For decades, his name did not appear on streets, textbooks, or commemorative plaques. Dénia, his hometown, few knew who he was. And yet, María Hervás Moncho He lived an extraordinary life: he was medical when there were almost no women in university classrooms, researcher when science was forbidden territory, and volunteer in the First World War when the world was bleeding. Its history, woven between scalpels, laboratories and forced exiles, was buried by the collective amnesiaToday, the city begins to pay off that debt. naming a square in his honor, returning it to the place where it always belonged: History.
An invisible pioneer
Dénia thus recovers part of its historical memory by naming the new square of the old ambulatory with the name of María Hervás Moncho, a pioneering figure in the field of medicine and scientific investigation, whose trajectory remained virtually unknown in its place of origin. Thanks to the plaque, and also to the recovery work of the Arxiu Municipal de Dénia, who recently shared her biography on social media, María Hervás's figure has come back to light.
Born in Dénia in 1894María Hervás was the eldest daughter of a large family. Her father, Jose Hervas, was a doctor by profession, but it was his mother, Regina Moncho, who encouraged her daughters to pursue university studies at a time when women's access to higher education was still a rarity. Thanks to this support from her mother and her academic brilliance, Maria began a path that would lead her to become one of the few female scientists of her generation.
In the summer of 1917, still a student, volunteered as volunteer in France to care for wounded soldiers in the First World War. This experience would mark the beginning of his specialization in the field of blood transfusions, a key field in his future research work.
A year later, in 1918, graduated in Medicine from the University of Valencia, being the the only woman in her classThanks to a scholarship, he was able to further his studies in Paris, in the Institute of Serology, linked to the prestigious Pasteur Institute, an international reference center for medical research.
Exile, repression and legacy
En 1919 she married the French doctor León Henry Sanlier-Lamark, with whom she had two children. However, the relationship did not prosper, and Maria continued her academic training with determination. 1932 He defended his doctoral thesis in Madrid under the title "Contribution to the study of local immunity".
The outbreak of Civil War cut short part of her scientific career. From Valencia, she was assigned to the Serology Laboratory of the Blood Transfusion Service of the Republican Army, where she carried out outstanding research work and published several articles. Her collaboration with the Republic forced her to go into exile in France at the end of the contest. However, the Nazi invasion forced her to return to Valencia with her children.
On his return, he went purged by the Franco regime, which meant its definitive exclusion from the academic and scientific sphere. Despite this, he did not completely abandon his vocation: he opened a pharmaceutical laboratory in Valencia, which he kept running until his death in 1963.
Throughout her life, María Hervás maintained ties with Dénia, although her figure was relegated to oblivion for decades. Today, with the naming of the square that bears her name and the drive of the Arxiu Municipal by rescue his memory, the city begins to pay tribute to a woman ahead of her time, whose contribution to medicine and research deserves to be remembered and vindicated.
It will be Dianense, right?