Incident in Spain
Spanish artist Enrique Tenreiro defaced Franco’s tombstone with a red dove and the slogan ‘For Freedom’ last Wednesday.
The incident took place at Franco’s final resting place, the Valley of the Fallen, which is a vast monument dedicated to the 30,000 people who died during the Spanish Civil War. After the war, Francisco Franco went to rule Spain with an iron fist until his death in 1975.
People know the sculptor and video artist for provocative acts – once he rode in a glass elevator while sitting on a bidet.
As guards led him away from the scene, people could hear him shouting, ‘For freedom and the reconciliation of all Spaniards’.
Difficult words: deface (spoil a surface by drawing or writing), vast (very big), with an iron fist (rule as a dictator), reconciliation (coming together, becoming ‘friends’ again).
