MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Franco and the Spanish Civil War: Did Spain ensure justice for the 500,000 victims? 👨‍⚖️

The death of Franco in 1975 marked a significant turning point in Spanish history. It signified the end of a very difficult period, a period which saw a stagnant economy, increasing inequality between social groups, and tumultuous international relationships. Spain was so desperate to move forward that it forgot to look back, some say, until more recent years. So, what measures were taken in the aftermath of Franco’s death? Were they a force for change, or simply a convenient way of covering up a very uncomfortable period of history?

💡 Things to consider

• El Pacto del Olvido (The Pact of Forgetting): Spain was mortified by its recent past, and wanted to have as little to do with it as possible. So, at least to both right and left-wing politicians at the time, it seemed a sensible idea to distance themselves from their history as much as they could. As the Communist Leader Santiago Carrillo put it, “In Spain there is only one way to reach democracy, which is to forget the past”. They wanted the dictator’s death to be a pivotal moment of change, and for Spain to finally be seen as a country of change, not one of stagnation. How did they go about achieving this? By forgetting the dictatorship ever happened. Quite literally, in fact. And legally, too: the “Pacto del Olvido” (The Pact of Forgetting) was legally recognised in Spain’s 1977 Amnesty Law. The Pact made any acknowledgement of the Franco dictatorship very unwelcome, and made it impossible to prosecute human rights violations from the period. No one was held accountable, and public memorials dedicated to Franco remained throughout the country. How significant was this in stopping so many victims’ and their families receiving closure or a sense of justice? Could it be argued that this was almost like censorship from the Franco era, just in a different form?

• Moving Franco: In 2019, Franco’s body was removed from El Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen), just outside of Madrid, and placed in a family graveyard. After years of backlash, the Spanish government listened to calls for the former dictator’s body to be moved from the memorial, acknowledging that it was highly inappropriate for a man who was responsible for an estimated 100,000+ deaths during his lifetime to be commemorated in this way. The move was seen as a huge victory for Pedro Sánchez and his government, who had been strongly against such glorification of Franco. The Valley of the Fallen is now reserved exclusively for those who died during the Spanish Civil War. Should this have happened sooner? What are the socio-cultural implications of this?

  

  El Valle de los Caídos

• Remembering: In 2020, Sánchez first announced his plans to readdress the Franco dictatorship. This included compulsory teaching on the dictatorship in schools, the removal of Francoist symbols and memorials, and exhuming and identifying the bodies of victims of the Franco regime placed in unmarked graves. The law also offered Spanish citizenship to any descendants of Spanish immigrants who were driven out of Spain because of the Franco regime. Although largely supported, the move was heavily criticised by the far-right party Vox, who promised to repeal the law if they came into power. Why do you think they would want to do this? Do you think the law is important?

🔎 Find out more

• Forgetting, in Order to Move On (New York Times article)

🍒 The cherry on top

• 🌍 Inventing 20 Languages: Unlike naturally evolved languages, constructed languages (or ‘conlangs’) like Esperanto, Klingon, or Lojban are intentionally created for specific purposes, whether linguistic experimentation, international communication, or fictional world-building. Read about Margaret Ransdell-Green, who has created 20 different conlangs! Great if you’re into Linguistics or Modern Foreign Languages!

• 🗣️ Voices of Nature: In this interview, Professor Nicolas Mathevon shares stories from decades of fieldwork across the globe — from navigating Arctic ice floes to decoding crocodile hatchling calls — and explains how animal sounds reveal rich information about identity, mood, and hierarchy. A great read if you’re into Biology!

• 💭 Free Will vs. Determinism: Do we truly make conscious choices, or are all our decisions merely the inevitable results of physical and chemical processes in our brains and the universe's past? This YouTube video gives us a crash course of some perspectives from philosophers and neuroscientists. A central question in Philosophy or Neuroscience.

👀 Keep your eyes peeled for…

• Wednesday 3rd December

  • Oxford Chiral Chemistry Workshop

  • UEA Japanese Studies Taster Session

• Thursday 4th December

  • Balliol College Oxford Into Humanities (Law) Webinar

  • UEA Complex Numbers

  • UEA Paramedic Science Taster Session

• Monday 8th December

  • Balliol College Oxford into Humanities (History) Webinar

  • University of Sunderland Philosophy Lecture

  • University of Warwick English Webinar

🗳️ Poll