Carmen Polo y Martínez-Valdés

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Carmen Polo y Martínez-Valdés with Francisco Franco, 1968

María del Carmen Polo y Martínez-Valdés (born June 11, 1900 in Oviedo , † February 6, 1988 in Madrid ) was the wife of General Francisco Franco . They had a daughter together, Carmen Franco y Polo .

Life

Polo was the daughter of Felipe Polo y Flórez de Vereterra and Ramona Martínez-Valdés y Martínez-Valdés (died February 8, 1914) and sister of María Isabel, Felipe and Ramona (Zita) (married to Ramón Serrano Súñer ). In October 1923, Polo married Francisco Franco , who was dictator of Spain from 1936 to 1975 .

As Spain's First Lady, Polo had a significant influence on her husband's regime, particularly in the appointment of Carlos Arias Navarro as Prime Minister (while her husband was already ill) and the censorship of the press. She was undisputedly the most influential woman in Franquism , especially in relation to dealings with the Roman Catholic Church and in questions of public morality . According to social scientists, her puritanical upbringing was decisive in the widespread censorship of erotic aspects in Spanish literature, theater and cinema. Straub also sees polo as decisive for Franco's very conscious, inward piety, which was rather unusual for the military.

Thus, a disillusioned complained already in the early phase of the dictatorship Suner at Ciano about the disastrous impact that Carmen Polo performing at her husband. In connection with Franco, nepotism was often written about in his environment, which was not least attributed to Carmen Polo.

After the death of her husband, Polo became a figure of identification for Franco's political supporters in El Movimiento . On every anniversary of Franco's death, she attended the funeral mass attended by thousands of fascists in her husband's memory in the underground basilica in the Valle de los Caídos , where thousands of nationalists killed in the Spanish Civil War in 1936-39 are buried.

Film adaptations

literature

  • Carmen Enríquez: Carmen Polo, señora de El Pardo: amor, lujo, poder e influencia: historia de la mujer más poderosa de la España franquista. Madrid: La Esfera de los Libros, 2012. ISBN 9788499704586
  • Antje Windgassen: In league with power: the wives of the dictators. Campus-Verlag , 2002 ISBN 9783593369006

Web links

Commons : Carmen Polo  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carmen Polo de Franco In: Der Spiegel February 15, 1988
  2. ↑ Carmen Polo de Franco of Spain Dies . In: The Washington Post February 7, 1988
  3. ↑ Pattern of prudence in: Der Spiegel October 15, 1952
  4. ↑ Carmen Polo de Franco, Widow Of Spanish Dictator, Dead at 87. In: New York Times , February 7, 1988
  5. ↑ Eberhard Straub : The Spanish Century . Siedler Verlag , 2009, ISBN 978-3-641-01060-7 ( limited preview ).
  6. ^ Carlos Collado Seidel : Franco: General - Dictator - Myth . Kohlhammer Verlag , 2015, ISBN 978-3-17-023634-9 , pp. 117–118 ( limited preview ).
personal data
SURNAME Polo y Martínez-Valdés, Carmen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Polo y Martínez-Valdés, María del Carmen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish wife of General Francisco Franco
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Oviedo
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 1988
Place of death Madrid