The ashes of the Canarian scientist Blas Cabrera and Felipeconsidered as “the father of Spanish Physics”who died in exile in Mexico in 1945, arrived this Wednesday morning at Tenerife North Airport, in La Laguna (Tenerife), the city where they will be buried next Saturday.
The return of the mortal remains of Blas Cabrera from Mexico City has been promoted by the City Council of La Laguna with the support of the family, to be buried next Saturday in the San Luis cemetery, in a simple ceremony to which he is Lagunera citizens have been invited to attend, the City Council has informed.
The urn with the ashes of Blas Cabrera has not arrived in La Laguna alone: the remains of his wife, María Sánchez Real, his son Blas Cabrera Sánchez and his granddaughter Rocío have also traveled, who will also be buried in the San Luis.
Three grandchildren, a great-granddaughter and a great-great-granddaughter of the scientist attended the reception of the mortal remains of his relatives.
Blas Cabrera was born in Arrecife (Lanzarote) in 1878, spent his childhood and youth in La Laguna and received his doctorate in Physical Sciences in Madrid, where he was rector of the Central University, president of the Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, member of the Spanish Society of Physics and Chemistry and member of the Spanish Academy.
He was host to Albert Einstein on his famous visit to Spain in 1923.
Between 1910 and 1934 he published hundreds of research works, but also popularization and dissemination of modern physical theories, an internationally recognized work.
After the military uprising against the Republic that gave rise to the Civil War, Blas Cabrera went into exile like other Spanish scientists. He moved first to France and then to Mexico, where he was a professor at the capital’s university from 1941 until his death in 1945.
“The return of Blas Cabrera to his land represents a historical reparation”, declared the mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, who promoted a motion in the town hall for the municipality to assume this action.
He is “one of the great scientific personalities of the 20th century, 85 years ago he had to go into exile from our country due to the Civil War and now, finally, his remains return from Mexico to rest definitively in the San Luis cemetery”, declared the mayor.
He recalled that his family moved very soon from Arrecife to La Laguna, where he spent his childhood and youth and married a woman from La Laguna, and that is why now his relatives have wanted it to be in his adopted city “where the remains rest.” mortals of the father of Spanish Physics”, commented Luis Yeray Gutiérrez.
For the mayor, the return of Blas Cabrera to Spain “is an act of justice, and we should congratulate ourselves for it” and from now on “we have to continue working, together with the University of La Laguna, to make his legacy better known and his contributions to the world of science”.
