The Burden of Silence

Ramón Barbuzano Morales was born in the Canary Islands on June 4, 1916. He spent his childhood in the town of San Andrés on the island of El Hierro which is the smallest of the seven islands. In January of 1936 he married Agustina Guadalupe González Quintero who would be his wife for 77 years. In May of the same year the Spanish Civil War broke out and without a choice he was forcibly drafted into General Francisco Franco’s troops. On July 20th he was sent to the most intense ghting on the battle front in Teruel on the peninsula. After three years of military service in the war he was discharged and was able to return to his wife and his island. His freedom lasted very little because he was ordered back into the army to patrol the island during the post civil war period. After serving four more years he reverted to his life as a farmer until 1949. He was obligated by the impoverished conditions of the post-war to attempt a trip by sailboat to Venezuela. These voyages were clandestine, illegal, and dangerous, but his wife supported his decision realizing that they had no future where they were. She would be left alone once again, not knowing if her husband would survive. Ramón Barbuzano wrote three books: “A Sailboat Named Saturnino”, “Scenic Routes for the Tourist”, and “The Island Against the Radar Station”. He never wanted this his fourth book to be published in his lifetime and consequently had asked the son to follow through after his death. The publication of this book is the fulllment of the dying wish of the father which was honored by the son. In these pages the author relates in great detail the incredible events of his life which took place in a world of secrecy, conspiracies, and maliciousness. He touches upon incidents and attitudes that he had kept hidden under layers of silence for years. “The Burden of Silence” is more than just a book; it is a love story, an historical tome, an essay on human nature, a commentary on corruption. Most of all it is the baring of the soul of a man who could only be free to say what he felt by dying; to say what he never dared to express while alive.