They don't make 'em like this anymore...

Everyone has hopefully heard the good news that the Spanish have decided to leave the statue of Santiago Matamoros in its rightful place in Campostela.

Fr. Tucker points out an article on the issue (which can be found here) that includes this passage:

On Sunday, in a ceremony that will resound with ancient symbolism, King Juan Carlos will pay homage to the Moor Slayer on his saint day by making the annual National Offering at Santiago.

The dictator Gen Francisco Franco once sent his only Moroccan general, Mohamed ben Miziam del Qasim, to make the offering. Sensitive officials covered the base of the statue with cloth to hide the decapitated heads of his compatriots.

There is nothing that makes my admiration for Gen. Franco (pray for his canonization!) grow than reading anecdotes like this. I can think of no gesture more Spanish than sending his one Moroccan general to this duty. In this one act is the bullfight, the conquest of the Aztecs, the music of Padre Soler, the building of El Escorial, the flamenco, the commissioning of Admiral Colombus all rolled together in one act of Hispanismo.

I am not Spanish by family, but was born in New Spain (Alta California), in the city named for the Holy Sacraments. If I were to look towards a restoration of monarchy, it would not be towards heretic German princelings on a remote and barbaric island off the coast of France, or even to the good, Catholic True King of said remote and barbaric island, rather to the one leader who shows Imperial mettle: King Juan Carlos Borbon y Borbon. I may not agree with everything he has done (you all may be surprised, but I completely support his stance in the coup - Phalangism was great for Spain, and will be great for the other nations that need it, but it had done what it needed to do, and it was time for Spain to move to the next stage), but I respect him considerably. The late great Gen. Francisco Franco y Bahamonde did the right thing by seeing Juan Carlos to the throne.