Still dead.

Thanks for speaking my mind.

I suppose one has to be "of a certain age" to find the clip you posted funny (like old enough to remember the daily bulletins when Franco was dying). I may be dating myself, but I laughed myself silly watching it. Especially the part about the Qantas koala bear.

http://time.com/5321938/spain-stolen-babies-franco-trial/

An 85-year-old doctor will appear in a Madrid court Tuesday, the first person to stand trial over an alleged practice that saw thousands of babies stolen under Spain’s military dictatorship during the mid-twentieth century.

Known as the lost children of the Franco-era, as many as 300,000 babies are estimated to have been abducted from their mothers under General Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain from 1939-75, and in the decades after.

The theft of newborns began in the 1930’s after the Spanish Civil War as an ideological practice, stripping left-wing parents or Franco-opponents of their children as a way of ridding Marxist influence from society. But in the 1950’s, the practice expanded to poor or illegitimate families who were seen as economically or morally deficient, Agence France-Presse reports.

New mothers were often told their babies had died and the hospital had taken care of the burials. These babies were allegedly sold for adoption and involved a wide network of doctors, nurses, nuns and priests, according to AFP. The system carried on after Franco’s death in 1975 until 1987, when a new law was implemented regulating adoption.

Known as the lost children of the Franco-era, as many as 300,000 babies are estimated to have been abducted from their mothers under General Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain from 1939-75, and in the decades after.

recently, mostly articles from The Guardian, NPR.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/26/spanish-doctor-eduardo-vela-trial-franco-era-stolen-babies

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1016209288



Demonstrators gather outside the Madrid courtroom of the Doctor's Trial.

SURVIVORS OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR 20 YEARS ON, IN PICTURES, The Guardian, 2016
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2016/jul/18/survivors-of-the-spanish-civil-war-80-years-on-in-pictures

Last edited Fri Aug 24, 2018, 08:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Poraits of Power: Franco, "Caudillo of Spain," narrated by Henry Fonda, Richard Elder, NYT Correspondent, 1978. Excellent period film footage, insightful look at Gen. Franco, major events of 20th c. Spain and Europe. 22 mins. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caudillo

The Spanish general and dictator Francisco Franco (actually Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teodulo Franco y Bahamonde Salgado Pardo) was born April 4, 1892 in Ferrol, Galicia, and died Nov. 20, 1975 in Madrid. ~ Film Tags:
In the propaganda of the victors, the Second World War was a war against fascism, nationalist dictators, Mussolini's body hanging upside down. Carrying the stigma of being Hitler's friend and called the "caudillo" (dictator) was Spain's leader Francisco Franco, 1936-1975; war against Morocco, command of the Spanish foreign legion, Spain's youngest general.

Richard Eder, Correspondent NYT, sent to the canary islands, conspiracy, civil war, nationalist, relief of Toledo, meeting Franco, Hitler, volunteers to fight on the Russian front, blue division, on the side of Mussolini and Hitler, against invasion of Gibraltar, war criminal, mass demonstrations, formal military alliance to the US, Cold War, visit of President Eisenhower, bringing water to a dry land, Juan Carlos, Spanish Civil War.

His family had more than 40 years to visit his remains.

We were Americans living in Spain and my mom had just told one of Franco's officious minor minions exactly what she though of him.

My dad couldn't sleep that night so we stuffed everything we had in our German registration Volkswagen van and headed for France.

At the border the Spanish guards slept.

The French border officer asked my dad if he had any cigarettes. My dad said "no." The officer was disappointed but he let us pass.

We were living as indigent Americans in a public park in France until the local people bought us ferry tickets to Southampton.

Barkley's bank let my parents open an account with a negative balance and eventually got my parent's money out of Spain, and it was a month or two before they could repay the people who'd helped us in France.

It was a different world then.

I don't know how to explain it but reading that has me wanting to both hug you and cheer for you...and your parents.

What year was that?

... and his police state was cracking down on dissidents yet again.

My parents are artists, "liberal" even by West Coast U.S.A. standards, and a bit eccentric. My mom always tells people exactly what she thinks.

Spain wasn't a good place for us. Part of the reason we were there, aside from the romance of artists, is that my parents' limited U.S. dollars went such a long way.

Other than the politics, which I wasn't paying any attention to as a kid, I remember Spain as a very beautiful place, and people were friendly. I haven't been back.

Hippies were spreading out all over in those days and Spain was really affordable.
You should try going back. It’s very much a different country. Beautiful to visit and full of history other than Franco.

He said he was the most frustrating person he'd ever met.

Maybe it was because Franco insisted on Spain remaining nominally neutral in WWII.

Of course they both sucked.

Franco just slightly less sucky than Adolf.

After meeting with Franco in a small French town on the border between Spain and France, in which Franco refused to say Spain would enter the war against England without some onerous demands (such as turn French colonies over to Spain) Hitler said of Franco: “I’d rather have three of my teeth pulled than have another meeting like this one”.

Not sure what that actually says but an interesting fact nonetheless