The necessary, obligatory, and restorative removal of the Francoist cross from the Plaza de la Iglesia is not a "terrible attack against cultural tradition," but its permanence is. One less.
The relocation of the temple of San Ginés to its second and current location in the early 18th century created the space we now call Plaza de Las Palmas or de la Iglesia. Since its inception, it has had a varied collective use: religious, military, cultural, or to entertain visitors, such as Alfonso XIII in April 1906.
The ideological and political closeness of the Catholic Church to Francoism benefited the fact that, shortly after the end of the civil war, the main facade of the Church of San Ginés commemorated exclusively the people who died on the Francoist side, with a large black cross and a plaque with the list of those who died on the national side.
Somewhat later, in 1950, the opening of a new door in the central part of the facade made that Francoist symbology disappear from the plaque and the layout on the wall. At that time, the Arrecife City Council commissioned César Manrique Cabrera for what was his first architectural work, and the artist and activist, inspired by the works of Néstor de la Torre, perimetered the square as it was preserved until a few weeks ago. In September of the same year, 1950, the Government delegate on the island requested permission from the Arrecife City Council to install a cross sculpted in stone to replace the disappeared one and asked it to commit to finishing the works on the square, including its ornamentation, before October 29, the date of Francisco Franco's visit to Lanzarote; and the City Council complied.
History - in capital letters - teaches too much, and having unbiased knowledge of what happened, at least where we live, allows us to advance in peaceful coexistence, in society, and in democracy, and this requires knowing the obscurities of the recent past and being aware that the purpose of Francoism was not only to seize the legally constituted State, but to exterminate the created culture: the war was waged by the rebel army against urban and rural workers benefited by the reforms of the Republic, against people who showed their disagreement, the mayors, intellectuals, and teachers, among other groups.
Compensating, after almost 90 years, those who suffered the consequences of the Uprising, the War, the Dictatorship, and the Francoist Repression entails the removal of all Francoist symbols, street names, monuments, and mentions such as the cross in question. For its removal from public space, that of 9 other symbols, and the annulment of honors, the Arrecife City Council does not need a law, but we observe that it is not satisfied with the more than 5 legal bodies and more than 3 decrees, among other norms, that have been processed to recognize and expand rights in favor of those who suffered persecution or violence, for political, ideological, or religious belief reasons, during the Civil War and the Dictatorship. It is costing the CC and PP government of the Arrecife City Council to initiate the promotion and adoption of measures that contribute to recomposing and healing the wounds caused, the moral reparation, and the recovery of personal and family memory. The City Council seems to be more entangled in festive matters and plots of land than in democratic politics.
The entire repertoire of recognition and compensation to those who suffered does not arise from magic, but, among others, from the Report of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe signed in Paris on March 17, 2006, in which the serious violations of Human Rights committed in Spain between 1939 and 1975 are denounced.
Honoring those who lost their lives and their families, those who lost their freedom by suffering imprisonment, deportation, confiscation of their property, forced labor, or internment in concentration camps, those who lost their homeland by being pushed into exile, helps us to be more respectful and free.
Reading the text published by those who hold representation for the Vox political party in the City Council, which is also responsible for continuing to exhibit in public the highest amount of Francoist vestiges on the island, we understand that the development of public policies aimed at knowledge of local history and the promotion of democratic memory is urgently needed, from whose development those who have the responsibility of managing public competences should benefit, because ignorance in administrations is extremely expensive.
The fact that the Arrecife City Council continues to distinguish Severiano Martínez Anido as an adopted son and honorary mayor of the municipality says it all. It says all that members of the diplomatic corps of Nazi Germany considered that the methods used by Martínez Anido during the civil war were excessive. Everything is said with the textual words of the diplomat and Nazi spy Eberhard Von Stohrer: "the terror that Martínez Anido currently practices in the nationalist zone is inadmissible, even in the eyes of the Falange itself" (Thomas Hugh, 1976:892).
