A first step: Tenderly, a penitent encourages his son as the youngster prepares for his initial procession with a religious brotherhood during Holy Week in Valladolid. Yet as such traditional Easter pageants marched across Spain last year, the minds of its citizens were fixed on a revolutionary event just weeks away- free elections, th first in four decades.
As the dictatorship of Generalissimo Fransisco Franco fades in the wake of his death in 1975, a long-polarized nation once again strives for democracy with stability, as it often has during the past 165 years. The hurdles are formidable-bitter memories of a brutal civil war, demands from outlying regions for autonomy, an uncertain economy-but from many voices in the passionate debate, cautious optimism echoes. National Geographic, March 19788
