Hola!, and welcome back to Spanish Loops. 

As always we bring you the human stories hiding behind history, and today’s chapter is a cracker: Ramón Franco, the daring aviator and paradoxical brother of General Francisco Franco. 

Ramón shot to fame after commanding the 1926 Plus Ultra transatlantic flight, a feat that made him a celebrity and symbol of modern Spain.

But Ramón’s politics and personality couldn’t have been more different from his sibling’s. He publicly clashed with the Primo de Rivera dictatorship, embraced republican and left-leaning causes in the 1930s, and lived a life full of bold gestures and sharp contradictions. 

This episode unpacks his achievements in aviation, his fiery confrontations with establishment figures, and his brief but intense political career during the tumultuous years of the Second Republic. 

We also examine the tragic, contested circumstances of his death: Ramón died when his seaplane crashed on October 28, 1938, at a time when his brother was rising to supreme power during the Civil War, a family rupture with resonances that last to this day. 

Tune in as we weave data over a fresh narration to tell the story of a man who defied expectation and became one of Spain’s most unforgettable, and misunderstood, historical figures. 

Listen, reflect, and decide what history should remember today.