García de Cortázar dies, the “Castilian of Bilbao” who studied in Valladolid and Salamanca
The historian, who died this Sunday at the age of 79, forged his commitment to the Jesuits in Villagarcía de Campos
«I am a Castilian from Bilbao», said the historian Fernando García de Cortázar (who died this Sunday at the age of 79) in his countless visits to these plateau lands where his religious vocation was forged – «in Villagarcía de Campos, as a Jesuit, my homeland is”– and where he enriched his curriculum, with his studies in Philosophy and Letters at the University of Salamanca. «I myself have made myself in Castile. In Villagarcia de Campos. There I wrote ‘The myths of the History of Spain’ and climbed the Torozos to see those infinite seas».
“There is nothing more like an ocean than this land. On that bare land next to the sky, I shout like my countryman Unamuno: ‘I am Spanish by birth, education, body and spirit, language and even profession and trade’». This was explained in one of his participations in the Culture Hall of El Norte de Castilla, which he visited for the last time on March 31. That day, in the Recreo Circle, he once again underlined his ties with Castilla.
«My almost university and Jesuit childhood is in Valladolid. I entered the Society of Jesus in Villagarcía de Campos [hizo el juniorado entre 1961y 1962]». And he remembered that first day in which he arrived by bus from Bilbao. The last kilometers, from Tordesillas to the collegiate church of San Luis, were made by car, “the same means of transport in which the Jesuits had to flee from Spain after their expulsion [por orden de Carlos III, en 1767]».
“If gratitude is the memory of the heart, my heart has many kas of memory linked to Valladolid,” he said on his last visit to the city. “And it is not a concession to localism – let me know – but a thank you because in Valladolid you have been very happy.” His next destination was Salamanca. There they continued their studies, which they always took pride in considering the Charro University as “one of the main nurseries of European thought in the 16th century.”
“Salamanca was the spoiled child of kings and pontiffs and used its greatest moment of splendor between 1480 and 1580”, he recalled during the presentation of his latest book, ‘Landscapes of the History of Spain’ (Espasa), where he once rescued a place of Castilla y León that have been significant in the historical evolution of the country. From Numancia, in Soria (“it is our Troy”), to the hostel in Gredos, where “the fathers of the 1978 Constitution took refuge to fine-tune the text that they must present in the Cortes.”
And also, the first courts of Europe in León, the memory of Clunia or the wars of communities, with stages in Valladolid and Segovia. He said of this city that “whoever looks out at the Terminillo viewpoint will see the most beautiful perspective in Castile.”