Articles

GERMAN RECREATION of this Spanish historic period

During the module we took a closer look at Spain under Franco and at the Spanish Civil War. 

To us it was inconceivable that fellow countrymen fought against each other. We worked out the differences between a democratic and a dictatorial system and thought about what a dictatorship and a single-party system means for the people living in this country. 

We created a poster showing the most important characteristic features of a dictatorship that people in Spain had to suffer during those years. 

We also had the opportunity to think about how other citizens feel nowadays, because there are still people living in dictatorial countries that have to cope with such a difficult situation.

Participants’ opinion

“We learned a lot about democracies and dictatorships”.- Anonymous

“In this context we thought about what countries we know which still suffer from dictatorships.”- Anonymous

ITALIAN RECREATION of this Spanish historic period 

After having shared the work of our Spanish peers, we decided to focus on Franco’s regime and analyze other European dictatorships during that period. Spain was not the only country living under that regime. Besides Francisco Franco, other two well-known dictators influenced European politics between 1930 and 1940: Hitler in Germany (Nazism) and Mussolini in Italy (Fascism). We all knew and recognized Hitler’s image. Only a few could say the same for Mussolini’s face. No one had ever even heard of Francisco Franco. It was interesting “transforming” three classmates of ours into the three dictators. How? By using make-up. It wasn’t easy but we think we did a good job! Then we gathered and selected some key information about their interests and aims in order to complete our task. We found out some particular features of their lives. Afterwards we created an identity card which we obviously plan to share.

Participants’ opinion 

“After reading what it means to live under a dictatorship am wondering why some young people still emulate Mussolini.” Anonymous

“Collect information on Francisco Franco and his dictatorship helped me to understand that often the history of some countries is similar.” Anonymous

SPANISH RECREATION of this Spanish historic period 

Today we did a work on the history of our country, we watched a video about the first period of Franco’s dictatorship and 23F. Then we surffed the net looking for relevant images of that period and we decided to emule the images by ourselves, being in the same position but some decades after. At the end, and thanks to new technologies, we did a colage that was later enriched by comics. It was all very useful because we learned a few things we didn’t know about the history of our country, but at the same time it was fun taking the place of such an important people such as Franco or politicians. The result was very nice and we really enjoyed seeing our faces in these historical photos.

Participants’ opinion 

“It was a very fun experience thinking in being a very important person in the history of our country.” – Valery. 

“It was very interesting to talk about the Spanish history and it’s consequences, and to revise some important event of the history of our nation.”- David.