Matilde de la Torre’s Remains Return to Spain
Why this is here: The return included a performance using the bígaro, a traditional Cantabrian seashell wind instrument, connecting the event to de la Torre’s work collecting regional folklore and celebrating local heritage.
Matilde de la Torre’s remains were finally returned to Cabezón de la Sal, Spain, eighty years after her death in Mexican exile. She died unable to return to her homeland like many others forced into exile. The return offers an opportunity to remember a largely forgotten figure from Spanish history.
De la Torre served as one of the first female Spanish deputies, elected by Asturias in 1933 and 1936. She was a journalist, writer, educator, and feminist. In the 1920s, she founded an academy in Cabezón de la Sal and established the “Voces Cántabras” choir, collecting regional folklore.
The repatriation was a joint effort involving the Cabezón de la Sal town council, the Cantabrian government, and representatives from the Spanish Congress. Multiple institutions and political parties attended the interment, honoring her democratic legacy and the generation impacted by the dictatorship.