Hey everyone…
Happy New Year!
I’ve recently returned from a long trip to India, Malaysia and the UAE.
It’s been quite an interesting few weeks – for now I’m just glad to be back in Barcelona, and back to some sort of productive routine again.
I’ll have articles about all those places at some point, as well as a continuation of my videos about the bike tour in Extremadura that I did last November.
Also, plenty of new episodes of the podcast. Stay tuned!
But for now I just wanted to say that I’m here, and give you an idea of what I’m thinking about for the year 2025.
So without further ado…
Fifty years without Franco
I didn’t really have this on my radar, but 2025 is the 50th anniversary of the death of Francisco Franco, Europe’s longest-lasting fascist dictator.
Needless to say, the topic is controversial.
We’re only 8 days into the year, in fact, and I’ve already read two articles in La Vanguardia about the government’s plans to commemorate Franco’s death this year.
Not everybody is on board with this: should we really be celebrating Franco at all?
For years, November 20th (the anniversary of Franco’s death) was a day in which nostalgic fascists would get together in Plaza de Oriente in Madrid – the place where Franco used to give his public speeches – and probably elsewhere in Spain.
But fascism isn’t what it used to be, and as Giles Tremlett points out in the classic Ghosts of Spain, we’ve spent a good part of the last 50 years trying to erase Franco from the collective memory. Apparently, every single statue of “El Caudillo” has now been removed, and most of the places named after him have had their names changed.
They even moved Franco’s body to a less impressive tomb back in 2019. He’s no longer up in Valle de los Caídos – instead he’s buried in the cemetery at Mingorrubio (near El Pardo, just outside Madrid)… a situation I talked about in the article How to Dig Up a Fascist.
How can we commemorate the death of Franco without offending some large group of people?
We probably can’t.
How to “celebrate” the end of a dictatorship
In any case, the debate now is whether we should be celebrating the death of Franco rather than some other event that took place those years. Franco’s death was the start of the transition to democracy, but we’ve also got a Constitution we could celebrate, for example – that was signed in 1978.
(Some Catalan groups – and possibly people from other regions – have a beef with the Constitution because it doesn’t let them declare independence. So that’s not a solution everybody’s happy with.)
Anyway, we’ll see how this goes. For further information, I’ve got some articles about the Civil War around here. Try George Orwell in Catalonia, as well as Peter Kemp’s Mine Were of Trouble.
I’ve also got another draft of an article about some more Civil War history I’ll finish one of these days. And I’ve been wondering for some time if I should get a copy of Paul Preston’s biography of Franco and write about that. Maybe 2025 is the year.
Meanwhile, 50 years is a long time, and I’d imagine that a lot of the younger generation has no idea about the Second Republic, the Civil War or the decades of dictatorship.
And what do people outside Spain know? Probably almost nothing – just like me, when I moved here about 20 years ago. Moving on…
Final update on the Golden Visa scheme
Next thing: I’ve talked about the various visa schemes all over this blog in recent years.
Last year, the government said they were going to get rid of the Golden Visa, in which you can get a residence permit by buying a house for half a million euros (or investing a million or two in the Spanish economy).
It took a bit longer than expected for the final version of the law to get through the Senate, but it looks like the last day to have your application in for the Golden Visa is 2 April 2025, just under three months from now.
As usual, my recommendation is to get a good lawyer and pay him (or her) a few bucks to explain things to you.
There are still various types of work and residence visas you can apply for. For example, the digital nomad visa or the non-lucrative visa are popular options.
For much more about the topic, check out my long story about getting work permits in Spain. Or head over to my more recent article about moving to Spain in 2025.
More 2025 plans for the Chorizo Chronicles
I do a lot of things around here, and generally I’m a somewhat busy guy.
So I guess at some point I’ll continue making Spanish videos over on Learn Spanish with Daniel. I’ll definitely have some more episodes of the Spain to Go podcast coming soon, too.
For now, you can check out the current 90+ episodes on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts and elsewhere.
And if you want to donate, please do so here.
Shoutout to my latest donor, Jack, who apart from being an avid podcast listener, practices Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and is a big fan of Spain. He says the following:
[The] podcast is fantastic, love the literary references, your views on society etc etc. Pretty similar to mine. Cool that you do BJJ as well. Keep up the good work!
This blog and podcast is fully reader- and listener-supported these days… I don’t have sponsors, and I make a living elsewhere online. So if you want to see more, send me some money!
Thanks! And again, happy New Year.
Yours,
Daniel AKA Mr Chorizo.
P.S. I’ve written some previous articles about India, if you’d like to take a look. Try three days in Mumbai, adventures in spicy Trivandrum, and my big South Indian wedding. Thanks!
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