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I am always grateful that someone remembers my grandfather, the eminent cardiologist, Luis Calandre Ibáñez.
This has just happened, in a video that includes the presentation of an interesting biography, that of doctor German Somolinoswhich took place recently in the National Museum of Natural Sciences of Madrid, with the participation of the project coordinator, the CSIC researcher, Leoncio López-Ocon. The website is titled “De Madrid to Mexicothe career of the medical historian German Somolinos”.
What times those were, of friendships and hopes for a better and fairer Spain! and that they all paid so dearly
We can see that in the 48th minute, Somolinos acknowledges his teacher, Dr. Luis Calandre Ibáñezwhen he explains how he introduced him to research into the histology of the heart, encouraged by the master of doctors, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who recognizes Calandre as being from his school, but not directly through the study of the brain, but of the heart. A critical note about the video is that at minute 52, Leoncio, tells us that Luis Calandre belonged to the Board of Trustees of the “National Heritage”, when he should say that he was a member of the Board of Directors, of the “Heritage of the Republic”, which is what it was called in those republican years. National Heritage is the name that the Franco regime gave to the Heritage of the Republic. At the end of the Spanish War, while they changed their name, they were given a Summary War Council of 20 members of that Patrimony of the Republic, including the health member, Luis Calandre. and that he interfered very negatively in the other 2 courts-martial that he was being instructed on.
A sign of the great appreciation and respect that German Somolinos had for his teacher, they are your letterswhich we keep in the family archive, and I want to comment on one, from 1947, from Mexico, where he remembers with the nostalgia of an exile, the visit of Isabel García Lorca, the older sister of the poet Federico, and how they commented on Calandre’s visits to the institutionalist families of Fernando de los Ríos and his wife Gloria Giner de los Ríos (niece of Francisco Giner de los Ríos), and Laura, their daughter.
What times those were, of friendships and hopes for a better and fairer Spain! and that they all paid so dearly.
Laura married Francisco García Lorca, diplomat and brother of the poet, Federico García Lorca. They had three daughters, who, along with other people, collaborated in the destruction of the legacy, heritage and republican history of an institution, such as the Student Residence, which belonged to the Board for the Expansion of Scientific Studies and Research (JAE).
I explain, once again, and for 15 years now, this black episode by the García Lorca family and others.
On January 1, 1986, Spain enters the European Communityand the PSOE In power, with Minister of Culture Javier Solana, they are looking for ways to make a backward country with an unbearable Francoist odor more presentable.
It occurred to them to return to forgotten legacies, such as that of the poet Federico, and the García Lorca Foundation was created, placing his legacy in the Residence that, that same year 1986, the new Student Residence was created, this time, of the Francoist, CSIC. We see, everything very synchronized.
The drafting team of the partial plan of Poplar Hillto study the place, and skipping a rigorous study of the subsoil and the history of the Carabineros Hospital during the war (1936-39), the rehabilitation works begin that last 10 years or more.
The team of architects, they direct it, Estanislao Pérez Pita and Jerónimo Junqueraand an anti-aircraft shelter located underground, built by the Second Republic in 1937to protect the militiamen who were being treated for a malaria epidemic in the Hospital directed by the eminent doctor Luis Calandre Ibáñez. One of these architects was married to the poet’s niece, Gloryand both architects were alumni of the Estudio school, which I, my brother, and my cousin attended. Beatriz Moles Calandre.
What a shame, to participate in the destruction of republican heritage, the nieces of Federico García Lorca, granddaughters of Fernando de los Ríos and Gloria Giner de los Ríos, who were such friends of the Calandres! AND Javier Solana Madarigasocialist minister, how he dared to launch such a destructive rehabilitation, knowingly.
Of course, those who mostly controlled the Opus Deihe CSICdelighted, and not to mention the construction companies, like FCC, that had Francoist directors, like one with a last name Polo Serrano Suñer. Everyone is happy, but it loses the legacy of the Free Institution of Education (ILE), the Republican History of the Popular front and the cardiologist Luis Calandre Ibáñez.
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