With the welcome given by the Spanish Ambassador to France, Victorio Redondo, the Spanish Embassy in Paris has hosted the celebration of the event “Memories of Dictatorship and Democracy”. Mercedes Yusta, Professor of History of Contemporary Spain at the University Paris 8, spoke. The Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, has closed the event.

After the institutional act, the show “Si me borrara el viento lo que yo canto” (Stories of the protest song in Spain) with Maximo Pradera, as narrator, the soprano Laura Sabatel, and Antonio López Serrano, at the piano, has paid tribute to some of the most memorable Spanish songs of the protest song genre. In Spain there is a long tradition of protest song, which goes back to the 19th century Anthem of Irrigation, although it is during the Franco dictatorship and the first years of the Transition that a social phenomenon occurs that uses music as an element of claim and social cohesion. Thus, in the repertoire of the show, the artists propose themes such as “My dear Spain”, by Cecilia; “Al vent”, by Raimon; “Spain white shirt”, by Víctor Manuel; “Gallo rojo, gallo negro”, by Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio or “Libertad sin ira”, among others.

“Memories of Dictatorship and Democracy” is part of the events of the celebration Spain in freedom. 50 years.