The Joan Manuel Serrat municipal building, in the town of Algete, Madrid, changes its name. It will now be called the Cruz Epifanio Fernández building, in honor of a distinguished neighbor who has been declared a Favorite Son of the Town of Algete. The City Council approved this on Thursday, with votes in favor from PP, UCIN, and Unión Santo Domingo, in an extraordinary closed-door session, a detail that has caused opposition rejection, as they denounce it suppresses transparency and citizen participation in a matter of public relevance.
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With the name change of the building located on Emilia Pardo Bazán street, the council ―governed by a coalition between the Popular Party, Union of Independent Citizens, and Unión Santo Domingo― recognizes Cruz Epifanio Fernández for his cultural, musical, educational, and social career, as well as his historical contribution to the life of the municipality. Although the appointment of Pifa ―as he is locally known― as favorite son is supported by the opposition, PSOE and the local party Vecinos por Algete, they also believe that the removal of Joan Manuel Serrat’s name has caused strong rejection among different social and cultural sectors of the town.
Juan Jesús Valle, spokesperson for the PSOE of Algete, is surprised by the council’s decision. “It seems unbelievable,” he comments reflecting on how they removed the name of the Catalan singer-songwriter from the building. He even recalls that Serrat was present at the inauguration in 2007. The PSOE of Algete has supported the recognition of Pifa but insists that a tribute could have been made without removing Joan Manuel Serrat’s name from the building, “a universal cultural figure loved and respected by entire generations.”
The change was approved the same day Serrat inaugurated the room bearing his name at the headquarters of the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE) in Madrid, and shortly after being recognized with the Honor Award from the Music Academy. Valle cites this recognition as an example of what Serrat represents for Spain and refutes the council’s argument about a supposed lack of the artist’s roots in Algete. “The worrying thing is not recognizing the career of a distinguished neighbor, something we fully share, but doing so at the expense of erasing the name of a widely recognized and beloved cultural figure by several generations,” the opposition states.
The controversy, the PSOE emphasizes, is also aggravated by the accelerated processing of the administrative file, “promoted through an urgent procedure to take it to an extraordinary session.” The opposition denounces that this way of acting “deliberately avoids a calm and consensual debate on a situation of evident symbolic and institutional weight.”
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The party Vecinos por Algete considers the institutional recognition of Cruz Epifanio Mateo “well deserved for his extraordinary cultural, musical, educational, and social career in Algete, as well as for his historical contribution to the life of the municipality.” However, the party maintains the allegations it presented in March during the public information period, defending the preservation of the current name of the Joan Manuel Serrat building, “considering it a cultural reference fully rooted among the neighbors for almost two decades,” according to Vecinos por Algete on its website.
The situation in Algete recalls what happened in 2024 when the Alpedrete City Council, also in the Community of Madrid, removed the names of Asunción Balaguer and Paco Rabal ―actors, married couple, and residents of the town― from a cultural center and a square, respectively. The artists’ children expressed their displeasure with the change, and the story continued with neighborhood protests and even a public reprimand from Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Finally, the council reversed the decision and kept both names.
The municipal government, led by the Popular Fernando Romo, defends the merits of Don Cruz Epifanio Mateo Fernández, as a teacher, director of the Villa de Algete Music Band, and promoter of local cultural initiatives, against the “lack of roots” and “direct connection” of Joan Manuel Serrat with the municipality. The council insists that there is no other center in the municipality that meets the characteristics that coincide with Pifa’s merits regarding the type of activities carried out. They also state that the neighbors are expressing their agreement with the controversial name change.
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