In this
Spanish name
, the first or paternal
surname
is
Ruiz-Gimenez
and the second or maternal family name is
Cortes
.
Joaquin Ruiz-Gimenez Cortes
(
Hoyo de Manzanares
,
Madrid
, 2 August 1913 -
Madrid
, 27 August 2009) was a Spanish politician and jurist. He was
minister of Education
under
Franco
(1951-1955) but he drifted apart from the Francoist State since 1956 and, adopting a
Christian Democrat
position, steadily started to promote a quiet transition to democracy, especially through
Cuadernos para el Dialogo
magazine. He was considered one of the most relevant figures of the moderate inner opposition to
Francoism
. Failing to play a relevant role during the
1977 democratic elections
, he was later elected as the first
Spanish Ombudsman
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Early life
[
edit
]
Ruiz-Gimenez was son of
Joaquin Ruiz Jimenez
,
Liberal
politician who was minister twice under
Alfonso XIII
and
mayor of Madrid
. While student at the
University of Madrid
, he participated actively in the students' catholic organizations and in 1935 he was elected secretary-general of the National Catholic Students Confederation. After the
Civil War
broke out he was imprisoned several times, but finally released he sought asylum at the
Panamanian
embassy, and thus he was evacuated to
Marseilles
via
Valencia
. Then, he joined the Nationalist Army and served in the front of
Segovia
,
Teruel
and
Maestrazgo
.
After the war, he graduated in Arts and held a doctorate in Law. He was appointed councilor at the Madrid city council and the same time he was Law professor at the University of Madrid. He was elected president of the
Pax Romana organization
between 1939 and 1946. He collaborated actively in the redaction of the
Fuero de los Espanoles
, i.e. a sort of bill of rights promulgated by Franco in 1945. He was appointed director of the Hispanic Culture Institute (1946-1948) and ambassador to the
Holy See
(1948-1951), where he negotiated the terms of the 1953
Concordat
.
From Francoist minister to Christian Democrat dissident
[
edit
]
In 1951,
caudillo
Franco appointed him minister of National Education. He established a special commission to rehabilitate some teachers and scholars who were previously expelled from their tenures by the Francoism. His political stance was gradually sympathetic toward the Christian Democracy. In 1956 he confronted the minister of Interior about a students' riot and he was finally dismissed. Franco appointed him afterwards National Counselor with seat in the
Parliament
. He resigned from this office in 1965.
Meanwhile, in 1963 he founded
Cuadernos para el Dialogo,
a political and cultural magazine that was very relevant for the Spanish political life of the 1960s and 1970s because it hosted the moderate debate about the future evolution of Spain toward a more pluralistic, participative and European-minded situation.
Cuadernos para el Dialogo
was the most dissident option within the legal narrow framework of freedom of speech allowed during the last decades of Franco's reign. Ruiz-Gimenez himself was considered the leader of the Spanish Christian Democrats left wing.
In June 1975 he joined the underground Democratic Convergence Platform, which gathered a wide array of anti-Francoist organizations, including Social Democrats and Communists. Nevertheless, the Christian Democracy had very little option during the first democratic elections in 1977, as its political room was occupied mainly by the
Suarez's
UCD
. Ruiz-Gimenez's Democratic Left joined the Christian Democratic Federation coalition, that dissolved after its meager 1 per cent of the ballots.
First Spanish Ombudsman
[
edit
]
After his withdrawal from the political forefront, Ruiz-Gimenez was appointed Ombudsman, the first one in holding this office in Spain (1982-1987). During his later years, he enjoyed a great prestige among both left and right. He involved in several humanitarian and human-rights NGOs, presided the Spanish Committee of
UNICEF
(1989-2001), vice-presided the Spanish Commission of Relief to Refugees, and has been awarded and decorated several times for his philanthropic activity.
Writings
[
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]
- La concepcion institucional del derecho,
Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Politicos, 1944
- Derecho y vida humana. Algunas reflexiones a la luz de Santo Tomas,
Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Politicos, 1944
- Introduccion elemental a la filosofia juridica cristiana,
Madrid: Epesa, 1945
- Pio XII, la familia y otros temas,
Madrid: Epesa, 1958
- La politica, deber y derecho del hombre,
Madrid: Epesa, 1958
- Introduccion a la filosofia juridica,
Madrid: Epesa, 1960
- El ser de Espana,
Madrid: Aguilar, 1963
- El Concilio Vaticano II y los derechos del hombre,
Madrid: Edicusa, 1968
- Iglesia, Estado y sociedad en Espana (1930-1982),
Barcelona: Argos-Vergara, 1984
- El camino hacia la democracia. Escritos en "Cuadernos para el Dialogo" (1963-1976),
Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales, 1985
External links
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