A time of silence: Franco in Tarragona

The wife of an anti-Francoist Republican prisoner tries to give Franco a letter - Tarragona, Plaça de la Font, 1949. Most likely a staged photograph. Soldiers, priests, falangists, local officials and local devotees, all playing their part in the Franco play. This picture was included in the photographic collection entitled ´Photography in Spain´ from 1999. Franco and Tarragona...what is left of the Franco past in Tarragona? Plaques carrying symbols of the Franco regime on social housing have gradually disappeared from the city streets but can still be spotted here and there. And unbelievably, 34 years after his death Franco still sports an honorary title of the city awarded in 1952. That there is still a long way to go in redressing the balance in the collective memory is also shown by the fact that in 2007 a group of relatives and descendents of victims of Francoist repression petitioned for the establishment of a monument commemorating the 771 people buried in unmarked graves in the city´s cemetery - so far without success.