Canarian Weekly
10-04-2015, 11:50
GENERAL Franco, who ruled Spain with an iron fist for almost four decades, will finally be labelled a “dictator” and not an “authoritarian” in his official biography.
Carmen Iglesias, new director of Spain’s state-funded Royal Academy of History, wants to end the controversy surrounding the existing entry on the Spanish military leader in the institution’s biographical dictionary.
It describes the Franco regime as “authoritarian but not totalitarian”, but Ms Iglesias told a Madrid conference that the 2011 publication would be corrected.
The update will reflect the dictatorial style of the man who ruled Spain from the end of the country’s civil war in 1939 until his 1975 death.
Ms Iglesias, the first woman to preside over the academy, said the entry for Franco had created an “unnecessary controversy” which will be sorted out in the first digital edition of the biographical dictionary, currently underway.
Four years ago, in what was seen as a remarkable apology for the Franco regime, it was revealed that his entry in the dictionary – produced at a cost to the public coffers of 6.4m euros (£4.7m) – portrayed a man who “became famous for the cold courage he showed in the field”.
But the harshly-repressive nature of his 36 years in power were glossed over.
Luis Suárez, the historian responsible for the Franco entry, was an expert on medieval history and, for many years, the only person given access to the dictator’s family archive, held by the Francisco Franco Foundation.
Paul Preston, a history professor at the London School of Economics and Franco biographer, welcomed any improvement on a text he described as “laughable”.
He said that Ms Iglesias was being “brave” in correcting what he said was the academy’s right-wing bias.
“The original text was basically a hagiography of Franco, making him out to be a saintly figure and not even a dictator,” said Prof Preston. “It was offensive to all those who are not major fans of Franco.
“But as there was constant brain-washing going on during the 40 years of his regime, there are still quite a lot of those about.”
The professor said that apart from the Franco entry, many of the dictator’s military supporters “guilty of monumental atrocities” were written about by “soldiers who portrayed their military careers and excluded their dirty deeds”.
Spanish historian Ángel Viñas was so indignant over the dictionary’s treatment of Franco, and other 20th century figures, that he edited a riposte called “In the combat for history”.
In it, 34 historians, including Prof Preston, rebut what they consider the inaccuracies of the academy’s biographical dictionary.
Mr Viñas said: “In the academy there have been, and still are, people who have not got over the legacy of Franco,” adding that the selection of Mr Suárez to write the entry on the dictator showed the institution was “fundamentally dysfunctional”.
A Royal Academy of History spokesman said there would be a complete revision of the dictionary as part of the digitalisation process. But it had still not been decided who would be in charge of revising the entry on Franco.
“There will be a protocol decided on by the academy as a whole.” he added. “It is not just the decision of the director.”
More... (http://www.canarianweekly.com/dictator-franco-official/)
Carmen Iglesias, new director of Spain’s state-funded Royal Academy of History, wants to end the controversy surrounding the existing entry on the Spanish military leader in the institution’s biographical dictionary.
It describes the Franco regime as “authoritarian but not totalitarian”, but Ms Iglesias told a Madrid conference that the 2011 publication would be corrected.
The update will reflect the dictatorial style of the man who ruled Spain from the end of the country’s civil war in 1939 until his 1975 death.
Ms Iglesias, the first woman to preside over the academy, said the entry for Franco had created an “unnecessary controversy” which will be sorted out in the first digital edition of the biographical dictionary, currently underway.
Four years ago, in what was seen as a remarkable apology for the Franco regime, it was revealed that his entry in the dictionary – produced at a cost to the public coffers of 6.4m euros (£4.7m) – portrayed a man who “became famous for the cold courage he showed in the field”.
But the harshly-repressive nature of his 36 years in power were glossed over.
Luis Suárez, the historian responsible for the Franco entry, was an expert on medieval history and, for many years, the only person given access to the dictator’s family archive, held by the Francisco Franco Foundation.
Paul Preston, a history professor at the London School of Economics and Franco biographer, welcomed any improvement on a text he described as “laughable”.
He said that Ms Iglesias was being “brave” in correcting what he said was the academy’s right-wing bias.
“The original text was basically a hagiography of Franco, making him out to be a saintly figure and not even a dictator,” said Prof Preston. “It was offensive to all those who are not major fans of Franco.
“But as there was constant brain-washing going on during the 40 years of his regime, there are still quite a lot of those about.”
The professor said that apart from the Franco entry, many of the dictator’s military supporters “guilty of monumental atrocities” were written about by “soldiers who portrayed their military careers and excluded their dirty deeds”.
Spanish historian Ángel Viñas was so indignant over the dictionary’s treatment of Franco, and other 20th century figures, that he edited a riposte called “In the combat for history”.
In it, 34 historians, including Prof Preston, rebut what they consider the inaccuracies of the academy’s biographical dictionary.
Mr Viñas said: “In the academy there have been, and still are, people who have not got over the legacy of Franco,” adding that the selection of Mr Suárez to write the entry on the dictator showed the institution was “fundamentally dysfunctional”.
A Royal Academy of History spokesman said there would be a complete revision of the dictionary as part of the digitalisation process. But it had still not been decided who would be in charge of revising the entry on Franco.
“There will be a protocol decided on by the academy as a whole.” he added. “It is not just the decision of the director.”
More... (http://www.canarianweekly.com/dictator-franco-official/)