Franco is Dead! !Viva Espana! is a visual dialogue between poems and photographs, and a celebration of a place distant in time. It is a Spain of shepherds and road menders, fishermen, and old women in black, forever mourning – a country awakening to democracy after the long dictatorship of Generalissimo Franco.

Explore a record of the miracle of chance occurrences that first took author Barbara Strelke to Spain in 1977, a miracle that has taken her back a dozen times more.
Relish this sensitive evocation of a place. Through Strelke’s eyes, you will discover a majestic landscape seen from mountain trails in the book’s first chapter, and on to more delights in the chapters that follow.

Strelke’s love affair with Spain is her way of portraying and marking the passage of time. Hiking becomes a metaphor for negotiating the peaks and valleys of life – grieving the death of her first husband, moving on and moving forward, finding a new love and joy amid the challenges of aging.

With the eyes of a photographer and the heart of a poet, Strelke weaves a tapestry of life that welcomes the reader to enter and enjoy.