Friday, July 21, 2006
Garachico Proposes to Substitute Street Names associated with the Franco Era
The Socialist group in the town hall of Garachico presented a motion this week calling for changes to the names of streets in the town reminiscent of the Franco era, such as Calle 18 de Julio (July 18th Street) and Calvo Sotelo, substituting them with the names Torrente and Calle de Norte, respectively.
A similar proposal was recently approved in La Orotava.
They deliberately chose to use the date of July 18th for the formal presentation - the 70th anniversary of the start of the military uprising (which, as history recounts, began from the Canary Islands), which heralded the start of the Spanish Civil War and later submerged the country into 40 years of obscurity.
For my own part, I think it probably is a good idea to change the street names where these might appear to infer some honour where it is not due.
On the other hand, I am in full agreement with Miguel at Canaria Bruta, who says that, "Things such as this must be remembered and not hidden by those [he actually said "subnormals" and he's probably not wrong to do so] who wish to cover up an ominous era of the history of Spain (forgetfulness causes things to be repeated), or rewritten by other subnormals to surround an era, in which everyone [1] should be a little ashamed, with glamour." 18 de Julio.
[1] And when Miguel says everyone, that does also include us Brits. Another shameful part in these events is that the privately owned DH 89 De Havilland Dragon Rapide, (still referred to in Spain as the Dragon Rapide) that took Franco to Africa on July 18th, 1936, was chartered in England on July 11.
Therefore, neither should we forget that, had he not have had that rather key little piece of British support, history might have been very different.
Proponen sustituir los nombres franquistas del callejero local de Garachico
