La represión de Franco fue intensa en Barcelona y afectó a muchas mujeres antes.
The singer Loquillo (José María Sanz, Barcelona, 1960) signs his autobiography in «Paseo de Gracia» (Editorial Roca), a book in which he returns to his hometown and explores what the Francoist repression of the sixties was like for his parents. In this regard, he stated that this was «very difficult» in Barcelona and that «it took many women beforehand.»
«We all know that the repression, when Franco’s troops entered, was very difficult in Barcelona. And it took many women beforehand. It’s very clear. My father as a volunteer (in Manuel Aza’s army) knew where he was going and what could happen. But my mother suffered the consequences and so did my sister,» he said.
He recalled when, in his neighborhood of Del Clot, he found a bomb from the Spanish Civil War in a field and took it to the police station, an event that «lifted the curtain on what happened» in his family to talk about his past. «This was not talked about, but the repression was much worse than the war. And women suffered this repression,» he added.
In this sense, he thanked his father for moving him away from the childhood neighborhood because in the seventies, the city was a place where there was an «image» of the «winners» of the war.
«The best thing he did was to take me out of the neighborhood because there was a great deal of war losses, signaling, migrant families. We were called Murcia (…) Murcian, Charnego. There were two words very present,» he explained.
«Paseo de Gracia» started as a script for a film project about the artist’s life, as explained. He began writing it in 2014 after the death of his mother and his subsequent return -4 hours to Barcelona. However, the film adaptation was not possible, and after 3 years, he started to recompose the story until the Covid-19 pandemic stopped him once again.
In this autobiography, Loquillo travels through the streets of the city where he grew up, as well as the changes and developments it has undergone. Therefore, the artist emphasized that social moments like the political process experienced in Catalonia in 2016 are present in a certain way.
«It is still a story, a family, and a very Mediterranean class amidst the turmoil, from the civil war to the political process that unfolded in 2016. This book is from before, it is from 2014, so it is not talking about that, but it hovers,» he said.
Furthermore, in the book, which cleverly mixes a play on words with Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona, Loquillo pays tribute to the artists from various fields who helped shape his current «character.»
FUENTE
