There have been no tears of sadness, but there have been tears of emotion, at the burial in his Canarian land of the remains of the scientist Blas Cabrera Felipe, who died in exile in Mexico in 1945: “Burials are not happy moments, but this one is.”
How Santa Cruz de Tenerife became a city of propaganda and exaltation of Francoism
Know more
These are the words of Luis Blas Cabrera, grandson of the great Spanish physicist of the first half of the 20th century, friend of Einstein and Curie, whose ashes, along with those of his wife María Sánchez, his son Blas and his granddaughter Rocío, have been buried this Saturday in the cemetery of San Luis, in La Laguna (Tenerife), after his transfer from Mexico.
The family of Blas Cabrera, the City Council of La Laguna, the University of La Laguna and the Consulate of Mexico have collaborated for this “joyful” ending, as all the protagonists have agreed to celebrate.
He was born in Arrecife (Lanzarote) in 1878 and his childhood and youth were spent in La Laguna, before obtaining a 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.
In 1937 he went into exile in France, a country he left to move to Mexico in 1941, the same year in which the Franco regime stripped him of all his degrees and academic awards, which were not restored to him by the Spanish Government until 2018.
Franco never allowed him to return and only authorized him to cross the country by train in 1941 to embark in Lisbon for Mexico, according to his grandson Luis Blas.
From Irún to the Portuguese border he was unable to get off the train “not even to have a coffee”, so that he would not set foot on Spanish soil, and only his brothers José, Juan and Guillermo were able to accompany him on the journey.
“My father, who was the only one of his children who was on the peninsula, was not allowed to go up and say goodbye to my grandfather,” laments Luis Blas.
In Mexico City, where he died in 1945, he lived with his family in a small apartment on Avenida de los Insurgentes, and shortly after they moved “to a little better apartment, also modest” in the Plaza de Río de Janeiro. Mexico gave him a chair that allowed him to teach at the University while he and his legacy were forgotten by Spain.
Jorge Méndez Ramos, professor of physics at the University of La Laguna and one of the architects of the return of Cabrera’s remains, outlines what this legacy is: “He is known as the father of Spanish physics because he founded the first research institute in physics, but it can also be said that he is one of the fathers of quantum physics, of the nanotechnology that surrounds us now, a friend of Einstein, Curie, Schrödinger, Bohr…”.
“Now that you talk about rare earths, he studied rare earth magnetism a hundred years ago. When we go to do an MRI in a hospital, the science of Blas Cabrera is behind it”, he highlights.
“It is necessary to continue recovering a memory that was erased and of which any country should feel proud,” he claims.
Méndez has just directed the SHIFT 2022 scientific congress at the University of La Laguna, focused on the fields of nanotechnology and photonics and with the presence of scientists from 80 universities from 29 countries.
And this is another reason for joy for Méndez, that his return coincides with this international symposium, precisely because Blas Cabrera, before the Civil War, was preparing a conference on science in La Laguna for September 1936 that was never held.
Jorge Méndez’s next fight is to support the family of Blas Cabrera in the recovery of an important manuscript that the scientist concluded in Mexico, history of physicswhich at some point was loaned for an exhibition and remained in private hands.
That manuscript is of “great historical heritage value” for the country, which is why it must be recovered, but it is not easy, as the descendants of Blas Cabrera acknowledge.
The exile of so many Spaniards welcomed in Mexico was “a shame for Spain, but a great wealth for us”, comments the honorary consul of Mexico in the Canary Islands, María Ángeles Baca Herrejón, after the funeral. “One of my great teachers was a Republican economist, he formed the Angeles that exists today.”
The consul was commissioned by the City Council of La Laguna to bring the remains of Blas Cabrera and traveled to Mexico “loaded with papers” provided by the family.
With the good fortune that along the way he only found “people who wanted to help”, such as the professionals of Funeraria 2 Norte, who behaved “fabulous”.
She herself and her husband chose the Mexican marble urns in which the ashes of the Cabrera family rest after their exhumation in Mexico, of which twelve people were witnesses.
“Mexico took care of Blas Cabrera, we welcomed him with love for 85 years, and Mexico brought him to the Canary Islands because he has to rest in his land. We are brothers and it has been an honor to participate in this happy moment”, proclaims María Ángeles Baca.
The “joy and enthusiasm” for “doing justice with history” were the feelings that the mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, also wanted to convey at this funeral.
“Blas Cabrera returns to where he wanted to be in his last days, to the municipality that gave him the opportunity to become one of the most important physicists in universal history. The family, the City Council, the University and the Consulate have managed to ensure that his remains and those of his family rest on his land”.
