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How Barcelona's ‘expats’ see Franco today
Barcelona's expatriates see Franco as a distant and largely irrelevant memory. Their view of Spain's dictatorial past is detached, based on other people's accounts and unconnected to their present life in the city.
For the growing community of ‘expats’ living in Barcelona, Francisco Franco is a blurred and distant figure, practically disconnected from the modern Spain they know. With around 100,000 qualified and affluent foreign residents, many of them settled in neighbourhoods such as Poblenou, Gràcia or Ciutat Vella, the city has become a cosmopolitan setting where conversations in English or French are part of the urban landscape.
Most of these new Barcelonans remember Franco only as a historical figure mentioned at school or linked to generic accounts of 20th-century dictatorships. This is the case of Michel Teixeira and Chloe Pace, French people newly arrived from Nice, who admit they know only the basics: an authoritarian leader similar to Salazar in Portugal, who banned political parties until the democratic transition. Beyond that, they acknowledge that they know almost nothing about the real impact of his regime.
For others, the connection is more indirect. Eric Stephenson, an American resident for seven years, learned about Francoist history through the family of his ex-wife, of Andalusian origin. He explains that the Spain he has experienced seems liberal, open and progressive to him, very different from the one his parents-in-law lived through during the dictatorship.
The Canadian Scott Friedmann associates Franco with his reading about the Second World War and the Spanish Civil War. He is intrigued by how the dictator came to power and by the role of international fighters in the conflict. Even so, he insists that his view comes from accounts by Spanish friends, not from deep experience or knowledge.
Among younger people, Franco is little more than a name. Juan Esteban Román, a 22-year-old Colombian who works on Rambla del Poblenou, says that Francoism feels completely alien to him. Facundo Pereira, a 26-year-old Argentinian, remembers studying at his Basque school in Buenos Aires the repression of Basque during the regime, but today his most direct association with the name is football-related: the player Franco Mastantuono, a recent signing for Real Madrid.
Overall, the ‘expats’ agree that Franco is not part of their lived experience or their everyday understanding of Spain. They see a modern, diverse and dynamic Barcelona, far removed from the country that lived under the dictatorship.