Neighbors of Mingorrubio before the funeral of Franco: "Do not fuck us with tranquility"

• Judgment: The Supreme Court allows the Government to immediately exhume Franco
• Courts.The Supreme Court unanimously endorses that Franco's remains leave the Valley of the Fallen
• Opinion.Cartography of the Valley of the Fallen

Thursday, October 3. Snack time on the terrace of a bar. A group of men and women occupies a refugee table of this sun that contradicts autumn. If one stretches the neck and looks out, one can almost see the cemetery where Franco is going to end up.

- That an uncle who died 200 years ago is more alive than ever ...

- And touching the balls.

- Well, he doesn't. Others.

- They should have left him in the Valley.

- Well, I think it's good to be buried with La Collares.

- Your father is going to be happy, but your mother is not so happy.

- Look, I don't care where they're going to bury him. The important thing is that we don't get the peace of mind we have here.

And then, they and they, agree: «Do not give us peace of mind».

We are in Mingorrubio, a residential neighborhood of El Pardo which is reached after passing three barracks of the Royal Guard, the Civil Guard and the Ministry of Defense. There is a colony that has 381 houses, 800 neighbors, a school, some swings, a ration of bars and a mountain of chlorophyll and silence in front.

And a cemetery.

There, at the end of the neighborhood, where the living ends and the road, there is a cemetery of tombs, chapels and pantheons that will receive the remains of the last dictator of Spain. Two cars of the National Police, one outside and one inside, guard the cemetery to dissuade the living who browse or report without access permission. In the horizontal world of the graves live very different dead: relatives of the neighbors of Mingorrubio and high positions of the Franco regime. Here are Arias Navarro, Carrero Blanco, six more ministers of the Dictatorship and even a despot from another country: Rafael Trujillo.

And Carmen Polo. Franco's wife occupies a giant and private pantheon that was built with the couple in mind. She's here. He will arrive 44 years after he died.

So if Franco is going to be buried in Mingorrubio, what does Mingorrubio think?

«Here everyone has their ideology and personal experience. It is a conservative neighborhood where the second most voted force was Carmena, which gives an idea of ​​diversity. And yet, living together is perfect. There are neighborhood meals and people help each other instantly. There will be them for and against Franco's, but what is common is that we don't want harmony to break ”.

Beatriz Santamaría, president of the Mingorrubio Neighbors Association, speaks a group that has decided not to express an opinion on Franco's burial because each piece has one.

And because, here in Mingorrubio, in front of a journalist, the subject is a field dotted with thorns. We experience it in another bar:

- How is the neighborhood living the news of the entie ...

- I've already told him I'm not going to talk. Don't ask me more. I don't want to be nasty.

The man gives us a smile of icy courtesy and we close the attempt. Beside him, a client who is savoring a midday wine senses the conversation, as if he were listening sideways.

-I have more important things to think about than Franco's funeral. And the Government too. I don't care where I am going to be, the only thing that matters to me is that there is no mess here, that there is no mess on either side or the other.

- Thank you. May I have your name, please?

- No, no, not that.

More police cars

Mingorrubio is a straight street, a flat asphalt that leaves aside a handful of chalets and the other an untouchable nature. During the 60s, Franco built this colony for the military, a row of houses that today occupy their heirs or other families that bought without having anything to do with uniforms.

«I'm tired of having to explain why I live in Mingorubium. What if facha, what if military, what if. Nothing of that! Everything here is much more normal than it seems, ”says Maria, who doesn't seem very worried about the big issue. «The other day, in my work, a colleague tells me: 'Hey, Paquito goes to your neighborhood'. And I: 'But what Paquito?' I didn't even know what he was talking about.

Franco arrives in the neighborhood.

Here it is rumored that it will be early in the morning, without witnesses. One Monday of these, because that day the Valley of the Fallen is closed and it will be more discreet to exhume the coffin, take it out of the Francoist mausoleum, take it to Mingorubium and bury it in the crypt.

Franco arrives in the neighborhood.

Therefore, something is happening. "In a week, this seems welcome Mr. Marshall," summarizes Beatriz Santamaría sharply. "We have been without cleaning for four months and suddenly there are trucks cleaning the road, trimming trees, collecting ... And, above all, we see more police, many cars."

All the locals, people who work in Madrid, seniors who oxygenate their retirement and even some immigrant who takes care of the elderly alone, confirm Beatriz's quotes.

- There's something else about the police, says the nameless man at the bar.

- Now patrol cars pass very frequently, reports a lady waiting for the bus.

- Look, look, another police car, Elena warns from the terrace that overlooks the road.

- There are even secrets that ask teenagers for their ID. The other day it happened to my son, says one of the women who runs the El Pardo Neighborhood Association, which with its 743 members and seven years of existence is a kind of older sister of the Mingorrubio neighborhood group.

"If it's going to be a pilgrimage, it will be bad"

Its president, Barbara Mira, argues that the inhabitants of El Pardo have diverse opinions, but a unique thought: «Security is concerned. The last thing people want are problems. If Franco is going to be a pilgrimage, it will be bad. But if it serves to listen to us, okay ». It will be that the two neighborhood associations, that of El Pardo and that of Mingorrubio, have been crying out for nothing.

- We don't have a pediatrician; Query happens once a week. It is necessary to prune the trees and more cleaning.

- The road has socavones. We have been asking for a minibus for years. There is no emergency medical service, the ambulance takes 25 minutes.

In that, Franco approaches the neighborhood.

«Something will break the tranquility. At least, at the beginning. The 20-N will be mess. If that day there is a mess, I close, ”says the owner of one of the bars. But, for now, nothing has happened here. Neither a graffiti, nor a manifestation, nor a problem. Not even the day that a group of bikers with Spanish flags called the bar to reserve a place. «I told them that I had no problem receiving them, but that there is no policy here. They came, consumed and here peace and then glory ».

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Spain
• Valley of the Fallen
• Francisco Franco Bahamonde
• Historical memory

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