Francisco Franco Bahamonde

It’s interesting to consider what would have happened if the anarchists, not Franco had won. Not so much governing, since anarchists don’t believe in mother-country or a government, but if they hadn’t been wiped off the earth. And what might have happened if the anarchist and revolutionary movement had eliminated the entire catholic tradition. The anarchists, in Catalonia and Spain burned down churches, as they were symbols of moral and ethical oppression. What would have happened if that had continued, it’s interesting. I think it would have been better, but that’s an opinion. As far as I know there are no movies on the subject, and I watch a lot of cinema, so I don’t think there are any. Or if there is, it’s in the subtext. But I think it’d be a great movie, seeing what would have happened if Franco hadn’t existed and the dynamic had continued… Maybe it would have burnt out, turned into a kind of dangerous Stalinism. I don’t know, it’s a curious thing, worth considering.

Franco was a swine, a killer, a monster, an animal. He was in power because people were too afraid. He didn’t know the meaning of empathy. He executed his relatives because they didn’t agree with him. I don’t believe someone like him is so easily manipulated. Was he a puppet at times? Was he bribed? Probably, yes. He was powerful enough that his wife would enter a shop and say: “I like this pearl necklace Give it to me.” She wouldn’t even pay, and jewelers in Barcelona had to band together to share in the cost of her whimsy. So I don’t see him as a puppet. I just don’t buy it. Nowadays, politicians are puppets. Puppets of the banks, of big companies that employee them once, and then they retire from politics. That’s why we pay this much for the light and water, because they’re bought and sold. I don’t know if Franco was actually sold. He was a bastard, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t call him a puppet even if he was probably bought and helped out people. No, no, no, I don’t think so. He wasn’t the bankers’ puppet. He held all the power, just as Mussolini and all the big dictators. Stalin a puppet? Dare to call a guy like that a puppet. He had a lot of faults. A killer, not a puppet.

So the war generation is split into three groups: Those who died, those who progressed because they bet on Franco, and those who lost the war, who always felt defeated. Our generation, the generation of those who were born in the 60s saw things differently. We are the generation of the transition to democracy. We experienced an important period of economic prosperity. But I think there’s another generation that’s also important, the generation of the 1940s…those born between ’45 and the ’55. They, for the most part, played the starring role in the transition, due to their age and many other factors. They are the children, with parents closer to the time of the republic than to the war and postwar period, and they played the most important role in the recovery of democracy. Any discussion of generations, as in literature, is a controversial. There are many points of view on what is and isn’t a generation. But I think that these links between the defeated, those who undertook the transition and those in the spotlight throughout the years of democracy, it’s an important distinction that explains us– as a country and a people.

Well, we couldn’t stand him. We were absolutely against him, he and everyone surrounding him, because he couldn’t have done anything alone. There was a core of power that revolted against the republic. A republic with plusses and minuses, because they did some stupid things, but they were the government chosen by the people. Franco imposed his rule and will, and everyone had to obey, or else…

The republic stations him in different areas. He’s the military commander in the Balearic Islands in the 1933, I think. He’s careful enough not to become explicitly involved with any of the plots, in any of the military conspiracies that take place from the 31 to the 36 against the republic. I mean, many officers feeling affronted, wounded by the republic, conspire. Actually, in 1932 there’s a first coup that fails. A coup by extreme right military officers that fails, right? He stays out of it. Very careful, very prudent. He doesn’t want to risk his career on a gamble that may not succeed, right? This extreme care will show until the very end, until the conspiration of 1936. Earlier, in 1934, a right-wing government in Madrid considers him again a trust-worthy officer. He is, for a time, in 1934-1935, the Commander-in-Chief. That is, he’s not a secretary of state, since those are civilians at the time, but he is at the top of the military hierarchy. He acts hard from his position against a worker insurrection in Asturias in October 1934. Well, it’s clear that he feels identified with the right wing, and that he dislikes the republican system as well. Well, due to al of this, his professional prestige, when a coup begins to be prepared in the Spring of 1936 -but this time a proper coup, a serious one- the conspirators quickly think of him as key to its success. Mainly for one reason. It’s considered that, for a coup to be successful, it’s necessary that the African army takes part of it. That is, the Spanish troops stationed in the protectorate of northern Morocco, part of which are mercenary units. The “Legión Extranjera”, which is the Spanish version of the French “Legion étrangère”. And, also, the units of Moroccan mercenaries with Spanish officers, known as the “Regulares”. These are the shock troops of the Spanish army. They are units that, not in that moment, but in the last decade had fought in intense combats against the rebel moors, the rebel natives. Then, it’s thought that these units are key to decide whether a coup will be successful or a failure. If they are in with the coup, it has many more chances to be successful. And it is believed that the conspirators think that Franco has the key to unlock these units. That if Franco is in the coup, these units and their officers, who hold him in great esteem and respect him, will join. But if he isn’t in it, there’s no way to know what will happen. Then, the conspirators start to court Franco, and he leads them on. He doesn’t want to act too fast, doesn’t want to make a wrong move. I mean, he doesn’t want to get involved for the coup to later fail. It’s said that during a trip to Paris in the 20 -it’s said, but there’s not much documental evidence. But it’s said that during a business trip to Paris in the 20s, he saw some of the former generals of the Russian Tsar army working as cab drivers. Exiled from Russia and working as cab drivers or doormen in restaurants. That had a huge impact on him, and thought, that can’t happen to me. I can’t afford to make a mistake and forces me to exile and live the rest of my life in misery. Then, it was quite tough to convince him. But in the end they managed it, right?

Yes. Of course. Let’s see. The dictatorship. I remember my grandmother crying when Franco died. And this man was responsible for gunning down her entire family. At some point, she’d developed a fondness for him, from seeing him for so long on currency, on television, everywhere. Naturally, we didn’t get why grandma was crying over this asshole. She said, “But we knew him so well.” Of course, that gets you thinking, right? You think, Damn, there’s a moment, sometimes, when people earn your…I don’t know. Maybe that’s why, in these foreign dictatorships they put pictures everywhere. I suppose that explains some of it. They try to impart a certain fondness, as if they’re like family, right? Like, seeing them so often on Telecinco, you ultimately feel you know them, even though you don’t know anyone.

Very soon, in ’46-’47, beings in the world this new period that a north-American journalist will dub the cold war. Franco, suddenly, is like, “excuse me, the cold war?” “Ah, so now in Washington, London and Paris you’re all finding out that communism is dangerous? You’re finding that out now?” “Listen here, I found out the year 36. 10 years ago. From the ’36 until now, I’ve wiped out thousands of communists. Then, welcome to the anti-communist club, but I’m the dean of the club.” I’m making a… But that’s the idea. That’s what saves him.

Francoism was an authoritarian system. Because everything was a sin. Everything. They ruined our childhoods completely. It was a dark, gray Barcelona. I was part of the anti-Franco resistance, 00:09 and did some jail time in 1972. It felt like being in an occupied country. Everything related to the history of Catalunya… I don’t remember a single lesson, nor any book. In 1975, people were still being executed. In the playground, in the afternoon, they made us sing Cara Al Sol. It was a coup. They wanted everything that sounded Catalan eliminated. People were afraid to discuss politics. But there are many people who…who would withdraw €5,000 from the bank to donate to the cause of returning Franco to power.