The mortal remains of Blas Cabrera return to the Canary Islands from exile

The ashes of the Lanzarote scientist Blas Cabrera y Felipe, considered "the father of Spanish Physics", who died in Mexico in exile in 1945, arrived this Wednesday morning at Tenerife Norte Airport, in La Laguna (Tenerife), city where they will be buried next Saturday.

The return of Blas Cabrera's mortal remains from Mexico City has been promoted by the municipality 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 the citizens of La Laguna are invited to attend, the City Council has reported.

The urn with the ashes of Blas Cabrera has not arrived alone in La Laguna: the remains of his wife, María Sánchez Real, his son Blas Cabrera Sánchez and his granddaughter Rocío, who will also be buried in the San Luis cemetery, have also traveled.

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 in 1878, spent his childhood and youth in La Laguna and obtained 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.

He hosted Albert Einstein on his famous visit to Spain in 1923.

Between 1910 and 1934 he published hundreds of research papers, but also dissemination and dissemination of modern physical theories, a work recognized internationally.

After the military uprising against the Republic that led 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 university of the capital from 1941 until his death in 1945.

The Franco dictatorship removed him from his academic titles and recognitions in 1941, which were posthumously restored by the Government of Spain in 2018, at the proposal of the Ministers of Science, Pedro Duque, and Justice, Dolores Delgado.

"The return of Blas Cabrera to his homeland represents a historical reparation," declared the mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, who promoted a motion in the city council 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 entire childhood and youth and married a woman from La Laguna, and that is why now his relatives wanted his city of adoption to be "where the mortal remains of the father of Spanish Physics rest", commented Luis Yeray Gutiérrez.

For the first mayor, the return of Blas Cabrera to Spain "is an act of justice, and we must congratulate ourselves for it" and from now on "we have to continue working, together with the University of La Laguna, to better publicize his legacy and his contributions to the world of science." EFE