I was in school during and immediately after the Franco regime. I can attest that my public high school taught a "balanced" (ha!) view of Franco. We learned that he and his regime had some problems with authoritarianism but that he had encouraged morality and Christianity, which was presented to us as positive.

We didn't learn anything about the concentration camps, the executions, or the fear that gripped almost all levels of Spanish society.

I don't know what students learn today, but I very much doubt they're learning that Franco was a dedicated Catholic, and that he was determined to enforce the cruel, ignorant, howlingly superstitious nonsense of that sickening Church.

There is one potentially positive lesson to take out of all this. Spanish society rapidly grew to revile Catholicism during the Franco regime, and the church has shrunk to insignificance since the regime ended. Attendance collapsed, many church buildings were abandoned, and Spanish people no longer pay automatic respect to nuns and priests. They often look on them with suspicion instead.

I'm totally on board with that, given that nuns and priests believe and teach that we queer people are literally depraved and disordered.

Their religious beliefs are foul cruel, authoritarian, and sickening.

I hope that it doesn't take concentration camps and executions for the American people to get to that same place. To reject cruelty, ignorance, and superstition like the Spanish people have.