Spain digs up Franco-era graves, 80 years after civil war that brought him to power.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald
Spanish activists dug up a mass grave yesterday in a search for victims of the country’s civil war and the fascist dictatorship it put in place, as an Argentine court presses Spain to confront its troubled past. The exhumation, expected to last several days, is the first agreed to by a Spanish court after a campaign by Argentine investigators working on a case being advanced by Argentine Federal Judge María Romilda Servini de Cubría.
Hundreds of Spaniards turned to the Argentine court system two years ago for help in uncovering crimes committed during the 1936-39 civil war and the subsequent 36-year dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, by using an international human rights law.
On the edge of a cemetery in Guadalajara, some 50 kilometres from Madrid, volunteers dug open a grave believed to hold 22 or 23 bodies after a campaign by 90-year-old Ascensión Mendieta, who is seeking her father’s remains. “I’m overwhelmed by all this, but I know we’re going to get there and get what we wanted,” she said. “After this I can die in peace.” Her father Timoteo, who fought against Franco’s forces, is believed to have been shot amid reprisals after the war ended.
Hundreds of thousands of people died during the conflict, with atrocities committed on both sides. The victors under Franco went on to execute thousands of people after the war, according to British historian Paul Preston’s book The Spanish Holocaust.
Forty years after Franco’s death, the Argentine-led investigation into possible crimes against humanity during his rule could revive a movement to confront Spain’s past, which gained prominence after the Socialists came to power in 2004. A historical memory association, which helped with the dig in Guadalajara, has carried out several exhumations in recent years at the request of families. But building legal cases in Spain has been impossible. The country passed an amnesty law in 1977 which pardoned the crimes of the Franco government.
Read more: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/207091/spain-digs-up-franco-graves-80-years-on
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We were told to some degree what we could say and not say, and what the sensibilities were before we got there, so I really didn't get any shocks. By that time, too, Franco had been in power for 30 years, and knew he would never be violently overthrown, so he had relaxed some of the stricter controls.
One thing none of us knew, that only came out after Franco died, was that he had told his intended successor, King Juan Carlos, that "you will be able do to things I never could," so he knew how many people still hated him for the Civil War, and what he did in its aftermath.
The bland media and the control over the news was shocking. I was used to Dan Rather as CBS new anchor, after all. It was national TV news when Franco's wife went to pray at this cathedral or that, and a documentary on the Second World War mentioned the "heroic Blue Division," which was Franco's concession to Hitler for helping him win the Civil War, but it never explained what they did. He sent what was in essence a suicide division to the Russian Front to thank Hitler for his position as Caudillo. Most, if not all of them perished. This was never mentioned, and I had a heated argument with the mother of the family I was staying with, because in all those years, she never even knew that Franco had sent a division to fight with Hitler. She only shut up when her husband told her that yes they did. The family was all Catalans, but the parents were supporters of Franco because the Republicans has assassinated members of both their families during the Civil War, and they understandably harbored grudges. If you read any detailed history of the Spanish Civil War, you'll read that the Republic was SO fractured, it looked almost like GDP today, except that everyone backed up their opinions with firing squads.
What also struck me was that local languages were forbidden or suppressed. Catalan was forbidden in schools, and was taught--in Catalunya!--at the university level as a foreign language. Same for Basque. Catalan is alive and well today, but Basque is so complicated, if it is not taught from birth, it is very difficult to learn. Of course, as rebellious 17 year olds, we all learned Catalan, and some of us took pains to get informal courses in it. This was forbidden, but not pursued. I go back down there regularly, and always get a warm reception as "that American who speaks Catalan." Due to that course I took, I can write it, too, which few foreigners can.
One more thing--in Castilian ("Spanish"
you never use a double "s." Generalísimo. Italian and Catalan use it, but Spanish never! I can imagine your next question--why then "Picasso?" Although he grew up around Málaga, his family was of Catalan origin, that's why!
I'll bet I'm the only one on DU who has met Salvador Dalí, too! (another story for another time, but it was during that year in Barcelona)
Such vivid imagery, and so much context. Your observation that "the bland media and the control over the news was shocking" at the time certainly recalls much of the corporate, cookie-cutter news media here in the U.S. over the past 15 years or so (if not longer).
On a lighter note I'll leave you with a postcard of Madrid's Puerta del Sol, taken in Franco's last full year in power. Enjoy!
And on having brought up such wonderful and accomplished people as daughters.
It's hard on the other hand to hear about health problems in your family. At the risk of imposing, please make sure to keep your body's Ph as high as possible - and from what I understand you'll keep such risks to a bare minimum. Taking a little Apple cider vinegar every day, I was told, would keep you as far away from illness as one can reasonably get. If you decide to try it, remember: it must have the 'mother' (Bragg's is my favorite).
Thank you as well sharing some glimpses into what must have been a full and incredibly interesting life so far for you and the Mrs. (I myself can't make that claim).
All the Best to you and yours, DFW. 
I take lemon or lime on everything and prefer oil and vinegar on salads, so I come close. Living in Europe, I have access to some of the best olive oil there is, including a small Catalan producer to whom a friend in Brussels has tight connections. Only the genetic lottery has kept me around until now. I already lost a cousin to cancer when he was 41.
My dad was one of the last print journalists in Washington, had been there 50 years when cancer cut his career short, since nothing else looked like it was going to. That is one of the main reasons I got to hang with Senators, Presidents and the likes of Helen Thomas starting at such an early age. It's not like I did anything brilliant in my childhood that warranted such august company.
As for the Mrs. and our daughters, I am just incredibly proud of them (my brother is on the right). My wife wears her 63 years with uncommon grace, and, like me, refuses to let her medical history become an obsession with her.
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My hope is that Spain gives him a proper burial someday - in some Mardid landfill.
Happy editing! 
He was still brutal as hell. A total tragedy. 