The protest song emerged in the 60s when late Francoism wanted to project an image of tolerance abroad. However, all artists had to pass the censorship filter. Some faced fines, tour cancellations, or exile. In Spanish, Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio was the most combative singer-songwriter. Another was the Basque Paco Ibáñez, who in 1969, while in Paris, covered Rafael Alberti's poem A galopar. The son of a repressed individual, during his exile in France, Ibáñez immersed himself in the protest songs of authors like Georges Brassens and the Argentine Atahualpa Yupanqui. It was, however, in the Catalan scene where this musical movement gained the most traction. This was with artists who, in addition to expressing their discontent with the dictatorship, advocated for their own language and culture.Within Spain, the first anti-Francoist anthem was precisely written in Catalan. It was titled Diguem no (1963). Its author was the Valencian Ramon Pelegero Sanchis, better known as Raimon, who in 1959, at the age of 19, had already written Al vent during a trip on the back of a Vespa between Xàtiva, his hometown, and Valencia, where he was studying History. In an existential tone, the wind became a metaphor for the need to keep moving forward despite adversity. Diguem no was much more political, a true cry of revolt, which, by order of the repressive organs, was published under the title Ahir, intending to imply that the lyrics spoke of the past and not the present. The denunciation was clear: “We have seen locked up / in prison / men full of reason”. The censored version, however, was different: “We have seen silenced / many men full of reason”.In 1966, Raimon made the international leap by performing at the Olympia theatre in Paris. Due to censorship, the artist from Xàtiva had to record more than one song in the neighboring country. This was the case with Contra la por (1969). Francoism considered that good Spaniards should not be afraid and that, therefore, those who were afraid were suspicious. In 1970, the Valencian composer wrote De nit a casa, which portrays the anguish felt by many anti-Francoist activists facing the possibility that, at dawn, as was customary, the Police would come looking for them.Sometimes arrests could end in tragedy, as the Mallorcan Maria del Mar Bonet sang in 1968 in Què volen aquesta gent? It was based on the true story of Rafael Guijarro, a 23-year-old student from Madrid, a member of FAR. He had died after some agents, during searches, threw him out of a window of his home. The song was immediately banned, and to circumvent censorship, it had to be presented under other titles: De matinada, A trenc d’alba... Equally persecuted was L’estaca, by Lluís Llach, also composed that same year, 1968. L’estaca represented the dictatorship, which could only be overthrown through joint struggle. Raimon, Maria del Mar Bonet, and Lluís Llach were all part of the Nova Cançó movement, born in 1961.
Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio, the 'red rooster' who sang in Mallorca
The singer-songwriter who made the anti-Franco struggle known in Sweden was the rebellious son of one of the founders of the Falange, co-author also of the 'Cara al sol' and architect of the slogan 'Arriba España'. In the early 80s he lived for a season in Sóller, where the filmmaker Fernando Trueba traveled to make a documentary about him
PalmaDuring the boom of tourism, there were Swedes who did not let themselves be intimidated. Some tried to dissuade their compatriots from going on holiday to a country that was a dictatorship and that, with the economic support of the USA, had turned tourism into its salvation. The most activist ones demonstrated with slogans such as 'Boycott trips to Spain!' and 'Trips to Mallorca are a disgrace'. From other countries, those protests would also be supported by Spanish anarchists in exile organized around Defensa Interior (DI). Coordinating the entity was the Minorcan Octavi Alberola Surinach (1928-2025).
On March 3, 1963, the DI initiated a campaign of attacks, without victims, against the sun and beach industry with which Francoism whitewashed its image abroad. With prior telephone notice, bombs exploded in the offices of Iberia and the delegation of the Higher Council for Scientific Research in Rome. Several Iberia and Aviaco planes were also sabotaged at the airports of Las Palmas, Barcelona, and Madrid. To send a forceful message to Spanish opponents, on April 20 Franco ordered the execution of the Madrid communist leader Julián Grimau, 51 years old. The case generated a great wave of indignation throughout Europe. Even Pope John XXIII asked for clemency from the Spanish dictator, who, however, remained inflexible. In August it would be the turn of the young anarchists Joaquín Delgado and Francisco Granados, 29 and 28 years old, respectively. They were executed by garrote vil.
'The Two Roosters'
The assassination of Julián Grimau would inspire the 23-year-old Madrid-born singer-songwriter José Antonio Sánchez Ferlosio, with his 'Canción de Grimau' (Grimau's Song), which managed to cross borders. In Sweden, it had a great impact on Sköld Peter Mathis, 26 years old, director of the magazine Clarté ('Charity'), affiliated with left-wing movements. In the summer of that same year, 1963, Mathis and his wife traveled to Madrid in a Renault 4. They secretly carried a tape recorder with which they recorded Sánchez Ferlosio singing six songs with his guitar in the bathroom of his apartment. In 1964, they were already published in Sweden under the title Spanska motständs sänger (Songs of Spanish Resistance). For security reasons, the author's name was omitted.
