Generalísimo

Paquito, Comandantín, Caudillo, Generalissimo, His Excellency the Head of State... Those and other denominations accompanied Francisco Franco Bahamonde throughout his life. According to his biographers and propagandists, the immortal, heroic and providential man sent by God to save Spain, the defender of the country, sanctified to the point that, upon his death, people would leave handwritten petitions for miracles in his coffin. Or, on the dark reverse of him represented from the anti-Franco regime, the shy, repressed and cunning being, the cruel, traitor, despot and ruthless Criminalissimo. With this book, Javier Rodrigo does not intend to rebuild Franco's life journey, but to go through his life from his denominations: how they called him, and how he called himself. The result is a sometimes disturbing and always fascinating reconstruction of the myths attached to his biography. A journey from the myth of the warrior touched by God, immortal and invincible, to the present caricature, turned into meme meat, through his narrative projection as savior of the country, national peacemaker, good dictator, happy grandfather, proto-democrat, exceptional man and unrepeatable. Generalissimo speaks of the lives, real or invented, of the dictator. But, above all, he talks about our history and our present.