I've loved Spain for decades, and Catalonia, especially. I first went there when Franco was still in power and the favored slogan on public buildings was "todo por la patria." We came back many times, and the last time was for my son's wedding. In the 45 years since our first visit, Barcelona had become one of the most happening cities in the world, maybe behind London and ahead of Tel Aviv, but way, way up there. Visually gorgeous, demographically mixed, temperamentally intense...And now, you could talk politics -- if that is what you wanted to talk about- without casting your eye over your shoulder to see if you were being watched.
So an Ha'aretz article about a Nazi bookstore in Barcelona this morning surprised me. I suppose phenomena such as this are the wages of freedom.
Another article in Sunday's Boston Globe about a monumental sculpture in memory of Che Guevara, erected by leftists in Argentina, also stunned me. But it shouldn't have. The left still has nostalgia for killers -- a nostalgia for killers buttressed by Andy Warhol and merchandisers of T-shirts -- that has itself killed repugnance for ideological murder.