The Secretary of State for Democratic Memory points to the Sargentada and the Constitution of Cadiz as the germ of the rights and freedoms of our Constitution.

• Fernando Martínez López assures that “that seed that was sown by the constituents of Cadiz and the sergeants of La Granja, was taken up by the democrats and expressed in the great constitutions of Spain, such as that of 69, that of 31 and fundamentally that of 78”. • Participates in the institutional act of the 187 anniversary of the Sargentada in the City Hall of the Real Sitio de San Ildefonso, in which the politician, journalist and lawyer Nicolás Sartorius has been preached. • “The concept of Spain is the constitutional one that emanates from the Courts of Cadiz, from Spain as a nation of citizens. It is the idea that liberalism will maintain, especially the progressive throughout the 19th century and that the democrats take up again,” explains Martínez López. • The delegate of the Government in Castilla y León, Virginia Barcones, emphasizes that “La Sargentada is an event that is so important, so significant that it is part of our culture, our identity, our legacy. You have to preserve it, preserve it and put it in value.”

August 13, 2023.- The Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, of the Ministry of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts, Fernando Martínez López, points to the Sargentada and the Constitution of Cadiz as the germ of the rights and freedoms of our Constitution.

This was reflected in his speech in the institutional act of the 187 anniversary of the Sargentada de La Granja, celebrated in the City Hall of the Real Sitio de San Ildefonso, and organized by this Consistory and the Ministry of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Democratic Memory, together with National Heritage and the Castellarnau Association, and in which the politician, journalist and lawyer Nicolás Sartorius has been preached.

La Sargentada, on the night of August 12 to 13, 1836, was an insurrection of the garrison of La Granja forced the regent María Cristina de Borbón y Parma, widow of Fernando VII and mother of Isabel II, to restore the Constitution of Cádiz of 1812. It was led by sergeants who demanded the end of the Royal Statute of 1834 and the re-establishment of ‘La Pepa’.

The delegate of the Government in Castilla y León, Virginia Barcones, emphasizes that “the Sargentada is an event that is so important, so significant that it is part of our culture, our identity, our legacy. You have to preserve it, preserve it and put it in value.”

For his part, Fernando Martínez López assures that “that seed that was sown by the constituents of Cádiz and the sergeants of La Granja, was taken up by the democrats and embodied in the great constitutions of Spain, such as that of 69, that of 31 and fundamentally that of 78”.

“The concept of Spain is the constitutional one that emanates from the Courts of Cadiz, from Spain as a nation of citizens. It is the idea that liberalism will maintain, especially the progressive throughout the 19th century and that the democrats take up again,” explains Martínez López.

He adds that “it must be highlighted and specified, because there are some forces in politics in this country that throughout the 19th century did not talk about Spain. He gives as an example that the letterhead of a letter from the Spanish ambassador to France in the last days of the First Republic included ‘Embassy of Spain’. Two months later, the Restoration arrived, and in the missives, ‘Her Catholic Majesty’s Embassy’ was placed.

For his part, Nicolás Sartorius, in his proclamation, includes the Sargentada “in a line that extends from the communes, with the Segovian Juan Bravo; the enlightened ones; the War of Independence; the Constitution of Cadiz and Irrigation; which continues with the Gloriosa of 1868, the First and the Second Republic; and ends with evident liberating sense with the current Constitution of 1978, fruit of social drive and consensus.”

The mayor of the Real Sitio de San Ildefonso, Samuel Alonso, in his speech at the event shows the importance of the Constitution of Cadiz, “the first promulgated in Spain, besides being one of the most liberal of its time”. In addition, he values that in the acts of the 187 anniversary of the Sargentada “the transfer of knowledge is its tractor axis and its main objective so that our minds are located, contextualized, learned and able to digest different past, current and future situations; for which knowledge has grown us as people in society and makes us know and understand”.

On the other hand, the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory points out “the transformative force that gives education the Constitution of Cadiz, which advocates having a school for boys and girls in each town of Spain so that they can ‘read and count’, which is as it was said at the time, in addition to catechism to capture religious and civic ideas, as the Constitution said”.

“That is the constitution that was repealed, which was claimed by the sergeants of La Granja”, continues Martínez López, who highlights that “they also rose against the so-called ‘spirit of the century’, against the restrictions of freedoms. So that in Segovia, not only 114 people could vote with the Royal Statute, nor the 276 in Madrid.”

“These sergeants also rose to expand freedoms, to expand the census and for the people, who began to call themselves that way, because every homeland has a people, they were citizens and began to participate actively in political life,” insists Fernando Martínez López.

Finally, the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory states that “the Sargentada is an act of remembrance for the thousands and thousands of men and women who gave their lives for freedom.” He points out “we have important milestones and the Government of Spain is declaring Places of Memory, as the milestone of Watering. But they also gave their lives for freedom in Granada María de Pineda, Almería the martyrs of freedom, also in Málaga Torrijos and a group that sought to regain freedom, until today.”

“The conquest of freedom and fundamental rights in this country has not been easy. Torture, prisons and executions have always been exiled. And thanks to everything that we have a Constitution of 78, the other great constitution of consensus and surely it will be one of the longest-lived”, he concludes.