It was a joke that I hoped some of the more, ah, mature members of the forum might get.
In the '70's during the Weekend Update part of Saturday Night Live, Chevy Chase frequently would add "...and in other news, Genralissimo Franco is still dead."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General%C3%ADssimo_Francisco_Franco_is_still_dead
I didn't know that, thanks for the info. My question came because, from what I know, Spain didn't have much presence in the international field, to the point that many people shouldn't know who Franco was. It is true that Franco met with Hitler in Hendaye -border with France-, but he refused to support Hitler. US gov. never seemed to like Franco for being a dictator, but on the other hand, not having supported Germany didn't qualify him as a nazi, and he was definitely an anticommunist -against whom he fought-, so I guess for the US gov, Franco was a lesser evil.
Years later, Eisenhower visited Spain, there were some treatys to allow the building of airforce bases in Spain, along with all the help that had been received from the US after the war. Spain received a lot of support from the US, and Franco opened up to international commerce in his latter years, but I never imagined Franco would have been heard of outside Spain
El Caudillo... I remember him. There are still some statues to be removed.
That's not correct. A recent law forces the removal of every remembrance from the Franco era. Just yesterday (jul 18) was the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the spanish civil war. Statues have been removed completely, and after Franco's statues, come statues of military men of Franco's army, street names after generals, battles, or even notable people such as doctors or architects who worked for Franco's regime.
I personally think that, after 75 years, it is overkill. I don't know who most of the names after the streets were, and in my opinion, some people is pretending to win the war long before it ended, by removing every trace of it. Even the way it has to be explained in the school has been "suggested".
I was just 5 when Franco died, so I really don't know much how life was back then. If you were a communist, I guess it was not easy, but for most of the working people, it was just fine as long as you didn't get into politics. Things would have been different had Franco not won the war, but I wonder how life would have been had the communist party won the war.
When I did Spanish as a secondary course at the university, I remember our professor focussed on the past tense (I forgot which one) in which his death was announced by whoever it was (PM?). That tense, our professor explained, was highly significant. It meant as much as 'Franco has died, end of period'. Can't remember exactly. Do you remember this, Raúl? I'd like to know. In Spanish you have two past tenses.
It was Carlos Arias Navarro, the president of the Government. It was a famous speech, and as you say, everybody knew something was about to come, but nobody really knew if for the good or the bad.
Españoles Franco ha muerto-Mensaje de Arias Navarro. 20-Noviembre-1975It is like Fidel Castro now, seems that Raúl Castro will follow his directions, though with a little more open hand. Franco didn't appointed a successor, that could very well have been a military man. He appointed the King Juan Carlos, and the king, who could have claimed universal power, promoted elections and a constitution in which the king had no effective power.
End of XX century spanish history class...... :-)
