The dean of Philosophy and Letters (FyL) at the University of Valladolid, Dunia Etura, wrote to her students, “concerned but not afraid,” to explain why there were police officers on Tuesday afternoon, the 16th, at the faculty. Uniformed and plainclothes officers were deployed after threats Etura received when it consented to “an act to reflect and debate why we should not normalize fascism at the university”. Police identified more than a dozen people who “intended to gain access to the location with the clear intention of preventing it.” The dean claimed the entity as guarantor of “freedom of expression, assembly and thought” because “it is about democracy or totalitarianism” and insisted on the “duty” to protect independence beyond religions or ideologies: “Even if it may seem that we do not have much, in reality everything matters to us. I ask you to defend with me our autonomy and our freedom.”
The senior civil servant explains in her office that the Alternativa Universitaria collective asked her for a room to give a conference against the recent Falangist incursions in the faculties of Valladolid, with commemorative posters of the fascist collective Auxilio Social and logos of the yoke and arrows. “Anti-fascism yesterday and today: why not normalize the Falange in FyL” was the title of the meeting. She hosted the classes and since then the pressure has come, with anonymous calls, contacts from lawyers and letters to the faculty secretary accusing her of “hate crimes”, something that still scares her, and warnings of “we will return as many times as necessary”.
“A student association requested a space for reflection and debate on why we should not normalize fascism at the university. An academic and civic act, requested according to established channels and fully legitimate,” describes the press release. She remained firm on the autonomy of the institution and on the “freedom of expression, assembly and thought of its community”: “These are rights won and enshrined in our Constitution and do not depend on the ideological content of the person who exercises them, but on their democratic and peaceful character. »
Etura reported the threats to the Government Sub-delegation and obtained a police presence: “They did not come to debate or dialogue; they came to prevent.” “They have been trying to infiltrate the university for some time,” explains Etura, specifying that an hour before the event, three people had put fascist stickers on the walls and up to “12 or 15 individuals dressed in black, outside the faculty”, who were identified. “Six came from Madrid,” he emphasizes, pointing out that Alternativa Universitaria has suffered several attacks and pressures in recent months, inside and outside the faculty.
“This may sound like a specific anecdote, but it is not. They are trying to make us believe that we are facing an ideological conflict. This is not the case. It is not about left, right or center. It is about democracy or totalitarianism; freedom or oppression”, says the doctor of journalism, calling the public university a “plural space of knowledge, reflection and debate” where everyone can integrate, whether they are “conservative or progressive, liberal or communist”, he believes “in Jesus, in Yahweh, in Muhammad” or do not pray to anyone.
Etura calls for a non-negotiable “minimum”, “respect for dignity and freedom”, and encouraged students to exercise their “duty”, in addition to the “right”, to protect this independence, even from those who think or believe differently from them. The dean says she is “worried” but adds that she is not afraid. “I will not submit to coercion and I will defend the freedom, dignity and autonomy of our faculty. Although it may seem that we do not have much, in reality everything matters to us. I ask you to defend with me our autonomy and our freedom: the freedom to think, to express ourselves and to live as we each decide, always with respect for others. Our society and the public university can only exist like this,” the letter concludes.
The academic also explains that she thought about how to proceed and decided to send the text to her community because she wants it to define itself: “We need more obvious attitudes to reject totalitarian attempts, we are more numerous but we are less seen”. The woman insists on respect for different ideologies but condemns those who call for “a ban” and “want to take away freedom and dignity”: “Then they will tell us what to teach in class or not, when to open or not, who teaches or not. We have already experienced this in Spain.” “We cannot analyze fascists in the same perspective as democratic political options, society made a mistake by normalizing totalitarians,” she continues, greeted and hugged during her visit to the building.
A group of modern languages and art history students chat in the hall with a recent Erasmus student, suitcase and all, surprised when they tell her that Tuesday FyL was full of police. Lucía González, 22, exclaims “Two milkmaids! It’s very heavy” before talking about these “four geeks who are trying to ban something at the university and also coming from Madrid”. Her friend Leyre Lebeña, 20, celebrates the dean’s response while Sara Aparicio, 22, bursts into flames: “It doesn’t make sense, they’re fascists, they come to make noise and disturb us, to call us red, so that they look and go down, people don’t want to be informed and they believe all this bullshit.”
Some journalism students stop by to attend EL PAÍS, although one leaves after learning the medium. The boys sniff when broaching the subject and Hugo Otero, 21, admits his astonishment at the police presence and believes that “things like this have always existed, on one side and on the other, everything is very polarized”, even if he admits to being surprised that they come from Madrid. “Dunia did the right thing, I suppose she would have done the same thing the other way around, but the writing gets too involved in politics,” he emphasizes before exiting through a hall topped with a poster with a sentence by Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
About The Author
