When he was only six years old, his parents took him to Paris for the first time. That family trip deeply marked Juan Alberto González and was decisive when designing its future. “Living in Paris was the project he had proposed. It was his greatest dream and he had a promising future,” his mother explains to EL PERIÓDICO. Cristina Garrido.
After finishing his industrial engineering degree, the young man from Madrid got a contract at Électricité de France. TO At the age of 27 he fulfilled his dream: live in the city of love. Everything was going smoothly; He was at his best – at his primeas young people his age would say today. He loved his job, he had just gotten married and had already made friends to go out for beers with.
On November 13, 2015, he decided to go with his wife and a friend to the concert of Eagles of Death Metalin the legendary Parisian room Bataclan. He didn’t want to miss one of his favorite bands, so he stood in the pit, near the stage. Forty minutes after the first rock notes began to sound, in a space packed with 1,500 people and almost in the dark, the shots. People started running, not really knowing where to go. Juan Alberto lost his men trying to escape and while fleeing, one of the three assailants shot him, killing him almost instantly. “The doctors told me that with the shot of a Kalashnikov AK-47 you would die almost instantly,” says Cristina.
unanswered questions
That Friday the 13th, at 9:40 p.m., a command of jihadists from the Islamic State ended the life and dreams of Juan Alberto and 89 other people. Al the only dead Spaniard in that room No autopsy was performed, so his family only knows that he was shot in the back. It was not until the 2021 trial when his mother, while watching videos and photographs, was able to recognize him. “They told me it was a quick death. I have to believe it to avoid thinking if he suffered or how long it took him to die since he was shot. “These are questions that only Juan Alberto can answer, but he is no longer here.”
A woman places a candle in memory of those killed in the 2015 attacks at a memorial in the Place de la République in Paris, last Sunday. / MOHAMMED BADRA / EFE
Questions that, 10 years later, continue to torment Cristina. Especially, the question of whether his incessant phone calls that night to find out if his son was safe could have influenced his death. It is known that, during the attack, cell phones did not stop receiving calls from desperate friends and family. The terrorists approached where they were heard and finished off the victims. “I didn’t know that my son was in the Bataclan room. I called him to see if he was somewhere else. I called him many times. The phone had a signal but did not answer me. “What consoles me to think is that Alberto never had his cell phone on.”
That night a part of Juan Alberto’s mother also died, who 10 years later continues to send a Whatsapp to her son every day. “It is very difficult for me to leave the house. I don’t go to restaurants, I can’t. The last time I went to a theater was with him. I just want to be at home and with my son’s ashes. I talk to him every day and that is what consoles me. Also my daughter, who is my shadow and my driving force, and gives me the strength to continue,” he says as his voice breaks.
Every November 13th, Cristina travels to Paris just to leave flowers in the place where his son died. “Walking around the places where I used to do it with Alberto hurts me a lot. I’m not even able to sit down and have a beer on a Parisian terrace like I did when I came to visit him.”
During the trial, in which he testified as collateral victimthis mother had to face one of the jihadists, Wrong Abdeslam. “He was to my right, in a box. I looked him in the eyes. The terrorists did not regret anything. In fact during the trial, Abdeslam made it clear that he was from Islamic State. (…) I can’t understand the meaning of this attack. Because in the end they have achieved nothing, only destroying families and murdering people who were worth an eternity,” he insists.
resistance symbol
Cristina did not want to visit the Bataclan courtroom until days before the sentencing. There were a few minutes until a concert started. He approached the doormen and asked them to enter. Everything was the same as when the tragedy happened; the same layout and the same red paint on the walls and curtains. The same chairs in the box, where a group of hostages took refuge for two hours and 40 minutes. The owners have not wanted to change anything as a symbol of resistance.
The plaque with the names of those killed by Islamic State terrorists in their attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015 in the park in front of the Bataclan Theater in Paris. / ISABEL RODRÍGUEZ RAMIRO / EFE
In the pit, he imagined what the last minutes of his son’s life were like, and promised him that in his honor they would get the maximum sentence for his murderers. And so it was: Salah Abdeslam was sentenced to life in prison. “For me, justice is that he has the maximum sentence and he is not going to be released and I hope that when the term ends, in 30 years, he will still be there and die in prison.”
During these years, the pain of loss is added disappointment with the Spanish Governmentfrom whom he says, he has never received a call. “Neither the Ministry of the Interior nor the central government of Spain have called me in 10 years. During the trial, they know that we are people who are going to a trial in another language, they have never told us if we needed any type of help. They have never considered whether we have the resources to travel to Paris.” However, it only has words of gratitude when talking about the French Government, which provided him with legal support, translators and psychological assistance, and covers the expenses of trips to the capital every year to visit the commemorative plaque in honor of his son.
Each anniversary has become an inevitable journey towards that day. Nobody forgets what they were doing when the attacks of November 13, 2015 occurred. To the mother of the only Spaniard who died in Bataclan“remembering” that day is not just not forgetting; It is to protect the present and the future, because he says, “it is the only way to ensure that these acts do not happen again.”
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