Like many American students, I spent my senior year of high school studying in Spain. I really soaked it up there. At the Reina Sofia in Madrid, I stood before the Nazi-sponsored destruction of Picasso’s Guernica; at the beach in San Sebastian, I bookmarked my copy of The Sun Also Rises before swimming to the pontoon; on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas I was accosted by prostitutes who cajoled me in English that was better than my Castilian. Cathartic, once-in-a-lifetime stuff, right? That’s what I thought when I returned to the States and was old enough to start getting tattoos.

A little too perfectly, this fondness for my adoptive country has materialized as a symbol that does nothing but alienate me from the place I strive to honor. Why do Spanish tourists get so squeamish when I show them the tattoo they’re supposed to love me for?

I put the question to Alberto Medina, a Salamanca native. More than a full-blooded macho iberico, Alberto’s an associate professor and director of Graduate Studies at Columbia University, where he specializes in both 18th Century and contemporary Spanish literature and culture and stuff like that. During our meeting Alberto and I had a nervous chuckle-fest as he unpacked my tattoo. Here we talk about Generalissimo Franco, Real Madrid’s hooligan club Ultras Sur, ETA’s Herriko Tabernak bars, and what a mind-bogglingly retarded American I am.

Street Carnage: So here’s my tattoo that says “España.” Whatcha think?

Alberto Medina: Oh wow! To 90% of Spaniards, that’s going to be a fascist symbol.

What’s fascist about it?

It’s a pretty long story, but just the word “España” was something in the ’70s you wouldn’t use because it was a taboo word. They said “my country” for example—Mi País. Everybody avoided using “España.” After Franco, Spain was very, very anti-nationalist.

Isn’t that because after the civil war Franco got rid of the monarchy and the constitution and was all about thinking of the country as a Spanish state?

The story actually starts before that. Political life in Spain is totally ridiculous—there’s an ultra-left and an ultra-right. There’s nothing in the middle. The 1936 election that caused the civil war was won by a coalition of radical leftists. Most of those parties had internationalist projects. Mostly anarchists, communists—for them, nationalism didn’t mean a thing. To be communist was to start a worldwide revolution. Communism and nationalism were contradictions. They wanted everyone everywhere to be communist.

At this same time in the ’30s Cataluña and the Basque Country began to cultivate their own Nationalist movements—of course, they were against any Spanish identity. So this was the situation of the Republic. When General Franco arrived with his party they were radically ultra-right. In rhetorical terms he did something very interesting by saying everybody who is not with me is not a Spaniard. Franco used his propaganda to “re-conquer” Spain, which he said had been taken by foreign forces—as he identified all his political opposition. In short, Spain was Franco. After he won the civil war, he radically identified a nation of symbols with a very particular ideology—his ultra-right ideology. Additionally he identified himself with Santiago Apóstol, the patron saint of Spain.

He presented the idea that Spain was not a possibility without him. That lasted 40 years, so you can imagine how anything that had to do with nationalism—the flag, the word “España,” the colors of the flag—everything was Franco.

In a “Gee, shucks” sort of way I decided to make my tattoo red, which of course is in the Spanish flag…

Yes, red is a color of the flag, but for example, by the end of the war, in a lot of church walls in Spain (although since the war most of it has been erased), people would write the names of soldiers—but only those who had fallen on the Franco’s national side. Those lists were almost always in red—in the particular red of your tattoo, which looks like dried blood. It’s very—[starts giggling, trails off]

Tell me about this generic gothic font I found on Microsoft Word.

Yes, well, Franco was radically anti-modern, so for him the model of everything—ideology, behavior, architecture—was medieval. When he won the war, for example, he had a medieval mentality. He was the winner. It had nothing to do with the negotiation of peace or anything; it had to do with bounty. He was partially a medieval king and the architecture he implemented in Spain was medieval architecture. For him, the models of beauty were the from the 12thand 13th Centuries—

—Back when Spain was “pure.”

Yes. For him, the 15th Century Spain was a perfect state. He was about going back. Your gothic font harkens to that.

OK, so the placement of my arm—it would probably be worse if I had it on my right arm, which would make it visible when I made the ¡Viva Franco! Salute. Wait, is that what they said?

Yeah, they would say Franco or Jose Antonio, who was [one of the La Falange’s] heroes, and do that in the the beginning. But after the Second World War ended, Franco had to conceal all his fascist signs because he had to get close to the U.S. because he needed money, basically.

So let’s say I show up in a night club in Madrid with my tattoo and my shaved head. What would people think?

They would think you were an Ultras Sur, which is a hooligan group in support of Real Madrid. Did you go to a soccer game in Spain?

I did. I saw Real Madrid play a home-game with Barcelona.

OK, the people who shouted and were really violent? Those were the Ultras Sur, and they’re called that because they always stay in the southern part of the stadium. Again, they’re a soccer fan club that is extremely provocative. For example, in Spanish soccer it’s very useful to be racist.

Right, because loyalties to these teams has so much to do with class and nationalism. Languages, cultures, identities are just clashing, right?

Yes, and the most radical face of that kind of confrontation is Ultras Sur. They mix skinhead and punk features with nationalism, racism, and fascism. For example, they use Franco’s flag, which has an eagle on it—and not the Monarchy’s flag.

