Voces del Prado

Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor

José Manso Gómez, Textile and Panel Painting Conservator, 1953-1992

Sotomayor was a very strong, honest man. I remember when it was cold and he had run out of coal, he would ask if he could take a wheelbarrow with coal; as soon as he emptied it he'd bring it back. If he found out that someone from the ticket office had kept some money, he would fire that person. He was a strict man.
Sotomayor used to address Franco informally, whereas Franco addressed him in the formal manner. Their respective parents owned country estates in Galicia that were side by side, so they were acquaintances since they were children. They used to go hunting together. At least that's what I've heard and it must be true.
A law was passed whereby officers, brigades, sergeants and some other military ranks were to be admitted as workers at the Prado Museum. I remember Sotomayor got into his car, went to the Palace of El Pardo and told Franco that couldn't be, and Franco listened to him. There must have been too many military officers and they didn't know what to do with them, where they should be working. They never entered the Museum. They were sent to work elsewhere but not in the Museum.
General José Millán-Astray went around with his "Manolo", his bodyguard. I think Manolo was his name. He would come into the Museum and tell him, "Give me the cigar." So he'd take his cigar, light it up and everyone else would remain quiet. Since he saw that we didn't say anything, he'd put it out. He was just trying to pick a fight. He often said to his bodyguard, "I'm gonna put you in front of a firing squad, you filthy bastard." That was whenever he didn't do what he was told.