Words cannot describe the pain the people of Gibraltar and of La Linea de la Concepcion went through during Francoist Spain. Right from the Spanish Civil War up until this very day, the people on both sides still remember and suffer from the right-wing idealogy he instilled.

Look at this image: https://i.imgur.com/2gdXj3W.jpg

It shows a family, shouting to communicate with their brothers, sisters, cousins, mothers, fathers... about how they wish eachother a happy birthday, or to tell them of another's passing. It shows, looking from democratic Gibraltar into fascist Spain, a closed frontier, where one gate remains open and another closed. It shows the affects of an ignorant way of thinking, where malicious decisions are made hundreds of miles away from the people that it damages.

The people in that image, and not in that image, didn't choose that way of international relations. The Francoist Government did, believing Gibraltar to be a "ripe fruit" that will drop if they strangle it long enough. They were wrong: those year drove Gibraltar to become more independent away from Spanish resources, and unimaginably close with the British identity.

If you really want to research this topic, watch this documentary: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2078660/