The athlete Álvaro Martín, from Llerena (Badajoz), won two Olympic medals in Paris this summer and received the Extremadura medal this Saturday at the institutional event held at the Roman Theatre in Mérida on the occasion of Extremadura Day, which is this September 8
However, Martín took advantage of his speech to announce the end of his brilliant sporting career, but also to affirm that the Community Day should take place on May 21, when the Extremadura Assembly will meet for the first time, “or for those of us who believe it could be March 25”, a historical event full of symbolism because on that day in 1936 a successful, bloodless revolution took place, led by 80,000 peasants and yunteros who occupied 3,000 farms in the province of Badajoz. However, a few weeks later the Civil War broke out and many of these day laborers suffered reprisals from Franco.
“If peasant revolts or revolutions have something in common, it is the shedding of blood and the number of deaths. There was no blood in this one,” recalls the man from Llerena, a graduate in political science.
In addition, Álvaro Martín dishonored former president Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra, who was present at the event, for admitting in an interview on Extremadura public television that the decision to drop Extremadura Day on September 8 was his “cacicada.”
In his speech after receiving the award from his partner María Pérez, with whom he won the Olympic gold medal in the relay event, he defined Extremadura as a “land of conquerors”, beyond the “great names” like Hernán Cortés and Pizarro, stressed that there are rights that Extremadurans “must acquire” and demanded a “decent train” in the community.
Along with Álvaro Martín, the highest distinction in Extremadura was received this year by the famous chef José Pizarro; Asunción Gómez-Pérez, an academic from the RAE, a national and international leader in artificial intelligence; and the religious congregation of the Josephine Sisters of the Holy Trinity, founded in Plasencia,
