Red Duchess dies an extraordinary personality

The funeral took place in Sanlúcar de Barrameda on Sunday for the Duchess of Medina Sidonia, Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo y Maura, who died at the age of 72 on Saturday. The local Town Hall called three days of official mourning and described her death as an ‘irreparable loss.’ An extraordinary council meeting is to take place to name the Duchess an adoptive daughter of Sanlúcar.Her title is one of the oldest in Spain, and dates back to the 13th century. Born in exile in Estoril, Portugal, in August 1936, she became known as the Red Duchess for her opposition to the Franco regime. She had a spell in prison in the 1960s for taking part in a protest to support compensation for farmers whose land was affected by the Palomares nuclear bomb accident in Almería province, and faced a military court after the publication of her novel ‘La Huelga’ – ‘The Strike.’Meeting the lady and walking threw the chapel has remained an abiding memory of a truly grat person.