The record was a great success not only in Scandinavia, but also in Germany, Italy, and Latin America. 2,000 copies were made. Some were sent to Spain under a fake cover, as if they were a record of Swedish folklore. Radio Pirenaica, the emblematic radio station of the Communist Party in exile, did not stop playing them. The most iconic song was ‘Los dos gallos’ (The Two Roosters). It tells the story of two roosters who face each other in a duel, a clear metaphor for the two Spains during Francoism: the red rooster represents anti-fascist militancy, and the black one, the dictatorship. The theme inspired the exiled painter José Ortega to create the vinyl cover. It featured an imprisoned red rooster confronting a black rooster with the yoke and arrows of the Falange and with the staff and cap of a bishop (it was an allusion to the Church, one of the powers that be at the time). An inner booklet contained the lyrics of the songs translated into Swedish with illustrations by Ortega himself and by the Basque artist Agustín Ibarrola, who was then imprisoned in Spain for his communist affiliation. The text on the back cover spoke of the miners' strikes in Asturias in 1962, the regime's tortures, and the executions of Grimau, Delgado, and Granados.
‘On strike’
Another piece from Spanska motständs sänger that became a huge hit was ‘A la huelga’ (To the strike). It proposed a general strike as the only option to overthrow Francoism. However, Franco would remain eternally in power without anyone daring to oppose him. In 1974, after the fall of Salazar's regime in Portugal, he would be the only living dictator in Europe. In September 1975, two months before dying at 82 years old, he issued his last death sentences. They were against five terrorists (three from FRAP and two from ETA).
Twelve years after Grimau's execution, the international community mobilized again to prevent those executions. Again, the Vatican, represented by Pope Paul VI, also tried to mediate without success. From Sweden, the activists who in the 60s had boycotted trips to Spain reaffirmed their position. The most critical voice was that of the prime minister, the social democrat Olof Palme. He starred in a photograph that would be the cover of many newspapers. He was seen walking through the streets of Stockholm with a collection box and a poster that read ‘For the freedom of the Spaniards’. “This money – he kept reminding – is for the families of those repressed by Spanish fascism”.
In 1975, after Franco's death, Sweden saw the reissue of the album Spanska motständs sänger, this time with the author's name – until then everyone thought they were popular compositions. In 1977, the Swedes were able to put a face to that voice they had heard so much. It was thanks to the documentary Da gryr morgonens timme (The dawn breaks), dedicated to the singer-songwriters who had been part of the anti-Franco struggle. It was produced by the Swedish public television SVT under the direction of the Aragonese exile Francisco Uriz. Alongside Sánchez Ferlosio, 35 years old, also appeared the Basque Mikel Labao, the Aragonese Antonio Labordeta, the Andalusian José Menese and the Valencian Raimon.
Four Falangist names
Sánchez Ferlosio was not just any singer-songwriter. He was the son of the Italian Liliana Ferlosio Vitali and Rafael Sánchez Mazas (1894-1966), one of the founders of Falange in 1933, co-author of the anthem Cara al sol and architect of the threatening slogan ‘Arriba España’. In 1939, in the final months of the Civil War, his father had miraculously survived an execution, which in 2001 Javier Cercas would novelize in Soldados de Salamina.
One of the 'extras' in that documentary was three-year-old Ravi Bullock Mansilla from Soller. “I was born in Ibiza. I am the son of a couple of artists ‘Mientras el cuerpo aguante’
With the restoration of democracy, Chicho continued to be a free spirit, irreverent and an enemy of the concept of 'commercial author'. A heavy smoker, he was a tall, thin man, with horn-rimmed glasses and long hair that contrasted with a pronounced receding hairline. In 1980, at the age of 40, he arrived in Mallorca with his second partner, the also Madrid-born singer Rosa Jiménez, twenty years his junior. Settled in a house in Sóller, they were often seen in the Plaça Major in Palma singing together, guitar in hand. The following year, filmmaker Fernando Trueba travelled to the island to make a documentary in the form of an interview with the mythical 'red rooster'. It was called Mientras el cuerpo aguante.
One of the 'extras' from that documentary was Ravi Bullock Mansilla from Sóller, who was three years old at the time. “I was born in Ibiza. I am the son of a couple of hippies artists. My father was Irish and my mother, from Barcelona. They named me Ravi in memory of the Indian sitar guru of The Beatles.” Very soon Bullock's parents exchanged the main Pitiusa island for Sóller, where there was already a colony of hippies. “I always accompanied them to the parties that Chicho organized at his house. My father played the clarinet there. There were a lot of people and the smoke filled everything. Chicho often played with me. Even though I was a child, I remember he was a person with great magnetism and very authentic. And it caught my attention that he was missing so many teeth. Now that house houses a real estate agency”.
With the new winds of freedom, the singer-songwriter from Madrid did not stop composing satirical songs. He also captured his biting wit in numerous press articles. In 1999, he took on the role of a street minstrel in the documentary Buenaventura Durruti, anarchist, directed by Albert Boadela and Jean Louis Comolli. The lyrics he sang were compiled under the title Romancero de Durruti. In 2019, Fernado Trueba's brother, David, would interview him again for another documentary, Si me borrara el viento lo que yo canto. In 2003, Trueba himself had him play himself in the film adaptation of Soldados de Salamina. By then, Chicho was already very ill with cancer. He died four months after the premiere, in Madrid. He was 62 years old. Today his legacy is claimed by his nephew, the journalist Máximo Pradera. In 2024, new generations discovered the iconic song Los dos gallos thanks to the film El 47.