[zechariah]

I understand that errors of translation occur. However, "viva la mort" seems neither fish nor fowl; "Long Live Death!" would be vive la Mort in French, and viva el Muerto in Spanish.

Ok, sorry to nitpick here, but is viva el Muerto supposed to be Old Spanish, or something? 'Cause in modern Spanish "Long live death" would be translated: Que viva la muerte.

[z]

[B-Chan]

My workaday knowledge of Tex-Mex newspaper Spanish (I live in Texas) certainly doesn't qualify me as an expert , but if I'm not mistaken the idiom el Muerto refers to Death personified, as in the Grim Reaper, while la muerte is just plain old biological death.

The phrase itself is Castilian. The quote and information to which I refer in my post is taken from El Caudillo: a Political Biography of Franco (J.W.D. Trythall; McGraw-Hill, 1970, LCCCN 0-107298, p. 34).