I lived in Sevilla,Madrid and Barcelona from the end of January to mid December 1976 while Franco's body was still warm. I was researching my BA thesis on the civil war reading old newspapers in archives and interviewing exiled veterans in Montady, France,near Beziers. https://medium.com/world-travelers-blog/innocent-abroad-living-in-spain-while-fascism-dies-4cb28c02be94
What few know is that the post-civil war repression killed more people than the war itself. Mussolini's ambassador, Count Ciano, wrote to the Duce in October 1940 that the Franquistas were executing 250/day each in Sevilla, Madrid and Barcelona. This was 7500 executions/month 18 months after the war ended.
Friends in Madrid in their 40s were totally convinced they would have another civil war. "A ver en que lio nos pondremos ahora"; which is why they didn't.
I went to the Fallas in Valencia in March with Catalan friends who were walking around with the banned Catalan flag after we'd shared a bottle of wine. The Civil Guard were on the rooftops coordinating with fascist thugs on the streets. One smacked me in the face saying, "que cono haces tu por aqui?" ("what the f**k are you doin' here?"), which woke me up.
The failed Franquista restoration "todos al suelo" coup of 23-24/02/81 finally failed early on the morning of my birthday (24/2).
History is fascinating but stay out of the way.
