"I will make sure everyone knows what they did to us here." This was the final vow Consuelo García del Cid made as she departed the Adoratrices reform school in Madrid at age 16, after 24 months of internment for her rebellious nature. Now 66, García del Cid attends an event organized by the Spanish Conference of Religious (CONFER) to apologize to survivors of the Patronato de Protección a la Mujer, a public institution claiming to protect women deemed morally at risk from 1941 to 1985. Together with fellow survivors, García del Cid disrupts the event attended by the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo, and her predecessor, Irene Montero, rejecting the apologies with shouts of "Truth, justice, and reparation. Neither forget nor forgive," while holding signs that declare "No."

The protest catches organizers off guard, igniting a wave of anger among the victims that halts the planned conclusion of the event. The Patronato de Protección a la Mujer partnered with religious congregations, outliving the dictator Francisco Franco. It aimed to eradicate clandestine child prostitution and was part of a social control system focused on physical and mental indoctrination of women.

The mission was sweeping: "Redeem fallen women and assist those at risk of falling," referring to those who smoked, protested, disobeyed, begged, were daughters of criminals, unmarried mothers, or pregnant out of wedlock. To Franco's regime, these women were "wayward," as they self-identify.

The majority of those confined were underage. Fear, dehumanization, and violence were rampant. On Monday, at the Fundación Pablo VI in Madrid, stories of countless surviving victims came to light, including Churra's. She ended up in one of these institutions after becoming pregnant. "I worked through my pregnancy and even the week after giving birth. They tried to steal my baby. No child should endure this," she laments.

Another woman recounts, "We scrubbed floors on our knees, witnessed children dying. Even pigs wouldn't eat the food. I toiled relentlessly in the workshop without pay until I escaped with my son in 1977." They describe a life surrounded by insults and humiliation.

Leire found herself in the María Goretti reform school in Canillejas, Madrid, after revealing her father had sexually abused her, impregnating her