In the past. [Contrapaso: 1.The Children of Others by Teresa Valero]

Madrid, winter of 1956. Franco’s fascist dictatorship controls the press and maintains the fiction of an idyllic nation. Faced with the Regime’s attempts to cover up the country’s most sordid crimes, two journalists from the crime beat, the jaded veteran Emilio Sanz and the young and intrepid Léon Lenoir, seek to reveal the truth. Confronted by a wave of unexplained murders, the duo sets out to uncover the dark secret connecting them, buried in a cruel past. Brilliantly written and illustrated by Teresa Valero, Sanz and Lenoir’s investigation plunges us headfirst into an era and society as dark and as violent as it is full of hope. A bracing journalistic thriller revealing the lengths the Francoist regime was willing to go to in its attempts to stifle any form of dissent.

The more I learn about geography, the more I learn about history. The more I learn about history, the more obvious the failings of the American educational system and how little I actually know. Contextually, I know that Spain had a period of marked fascism. The name "Franco" rings a bell, but that's about it. And again, for all the focus that the U.S. history curriculum places on Europe and the large domestic hispanophone demographic, you'd think that wouldn't be the case. One might expect to be as familiar with Spanish history as with that of English and French. 

Recently I finished a read of Tim Marshall's The Power of Geography. He gave an excellent summary of the history of region currently known as Spain, shedding light on the more extreme of Spanish politics through the years. Reading the description for Teresa Valero's Contrapaso: 1. The Children of Others, I was eager to see more light shed on this topic that was peeking my history nerd heart's eye. Contrapaso brings you to 1950s Francoist Spain, where censorship, classism, and eugenics are the rules of the time. There's a show on Netflix about a future Spanish dystopia, The Barrier, that I guess is probably a thick anti-fascist allusion. I couldn't get past the second episode, not only because the plot was obvious, also because the message, whatever it was, felt hamfisted. But this graphic novel sold me quick on the setting, sold me quick on the story. The cousin romance was highly irregular, but like the oppressive plotline of the book, those were the times I guess.

It was believable, it was relevant. Even ignoring the timepiece aspect of it, the murder mystery was well-written and the cast of characters consistent throughout. For me, Contrapaso was an elucidating relating of the political realities of 1950s Falangist Spain. I have nothing adverse to say about it, save to highlight, again, my discomfort with the cousins' romance. I did love Paloma recognizing how great it was Leon left as he did. 5 stars from me.

Contrapaso: 1. The Children of Others (ISBN: 9791032812334) was published August 25, 2021.