The fight of Juan Bergua and Luisa Vera in the last 27 years has had a double objective. They have dedicated themselves to searching to his daughter Cristina, who disappeared in Cornellà (Barcelona) on March 9, 1997, when he was 16 years old. And they have done everything possible to get the Administrations and society involved in the search for missing people like her daughter.
The couple, aged 76 and 75 – he, a retired metallurgical employee, and she, a housewife – form a team. “When we go somewhere, we both go together,” Juan summarized this Friday, shortly after meeting with the mayor of Cornellà. Together they collected this Tuesday at the National Center for Disappeared Persons (CNDES) a recognition for their work as co-founders of the first association of relatives of missing persons in Spain (InterSOS), which It stopped being active last January due to lack of relief. Once again, they remembered the case of their daughter Cristina and how in those first years everything was an obstacle for the families who were trying to keep the search alive. The case of Marta del Castillo, the young woman from Seville who disappeared on January 24, 2009, marked a before and after.
It was a Sunday and Cristina went out for a walk. Her return time was ten at night. When she was going to be late, she used to let us know with a phone call. That day she didn't call or show up. When they went to file a complaint that same night, they were told that they had to wait “the famous 24 hours,” something that is no longer necessary. “We spent the entire holy night looking for her everywhere.” She began an odyssey in which the couple has printed 300,000 photographs.
Cristina's room is tidy. Although they kept it just as she left it for more than 20 years, the couple has carefully packed all of her things, including the Bon Jovi records that she loved so much. They have a granddaughter who is 19 years old and another who is 14, who usually use it. The girl spends the night at her grandparents' house one day, before going to university. “The room is there, it is used. We have everything saved,” explains Juan.
Juan and Luisa speak at least once a month with an investigator from the Mossos d'Esquadra to find out if there is anything new. And, in events like Tuesday's in Madrid, they carry their daughter's portrait with them. The investigation placed Cristina's boyfriend, 26, at the center of all eyes. He was interrogated, but no one could point to him as responsible. Some of Cristina's friends said that she intended to break up their relationship that day. Even today, Luisa highlights that the young man did not leave his house, nor did he participate in the search: “I saw him in his house so calm and we didn't know what to do, where to walk. “This shocked me a lot.”
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When Cristina's absence was 20 years old, they registered her death in the court. Like other relatives of missing persons, this declaration, which can be made 10 years after her absence, caused them great pain. “We wouldn't have done it if the bureaucracy didn't force us to do it,” Juan admits. They had to do it to leave the inheritance of her other son closed. “We want the little we have to be for him,” adds Luisa.
“This never ends, there is always something to do,” reflects Juan when he remembers the first steps of InterSOS, back in July 1998, the result of the union of six families from the metropolitan area of Barcelona. “We agreed to put 5,000 pesetas (30 euros) each to make some phone calls and a little sign with photos of the six missing people and we distributed it wherever we could,” he explains.
They went to the media, organized demonstrations to ask for their daughter's return or launched balloons with Cristina's image on the day she turned 18, in addition to visiting countless offices of ministries, Generalitat, City Councils, Prosecutor's Office and police groups. “At that time there was no knowledge that there were missing people in Spain,” says Juan. Their impression of those first years is that they were received, but they were not listened to. They asked to centralize and unify the complaints, because then they could be filed at any police station and many were repeated. There is now a central registry. Also, that they perform DNA tests on the relatives to be able to compare the skeletal remains that were found, a practice fully implemented.
When do you notice the first achievements? “With the case of Marta del Castillo,” Juan answers. “In the case of my daughter, the Police received an anonymous letter telling them to look for Cristina in the Cornellà garbage containers and it took them 11 months to go to the landfill. In the case of Marta del Castillo, a similar notice was received. “They went the next day.”
The National Center for Missing Persons (CNDES), created in 2018, is the achievement of which they are most proud. There, in a facility that many of the relatives of the missing recognize as their home, they recounted their experience along with six other families. The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and representatives of the National Police, Civil Guard, Mossos, Foral Police and Ertzaintza listened to them. The center, directed by Pilar Minuesa, coordinates the missing persons system used by security forces, and acts as a point of contact with the Administrations, organizations of affected people and the media. Its director took stock of its activity in 2023: 15,126 missing people; 66% of cases resolved in the first seven days; and 89 cases (0.5%) in which the disappearance was considered forced. On December 31, 2023, there were 6,001 active missing persons reports in Spain.
For more than ten years, Juan has been separating himself from the day-to-day life of the association because he felt overwhelmed: “I took it very hard. Many families came with missing people and I had to put aside my pain to give them encouragement, when the one who needed encouragement and support was me.” He decided to take some distance, but Luisa remained a member. With the cessation of activity, at the beginning of 2024, they have become part of Who knows where Global, a foundation promoted by journalist Paco Lobatón.
“Your fight overwhelmed a society that finally began to put a face to those who disappeared without apparent cause and also to put a face to the suffering that this implied,” Minister Marlaska told them, who also wanted to remember the work of the last director of InterSOS, Montserrat Torruella.
Perhaps out of habit, Juan took the opportunity to ask the minister to reconsider the BOE fees that the families of the missing have to pay up to twice to process the death declaration. ”Just over 2,000 euros […] It is as if we paid a fine for declaring a family member deceased,” he said. He also stressed the need for psychological assistance for the first days. Marlaska announced that the procedures had begun to offer a free psychological service to family members through the CNDES.
After so many years, the marriage still needs “for better or worse” to know what happened to Cristina. “I try to think that she will be alive,” says Luisa. The tenacity of her parents got Congress to proclaim in 2010 that every March 9 is the official day of persons missing without apparent cause. The same day Cristina disappeared.
📆 Today, Day of Persons Missing Without Apparent Cause @cndes_oficial
Cristina Bergua, 16 years old, disappeared 27 years ago today and her case remains unclarified
His family, along with those of other missing people, promoted the Inter-SOS association
This is his testimony ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/32R5Ef7wau
— Ministry of the Interior (@interiorgob) March 9, 2024
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