Abstract

The “Amnesty Law of 1977” is a Spanish law that accompanied the reinstatement of democracy after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. Franco’s regime, which lasted from the end of the Civil War in 1939 until his death in 1975, was the longest dictatorship in the history of Europe. The Amnesty Law was proposed as an initiative to facilitate Spain’s transition from dictatorship to democracy. Under the law, the events of the dictatorship would not be spoken of or taught about in Spain; nor would political prisoners of Francoist Spain and former allies and members of Franco’s Falange Party be prosecuted for any crimes they may have committed during his reign. The whole nation was simply expected to forget. This earned the Amnesty Law its common moniker, “The Pact to Forget” (El Pacto por el Olvido). In the last two decades, there has been a growing awareness of the suppression of the conversation about the war, about the Franco dictatorship, and about the Spanish citizens who suffered from them. Mass graves of victims are being exhumed all over the country. People who lived through these events--now nearing the end of their lives-- are coming forward to tell their stories. Lawsuits against former members of the Falange that cannot legally be pursued in Spain are being filed in foreign courts. The goal of this project was to try to investigate this growing “conversation” among Spaniards about the era of Franco. Fragments of testimony have been compiled from Spaniards both while still in Seville and here in Asheville, and combined with analyses of various films from, about, and produced since the time of the regime. Through this process, a chilling conclusion has been made: policy is only scratching the surface of this phenomenon, and Spaniards have both willingly participated in, and fought against the Pact to Forget in Spanish society since its initiation.

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