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Francisco Franco
© AFP/File

Censorship under Franco drove many of the country's editors and writers into exile yet even today, with democracy well entrenched, they say the country's literary voices struggle to be heard -- and read.

"In Spain there has been a political transition, but not a cultural one," said prolific expatriate writer Juan Goytisolo, 74, whose translated works include "Marks of Identity" (1969), "Juan the Landless" (1975) and "Forbidden Territory" (1989).

Member of a literary Barcelona family -- his brothers Jose Augustin and Luis were also leading dissident writers -- Goytisolo took refuge in 1956 in Paris where he worked for the Gallimard publishing house.

The writer, whose books were banned in his homeland in 1963, also taught literature at American universities and today lives in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Goytisolo's novels, many of which are largely autobiographical, have been published in France, Argentina and Mexico but only two have been published in the land of his birth.

Juan Goytisolo
© AFP/File Hector Guerrero

"Spanish culture was diverted from a liberal, democratic tradition represented in the 19th century by Manuel Azana (magazine proprietor and president of the second republic) and writers such as Ortega and Maranon ended up coming to terms with the Franco regime," Goytisolo said.

"This had fairly serious consequences and that whole democratic tradition was pushed aside," he added.

Jose Ortega y Gassett (1883-1955), author of "The Revolt of the Masses", was Spain's leading 20th-century philosopher, while Gregorio Maranon (1887-1960) was an essayist who switched from the republican side to the nationalists.

Franco died on November 20, 1975, aged 82, yet for Goytisolo the country has yet to emerge from the long shadow cast by "el Caudillo de Espana", the Leader of Spain.

"There is very much a cultural life in Spain but the danger is no longer political, it's commercial," Goytisolo said.

"In the area of narrative, political censorship has been replaced by commercial censorship that makes publication of certain novels difficult."

Spanish publishers, too, -- names such as Carlos Barral, Juan Seix, Juan Granica, Joan Salvat and Josep Maria Castellet -- saw their activities heavily curtailed under the nationalists.

Franco's tomb
© AFP/File Philippes Desmazes

"The damage Franco caused to Spanish culture was incalculable, because the civil war (1936-39) was succeeded by a repression that lasted until the dictator's death in 1975," said Castellet, the head of Editions 62, in Barcelona.

"For many years, there was a ban on publishing books, newspapers or magazines in the Catalan, Basque or Galician languages ... a linguistic ban, not only political, moral or ideological," he said.

The literary explosion that many publishers hoped would follow the end of the dictatorship has failed to happen.

"For years self-censorship was maintained and today, very slowly, you get the impression the culture of the Francoist desert is reestablishing itself," Castellet said.

However, there has been a temporary flowering, of sorts, with a flush of books about the man many Spaniards considered was a ruthless dictator but who was also seen as the undefeated champion of the struggle against communism and atheism.

One Spanish literary magazine reported that more than 30 books will be published in Spain to mark the three decades that have elapsed since Franco died.

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