Alejandro Nieto was the third member of my council of elders, about whom we already said something last week (by already mentioning Enrique de Aguinaga and Juan Velarde). That third elder of my council, Alejandro, passed away, as we say colloquially, after a long illness, already retired at home in his last months, with his thoughts always in great activity. I remember the last conversation we had on the phone, because we could no longer visit him. I said goodbye to him with a conversation that he filled with wisdom; it was not in vain that he had come to preside over the Higher Council for Scientific Research, the CSIC.
And above all, Alejandro allowed himself to give advice and make recommendations. One day he told me: “Ramón, allow me to tell you that you would have to be, one day, president of our Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.” “Thank you very much, dear Alejandro,” I replied, “but I prefer to continue simply passing through the academic convivium of Platonic dialogue every Tuesday afternoon.”
Finally, I will mention Amando de Miguel, my fourth most beloved elder, who was, without a doubt, one of the people with whom I perhaps had the most confidence in the world of teaching and culture. In 1994 he invited me to a series of conferences that he organized in Ávila, I don't remember with which sponsor, on the Portuguese-Spanish negotiations for the famous Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. I realized then the greatness of that pact, which won for Spain. universal recognition. And Amando was the conductor of thoughts in that trance.
Those four citizens, Aguinaga, Velarde, Nieto and De Miguel, who died very recently, said goodbye one by one. And in the final cenacle that I imagined, we had an excellent exchange of ideas.