“The Brabos. From the Peñón de Alhucemas to the Andorran Twilight” Lecture by Josep Pich Mitjana
3 November 2026 · 18:30
Biblioteca Pública Arús, el Fort Pienc, Eixample
This lecture presents ongoing historical research into the Brabo family saga, a family linked for four generations to the State's security and repression apparatus. The research spans 180 years of Spain's contemporary history: from the birth of Antonio Brabo Pérez on the Peñón de Alhucemas at the end of the 18th century to the death of Manuel Brabo Montero in the Cypriot city of Famagusta in 1973, after his final exile in Andorra as a fugitive from the very Franco dictatorship he had helped to establish. Notable members of the family include police commissioner Manuel Brabo Portillo, a leading figure in the Barcelona of the pistolerismo years, and his son, Manuel Brabo Montero, an officer in the Guardia Civil. Beyond their individual careers, the study analyses the continuity of certain practices of repression and social control. The research shows how the surveillance, infiltration, espionage and counter-insurgency techniques tested in the so-called "colonial laboratories" —the Philippines, the Mariana Islands and the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco— returned to the Peninsula and were applied to the social and political conflicts of 20th-century Spain. The story of the Brabos is,…
Source: Ajuntament de Barcelona · checked on 2 November 2026