Rafael Altamira The distinguished jurist who returns to his native Alicante 74 years after his death

More than seven decades have passed since death, in Mexico City, Rafael Altamira, jurist, literary, pedagogue, humanist and candidate for the Nobel Peace. The mortal remains of Altamira, a neighbor of El Campello, and his wife, Pilar Redondo, have been buried in his native Alicante town, under the presidency of Felipe VI. The act, held at the cemetery, took place this Monday, February 10 in the morning.

It has been the first act of a repriscle of Franco that the king has presided. The ceremony has begun in the cemetery, where the mortal remains of the distinguished jurist and his wife have received a burial in the funeral monument. They have attended relatives of the historian, such as María Luz Altamira García-Tapia, granddaughter of Altamira, and the great-grandson Ignacio Ramos Altamira, according to municipal sources. Also, regional and local authorities.

74 years after his death, in Mexico, and after a long life of exile, the mortal remains of the jurist and writer (who died in 1951) and his wife (in 1957) were transferred to Alicante last December. Exhumed in the cemetery of Mexico City, they were repatriated by plane to Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport, after 36 months of efforts and permits, according to the City Council of El Campello. Altamira himself declared to the press then: “When I am apart from the official life, I will retire to the corner of my most pleasant loves: A Campello.”

Once the act was finished, the head of the State was planned to move to the City of El Campello to sign in the Book of Honor. There will be a photograph of the monarch with the municipal government team.

A life in exile

The Altamira family, for generations, maintains close links with the Alicante town, where the lawyer’s parents and grandparents are buried. Rafael Altamira studied Law at the University of Valencia, where he met Blasco Ibáñez and Professor Eduardo Soler, who introduced Don Francisco Giner de los Ríos, Bartolomé Cossío and Joaquín Costa. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the writer went to Holland, to The Hague. Hitler’s invasion in the Netherlands forced him to take refuge in Bayonne (in France). There he lived until 1944. Invited by the Carnegie Foundation, he moved to New York to teach at Columbia University. A hip break due to an accident changed its course and moved to Mexico, where their two daughters lived exile: Pilar and Nela. He worked at the College of Mexico and UNAM.