The daughter of the founder of the Legion would be satisfied to see Felipe VI with the chapiri and making the legionary greeting, although not Letizia
Peregrina Millán-Astray y Gasset: "My father would not mind if his street was called Intelligence"
Peregrina Millán-Astray (77) has no qualms about saying that she was the spoiled child of her father, the founder of the Legion, José Millán-Astray. Within a year, the only daughter of the founder must attend numerous events on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Legion that will see its end on September 20, 2020, the official day of its creation .
Enjoying his Coca-Cola on the terrace of the ABC Serrano bar-restaurant in Madrid, Peregrina talks with LOC and confesses: "I want to resist so I can see the centenary of the Legion." With his mischievous smile and dexterity on his smartphone he recounts the many acts that await him: " They love to walk me and cry . And I really am delighted because every time I enter a Legion headquarters I see an image of my father ".
But before the future acts, Millán-Astray's daughter goes back to those days when she was 7 or 8 years old and walked with her father through the Retreat: "He always came to pick me up at school and when we walked, people noticed him He was a very colorful man: without an arm, with an escort, and a glass eye. " Pilgrim remembers the comments of the people and how his father stopped to show his glass eye and told the crowd of children who approached him: "This is for the country . "
As her daughter describes, she was more than accustomed to her father's appearance, "the eye was a normal thing," but at the age of 77 she reflects: "Perhaps I realized the stropic I had, the poor, when I grew up" .
His last name, oddly enough, has barely brought him problems, except for two occasions : "One of them a military-captain of offices who when he saw my last name said: 'What a horror! I have been in the Legion and there they are all crazy ' I looked at him and replied: 'Well, I don't know, but for a reason you are an office captain.' I turned and left. What was I going to say? "He remembers laughing like a naughty girl. On the second occasion it was because of the "classic misunderstanding" that people always think that they are billionaires and, in reality, "I don't have any peseta," he adds. Moreover, he points his finger at the table: "My father died with 1,800 pesetas in the current account on January 1, 1954. To buy his grave in the Almudena cemetery, he had to sell a painting of the many he had to the War Mutilated Corps to pay it for 75,000 pesetas . "
Proud and with a high head , the daughter of the founder of the Legion comments on the many jobs she has had and for which, thanks to them, she was able to move her family forward and gain dexterity with the car . Vehicle that at its age continues to use and that is parked in Moncloa this time.
After the anecdotes and mishaps, it is time for family secrets : Celia Gámez and her father were very good friends? Before the question is asked, Peregrina answers by gesturing with her hands: "The biggest boxes of chocolates have been her." And he adds to the obvious question: "She was very friendly with my father, I don't know in his time what there would be, I imagine so. Because my father was not stupid and the lady was worth it ." The visits to the theater add to the many excursions he did with his father: bulls, Retreat, Mass, anywhere. "My father was very believing, cas, almost a meapilas ." Although due to the vertigo suffered by his father after the shot in the face of 1926 that left several senses in the middle: sight, smell, taste and hearing, the departures were short-lived. His age and health did not allow him to be so active.
Among other family mysteries, the nullity that his father requested from Franco to marry María Rita Gasset, his mother. "If he is going to ask me why I already tell him that I don't know. I would like to have half an hour with him to ask him . I would take everything I want to know," says Peregrina, anticipating the matter again. Even so, the Caudillo was sincere with José Millán-Astray and was not granted, and more when at that time, according to Peregrina, "it was a bureaucratic chaos . " After this, his father decided to go to Portugal where there was a secret record in which he could recognize his daughter. However, in Spain she was not recognized as the legitimate daughter of José Millán-Astray until she was 40 years old.
With the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Legion and the many acts that await him, Peregrina senses that among these is not seeing King Philip VI dressed as a legionary, nor Queen Letizia. Although he would like it, after thinking for a while: " I think that with the chapiri - the legionary hat - I am satisfied . His father, Juan Carlos, at the time did it, as it is a disaster , it is more spontaneous , he knows how to deal with people. Felipe is more cautious, and he has to be with the one he's falling for. "
Before paying and saying goodbye, Peregrina points out another question for that "half hour" with her father: " Real things of the foundation of the Legion . I would ask about real things about Franco."
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