REVISTA ESPAÑOLA
DE HISTORIA DE LAS CIENCIAS DE LA NATURALEZA
Y DE LA TECNOLOGÍA
SPANISH JOURNAL OF HISTORY OF NATURAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
Historia de la Biología.
Facultad de Biología.
Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
DL: M-34954-1995. ISSN:
1136-2049.
1995. Vol I. Review nº 2.
Irene Claremont de Castillejo. Respaldada
por el viento. (Madrid, Editorial Castalia,1995).
ISBN: 84-7039-716-8
2.000 ptas.
Translation and introduction of Jacinta Castillejo.
The present book is not exactly a work on history of science, but has a certain value for the interested in this discipline by presenting the recollections of Irene Claremont, wife of José Castillejo Duarte, secretary and authentic 'alma mater' of the ‘Junta para la Amplicación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas’, the spanish scientific institution more important of the first third of the 20 th century.
Many of interested persons in this stage knew this work, whose original title is: I married to stranger, by secondary references or by the copy, more or less clandestine, of the original; fit be congratulated, thus, by its appearance in the Spanish editorial panorama, because the work provides a direct testimony of such stage.
Though in the book is made reference to the intellectual environment of Spain in the beggining of this century, of which Irene Claremont says that was of an overwhelming height, the protagonist is, without doubt, José Castillejo. The authoress emphasizes the multiple facets of the personality of her husband: the simplicity and rusticity of the Castilian, the rigor and moral austerity, the cunning sense of humor,... etc. composing an amiable portrait of Castillejo, but far from the flattery or the excessive admiration.
For the historian of Spanish science is especially interesting the summary of Castillejo's work to the front of the Junta (chapters V-VII). Compared more academic reports of Castillejo: "Education and revolution in Spain". London Institute of Education, Studies and Reports, nº XII, (1937); Wars of ideas in Spain. Philosophy, Politics and Education (London, John Murray, 1937), and its Spanish translation, Guerra de ideas en España (Madrid, Bibliteca de la Revista de Occidente, 1976), the testimony of Irene Claremont provides the vision of someone that lived the process closely, without be directly involved in it and her statement is plagued by interesting anecdotes, that exemplify perfectly the spirit of the Junta and the activity of its secretary.
There are, also, some final chapters, very interesting, on the ups and downs suffered by Castillejo and his family after the outbreak of the civil war and the exile in Suiza and England. After the tragic story of the situation of Castillejo in Madrid on the summer 1936, where his life was in serious danger, his figure is blurred, in favor of the statement of the family’s luck, exemplifying the dramatic destination of so many Spanish and European families in the central years of the 20th century. Castillejo, nevertheless, recovers protagonism in the last chapter, where are reported his last years in the exile and his final disease.
The book, in short, is an amiable portrait, affectionate and profoundly human, that is complemented with a photographs collection, many of them unpublished, and constituted in an indispensable source to understand the personality and the work developed by the most important managing of the Spanish scientific policy of 20 th century.
Luis Alfredo Baratas Díaz.