Portal de Cartagena
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The councilor of the area of ​​Quality of Life, Francisco Calderón, presented this morning, at the Institute of Secondary Education Jiménez de la Espada, the next celebration of a day dedicated to the figure of the zoologist, explorer and scientist Cartagena, Marcos Jimenez de la Sword (1831 - 1898).
Calderón has been accompanied by IES director Jiménez de la Espada, José Miguel Fernández;
the historian and discoverer of the bust of Jiménez de la Espada, Diego Ortiz, as well as the historian, documentalist and official chronicler of Cartagena, Luis Miguel Perez Adán.
'The adventure of rediscovering Jiménez de la Espada' is a day organized by the Culture and Heritage area headed by Ricardo Segado, on the occasion of the discovery and subsequent placement in the city of the bust of the Cartagena scientist.
This activity will be held in the old chapel of IES Jiménez de la Espada on Thursday, September 28, starting at 18:30 hours, bringing the figure of this illustrious Cartagena through the papers of the scientific researcher and member of the Center of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Leoncio Pérez-Ocón, as well as those cited Diego Ortiz and Luis Miguel Pérez Adán.
Francisco Calderón explained that "from the area of ​​Culture and Heritage it has been considered convenient to carry out this day to publicize the achievements of this illustrious cartagenero, who was a zoologist, explorer and writer."
The mayor thanked the collaboration of those responsible for the educational center who "kindly offered to collaborate in the development of the activity, making available to all attendees their facilities," remembering that the bust of Jiménez de la Espada "has seen the light after 81 years without anyone identifying it.
The first time he learned of his existence at the municipal facilities was in 1995, when he was not able to name him. "
The director of the IES Jiménez de la Espada, José Miguel Fernández, highlighted "the pride that this institute has to collaborate in an act of recognition for the important work that Marcos Jiménez de la Espada did," while Diego Ortiz has said that "the bust faces who for many Cartagena was only an institute or a street, from now on they will know who Jiménez de la Espada was."
Finally, Luis Miguel Perez Adán has pondered the value "to recover for Cartagena the historical figure of the extraordinary zoologist who was Jiménez de la Espada."
The presentation has concluded with a family photo next to the bust of Marcos Jiménez de la Espada that is already located on the islet that connects the Paseo Alfonso XIII with the Plaza de España, next to the institute of the same name.
Thanks to this action, promoted by the areas of Sustainable Development and Culture and Heritage, citizens have a new public space where they can see the bust, installed on a pedestal, of the illustrious Cartagena scientist.
In addition, the island has been expanded and banks have been set up for the rest and use of the neighbors.
This initiative gives continuity to the policy of betting on the collective knowledge of the history of Cartagena, as well as its most illustrious children.
JIMÉNEZ DE LA ESPADA
Marcos Jiménez de la Espada (Cartagena, 1831 - Madrid, 1898) was a Spanish scientist, zoologist, explorer and writer.
He is known for participating in the so-called Scientific Commission of the Pacific, the largest carried out by Spain in America after losing most of its colonies in this continent, traversed by Jiménez de la Espada and his companions between 1862 and 1865. The objective was to collect materials of zoological, botanical, geological and anthropological interest, destined to the Museum of Natural Sciences and the Botanical Garden of Madrid.
Returning to Spain in December 1865, Jiménez de la Espada rejoined his posts in the Museum of Natural Sciences and the University of Madrid.
For more than six years his work consisted of ordering and studying the zoological material collected in America and preparing the corresponding publications.
The effigy was sculpted in 1928 by Lorenzo Coullaut Valera, an Andalusian artist, and moved to Cartagena in 1936, after being exhibited at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid and the Botanical Garden, also in the capital.
With the beginning of the Civil War, the bust was left in the municipal facilities, losing its memory until today.
The image was damaged, being restored by Pilar Vallalta.
It should be noted that it was already planned to place a bust in a public park in Cartagena in honor of the emblematic Cartagena Jiménez Marcos de la Espada around 1925. Instead, this sculpture arrived in Cartagena, was forgotten and even lost the memory of the person represented.
Source: Ayuntamiento de Cartagena
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