WELCOME to the latest edition of ‘This Week in Spanish History’, written by Michael Coy.
24 JULY, 1895 – ROBERT GRAVES BORN
Perhaps you recall the 1970s TV series, I, Claudius.
You might also have read the First World War memoir  of a teenage army officer, ‘Goodbye to All That’.
In both cases, you were enjoying the work of writer Robert Graves. Badly psychologically damaged by the War, Graves moved to Mallorca in the 1920s to escape ‘all that’, meaning any kind of narrow, aggressive politics.
He lived in the Mallorcan village of Deia until his death in 1985, and is buried there.
24 JULY, 1936 – DEATH OF ONESIMO REDONDO
In its early days, Spanish Fascism presented itself as an idealistic – almost a romantic – movement.
The symbol of this ‘mystic’ Fascism was Onesimo Redondo of Valladolid.
Falling foul of General Franco (he tried to help one of Franco’s rivals to take power), Redondo had to flee to Portugal.
He was allowed to return when the Spanish Civil War broke out, on the strict understanding that he ‘redeemed’ himself by fighting in battle.
He was almost immediately killed outside Segovia. He was 30 years old.
24 JULY, 2005 – ROQUETAS DEL MAR INCIDENT
Roquetas del Mar is an attractive seaside resort, ten miles west of the city of Almeria.
On 24 July, 2005 a farmer named Juan Martinez walked into the Guardia Civil police station (known as a ‘cuartel’) to complain that he was being threatened by another road-user.
90 minutes later, without ever leaving the cuartel, he was dead.
Admittedly, Martinez was intoxicated with both alcohol and drugs, and reacted violently when officers proposed breathalysing him.
But killing him was clearly going too far. Three Guardia Civil went to prison.
24 JULY, 2013 – THE ANGROIS RAIL ACCIDENT
In Spain it’s known as ‘Angrois’, whereas expats know it better as ‘the Santiago crash’.
A high-speed train, hurtling from Madrid to the Galician port of Ferrol, derailed just outside Santiago de Compostela.
78 people were killed and almost 200 injured.
The train driver, Francisco Jose Garzon Arno, was found to have taken a curve at excessive speed.
Charged and convicted of causing death through professional recklessness, he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
The train company’s safety director was disqualified, and ten million euros was paid out to the victims and their families.
25 JULY, 1554 – MARY TUDOR MARRIES PHILIP OF SPAIN
Mary I was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and Catharine of Aragon.
Drawn to Spain by heritage and personal inclination, she led a frustrating and unhappy life: her attempts to undo England’s Protestant Reformation failed utterly.
When she married the Spanish king in 1554, she was already past child- bearing age, and she died only four years later, aged 42.
27 JULY, 1723 – LA GRANJA COMPLETED
Located 50 miles north of Madrid, on the outskirts of Segovia, the Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso is one of Spain’s little-known architectural treasures.
The summer residence of Spanish kings, it is laid out in the Versailles style, with ornate gardens and spectacular fountains.
La Granja (‘the farm’) is open to the public.
27 JULY, 1867 – GRANADOS BORN
Enrique Granados of Barcelona was a classical composer.
His work is much admired and often played, but it is the manner of his death for which he is best remembered.
Travelling to London at the height of the First World War was not a good idea.
His ship, the SS Sussex, was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in the English Channel, and Granados drowned.
27 JULY, 2017 – DEATH OF BABY LUCIA
Pizarra is a village about ten miles west of Malaga city.
Lucia Vivar was three years old when, on the evening of Wednesday, 26 July, 2017, she went missing.
The first strange thing is that she could hardly have been in a safer environment.
Her extended family – aunts, parents, cousins – was dining en masse at the bar called La Estacion.
Sadly, Lucia’s dead body was found next morning on the railway tracks.
How did a toddler leave a family gathering unobserved? And here’s the second strange thing – she died more than two miles away from the restaurant.
Did she walk all that way alone – or was she abducted?
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