Alicante-Elche airport to be named after iconic poet Miguel Hernández, victim of Franco's régime
Monday, November 9, 2020 @ 10:22 PM
ALICANTE-ELCHE airport will be renamed after the Mediterranean province's most famous poet, Miguel Hernández – an announcement made on the exact day of what would have been his 110th birthday.
The literary icon, born in Orihuela, southern Alicante province, died young, a victim of dictator General Franco's forces.
Although sentenced to death when he was jailed in March 1940, aged 29, Hernández was not one of the estimated hundreds of thousands executed by firing squad; he caught tuberculosis whilst behind bars, and the permit for his transfer to the specialist hospital in Valencia came too late – he passed away on March 28, 1942 in the prison's medical wing.
Hernández, who was romantically linked for a time with celebrated artist Maruja Mallo and who was married to Josefina Manresa, had joined the Republicans and the Communist Party of Spain – a more socialist and 'pure' form of communism than that which characterised the countries east of the Iron Curtain, based upon shared wealth and guaranteed minimum living standards, and one of the main movements which opposed Franco's fascist régime.
Read full article at thinkSPAIN.com