaiges’ murder, the Benaiges School association has finally fulfilled the teacher’s promise. The entity has organized visits to spaces of historical memory to pay tribute to the figure of the republican and inform children about what happened during the Spanish civil war. Noelia Campaña, director of the María de Borja Educators association, which has also been involved in the project, has expressed her pride in the children and has highlighted the importance of coexistence between them, regardless of their origin.
Discovering the sea in Mont-roig del Camp
A group of thirty children from the Cartuja neighborhoods of Granada and Cañada Real in Madrid have been selected to visit Mont-roig del Camp and fulfill Professor Benaiges’ dream. Javier González, a member of the Benaiges School, has highlighted that many of these children had never left their neighborhoods due to their socioeconomic conditions. Some of the participants had already seen the sea on previous occasions, but for others this was their first time. The trip has been an unforgettable experience for everyone, especially for Lola and María, two sisters from Granada who had never gone so far and who have expressed their joy at fulfilling their dream.