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One of the most recognisable structures in the Bay of Cádiz is about to get a new identity. The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has announced it is renaming the José León de Carranza Bridge after Rafael Alberti, the poet, playwright and one of the towering figures of Spanish literature. It's a change that's been a long time coming.

 

Carranza, after whom the bridge has been named since it opened in 1969, was a Francoist mayor for 21 years and an active participant in the 1936 coup. Under Spain's Democratic Memory Law, which requires the removal of public names and tributes that glorify those linked to the Franco dictatorship or the rebel side in the Civil War, keeping his name on one of Cádiz's key access points was simply no longer tenable.

 

The Ministry has been clear about the reasoning. "The new name not only guarantees compliance with current legislation," it stated, "but also transforms one of the key access points to the city of Cádiz into a space that recognises a leading figure in Spanish culture and the defence of freedoms."

 

And Rafael Alberti is a fitting choice. Born in El Puerto de Santa María on December 16 1902, into a family of vintners who had once supplied sherry to the crowned heads of Europe, he grew up to become one of the defining voices of the Generation of '27, the influential literary movement that reshaped Spanish poetry in the 1920s. He won numerous prizes throughout his life, went into exile after the Civil War because of his Marxist beliefs, and only returned to Spain after Franco's death. He was later named Hijo Predilecto de Andalucía and awarded an honorary doctorate by the Universidad de Cádiz. He died on October 28 1999, aged 96.

 

The bridge itself is a substantial piece of infrastructure, stretching 1,400 metres across 29 concrete spans plus a movable metal section. Nothing about its structure or function is changing, only the name on the signs. The Ministry has also recently invested €4.02 million in emergency repair works on one of the spans to keep it safe and operational.

 

Renaming a bridge won't settle every debate about how Spain confronts its past, but honouring a poet who was forced to flee his own country feels, for many, like a quietly significant gesture.

 

 

Images: wikicommons