In compulsory military service time. Graffiti of replacement soldiers at the Podadera Lighthouse (Cartagena)

Authors

  • PhD. Gregorio Castejón Porcel University of Alicante, Human Geopgrahy Department
  • Professor Gregorio Rabal Saura Murcian Society of Anthropology (SOMA)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53351/tfvydg39

Keywords:

graffiti, compulsory militar service, soldiers, replacement, Podadera Lighthouse

Abstract

Despite not being a building of military character and functionality, the La Podadera Lighthouse (Cartagena) has on its mural surfaces a set of graffiti made, some time ago, by soldiers assigned to the different units and barracks of the municipality of Cartagena (Region of Murcia), the majority in compliance with the now extinct Compulsory Military Service (SMO). Young men from all corners of Spain, as evident in the graffiti, who, in their day, carried out surveillance work in the buildings and surroundings that are part of the coastal military installation known as the San Juan de la Podadera Battery, whose origin dates back to the 17th century, and with which the aforementioned signaling building shares space, whose first lighting took place in 1866.
In this work, the analysis of these historical motifs made, applying various techniques, is offered on the plastering of the aforementioned property that served, for a short period of time in the 19th century, as a fundamental orientation element for sailors arriving or transiting through the surroundings of the port and coast of Cartagena. Added to the numerical relevance of the set is the documentary value of the preserved texts and images, in which many of the features of the life of the replacement soldier can be glimpsed, among which those linked to the use of a temporary youth language typical of the troops and used within the barracks environment. Epigraphic graffiti predominates over figurative ones, transferring both, on the walls and upper terrace, samples of those thoughts and axes of interest that occupied the minds of the recruits, their conversations to kill the hours of tedium in the barracks, the development of the solitary guards, as well as their position in the ephemeral and circumstantial barracks hierarchy, highlighting, in this sense, the obsession with the passage of time.
The graffiti from the La Podadera Lighthouse presented in this work joins the small number of studies that have addressed the cataloging and analysis of graffiti related to the military world after the Spanish Civil War, a field of research that, in the case of departmental city, offers ample possibilities, given the rich military architectural heritage it has and through which, for decades, a large number of replacements and calls of young spaniards passed.

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Author Biographies

  • PhD. Gregorio Castejón Porcel, University of Alicante, Human Geopgrahy Department

    PhD in Geography with International Mention, he currently holds the position of PhD Researcher in the Department of Human Geography of the University of Alicante, an entity to which he is linked through a postdoctoral research grant, Ayuda Margarita Salas, thanks to which he develops, in In recent years, a research stay at the Department of Geography of the University of Murcia.
    Member of the GIECRYAL research group (University) and the Murcian Anthropology Society (SOMA), his main lines of work are linked to the study of heritage elements, material and immaterial, related to water and its use, as well as the analysis of historical graffiti.
    His contributions have been published in national and international books and magazines, as well as presented in scientific forums of different scope. In addition, he is part of the advisory board of the Revista Murciana de Antropologia and has acted as an evaluator of different bulletins and scientific journals, both Spanish and foreign.

  • Professor Gregorio Rabal Saura, Murcian Society of Anthropology (SOMA)

    Graduate in Ancient History and Archeology (University of Murcia), he currently works as a teacher of Compulsory Secondary Education and Baccalaureate for the Ministry of Education of the Region of Murcia at the I.E.S. Graduate Francisco Cascales (Murcia).

    He is a member of the Murcia Society of Anthropology (SOMA) and at the research level his contributions stand out on the analysis of historical graffiti, botany and popular ornithology, cataloging and analysis of petroglyphs and the study of infrastructures linked to the traditional use and management of water. . Featured topics whose results have been published in books and multiple national and international magazines.

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Published

2024-12-17

How to Cite

In compulsory military service time. Graffiti of replacement soldiers at the Podadera Lighthouse (Cartagena). (2024). Revista Universitaria De Historia Militar, 13(27). https://doi.org/10.53351/tfvydg39

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