1969 - Gibraltar Evening Post - Introduction
Half a century ago General Franco decided it would be a great idea to close the frontier between Spain and Gibraltar on the 8th June 1969,
It proved a disastrous miscalculation. Gibraltar adapted and survived relatively unscathed during the many long years the border remained closed. Not so the town of La Línea de la Concepción, our neighbouring Spanish town, where thousands of daily workers lost their Gibraltar jobs for ever.
This is how local journalist Manolo Mascarenhas, in the daily Gibraltar Evening Post put it a few days after the closure:
“. . . I am reporting about myself, my people, my hometown. Never . . . do I want to go through it again. There was sorrow, genuine sorrow written all over the faces of these Spaniards trooping back to their homeland for the last time . . . Each and everyone of those workers bidding us adieu . . . had a sad story to tell . . . ”
A while back our National Archives managed to get their hands on copies of the Post which they usefully published on their website. They cover a period from the beginning of March to the end of December 1969. In other words they form an interesting record of social life on the Rock several months before and several immediately after the closure. The collection is surprisingly missing copies for the 7th 8th and 9th of June.
Some of the many photographs published by the newspaper during this period - mostly taken by Mednews - are included in the following chapters.
1969 - Gibraltar Evening Post – 10 June – 30 June
1969 - Gibraltar Evening Post – 1 Jul – 30 Sept
1969 - Gibraltar Evening Post – 1 Oct- 31 Dec (1)