Una Grande Libre reads the sign above the entrance to a bar-restaurant in Madrid’s Usera neighbourhood. This was Francisco Franco’s motto for Spain – one, great, free – and it is accompanied by a large portrait of the dictator superimposed on to the window.The exteriors of El Cangrejo in Ciudad Real and Casa Pepe in Despeñaperros are a little bit more subtle, but not much: decorated ostentatiously in the red and yellow of the Spanish flag. The accompanying historical symbols on display, such as the yoke and arrows of the Falange and the Eagle of San Juan, remove any doubt: the year is 2026 and you have encountered one of Spain’s network of bars and restaurants that proudly glorify Franco and his dictatorship.
*shrugs*
These unsettling and unusual places tell a vivid story about the unique way that Spain deals with its past – or fails to. They seem all the more confusing in the context of Pedro Sánchez’s recent historical memory legislation, and beg the question: how do these places still exist?
Mayne because they serve delicious food?
Looking at the letter of the law, you can’t help but wonder how they have been able to continue operating so brazenly. The Democratic Memory Law requires the removal of any symbols that glorify the dictatorship or its protagonists from spaces “with public access”, which would include bars and restaurants.
The reality of its implementation, lawyer Eduardo Ranz tells me, is very different: “Under this law, it’s only the Ministry of Democratic Memory that has the ability to open an inquiry against these places. What I don’t understand is why, in these last four years, they have not done so, despite these establishments breaking this law. Removing these Francoist symbols is one of the government’s most important unresolved issues.”
Well, that's understandable, spain does after all have far more pressing concerns.
Despite the many setbacks faced by the historical memory movement – most recently, the overturning of a €10,001 fine levelled at the Falange for its public tributes to its founder, José Antonio Primo de Rivera – there have been some advances in the wake of the 2022 legislation.
But the trend is ever rightwards in Spanish politics for much the same reasons as elsewhere.
Spain’s network of Francoist restaurants and bars is a continual, real-world reminder of this. So until something changes, you will still be able to see a 2-metre tall picture of the Spanish dictator proudly displayed in a restaurant window in the nation’s capital.
'But will I get a decent paella and a good gutsy red there?', is the question most tourists will have.
