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Francoist Catalonia
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Francoist Catalonia
Francoism in Catalonia was established within Francoist Spain between 1939 and 1975 (with the first democratic elections taking place on June 15, 1977), following the Spanish Civil War and post-war Francoist repression. Francisco Franco's regime replaced Revolutionary Catalonia after the Catalonia Offensive at the end of the war. The dictatorship in Catalonia complemented the suppression of democratic freedoms with the repression of Catalan culture. Its totalitarian character and its unifying objectives meant the imposition of a single culture and a single language, Castillian. The regime was specifically anti-Catalan, but this did not stop the development of a Catalan Francoism that was forged during the war and fed by victory.
Francoism meant, in Catalonia as with the rest of Spain, the cancellation of democratic freedoms, the prohibition and persecution of political parties (except the Falange Espanyola Tradicionalista i de les JONS), the closure of the free press, and the elimination of leftist organisations. In addition, the Statute of Autonomy and its associated institutions were abolished, and the Catalan language and culture were systematically persecuted, at least to begin with, in public and even initially in private.
To the many deaths in the civil war were added those who were shot after the Francoist victory like the president Lluís Companys; many others were forced into exile, unable to return to their country. Many who did not flee were imprisoned or "deprived" and disqualified from holding public office or working in certain professions, which left them in a dire economic situation during already difficult times. A small group of anarchists and communists were intent on waging a guerrilla war in units known as the maquis. Their most notable action was the invasion of the Vall d'Aran.
After the first stage of a self-sufficient economy, in the 1960s the economy entered into a stage of agricultural modernization, an increase in industry, and mass tourism. Catalonia was also the destination for many migrants, which accelerated the growth of Barcelona and the surrounding regions. The anti-Franco opposition was well developed, seen mostly visibly in the labour movement with the Commissions Obreres (workers' commissions), trade unions, and the PSUC.
In the 1970s, democratic forces were unified around the Assembly of Catalonia. On November 20, 1975, the dictator Franco died, opening a new period in the history of Catalonia.
Catalonia suffered the most fierce engagements during the civil war, as seen in several examples. In Tarragona, in January 1939, mass was held by a canon from Salamanca cathedral, José Artero. During the sermon he cried: "Catalan dogs! You are not worthy of the sun that shines on you." ("¡Perros catalanes! No sois dignos del sol que os alumbra.") Regarding the men who entered and marched through Barcelona, Franco said the honour was not "because they had fought better, but because they were those who felt more hatred. That is, more hatred towards Catalonia and Catalans." ("porque hubieran luchado mejor, sino porque eran los que sentían más odio. Es decir, más odio hacia Cataluña y los catalanes.")
A close friend of Franco, Victor Ruiz Albéniz, published an article in which he demanded that Catalonia receive "a Biblical punishment (Sodom and Gomarrah) to purify the red city, the headquarters of anarchism and separatism as the only remedy to remove these two cancers by relentless cauterisation" ("un castigo bíblico (Sodoma y Gomorra) para purificar la ciudad roja, la sede del anarquismo y separatismo como único remedio para extirpar esos dos cánceres por termocauterio implacable"), while for Serrano Suñer, brother-in-law of Franco and Minister of the Interior, Catalan nationalism was "an illness" ("una enfermedad.")
The man appointed as civil governor of Barcelona, Wenceslao González Oliveros, said that "Spain was raised, with as much or more force against the dismembered statutes as against Communism and that any tolerance of regionalism would again lead to the same processes of putrefaction that we have just surgically removed." ("España se alzó, con tanta o más fuerza contra los Estatutos desmembrados que contra el comunismo y que cualquier tolerancia del regionalismo llevaría otra vez a los mismos procesos de putrefacción que acabamos de extirpar quirúrgicamente.")
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Francoist Catalonia
Francoism in Catalonia was established within Francoist Spain between 1939 and 1975 (with the first democratic elections taking place on June 15, 1977), following the Spanish Civil War and post-war Francoist repression. Francisco Franco's regime replaced Revolutionary Catalonia after the Catalonia Offensive at the end of the war. The dictatorship in Catalonia complemented the suppression of democratic freedoms with the repression of Catalan culture. Its totalitarian character and its unifying objectives meant the imposition of a single culture and a single language, Castillian. The regime was specifically anti-Catalan, but this did not stop the development of a Catalan Francoism that was forged during the war and fed by victory.
Francoism meant, in Catalonia as with the rest of Spain, the cancellation of democratic freedoms, the prohibition and persecution of political parties (except the Falange Espanyola Tradicionalista i de les JONS), the closure of the free press, and the elimination of leftist organisations. In addition, the Statute of Autonomy and its associated institutions were abolished, and the Catalan language and culture were systematically persecuted, at least to begin with, in public and even initially in private.
To the many deaths in the civil war were added those who were shot after the Francoist victory like the president Lluís Companys; many others were forced into exile, unable to return to their country. Many who did not flee were imprisoned or "deprived" and disqualified from holding public office or working in certain professions, which left them in a dire economic situation during already difficult times. A small group of anarchists and communists were intent on waging a guerrilla war in units known as the maquis. Their most notable action was the invasion of the Vall d'Aran.
After the first stage of a self-sufficient economy, in the 1960s the economy entered into a stage of agricultural modernization, an increase in industry, and mass tourism. Catalonia was also the destination for many migrants, which accelerated the growth of Barcelona and the surrounding regions. The anti-Franco opposition was well developed, seen mostly visibly in the labour movement with the Commissions Obreres (workers' commissions), trade unions, and the PSUC.
In the 1970s, democratic forces were unified around the Assembly of Catalonia. On November 20, 1975, the dictator Franco died, opening a new period in the history of Catalonia.
Catalonia suffered the most fierce engagements during the civil war, as seen in several examples. In Tarragona, in January 1939, mass was held by a canon from Salamanca cathedral, José Artero. During the sermon he cried: "Catalan dogs! You are not worthy of the sun that shines on you." ("¡Perros catalanes! No sois dignos del sol que os alumbra.") Regarding the men who entered and marched through Barcelona, Franco said the honour was not "because they had fought better, but because they were those who felt more hatred. That is, more hatred towards Catalonia and Catalans." ("porque hubieran luchado mejor, sino porque eran los que sentían más odio. Es decir, más odio hacia Cataluña y los catalanes.")
A close friend of Franco, Victor Ruiz Albéniz, published an article in which he demanded that Catalonia receive "a Biblical punishment (Sodom and Gomarrah) to purify the red city, the headquarters of anarchism and separatism as the only remedy to remove these two cancers by relentless cauterisation" ("un castigo bíblico (Sodoma y Gomorra) para purificar la ciudad roja, la sede del anarquismo y separatismo como único remedio para extirpar esos dos cánceres por termocauterio implacable"), while for Serrano Suñer, brother-in-law of Franco and Minister of the Interior, Catalan nationalism was "an illness" ("una enfermedad.")
The man appointed as civil governor of Barcelona, Wenceslao González Oliveros, said that "Spain was raised, with as much or more force against the dismembered statutes as against Communism and that any tolerance of regionalism would again lead to the same processes of putrefaction that we have just surgically removed." ("España se alzó, con tanta o más fuerza contra los Estatutos desmembrados que contra el comunismo y que cualquier tolerancia del regionalismo llevaría otra vez a los mismos procesos de putrefacción que acabamos de extirpar quirúrgicamente.")
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