What’s in a name? Malaga Province village changes its name.

The only village in Andalucía bearing a name linked to Franco’s regime, “Villafranco del Guadalhorce”, has officially been renamed “Villa del Guadalhorce”. 

The decision was approved by a majority vote in the Alhaurín el Grande town council on Friday, August 1, which complies with Spain’s Democratic Memory Law, and which mandates the removal of references to the Francoist dictatorship from public place names.

The change, proposed by the Democratic Memory Department led by councillor Ana Belén Ordóñez, is in line with national regulations requiring public administrations to eliminate symbols and names glorifying the Franco regime. Once legal formalities are completed, the new name will be updated in official records, signage, and institutional documents.

The Democratic Memory Law, effective since October 2022, obliges municipalities to revise street names, squares, and other public designations to eliminate any references glorifying the dictatorship. Similar actions have been taken across Spain, with villages like Villafranco del Guadiana (Badajoz) and Llanos del Caudillo (Ciudad Real) also undergoing name changes to stay in line with democratic values enshrined in the Spanish Constitution.

The renaming is another step in ongoing efforts by Spanish municipalities to adapt public spaces to constitutional and democratic principles, as required in law. The administrative process for final validation by relevant authorities is now underway.

A personal observation: Ironically, the new law, whether well-intentioned or not, does beg the question if the “Democratic Memory Law” is more about forgetting history than democratically remembering it. Or, in the timeless words of philosopher George Santayana, “Those who do not learn history,…” Nonetheless, perhaps it’s more to do with property prices than it is to do with historic memory. After all, no one wants to buy a house in “Hitlerville”, do they? But they will, confusingly, happily eat at a Chinese restaurant in Mijas Costa called “Mao.”