The truth is I rarely thought about it at all. The Civil War responsible for bringing Franco to power had ended twenty-five years earlier. What I saw and experienced was a country at peace with a growing economy and a positive relationship with the United States. At the same time, my own country was in trouble. Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King had been assassinated, over 150 race riots exploded in the summer of 1967, protests against the war in Viet Nam were common, police killed four unarmed students at a peace rally at Kent State University and, because of the crime rate, New York was called Fear City. Drugs were a threat. Spain felt infinitely safer. Yes, there was a dark side to all this peace and well-being, but I didn’t know about it, no one I knew ever spoke about secret police or brutalized students and, because Franco controlled the press, that wasn’t in the news. As for the crimes committed during the Civil War, no one spoke about them either. We laughed at Franco, a 5’4’’ aging general with a shaky voice and a penchant for military parades, and waited for him to pass away. He had already named his successor, a handsome young prince with a legitimate title to the throne. We would have a peaceful transition to a constitutional monarchy and all would be well. But now, nearly 45 years after his death, Spain continues to grapple with the legacy of the Franco regime.