The UV hosts the reparation UV victims after the Spanish Civil War

In 2022, the Universitat de València, from Dr Marc Baldó’s research, full-time university professor emeritus of Contemporary History at the UV, the effort in seeking documentation in archives, and the location of the relatives of those who, as members of the Universitat de València, were victims of Francoism and the Spanish Civil War.

The GoverningCouncil, gathered in an ordinary session on 29 April, 2022, authorised the UV governing body to start working, from the Principal’s bureau, on the request for the reparation identified UV victims in order to presented in front of the Spanish Government, with the constitutional protection stipulated in article four of Law 52/2007, which recognises and extends rights and establishes measures in favour of the people who suffered persecution or violence during the Spanish Civil War and the Dictatorship.

In the ceremony, the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities gave, in the name of the Spanish Government, the documents for the reparation.

Doorkeepers, professors, deans, general secretaries and vice-principals, victims of the regime

The Principal of the UV received the certificates for reparation of the faculty doorkeepers Juan Bautista Gomar Momó and José Casanova Gilibars, as well as chief negotiators Enrique Muñoz Gallego and Natalio Moraleja Rodríguez.

The niece of professor José Peset Llorca, whose appointment as UV professor was annulled at the end of the Spanish Civil War, received, on behalf of her family, his reparation.

Professors Francisco Guix Genovés and Manuel Beltrán Báguena, of the Faculty of Medicine; Niceto Alcalá-Zamora y Castillo, son of the president of the Republic, of the Faculty of Law; Salvador Velayos Hermida, of the Faculty of Sciences; and José Deleito Piñuela, of the Faculty of Philosophy, purged at the end of the Spanish Civil War, were given reparations from the Spanish Government, and María Vicenta Mestre, Principal of the University, received the corresponding documents.

Professor Manuel Usano Martín was denied the extension of his contract and took up exile in the United States, where he worked as medical director Pfizer Laboratories. His daughter, Mireya Usano Crespo, received his documentation for the reparation.

The secretaries of the Faculty of Sciences, Professors José Morera Arrix and León Le Boucher, also were given reparations in this ceremony.

Additionally, Professor Emili Gómez Nadal, secretary of the Faculty of Sciences, was given reparations, where the UV received, in the name of his son, Antonio Gómez Andrés, the corresponding document.

The UV also received the reparation documents of the dean of the Faculty of Law, José María Ots Capdequí, and the dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Luis Urtubey Rebollo; the UV general secretaries, Salvador Lacasta España and Francisco Sierra Jiménez; and the vice-principal Luis Gonzalvo París, founder of the Laboratory of Archaeology of the Universitat de València.

The purged principals of Franco’s Spain

In this ceremony, the reparation document of principals Ramón Velasco Pajares and José Puche Álvarez were given to the Universitat de València.

As a full-time university professor of Political Geography at the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts of the UV, principal Velasco was previously dean of that faculty and, later, vice-principal of the UV. Named accidental principal of the UV on 1 June 1938 till 29 March 1939, he was forcefully retired.

Princpal José Puche, full-time university professor of the Faculty of Medicine of the UV, quit the office of the Principal during the war, attending to the request of the president of the republican government, Juan Negrín, to assume the general directorate of Health.

At the end of the Spanish Civil War, he had a relevant role in Mexico, supporting Spanish exiles at the request of the government of the Second Spanish Republic. He worked as a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and was one of the founders and presidents of the Ateneo Español de México (Spanish Athenaeum of Mexico) in Mexico City, his place of death.

The UV keeps working on the identification of victims, as well as the search of documentation that allows for the reparation of identified victims, like Principal Mariano Gómez González, who was the president of the Supreme Court during the Spanish Civil War and died in exile in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Peset Aleixandre, the executed principal

During the process of getting reparations for the victims, the family of Dr Joan Baptista Peset Aleixandre had already started the process for his reparations.

Full-time university professor of Legal Medicine, Toxicology and Psychiatry, Peset Aleixandre was the dean of the Faculty of Medicine between 1930 and 1931 and later the principal of the University until his resignation in 1934. In 1936, he was elected as legislator in Valencia as the candidate of Popular Front.

He was detained and incarcerated in the concentration camps of Albatera, Potacoeli and at la Modelo prison of Valencia, he was sentenced to death on 4 March 1940, “proposing to the Council a pardon to avoid capital punishment and nd its substitution for the next lower penalty on the merits of what has been exposed.”

In the second sentence of the War Council, on 25 March 1940, Joan Baptista Peset Aleixandre was condemned to death, establishing that “he proceeded to abstain himself of requesting the commutation of the imposed penalty on the merits of what has been exposed in the last recital.”

After being tried by the Court of Political Responsibilities and later executed, he was fined.

The execution took place in the cemetery of Paterna on 21 May 1941.

Maria José Peset, granddaughter of Principal Peset, received the reparation document by the hands of the pinister and the principal in this ceremony as a homage from the academic authorities and the public in the room.