The life of Manuel Cortés, the last Republican mayor of Mijas who hid in his house for thirty years (1939 to 1969) to avoid being executed by Franco's regime, has been the subject of books and headlines for more than half a century. One of the most famous is 'Escondido, el calvario de Manuel Cortés' (Hidden, the ordeal of Manuel Cortés), by journalist and historian Ronald Fraser. A title that from now on provides a greater vision of history thanks to the documentation and unpublished tapes recovered by Carlos Pulpillo from Mijas for the Historical Archive. 

"The Historical Archives department received a call from Carlos Pulpillo, a researcher and historian from Mijas with close ties to the town and the history of the 'mole', Manuel Cortés and his wife Juliana, who had made a unique discovery at the University of Liverpool. It was the research carried out by Ronald Fraser, documentation and recordings of neighbours, to shape two of his most important works 'Escondido, el calvario de Manuel Cortés' (Hidden, the Calvary of Manuel Cortés) and 'Mijas. Republic, war, Franquism in an Andalusian village'", explained the mayor of Mijas, Josele González, who has valued "the importance of the fact that these documents, which tell the contemporary history of our town, are finally in Mijas and available to all Mijeños and Mijeñas".

In this regard, the councillor for Historical Heritage, Laura Moreno, stressed that these recordings, which date from 1969 and 1970, "contain the accounts in first person of many neighbours who are no longer with us. We have also found letters that Fraser and the mole sent to each other, so these documents are of great value to the historical heritage of our municipality. We would like to thank Carlos Pulpillo, because without his work it would not have been possible to have them in Mijas", and he added that "the next thing we are going to do is to look for a specialised company to digitise these audio tapes so that the content is not lost and can be accessible to all our neighbours here in the Historical Archive". 

Carlos Pulpillo is cultural manager of the Cervantes Institute and historian and researcher from Mijas. He has been working for years on the figure of Manuel Cortés and his wife Juliana, and in an internet search he came across the news of the existence of Ronald Fraser's collection at the University of Liverpool. "Fraser is a reference for the history of both Mijas and Manuel Cortés, so I went to consult it and when I opened the boxes and listened to the tapes I realised that I had found a real gem of the contemporary history of Mijas".

"The most beautiful thing is the recovered voice of many people who are no longer with us. These tapes contribute greatly to historical research by showing how people expressed themselves and what emphasis they gave to certain historical events that they lived through", he concluded.

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