In happier times, the room had been used for receiving dignitaries who visited the Duke's mother, Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo.
Celebrated as the "Red Duchess," Luisa Isabel was a socialist-minded, fascism-battling aristocrat beloved by ordinary Spaniards.
In 1955, only 18 years old and already pregnant with Leoncio, Luisa Isabel married José Leoncio González de Gregorio, a nobleman from Soria.
After giving birth to Gabriel, family lore has it that she handed him to the nurses and declared she had fulfilled her role as a woman.
"Someone in the household said she was our mother," Gabriel recalls.
Persons:
Leoncio Alonso González de Gregorio y Álvarez, Duke of, Duke, Francisco Pacheco, Luisa Isabel Álvarez de, Duchess, Luisa Isabel, I'm, Leoncio, Christopher Columbus, who'd, Francisco Franco, Pilar, Gabriel, Liliane Dahlmann, Luisa Isabel's, Flouting, Liliane, José Leoncio González de Gregorio, José, Spanish armadas, Franco's, Simone de Beauvoir, Franco, Nate Sweitzer, Julia Franco, José Leoncio, Sid Vicious, Miguel, El, Arenas, sequester, Columbus, Juan Luis Albentosa, Diego Velázquez, “, ”, Sidonia, Alfonso Maura, Andres Martinez, —, María, Capi Arenas, “ I’ve, Duke of Montalto, King Juan Carlos I, Gabriel . The, Hernán Cortés, He'd, Íñigo Ramírez de Haro, Leoncio wasn't, Leoncio Alonso wasn't, Duke of Medina, Eduardo Ferreiro, Leoncio's, Viñamata, Spain's, Slim, Thomas Piketty, It's, I've, he'll, Javier Timmermans, she's, Gregorio Palace, Barrameda, they'd, Matthew Bremner
Organizations:
YouTube, Andalusians, BI, Historians, Franciscan, Frontera, Columbus, Spanish National Heritage Board, Casa, Foundation, BI Pilar
Locations:
Toledo, Duke of Medina Sidonia, Spain, Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo, Medina, Sidonia, America, Europe, Soria, Spanish, Pilar, Paris, Madrid, Sanlúcar, American, Palomares, France, El Pais, Murcia, Palos de, Catalonian, María Montserrat, Germany, Barcelona, Aragon, Fernandina, Casa Medina, Montserrat, Medina Sidonia