‘We had a long, last sight of Gibraltar from the decks…The ship weighed anchor at 5 pm. And it was two hours before the Rock faded from our view. We just leaned on the rail and kept our eyes glued on the towering monster that has always been our home – our beloved home. For the Rock is harsh and forbidding only to the stranger. For us who knew her intimately, she was sweet and amiable – the loving Mother of us all. Do you wonder that we wept as she slowly faded in the distance, becoming at length a blurb just barely visible, and then…We have many pictures of her, and we often take them out and look at them.”
(An evacuee)
‘’Mid pleasures and palaces
Though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble,
There’s no place like home.’
‘Peñoncito querido
lejano Gibraltar,
el Corazon herido
por ti va a quebrar.
Que intacto Dios te quarde
Para a ti regresar;
Aunque volvamos tarde,
te amamos sin cesar.’
‘Gibraltar streets are silent
All gone those little feet
But their high-heeled tinkling clatter
On my heart shall ever beat,
As I stood on the embrasure
I hear those little feet.’
(An evacuee)
Llévame Donde Nací
Llévame Donde Nací
Llévame donde nací,
Que a tu lado quiero estar.
No hay un sitio para mí,
Como mi buen Gibraltar.
Solo donde vi la luz,
Tengo puesta mi ilusión.
Llévame quiero morir,
Junto aquel mi gran Peñón
La Línea y el Campamento,
Algeciras y mucho más,
Los dominan por su altura
El Peñón de Gibraltar.
Aunque América es muy grande,
Y tiene mucho que ver,
Yo quiero a mi Peñoncito,
Aquel que me dio a mí el ser
Pepe Roman
BOOKS AND WEB RESOURCES
Sam Benady, Memoirs of a GIbraltarian.
Lourdern Galliano, Rocky passage to exile.
Joseph Garcia, Gibraltar making of a people.
Sir William Jackson, The Rock of the Gibraltarians.
Mariola Summerfield, A Woman’s Place.
FoGGs oral history archive.
National Gallery files. Benady, S. Memoirs of a Gibraltarian, 1993, Gibraltar Books Ltd.
Galliano, L. Rocky Passage to Exile, 1997, Aquila Services Ltd.
Finlayson, T.J., The Fortress Came First, 1996, Gibraltar Books Ltd.
Garcia, J. Gibraltar the making of a people, 1994, Medsun Ltd.
Jackson, W. The Rock of the Gibraltarians, 1987, Associated University Press.
Summerfield, M. A Woman’s Place.
Morello, J.L., Memories of Our Recent Past, 2007, Insight Publications.
Canessa, E., They Went to War, 2004, Eric Canessa.
Friends of Gibraltar oral history archive.
Gibraltar National Archives files and web resources: www.nationalarchives.gi