Laying ghosts to rest

The legacy of Spain’s bloody civil war is still with us today, not least because the victors were in power until 1975 and healing the wounds of the conflict was never on their agenda.

It was for this reason that the previous Socialist party (PSOE) government brought in the law of historic memory (Ley de Memoria Histórica) in 2007 which was designed to recognise the rights of people who had suffered violence or persecution during the Spanish Civil War and the following 35year dictatorship.

There were many facets to the law but one of them was to put an end to glorification of the dictatorship through the display of civic monuments of the dictator Franco and his henchmen and also the removal of street names honouring leaders of the fascist movement, in particular the ‘caudillo’ (‘great leader’) himself.

It also provided for the exhumation of victims of fascism – the tens of thousands of Republicans who were summarily executed towards the end of the Civil War and after it finished in 1939.

The law of historic memory was only partially successful because 12 years later – in 2019

–some of the issues which it was supposed to resolve are still with us.

On the positive side many streets have been renamed and most of the public statues and monuments have been removed, despite the passive and not-so passive resistance of Franco sympathisers.

However, administrations have been slow to make a move on digging up the common graves where the parents and grandparents of many thousands of Spaniards still lie without any recognition. Many of the relatives know – or suspect they know – where they are buried, but have been unable to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones to lay them to rest in a proper grave where they can be mourned.

This, of course, was not the case with the dictator Francisco Franco. He made sure that everyone would know where he was buried – and his acolytes would be able to worship his legacy in the most humbling of surroundings.

Not long after the Civil War ended the dictator started preparing his legacy.

The Valley of the Fallen (Valle de los Caídos) – ostensibly a monument to all those died in the Civil War – was to be his resting place and a shrine to Him and the fascist movement, although this has been denied by his family, who claim Franco had never conceived that he would be buried there.

It was constructed in the municipality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in the Sierra de Guadarrama outside the city of Madrid. Work started there in 1940 and didn’t finish until 1958. Although there are no official figures, historians estimate that around 20,000 prisoners from the losing side in the Civil War – those who fought for the government – were put to work at the site. It was forced labour in precarious conditions and many of them died, although once again there are no official figures.

The main job was excavating and blasting out a vast cavern in the mountainside which would house a ‘cathedral’ – the place of worship where Franco would be laid to rest along with José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the fascist Falange party.

The whole area of the ‘valley’ is full of fascist symbolism – with the ‘pièce de résistance’ being the 150-metre-high cross which stands on the hillside above the entrance to ‘tunnel’ cathedral – a monument to Catholic Spain and religion that Franco claimed he was fighting to save from the faithless Republicans during the Civil War.

After Franco was interred in the cathedral following his death in 1975, the Valle de los Caídos became a rallying point and a place of pilgrimage for Spain’s fascists.

This grotesque area was shunned by many Spaniards, who were clear that the ‘valley’ could never be a monument to all the Civil War dead – only to one side, Franco’s fascists.

Yesterday (Thursday) Franco was removed. Following a long legal battle – and acting on a long-standing electoral promise – the acting PSOE government exhumed the dictator and his remains were taken to the cemetery of Mingorrubio-El Pardo, which is around 35 kilometres away and closer to Madrid. His family had wanted him to be laid to rest in Madrid’s Almudena cathedral but this request was turned down.

The removal of Franco from his pantheon will help to heal some of the wounds of the Civil War which still scar Spanish society today. The relatives of those people who were shot and left in unmarked graves by Franco’s henchmen were probably feeling some satisfaction yesterday. That the dictator who showed no mercy to their loved ones should be given a more humble resting place – and disassociated with what is supposed to be a place to remember all those who died in the Civil War – should give them some crumbs of comfort.