Luis Buñuel's Genealogy
The town of Calanda
The reason for this post is to take a step further in the information on the internet about the genealogy of the genius of Calanda, Luis Buñuel. Joaquin Buñuel
It is interesting to point out that the Buñuel surname is not present nowadays in the municipality of Calanda, basically because the family of Luis Buñuel, born in Calanda in 1901, according to the certificate attached below, moved to Zaragoza , the capital of Aragon, around 1904 .
Despite this, the Buñuel family traveled regularly to Calanda on holidays, according to the newspapers at that time.
However this is not the only reason for the non-presence nowadays of the Buñuel family in Calanda. With the data that we are going to publish in this post, we can ensure that Luis Buñuel’s ancestors came from Foz Calanda, a neighboring town. Without a doubt, Luis’s grandfather, Joaquín, had been born in that municipality around 1814. In censuses from the end of the 19th century, it can be seen that there were still a good number of people named Buñuel in Foz Calanda. Nevertheless it is normal that the family of Manuel Leonardo Buñuel González, Luis’s father, considered Calanda as their place of origin. The brothers Joaquín and Manuel Leonardo were born there and it seems that their mother, Valera González, was born there too.
Joaquin Buñuel Moliner was Luis Buñuel grandfather
Transcription of the death certificate of Joaquín Buñuel Moliner in 1881
In the town of Calanda at 5 o’clock in the afternoon on March 3, 1881, before Mr. Manuel Sanz y Aguilar, municipal judge of the same and Desiderio Molins, secretary, appeared Joaquín Buñuel y González, born in Calanda, , province of Teruel, Spain. He is legal aged, married and employed , living at Calle de San Roque number 9, stating that Joaquín Buñuel y Moliner, aged sixty-seven native of Foz Calanda, of married status and living in Calle de la Carnicería number 24, died at three in the afternoon today at his address suffering from a stroke, of which he reported as his son. In view of this manifestation and of the optional certification presented, the municipal judge ordered the extension of this act, including in it, in addition to what was stated by the declarant and by virtue of the news that the following circumstances have been acquired: That he was the legitimate son of Raimundo Buñuel and (blank) Moliner, natives of Foz Calanda, now deceased. The aforesaid Joaquin was married at the time of his death to Pabla Belmonte, a native of Tronchón, Teruel from whose marriage there was no descent . It is to be said that the aforementioned deceased was married in the first nuptials to Valera González, a native of Calanda, who died in this town, having had from this marriage three children named Claudia, Manuel and the declarant of whom the first died and the second, Manuel lives in Havana and is single, and the declarant, who lives in this town and is married. Joaquín did not make a testamentary disposition . The body must be buried in the cemetery of this town It is stated that (belonged) the present inscription by said court the order for it…. Eyewitnesses were Miguel Mata and Manuel Casanovas, natives of Calanda and domiciled in this town. Having read this act in its entirety, the persons who must register it are invited to read it for themselves if they deem it appropriate and I stamp on them the seal of the municipal court, signing it by the witnessing judge and the witnesses and certifying all this as secretary
