Museum honors Gilberto Bosques, Mexican diplomat
Gilberto Bosques (1892-1995), the Mexican diplomat who saved thousands of lives of anti-fascist European refugees in the wake of the Spanish Civil War and the outbreak of World War II, has been honored with the opening of his own museum in Puebla, La Jornada reports. Mexican president Lázaro Cárdenas appointed Bosques consul to Paris in 1939; after the German occupation of the French capital, he transferred to Marseilles. Bosques worked hard to assist thousands of Spanish Republicans still detained in concentration camps in Southern France–helping convince Cárdenas to open Mexico’s doors to an unlimited number of Spaniards, and renting two castles to house Republican refugees whose asylum requests were in pcoess–as well as Jewish refugees trying to make it to safety. Arrested by the Germans in 1942, Bosques and his family were allowed to travel back to Mexico after a prisoner exchange. Among the many individuals whose lives Bosques helped save were some prominent intellectuals, including María Zambrano, Carl Aylwin, Manuel Altolaguirre, Wolfgang Paalen, Max Aub, Marietta Blau, Egon Erwin Kisch, Ernst Röemer, and Walter Gruen. More on the museum here.
