José Estrañi y Grau
Commemoration at the Montañeses Studies Center of the 1st Centenary of the death
by the journalist and writer José Estrañi Grau (Albacete 1840-Santander 1919).
The important journalistic work of José Estrañi in Cantabria can be followed through The Mountain Voice, Santander newspaper of which he was editor-in-chief and of the newspaper The Cantabrian, that he would direct from the foundation until his death. The recent incorporation of both in the Digital Library of Historical Press of the Ministry of Culture allows access and searches that facilitate their contents to those interested from various perspectives.. We incorporate links to Prenta Historical with the purpose of facilitating the approach to the time and environment of José Estrañi and his journalistic figure. The originals of both titles are preserved in the Municipal Library of Santander.. In the following lines we incorporate some writings selected for your curiosity or interest. Conversations between José Estrañi and the statue of Pedro Velarde Two letters from José Estrañi to Eduardo Rado Gómez A few minutes after ten in the morning of the day 22 of
August of 1932, the car in which the president of the Republic was traveling, Niceto
Alcala Zamora, arrived at Pablo Iglesias Avenue (Today Queen Victoria), to inaugurate
the monument to José Estrañi. The owner of The Cantabrian,
Tomas Rivero, and the children and grandchildren of Estrañi. The monument, work of the artist Alfredo Felices, It is a semicircular bench with classic shapes, with a fountain in the middle, on which there was a high relief with the figure of the journalist wrapped in his cape, in bronze, which had been cast in Paris. The plaque with the high relief disappeared a few years later, but the source bank is preserved, with a plate on which, instead of reproducing the figure of the director of The Cantabrian, can be read: «To the journalist José Estrañi y Grau. 1840-1919. Tribute and memory of the town of Santander. April 1985» The centenary of the disappearance of Estrañi, It could be a good opportunity to reproduce Alfredo Felices' plate. Albino Alonso Madrazo (Santander, 15/09/1848 – Madrid, 6/01/1898) He was a journalist from Santander who began his career in Valladolid, where he met and was a friend of José Estrañi. With different fortune, he dedicated a good part of his activity to poetry., dedicating eight verses to his friend in 1875: years later, When Estrañi y Madrazo was already here, he directed a newspaper from Valladolid, that one dedicated a couple of rubbish to him. On the occasion of the review of a play by Estrañi that had been performed the day before: Two and a half years later he dedicated another one to his friend from Santander, encouraging him to return to Santander: I would still dedicate other verses to him, on a napkin, when Albino could not attend a guild banquet for health reasons. Verses that, when published by local newspapers, came out with the title TO OUR DEAREST FRIEND ALBINO MADRAZO: Views: 85
THE MONUMENT TO ESTRAÑI
