"Mingorrubio municipal cemetery, which sits where the suburbs of north-west Madrid fade out into the countryside, must have been something of a comedown for a man who was originally laid to rest with a 150-metre-high cross for a headstone and four enormous bronze archangels to watch over him. But six years after his remains were disinterred from the grotesque splendour of the Valley of the Fallen and flown by helicopter to Mingorrubio for reburial, Francisco Franco is at least in good company."
"It was Arias who, 50 years ago on Thursday, broke the news of the dictator's death to the nation in a famous television broadcast. Spaniards, Franco has died, said the grief-stricken prime minister. The exceptional man who, before God and before history, assumed the immense responsibility for the most demanding and sacrificial service to Spain, has given his life, burned day by day, hour by hour, in the fulfilment of a transcendental mission."
Mingorrubio municipal cemetery lies at the edge of north-west Madrid and now contains the reburied remains of Francisco Franco, relocated from the Valley of the Fallen. The cemetery also holds the graves of Luis Carrero Blanco, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo and Carlos Arias Navarro. Arias Navarro announced Franco's death on television fifty years ago with a celebrated broadcast that praised Franco's sacrificial service to Spain. Franco's military coup against the Republican government established a four-decade dictatorship rooted in National Catholicism. Half a century later, Franco's deeds and legacy continue to haunt, divide and confuse contemporary Spain, while the socialist-led government advances democratic memory legislation and commemorates Spain's democratic transformation.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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