Generalíssimo

And this is Franco in the Plaza Mayor. I don't think red's his color, do you?

It's also one of my favorite things about Salamanca. A small statement, perhaps, but it's a statement! No matter how many times they clean the poor guy up, somebody paints him again. That's his name, below the medallion (click to enlarge the photo and you might be be able to make it out) scratched out - of stone!! - beyond recognition.

A couple of weeks ago they took away the last statue of Franco left in Madrid, an enormous sculpture of the Generalíssimo on horseback. They told no one, worked for hours under cover of night and finally carried Franco and horse away in a truck, covered by a shroud. The next morning a group of ultra conservatives showed up to protest.

I have to admit one of the things I find hardest to relate to in Spain is this history -the recent memory of having lived in a dictatorship. But I like to think I'd paint the guy's medallion red. As often as I had to!