Historical Memory Law and retoponimization processes in Spain
The symbolic use of the street names by the state has been frequent (Izu Belloso, 2010). In Spain, after the Civil War, names referring to the Second Republic and, also, some previous names were eliminated; instead, names from the Nationalist faction were used (García Álvarez, 2009). Many of these were changed after Franco died; However, some names have remained during democracy (Duch, 2002), since the name of the streets is a municipal responsibility. However, in 2007 a Historical Memory Law (Law 52/2007) was approved that establishes the need to remove the street names that exalt the Franco regime.
The toponymy shows multiple social dimensions (Oto-Peralías, 2017); among them, the collective memory. For this reason, the Historical Memory Law has been controversial and, in its application, there may have been differences between territories. The objective of this study is to check whether this has happened and, if so, to assess the scope of these differences. For this, the Electoral Census Street Map of Spain is analyzed. This compiles the names of the streets of each municipality and can be downloaded since 2001 from the website of the Spanish National Statistics Institute. In the first place, the streets with names of the Franco regime have been identified at the time of passing Law 52/2007. Afterwards, they have been followed up to find out if and when they have changed their name. These data have been aggregated and mapped at different scales to compare territories.
The results show that the Historical Memory Law has not had a uniform application. The suppression of the Franco regime street names has not been simultaneous in all areas. This heterogeneity can be related to municipal competence in the matter. Furthermore, many name changes have been appealed in court. These elements highlight that the analyzed retoponimization process has encountered numerous resistances.
Mots clés : Spain|Historical Memory Law|Street names|Franco regime|Retoponimization
A104031SE