This is Tamara Margarita Valdés, 50 years old.
MIAMI, United States. – A Cuban resident in Huelva, Spain, and identified as Tamara Margarita Valdés, died after the collision and derailment of two high-speed trains that occurred last Sunday in the municipality of Adamuz, in the Spanish province of Córdoba.
Although his name did not initially appear in the official lists of identified victims, the authorities informed the family of the “tragic outcome,” according to a person close to his environment told the independent media. theTOUCH.
Previously, the Cuban Embassy in Spain had reported that it had official confirmation of the presence of three Cuban citizens among the passengers affected by the accident, one of them hospitalized and two discharged.
With the Valdés case, the number of Cubans involved rises to four, with at least one deceased.
The official figures of victims have been varying as the rescue and identification efforts progress. This Wednesday, the Criminalistics Service of the Civil Guard confirmed which had fully identified 41 victims, although the number of deaths in the accident now totaled 43 people, after the discovery of a new body in the area of the accident.
The testimony published by theTOUCH reconstructs Valdés’ last hours before the accident. The Cuban, 50 years old and living in Spain, had just spent “an incredible weekend in Madrid, full of love, laughter and fun” with friends she had not seen for 25 years.
On Sunday afternoon he took the Alvia train to Huelva to return home, but “it did not reach its destination” due to the accident that occurred in Adamuz, where the convoy derailed after an accident in which another train from the Iryo company that was traveling on the Malaga-Madrid route was also involved.
In the first hours after the crash, his name circulated in informal lists of missing people, while relatives waited for news in a space set up near the scene of the accident. “I’m very nervous, I still haven’t been able to locate her, it took me three hours from Huelva, I stepped on her a little bit. My wife was on the Alvia, I spoke with her 20 minutes before the accident. She almost missed the train,” the victim’s husband, Ramón Montón, told the press.
A close friend, Rosy del Todo Fournier, also spread a farewell message on social networks accompanied by a video of the reunion in Madrid. “This video saves our last weekend together, a weekend full of life, laughter, hugs and good love. Without knowing that it would be an eternal treasure… This last encounter lives forever, like you in my heart… I love you with life Tamy, my little sister. I send you all my affection and love wherever you are. Fly high my girl.”
theTOUCH He also collected details about the life of Valdés and his circle. According to Rosy’s testimony, both met in Cuba in the early 90s and in 1995 they traveled together to Spain as part of a tour for a show organized by the Cuban Ministry of Culture. “She and I were part of a group of 18 dancers who traveled with a musical group: Oro Negro.” After the tour, part of the group decided to stay in Spain. Rosy stated that, over the years, Valdés settled in the Canary Islands and then in Huelva, where “she was the director of a real estate company” and had “an 18-year-old daughter.”
The return to Huelva on the accident train was, according to the same source cited by theTOUCHto professional commitments. “I had a meeting first thing Monday morning,” Rosy explained. “The consolation I have left is that this weekend was so intense, exciting, with so much affection from brothers… What happened happened, but her last moments were happy. She left with so much happiness in her soul. I’ll stay with that.”
This Tuesday it also emerged that Daniela Arteaga Martínez, another of the Cubans involved in the accident, remained admitted to the Reina Sofía University Hospital, in Córdoba, “without danger to her life.” The information was spread on social networks from the Higher Institute of Design (ISDi), where the young woman studied and worked as a teacher.
The educational entity also noted that Arteaga Martínez had traveled to Spain to study a master’s degree in Communication and Audiovisual Education at the International University of Andalusia (UNIA).
The train accident that occurred on Sunday in Adamuz is already considered one of the worst in the country’s recent history. So far it has left 43 dead and 150 injured. Some 37 people were still hospitalized this Tuesday, according to The Country.
