To Jerez and back-twice

Last week we went to Jerez with our Spanish teacher, Marga, her brother, Francisco, Bea, who owns the language school with Marga and a German guy called Jacky who lives in Chiclana and who is also learning Spanish. Are you clear about who all the characters are?

Anyway, the Fiestas de Otono (autumn festival) were in full swing and we had a great time wandering round the medieval market, drinking sherry, eating tapas AND, this being the purpose of the evening, speaking Spanish. We were exhausted by the time we got back to Chiclana-in fact, in the car on the way back I temporarily lost the connection between my brain and mouth and lapsed into French! Self-defense, I think.

Anyway, we were impressed by Jerez, which seems improved since our last visit, mainly because it has been pedestrianised. The mayor of Chiclana should be sent there to look and see immediately.(If you remember the traffic problems in Chiclana, you will know what I mean.) So we returned on Sunday with Rob and Lyn to watch the Parada Hipica at lunchtime and drink coffee. And this is some of what we saw.





But we also saw other things too, rather more controversial and not quite so picturesque .

I wrote a little while ago about Spain's new Law of Historical Memory, which, amongst other things, offers pensions to Republican victims of the Spanish Civil War and sets out, as I understand it, some sort of procedure for commemorating those victims (as the Nationalist victims are commemorated in the Valle de los Caidos near Madrid) and reviewing the use of Francoist names and imagery in Spanish cities-statues, street names, that sort of thing.

Like most attempts to strike what people hope will be a sensible compromise-in this case recognition without revenge, I guess- the Law has satisfied neither side fully. Representatives of the Partido Popular (PP), which is the main opposition party, are furious at the setting aside of the pacto de olvido or pact of forgetting, which allowed the transition from dictatorship to democracy after Franco's death in 1975. Meanwhile, parts of the left think it is all too little.

Personally, I can understand why families of Republican victims want the right to grieve in public. And, even though Republican troops also committed atrocities, it is hard not to find the revenge exacted by Franco over very many years and in a non-war situation something more than the predictable tit for tat of conflict.

So, by and large, although I do not share their anarchist politics, on this one I am with the Confederacion General de Trabajdores (General Confederation of Workers) whose banner asserts that Free People do not Pay Homage to Dictators. It is to be found in the Plaza de Arenal, together with a statue commemorating Primo de Rivera, the founder of the Spanish Falange or fascist party which Franco made into the only legal party and his instrument of government.

I am also with the representatives of the Forum for Historical Memory in Jerez who believe that the commemorative plaque to the victims of the war who "died for the defence of democracy and liberty" is too hidden and too fragile. But very dignified.

For a little more on the Law of Historical Memory, try the BBC, here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5192228.stm