PARES | Spanish Archives

Identification

Type:

Person

Preferred form:

Montero Diaz, Santiago (1911-1985)

Fechas de existencia:

Ferrol (A Coruña, España) 1911-01-29 - Madrid (España) 1985-07-24 (1985-07-24)

History:

Spanish professor.

Born in Ferrol (A Coruña) in 1911. He spent his childhood in Cuba; in 1922 he returned to Spain and further on, he enrolled in the Philosophy and Letters Faculty of Santiago de Compostela's University, where he was an assistant teacher. In 1931, he entered the Faculty of Archivists, Librarians and Archaeologists, and worked as a librarian in the National Library of Madrid and the Santiago de Compostela's University.

Defensor of the Spanish nationalism, but also close to an autonomist idea of Spain. From 1931 he joined the military in the Communist Party, but he abandonned this position when he saw the direction the party was going. Subsequently he had a protracted dispute with the Galician nationalism, which lead him to support Ramiro Ledesma's ideology and to militate in the JONS. In 1936 he obtained the professorship in Murcia's University, being one of the youngest Spanish teachers in entering the body.

With the Civil War, he took refuge in a diplomatic legation in Madrid, and after collaborating with the Quinta Columna he was able to abandon the Republican zone. He was a defensor untl the end of the alignement of Spain with the Axis of the Second World War, criticising the francoist stance in this sphere, supposing his temporal confinement. When the war ended he got back to Murcia's University, of which he became dean. In 1940 he got the professorship of Ancient and Medieval History in Madrid's Central University. In 1965 he was suspended from employment and pay for his participation -together with other professors like Tierno Galván (1918-1986) o Agustín García Calvo (1926-2012)- in an anti-francoist manifestation in Madrid's Central University, so he went into exile to Chile, together with his wife Carmen Herrero Albiñana and their children Santiago and Carmen. There, he entered in contact with the MIR left-wing movement until the year 1967, when he returned to Spain, and continued witih his academic actvity in the Complutese University until 1981, year of his retirement. He passed away in Madrid in 1985.

Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

Date of the event: 1936 - 1939