Declaration of clearance

A sheet of paper with three seals and postmarks certifying that no person bearing the same name as the person referenced in this document is listed in the Central Register of Convicted Persons and Rebels according to the Directorate General of Prisons of the Ministry of Justice. General information is printed on the certificate, while information about the person concerned, as well as the signature and date, are handwritten in black ink on the front of the document. The back only bears an administrator's seal in blue ink.

This type of document was part of the vetting process for students in teacher training colleges. At the end of the Spanish Civil War and in the early years of Franco's dictatorship, a vetting procedure was implemented in teacher training colleges. All schoolteachers were investigated and those who did not comply with the regime's requirements were barred from the profession. They were required to submit statements and the information was compared. If a schoolteacher was charged, they could present one of these certificates to defend their actions. The certificates were signed by local authorities: the mayor, parish priest, or the chief of the Spanish military police (or anyone with equivalent status). Testimonies from a neighbor or an influential person could be added to certify and strengthen their evidence. These documents were very important as they gave the holder impunity against being accused or condemned as communist, of holding rallies, or not behaving in a decent manner. The punishments for such actions ranged from suspended pay for several days to the loss of a teaching position, being barred from the professional teaching body, exile, arrest, or even death.

Gonzalo Calamita, Dean of the University of Zaragoza, implemented this vetting process in Zaragoza at the height of the war on August 28, 1936. The law itself was passed in November 1936, and schoolteachers were ordered to submit themselves for questioning (schoolteachers depended on the headmasters).