The Arrecife City Council has initially approved the change of name of eleven streets linked to Francoism, in compliance with the Historical Memory Law. Initially, the commission of experts created for this purpose had proposed modifying thirteen names, but the Corporation's plenary session has left two proposals on the table. In addition, the City Council will open a one-month period for allegations regarding this change of streets.
The project to rename these streets has gone ahead with the votes in favor of most of the Corporation, with the exception of the PP, which abstained, and the councilor of Alternativa Ciudadana, Blanca Blancas, who also decided to abstain, because she is a relative of one of the people who will give their name to a street in the capital.
Specifically, the following will undergo a modification: General García Escámez street, which will be renamed Viera y Clavijo; Alferez Cabrera Tavío street, which will be Antonio Porlier y Sopranis; Calvo Sotelo, which will be renamed Alfarera Dorotea Armas; General Balmas, which will adopt the name Dolores Pérez; Crucero Canarias, which will be changed to Leopoldo Von Buch, and Crucero Baleares, which will be Telésforo Bravo.
In addition, Artillero Luis Tresguerras street will be called Ramón Manchón; José Antonio Primo de Rivera will be changed to Manolo Millares; Miguel Primo de Rivera will recover its old name as Sol street; Martín Cobos will be called Ana Suárez and Amadou Ndoye will enter the street map to replace another street currently called Viera y Clavijo.
Jacinto Borges and Valls de la Torre are left on the table
The plenary session has decided to leave two proposals on the table. Specifically, for the moment the streets Jacinto Borges and Ildefonso Valls de la Torre will not be changed, which were going to be renamed Juan Negrín and Josefina Betancort, respectively.
The government group will propose to the commission of experts an "exhaustive study" on the trajectories of Jacinto Borges and Ildefonso Valls de la Torre, at the request of their families who consider that the Historical Memory Law should not be applied to these two people.
In addition, at the request of the councilor of the non-attached group, Emilia Perdomo, this commission will also be asked to assess whether the streets José María Fernández Ladreda and Menéndez Valdés could be related to Francoism and, therefore, be "likely to be replaced in a next phase of application of the Historical Memory Law".
The PP has also tried to get a proposal approved that the councilor Roberto Herbón explained in plenary, and that sought to leave all these modifications of the names of the streets on the table until "a non-political commission of experts" was created.
Franco is no longer an honorary mayor
In addition, the plenary session has unanimously approved the removal of General Francisco Franco's title of honorary mayor of the city, a common distinction that Spanish municipalities granted to the caudillo during the Dictatorship, according to the Arrecife City Council. These decisions are part of the actions derived from compliance with the Historical Memory Law, whose purpose is the removal of symbols, shields, insignias, plaques and other objects or mentions of exaltation of the military uprising, Civil War and repression of the Dictatorship.
