Mérida (EFE).- A part of the remains of the Extremaduran conquistador Hernán Cortés and the relics of his burial are already in Extremadura, after an “exciting” trip that brought him to Spain in 1946 at the hands of the pharmacist Leonardo Gutiérrez Colomer and that their descendants have handed over to the Junta de Extremadura.
This was announced this Friday in Mérida by the acting president of the Board, Guillermo Fernández Vara, and Matilde Muro, president of the Union of Bibliophiles of Extremadura (UBEx) and a “fundamental piece” in the entire process, since from the very beginning The moment the descendants of Gutiérrez Colomer contacted her, she became “something sick”, as she has related.
The story begins in 2021, when an acquaintance tells her that there is a family -the Gutiérrez Colomer-Zunzunegui- who want to contact her to talk about some of her grandfather’s belongings, which her father has left them, and with whom “they do not know to do”.
The story begins in 2021, when an acquaintance tells her that there is a family -the Gutiérrez Colomer-Zunzunegui- who want to contact her to talk about some of her grandfather’s belongings, which her father has left them, and with whom “they do not know to do”.
To her surprise, it is part of the remains of Hernán Cortés and relics, says Matilde Muro, who considers herself a “talker” but today has no words.
He acknowledges that this had an “almost sickening” effect on him and has thanked the generosity of the family, who has been unable to do anything in return and whose only wish is that the remains “rest where they deserve and with the honor and glory they believe this person”.
Who was Leonardo Gutierrez?
As detailed, Leonardo Guiérrez Colomer, a native of Santander and settled in Madrid, was a highly accredited pharmacist at that time, interested in botanical research, who traveled frequently to Mexico, where he empathized with a Mexican historian, who when in 1946 found the remains of Cortés, who had been lost for 136 years, understood that a part of the relics should rest in Spain.
However, despite the innumerable attempts before the Franco government at the time, “nobody wanted to know about the issue”, perhaps, according to Muro, because it did not help that Cortés was “a much-discussed character, with his lights and shadows, like all ” but that had a great historical trajectory.
With the passing of the years, Gutiérrez Colomer “threw in the towel”, but he left the commission to his son, who also tried without success, to the point that in the family this matter of the remains is spoken of as “el temita” .
Matilde Muro explained that from the moment she contacted the Board, “there was never any doubt” of the veracity and it was treated with the necessary discretion.
The study of the Provincial Historical Museum of Cáceres
After receiving the remains and all the documentation that accredits the entire process, the Provincial Historical Museum of Cáceres has been investigating and comparing the material before making it known.
“Today I am a bit of a widow of Hernán Cortés”, Matilde Muro has confessed, who has highlighted the importance for her that they have rest for these remains and what it means for Extremadura “to receive Hernán Cortés at home again”.
Regarding where the challenges and relics have to rest, he is forceful in stating that it has to be Medellín, his hometown, and he recalled that due to his profession he has worked a lot with the emigrant population “and the dream of an emigrant, when he dies, it is being at home” and “Hernán Cortés does not stop being an emigrant”.
For his part, Fernández Vara, who has described the story as exciting, has pointed out the idea that the Board and the City Council, currently in office, had, is that they be deposited in Medellín, but it is a matter that is now in the hands of what the the new government of Extremadura and the city council of Medellín decide.
In the act of this Friday, the Book “El secreto” was presented, which Matilde Muro tells in detail about the entire process, and the box containing the documentation, and several envelopes in which there are bone powders from Hernán Cortés, another with part of the lead and glass of the urn and of velvet that wrapped the urn.