“Neither we nor he want the surname of a murderer in front of us”

Francisco Montiel and Francisca Aguilar request a change in the order of their grandson's surnames. CRISTÓBAL CASTRO

Francisco Montiel accompanies his 13-year-old grandson to school.

But he does it from a distance, a few steps behind, without much notice.

"He goes with his friends," smiles Francisco.

For all intents and purposes, Francisco and his wife, Francisca, have been the parents of his grandson for seven years.

The adolescent's father murdered his mother in 2015 in Terrassa (Barcelona).

He then he killed himself.

Among all the personal battles that grandparents, aged 76 and 69, continue to face on a daily basis, the most inexplicable for them is not being able to change the order of the minor's surnames.

"Neither we nor he want the surname of a murderer in front of us," Francisca complains.

After seven years of litigation, resources, calls and lawyers, the Ministry of Justice, after questions from this newspaper, assures that it will invert the surnames.

“But what has happened all this time?” Francisco asks when he is told that the General Directorate of Registries and Notaries – dependent on the Ministry of Justice – has finally accepted his request to change the order of his grandson's surnames, and put before that of his mother murdered by his father.

"And what do you say that he has called you more than 10 times?" Repeats the man, on the phone.

There is no official explanation as to why the file promoted by the child's grandparents has slept the sleep of the just.

In its official response, the ministry refers to "several vicissitudes in the initial petition that have needed to be modified during its processing."

It also alleges "the complexity of the process that requires a report from the Council of State, and approval by Royal Decree."

The ordeal of the Montiel family began in the early hours of January 21, 2015. Jesús Ruiz called his in-laws to tell them that his wife, Sandra, was ill and needed to be cared for.

When they arrived at the house, they found his daughter dead in a room, Jesus hanging in the garage and the minor locked in a room.

Sandra, team leader at Luis Vuitton, was then 39 years old and her son was six.

The grandparents do not doubt that the child witnessed the crime.

"There is not a day that you forget," Francisca is moved, from the same house where her daughter was murdered.

The grandparents moved there.

The goal was to make life easier for his grandson, so that he noticed as few changes as possible to move forward.

The first legal battle was relatively simple: they asked for full custody of their grandson.

A Terrassa court considered the maternal grandparents "absolutely suitable" to be guardians of the minor.

In May 2015 they obtained guardianship, and in November they began the procedures to reverse the order of their surnames.

Thus began a file in the Civil Registry of Terrassa.

But the Prosecutor's Office took a stand against the grandparents' request.

He argued that the Civil Registry Law provides that a person bears the surname first of the father and after the mother.

That before registration in the registry, and by mutual agreement, the parents can reverse that order.

And it is no longer until they come of age, that later the children can also request the change.

For all these reasons, "it is not up to the promoters to urge the change in the order of the surnames," concluded the public ministry.

His grandparents argued that the minor was a victim of sexist violence, and that, therefore, he could avail himself of the exceptional assumptions included in the law to change the order of the surnames without having to wait for his majority.

And they added that they did not ask for a "deeper change", eliminating, for example, the father's last name, because they considered that in this way it was sufficient and would not generate "incidents in their day to day life".

But the court, in September 2016, denied the request and urged them to resort to the governmental route.

The grandparents appealed, and the case was stalled until in December 2019, the General Subdirectorate of Nationality and Civil Status asked them for legal proceedings as her daughter had been murdered by her husband.

In January 2020, they presented all the documentation.

And since then,

"As quickly as possible.

It shocks me that they put that, ”Francisco repeats over and over again, about the request for documentation from the subdirectorate of the Ministry of Justice.

“A year has passed and they haven't lifted a finger.

They have not been interested in looking at the files, ”he adds, sitting in the living room of his house, hoping that they will not give him more than half past twelve to go punctually to pick up his grandson.

“We have been fighting for seven years.

Now it is OK.

There is no right.

We only ask to invest it, not for the other to disappear, ”he continues, serene, flanked by photographs of Sandra and her grandson.

In all that time of paperwork, paperwork, and lawyers, he has knocked on every other door he can think of.

To

-The defender of the Catalan people, Rafael Ribó.

"He told me it wasn't his thing."

To the ombudsman, currently Ángel Gabilondo, from whom he is still waiting for an answer...

In these years, they have all gone to therapy and have used these reports to argue that the change of surnames will help their grandson.

"At school, he already calls himself with inverted surnames," explain his grandparents.

But all the official documents remain the same.

“We would like him to have his title when he finishes ESO with his mother's last name first”, asks Francisca.

If the Ministry of Justice does not break her word, so it will be.

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