¡Madrid, Madrid! ¡Qué bien tu nombre suena, / rompeolas de todas las Españas! / La tierra se desgarra, el cielo truena, / tú sonríes como plomo en las entrañas… (Antonio Machado)
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According to the poets, progressive intellectuals and political agitators of the 19th century, the noble part of the nation had to be in the poor part. The nobility of Spain lay in its men and women who cultivated its fields and built its roads, those who spoke their language clearly and preserved in their style the finest tradition of their centuries.
The parents of Ramón Espinar, who passed away on September 3, belonged to that common people. They emigrated in search of work through several cities in La Mancha and Andalusia until they ended up in Leganés, a city that elected Ramón mayor by absolute majority when he finished his Law degree at the Complutense University of Madrid.
My friend Ramón, who was always a true social democrat and a tireless worker, was elected president of the Assembly of Madrid in 1979, from which he exercised a permanent defense of the rule of law and the application of the rules of parliamentary democracy, according to the teachings instilled in us by our common teacher Gregorio Peces-Barba Martínez who in his desires for greater democracy always understood that the alternative in power is characteristic of representative democracy and that even its temporary limitations are consubstantial with democracy, both change and reversibility.
Ramón Espinar was, in my opinion, one of the great promoters of the Community of Madrid and its institutions, which at the time of its constitution was overshadowed by the city of Madrid, capital of Spain.
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His permanent dedication to the project of what should be the constitution of a useful and attractive autonomous community for Madrid citizens was also very noticeable, from his position as head of the Ministry of Culture and later that of Finance. Thus, in 1987, he established the Autumn Festival and the Cultural Autumns which were on par with the Paris Autumn Festival and for this he mobilized the Teatro Real, the Teatro Español and auditoriums and coliseums, not only in Madrid capital but in numerous towns, and brought theater directors and numerous international companies to Spain for the first time. Among them, Peter Brook, Pina Bausch, Giorgio Strehler, Peter Stein, Luca Ronconi, Robert Wilson, Patrice Chéreaum, Maurice Béjart and Roberto Lepage. Orchestra conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Ricardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Daniel Barenboim, Ken Nagano, Cristóbal Halffter, Luis de Pablo or Antonio Ros-Marbá, and singers such as Montserrat Caballé, Alfredo Kraus, Teresa Berganza, José Carreras, Victoria de los Ángeles or Plácido Domingo. And also in 1987 the ORCAM orchestra was created, which today is directed by Alondra de la Parra and has become an important orchestra. Also, in the field of plastic arts, the Community of Madrid promoted important exhibitions by Antonio Saura, Antoni Tàpies, Eduardo Chillida, José Hernández and Miquel Barceló and, for the first time in Spain, a major exhibition of the extraordinary painter Anselm Kiefer was organized in the Palacio de Cristal of El Retiro.
The Ministry of Finance was also a great institutional instrument that updated tax regulations to make them more equitable and appropriate to the principle of progressivity, also favoring business freedom and the promotion of Madrid’s industrialization.
Many times I heard him speak of his concern for the stimulus of science applied to innovation as a great source of knowledge transfer, differentiation and value for companies and of progress and well-being for the whole of Madrid society which, from then on, became a powerful and modern industrial society.
Ramón started young and knew when to retire, but he never hesitated to collaborate with subsequent governments of the Community of Madrid, whatever their political affiliation, when his disinterested help was requested.
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Rest in peace.
