“Highlighting the Tragedy of Lives Lost Under Dictatorship”

The cartoonist Paco Roca, creator of the graphic novel The Abyss of Oblivion on the repercussions of the Civil War, stated that he would only support the retention of the Franco monument in Santa Cruz de Tenerife “as long as it is contextualised.”

Roca, who is now regarded as the leading Spanish cartoonist, emphasises that, “firstly, there is a memory law that has been approved by all, which prohibits such monuments; hence, there should be no ambiguity regarding this matter.”

In remarks given to the Canarian Film Foundation + Comic shared with EFE, he noted that some nations have opted to “coexist with the past, be it dictatorial, or with figures who have brought misery to their citizens, all while contextualising what transpired.”

Roca, whose latest work has garnered numerous accolades since its release in 2023, argues that “if a statue of Franco is left standing and an inscription clearly states that he was a dictator who ruled from such and such a year, and that during his regime many lives were lost, detailing what occurred, I see no issue with it remaining. However, it must always be contextualised.”

“What cannot be allowed is to have a statue of a dictator in a city alongside other figures who do not have their hands stained with blood and cruelty. I believe it should either be removed or retained, but always with clear context regarding who he was and what he did.”

The 2008 National Comic Award winner finds it “excellent” that the monument could be classified as a Cultural Asset of Interest (BIC), provided it’s clarified who Franco truly was.

“But it isn’t sufficient just to mention his date of birth and death, as that would whitewash the dictatorship. It should have artistic merit and so forth, but the character must be properly placed within his context, and his actions explained,” he contends.

The graphic novel The Abyss of Oblivion, penned by journalist Rodrigo Terrasa, has achieved remarkable sales, reaching 80,000 copies.

The most recent awards were presented a few weeks ago at the Comic Fair in Rome and Barcelona.

He is currently engaged in an exhibition in Madrid that also focuses on historical memory, though he makes it clear that he does not wish to be pigeonholed.

Last year, the Canarian Cine + Comic Foundation hosted an exhibition of this work in La Laguna, featuring original drawings, inaugurated by the Minister of Historical Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, and the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo.

Roca fondly recalls the presence of Teresa Campos, whose father was one of the “disappeared” following the war.