Francisco Franco Bahamonde was a Spanish military general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from 1939 to 1975 as a dictator, assuming the title Caudillo. This period in Spanish history, from the Nationalist victory to Franco's death, is commonly known as Francoist Spain or as the Francoist dictatorship.
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, nicknamed El Jefe, was a Dominican military commander and dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from August 1930 until his assassination in May 1961. He served as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952, ruling for the rest of his life as an unelected military strongman under figurehead presidents. His rule of 31 years, known to Dominicans as the Trujillo Era, was one of the longest for a non-royal leader in the world, and centered around a personality cult of the ruling family. It was also one of the most brutal; Trujillo's security forces, including the infamous SIM, were responsible for perhaps as many as 50,000 murders. These included between 12,000 and 30,000 Haitians in the infamous Parsley massacre in 1937, which continues to affect Dominican-Haitian relations to this day.
The Valley of Cuelgamuros, commonly known as the Valley of the Fallen, is a monument in the Sierra de Guadarrama, near Madrid. The valley contains a Catholic basilica and a monumental memorial in the municipality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Dictator Francisco Franco ordered the construction of the monumental site in 1940; it was built from 1940 to 1958, and opened in 1959. Franco said that the monument was intended as a "national act of atonement" and reconciliation. The site served as Franco's burial place from his death in November 1975—although it was not originally intended that he be buried there—until his exhumation on 24 October 2019 following a long and controversial legal process due to moves to remove all public honoration of his dictatorship.
Admiral-General Luis Carrero Blanco was a Spanish Navy officer and politician. A long-time confidant and right-hand man of dictator Francisco Franco, Carrero served as Spain's Premier. Upon graduating from the naval academy Carrero Blanco participated in the Rif War, and later the Spanish Civil War, in which he supported the Rebel faction. He became one of the most prominent figures in the Francoist dictatorship's power structure and held throughout his career a number of high-ranking offices such as those of Undersecretary of the Presidency from 1941 to 1967 and Franco's deputy from 1967 to 1973. He also was the main drafter behind the 1947 Law of Succession to the Headship of the State. Franco handpicked him as his successor in the role of head of government, with Carrero thereby taking office in June 1973.
On 20 December 1973, Luis Carrero Blanco, the Prime Minister of Spain, was assassinated when a cache of explosives in a tunnel set up by the Basque separatist group ETA was detonated. The assassination, also known by its code name Operación Ogro, is considered to have been the biggest attack against the Francoist State since the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 and had far-reaching consequences within the politics of Spain.
The Cementerio de Nuestra Señora de La Almudena, former Necrópolis del Este is a cemetery in Madrid, Spain. It is the largest in Western Europe. The number of bodies buried is estimated at five million since it was the main cemetery for the entire city from 1884 to 1973, and from the 1920s was almost the only one for the majority of its former population.
Carlos Arias Navarro, 1st Marquess of Arias Navarro was the Prime Minister of Spain during the final years of the Francoist dictatorship and the beginning of the Spanish transition to democracy.
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Martínez, better known as Ramfis Trujillo Martínez, was the son of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic, after whose 1961 assassination he briefly held power. Nominally an army general, he lived the life of a reckless and spoiled playboy like his friend and sometime brother-in-law Porfirio Rubirosa. Remembered for his ruthlessness and cruelty, he went into exile in Spain, where he died of wounds ten days after crashing a sports car.
María del Carmen Polo y Martínez-Valdés, 1st Lady of Meirás, Grandee of Spain was the wife of the dictator, general and "caudillo" Francisco Franco. She exerted a major influence in censoring the press. She was endowed the Lordship of Meirás by Juan Carlos I on 26 November 1975.
Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly Fondeur was a lawyer, scholar, diplomat, and, from 1962 until 1963, the President of the Dominican Republic. Before he became president, he was vice president of the country from 1960 to 1962.
Luis Gutiérrez Soto (1900–1977) was a Spanish architect. He worked primarily in Madrid.
Torcuato Fernández-Miranda y Hevia, 1st Duke of Fernández-Miranda was a Spanish lawyer and politician who played important roles in both the Spanish State of Francisco Franco and in the Spanish transition to democracy.
Fernando de Santiago y Díaz de Mendívil was a conservative politician who served as deputy prime minister of Spain and briefly as acting prime minister during the Spanish transition to democracy in the late 1970s. He had earlier been a general in the Spanish Civil War and under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
The Royal Academy of History is a Spanish institution in Madrid that studies history "ancient and modern, political, civil, ecclesiastical, military, scientific, of letters and arts, that is to say, the different branches of life, of civilisation, and of the culture of the Spanish people". Spanish people in this regard are understood to be citizens of the Kingdom of Spain or the indigenous people of its predecessors, or their descendants. The academy was established by royal decree of Philip V of Spain on 18 April 1738.
María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú y Franco, commonly known as Carmen Martínez-Bordiú, is a Spanish aristocrat and social figure.
Angelita Trujillo was a Dominican writer who was most known as the daughter of the former Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo.
Rafael Ángel Brache Ramírez was a politician, civil servant, and diplomat from the Dominican Republic. His career in national politics spanned from 1914 to 1935, after which he spent much of his life in exile.
Saint Isidore Cemetery is a monumental cemetery in the Spanish capital Madrid. Its first courtyard was erected in 1811 and new expansions were added throughout the 19th Century. Its central courtyard, called "Patio de la Concepción" boasts a notable group of mausolea. This cemetery is the resting place of many famous Spaniards, including artists, politicians and poets.
The Law of Democratic Memory is a law in Spain which came into effect in October 2022, concerning the legacy of Francoist Spain.
In 2011, the Spanish government under then-Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero recommended that the remains of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco be removed from the Valley of the Fallen, where they had been for over 30 years, and be reburied at a location chosen by his family. After a lengthy legal process, his remains were ultimately reinterred at Mingorrubio Cemetery, El Pardo.
