Benidorm pays tribute to the Fallen at Sea and the Submarine Force on the anniversary of the Battle of Santiago de Cuba

Benidorm City Council held a heartfelt tribute to the Fallen at Sea and the Spanish Navy this Thursday in Plaça de la Senyoria, which served to further strengthen the ties that unite the city with the sea and the Spanish Navy. The event, organized in conjunction with the Frax Foundation, was chaired by the Mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, and the Admiral Chief of the Spanish Navy Staff (AJEMA), Antonio Piñeiro Sánchez, and was attended by Senator Agustín Almodóbar; the Director General of Family, Children and Adolescents, and the Demographic Challenge of the Valencian Government, Angélica Such; as well as numerous members of the municipal council; the president of Frax, Matías Pérez Such; the trustees of this entity; and representatives of Benidorm's civil society.

All of them supported the numerous representatives of the Navy who traveled to the city to participate in this tribute. Among them were Victoriano Gilabert Agote, Admiral of Maritime Action; Alejandro Cuerda Lorenzo, Admiral of the Cartagena Arsenal; Enrique Torres Piñeyro, Director of the Institute of Naval History and Culture; Captain Pedro Márquez de la Calleja, Commander of the Naval Base in Cartagena; and Captain Joaquín Vegara Jiménez, Naval Commander of Alicante, as well as several crews of sailors and submariners.

The tribute began with the awarding of the Naval Merit Cross with white distinction to Matías Pérez Such by the AJEMA (Argentine Naval Merit Association), in recognition, among other things, of his merits and the work of recovering and disseminating naval history carried out by the foundation he chairs. The president of the Frax then took the floor to express his gratitude for the award and to recall Benidorm's close ties to the sea, through several Benidorm residents who have written pages in naval history. In particular, Condestable Francisco Zaragoza Such, from Benidorm and hero of the Battle of Santiago de Cuba aboard the cruiser Vizcaya on July 3, 1898, the date on which Benidorm annually holds this tribute.

This was followed by a tribute to those who fell at sea, in which the mayor and the Admiral Chief of the Naval Staff laid a laurel wreath at the foot of the Juan de Ávalos monument, which the people of Benidorm dedicated in 1965 to all those who fell at sea. A floral arrangement with the Spanish flag was placed at the foot of the monument dedicated to the Submarine, also located in this square. The Salve Marinera (Salve Marinera) was also played.

The Admiral Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral General Antonio Piñeiro Sánchez, addressed all those present to highlight Benidorm's close ties to the Navy, as well as the intense relationship that the town and institution have maintained for more than a century. He also thanked Benidorm for this tribute to those who fell at sea and, by extension, to the Navy and the Submarine Force, and joined in this remembrance of those who gave their lives for Spain under the protection of the patron saint of sailors, the Virgin of Carmen, and submariners, the Virgin of Pilar.

For his part, Mayor Toni Pérez referred in his speech to some of the great milestones in Benidorm's history that have taken place around Plaza de la Senyoria, the site of the tribute, such as the founding of the city itself, now 700 years old; the fact that Constable Zaragoza was born just a few meters from the plaza; its design by Admiral Guillén Tato; and the inauguration of the Juan de Ávalos monument 60 years ago. He also noted that a few meters away, in her chapel at the Church of Sant Jaume and Santa Anna, the city's patron saint, Our Lady of Sufragio, also displays the Cross of Naval Merit with a white distinction, awarded in 2001.

The mayor recalled that, for Benidorm, "the sea has always been culture, tradition, faith—our patroness saint came by sea—and memory," with an "important and transcendental" connection. He also emphasised that "the people of Benidorm have carried the name of this small town, a maritime emporium, around the world, and today Benidorm, thanks to the sea, represents tourism, transformation, progress, and the future."

For all these reasons, he conveyed to the AJEMA (Argentine Navy) that "Benidorm loves the Navy" and expressed the hope that events like today's "will serve to strengthen the ties between our city and the sea."

Naval History Research Awards

On another note, yesterday afternoon, the Naval History Research Awards ceremony was held, organised by the Frax Foundation and the City Council, as part of the Sea Days. This ceremony took place in the municipal Assembly Hall. A lecture given by Vice Admiral Enrique Torres Piñeyro entitled "The Flag That Came from the Sea."

Torres Piñeyro explained, accompanied by images and videos, the origin of the Spanish flag and how, in 1785, King Charles III wanted to provide the ships of the Navy with a distinctive flag. "And from that, the flag we all know was born," he explained. A flag that, however, went through many drafts before the final one was chosen. "The goal was to have bright colours that could be distinguished from a distance, which is what is needed at sea," the admiral stated.

In this regard, he enlightened the audience with some historical anecdotes, such as the fact that "even months before the decree of May 28, 1785, the decision on the final flag had already been made because instructions for its creation had already been processed by March of that year." He also explained that the double-width yellow colour was decided "so that the coat of arms could be placed there."

The speaker also recalled that 1985 marked the 200th anniversary of the flag, and that for this reason, a solemn ceremony was held in Aranjuez, attended by the entire Royal Family, the 17 regional presidents, Congress, the Senate, all the institutions, the armed forces, the state security forces, etc. In ten years, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary. I hope we are as lucky as we were then," he added.

Following the conference, the Miquel Llinares Barceló Naval History Research Award was presented ex aequo to the works "A Secular European Heritage: The Cultural Trace of the Great Armada of 1588," by Juan José Oña Fernández and Natalia Mateo Ripoll, both from Huesca; and to the work "The Last Voyages of the Empire: The Epilogue of the Carrera de Indias," by Vicente Ruiz García, a native of Úbeda.

The City Council Award was also presented to the study "The Charter of Benidorm and the Spanish Navy" by Benidorm professor Antonio Bravo García. A special mention was also given to the work "The Artisanal Construction of Subsistence Fishing Vessels in Alicante: Beaches as a Pre-Industrial Workplace from the Mid-19th to the Mid-20th Century," by Javier Vicedo Jover from Alicante.

The mayor closed the event by offering his "congratulations and congratulations" to the award winners and confirmed that "there will be a sixth edition of the awards." He also described Enrique Torres's talk as "brilliant and moving", which reminded us that our flag, the flag of all of us, came from the sea."