Campus Celebrity: Katie Mullaley

This summer I interned with the Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica (ARMH) in Ponferrada, Spain, a small city of about 70,000 people in the northwestern Spain.  The association tries to recover the memory of those who were killed by Francisco Franco’s forces during his dictatorship and end the collective amnesia and silence in Spain over Franco’s regime.  In particular, the association works to locate the unmarked graves of the victims, exhume and identify the remains and then return the remains to the victim’s family so they can be given the dignity of a proper burial.  So, while interning at the association, I participated in four exhumations.  In one of the mass graves exhumed by the association, were the remains of a total of 14 people, all of which had bullet holes in their skulls.  Along with the bodies there was a plastic matchbox, several pieces of newspaper, some buttons and buckles, and a watch, which is quite unusual, since the Guardia Civiloften stripped the victims of all their valuables.  This internship definitely challenged and enriched me in so many ways this summer, and allowed me to conduct research for my honors thesis, which I’m writing in the history department this year. 

The most memorable experience was just seeing a skull with a bullet hole. Knowing that what you’re seeing is not a prop from a movie, but that an actual person has been murdered and buried in a ditch on the side of the road, is not something you can forget and is just a surreal experience.  

Yes, working with the association really helped me define a career path for myself.  While in Spain, I was horrified to learn that after Franco died in 1975, no one from his regime was punished or charged with the tens of thousands of murders and human rights violations that occurred during his dictatorship.  I was also horrified to see how unsympathetic Spain’s current justice system is and how unwilling it is to help associations like ARMH uncover the truth about Franco’s repressive dictatorship and murder of countless Spaniards.  After I graduate from Connecticut College I really want to pursue a career in international human rights law.  I think it is so important to try to implement changes to prevent genocides from occurring and to prevent ruthless dictators from escaping punishment for the crimes they commit against their own people. 

This might seem silly, but I actually I started to become interested in history when I was around 7 or 8 years old.  For my birthday, my parents bought me the American Girl Doll Felicity.  Reading the stories about Felicity’s life growing up during the Revolutionary War, really got me interested in learning more about the Revolutionary War, and that’s when I started becoming interested in history. 

I’m currently a CISLA (Center for the International Studies of the Liberal Arts) scholar, which is how I was able to intern at ARMH this past summer.  CISLA awarded me a grant to work and live abroad for two months.  I’m also on the Women’s Varsity Water Polo Team at Conn, and I’m involved in SGA as a student-at-large on a couple committees.