I thought Franco’s flag had been outlawed.

Yeah, but that doesn’t mean they don’t wave it during the games. They use ultra-right politics yet they do not do use them in a spectacular way. I doubt these people have ever read Jose Antonio or anything like that. They use Jose Antonio because it provokes 90% of the population.

That sounds like punk’s process of bricolage.

But the Ultras Sur still use the original meaning because they really are fascists. They really are xenophobic. They use the provocation of punk [to convey messages] of the ultra-right.

Let’s say I move to Madrid. Would my tattoo affect my daily life?

Yes, absolutely. They people who meet you and see your tattoo will assume you’re fasc—that you have issues [laughs]. They will think either you’re related to an Ultras Sur or you’ve been seduced by fascism. No Spaniard would have your tattoo for his own reasons, as you do. It’s a very strong provocation.

[laughter]

There are a lot of groups like libertarians and anarchists who would immediately identify you as an enemy.

Would they beat me up?

Yes. Recently there was a huge anti-globalization demonstration and all the right-wing groups went there just to beat them up. One of the demonstrators saw one of them with something fascist on his body. Maybe he had an eagle tattoo—I don’t remember. He went up to him and he didn’t say a word—he just took a knife [makes stabbing gesture] and he killed him right there in public. If you were to go to an anti-globalization demonstration, you will have a lot of problems.

So you would encourage me to wear long sleeves, all the time?

Well, you never know who you’re going to meet, but yeah. Your tattoo is not normal and everybody would assume there was something behind your tattoo. You would get a bad reaction everywhere, but it would be even worse in Cataluña or Euskadi, the Basque Country.

Let’s say you and I were lying on the beach up in San Sebastian.

It would be really dangerous if you walked around San Sebastian or in the poor neighborhoods of Bilbao. The old part of San Sebastian is filled with Herriko Tabernak [trans: “The People’s Tavern”], which are pubs filled with photographs of ETA terrorists who are in jail. They’re completely dominated by ETA, and if you go in one of those pubs with that tattoo, they will immediately read it as an insult. Absolutely. It’s the only place where you kind of risk your life or at least your physical integrity with that tattoo.

Would they immediately start swinging or would I be able to explain that I’m just the dumb American?

They would ask you to leave or something worse. In this context, you are a very stupid American [laughs] but you cannot use that excuse with that tattoo because it will not get you out of trouble. You see, the Ultras Sur—and, yes, they would like your tattoo—have no ideology. In the Basque Country, they do have an ideology. They kill for political reasons. They would find you very insulting. In some of the more radical Herriko Tabernak, even speaking Spanish is suspect.

One time I showed my tattoo to a guy my age from Madrid, and he was hyped. He was like ¡Hombre! and thumped his chest.

Hmm. People from 15 up to 20, 25 years old don’t really know what Franco is. They don’t have any memory. When people from my generation—I’m 40—see a Spanish flag; we hate it. It’s very uncomfortable in many ways.

How would I fare in the South of Spain? People would probably think I was anti-North African.

Yeah. If you were in a bar full of immigrants, they would probably be scared of you. They would identify you as a skinhead who wants to beat them up. It would be very weird for a Moroccan to start talking to you and be friendly.

Holy shit. So would you encourage me to go back to Spain anytime soon?

You just have to be careful. You would have to explain a lot. People in Salamanca or Madrid won’t beat you up; they’ll just think you’re weird. They will have a lot of questions. But Spain in general is not a violent country. People won’t beat you up just like that. Except when you’re in a violent context: an anti-globalization rally, a Herriko Tabernak.

That’s funny. I was going to wear a red Fred Perry shirt with yellow stripes to this interview.

Yeah, that kind of disturbs me. But again, that’s my generation. Someone in his 20s, however, will probably associate the Spanish flag with soccer. But it won’t have the strong aftertaste it does for me. Even the official right-wing, the Partido Popular—you know, the second most-important party in Spain—was very resistant to use the flag until about five years ago. Now they are beginning to use it very strongly because the young generation does not associate the flag with Franco anymore. For me to see a demonstration filled with Spanish flags is incredibly disturbing, even if it has nothing to do with nationalism.

Would this tattoo be illegal?

That stuff is illegal but you can find it anywhere. Nobody is going to take you to jail. If so, you would take hundreds of Ultras Sur from each Real Madrid match to jail just for waving the Franco-era flag. Let me see your other tattoo.

Oh, wow. Look at that lion. It has always been in the Spanish emblem at the center of the national flag (this is the Francoist Version). It represents the old city and kingdom of Leon, along with Castilla, the symbolic center of Francoist ultra-nationalism versus the peripheral identities like Catalan, Basque, and so on. If you add the sword, well, you can guess the symbolic effect.

Holy fucking shit. Could I be any more fascist?

People will certainly relate these tattoos to each other. They will think they are very intentional.

I’d like to ask a person walking by to take a picture of us where I’m showing my tattoo while making the ¡Arriba España! sign with my arm. Would you be comfortable with that?

Ugh! Not that much, no.

I should have just done it. Pretty please?

No.

-PETER MADSEN

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