Francisco Franco---a household name in Spain. He was celebrated by some as a hero who stopped communism in Spain, the architect of Spanish Miracle, and a preserver of Catholic culture in Spain; in another hand, he was accused for his conservative, dictatorial policies, his pro-Hitler and pro-Mussolini tendencies, and his ruthlessness. Me personally think he was a figure that brought both positive and negative things to Spain, he was neither a hero nor a villain, but rather a complicated man.
I think that no one is completely a hero or a villain. Mousulini did make the trains run on time. He also did some other stuff. People and events are complex things and evaluating them with the goal of deciding "Were they good or bad?" is a short sighted goal. Those who have studied history enough to give a intelegent answer to the good/bad question know that its the wrong question to ask. (I have to ask, is Franco still dead?)
Franco.. *shudder* I hate him with every fiber of my being. I was so looking forward to going to Spain with my pinko commie liberal teacher who was going to let us spit on his grave. But in all honesty, Spain was so backwards during that time. And they killed Lorca, and that's completely unforgivable. And need I bring up Guernica? Just from an artistic standpoint, it was the dark ages for Spain. The regime in place stifled great things from the generation of 98 and drove out the artists, except for Dali who just stayed out of politics and chilled in Barcelona.
No, Franco did not kill Lorca. First, it was the fanatic fascists who killed Lorca. Franco himself is a catholic nationalist, who just used facscists to help him get to power. the ones who killed lorca and the ones supporing hitler was atheistic people who believe in "superhuman" and Aryan supremacy, which were very different from Franco's conservative policies.
When I was in Spain I didn't come across a single person who had anything remotely 'nice" to say about Franco. Villian
yah me either Yoseff, and I wouldnt associate censorship, taking away human rights, repression of culture (religious/public displays of affection/etc.), murder and exile with a hero figure
Franco was a fascist dictator..and Spain was under his dictatorship 1936-1975, so many things happened in such a long time, he was a fascist dictator who was a bit behind the scenes, nontheless brutal.. very funny who wrote about train in italy to run on time under Mussolini, it's exactly the same argument today's fascist are still claiming...do you know how fascism used trains??...deporting jews to germany's lager..remember it
The jury is still out on that one. It is interesting to reflect on The Spanish Civil War by reading about the conflicts in Spain during the Napoleanic Era. The very same fault lines in the society were torn open. The period is gloriously illustrated by the artwork of Goya. Spain rejected the liberalizing dictatorship of Joseph Bonaparte in the same manner that The Spanish Republic was rejected. Those same fault lines had been opened during The War of Spanish Succession, 1702 - 1714. In appraising Franco, he should be compared to Yugoslovian strongman Josef Tito. What Franco left Spain needs to be compared with what Tito left Yugoslovia
