ANGEL RIVIERE

April marked the 20th anniversary of the death of Ángel Rivière *, a leading professional whom we were lucky enough to meet. Because of the great debt that all of us who are involved in the world of autism owe him, we wanted to reproduce the text that his granddaughter, Lola Leturia Rivière , wrote as part of the initiative that the Plena Inclusión entity carried out in his memory:

• MY GRANDFATHER WAS A HERO
• I'll start by explaining that I didn't have the honour of meeting my grandfather, but thanks to my family, especially my grandmother Inés, I learned a lot about him from a very young age and I love him very much.
  I have always known that my grandfather was a great person and also very handsome. My grandmother always told me and still tells me many anecdotes about him, and I listened attentively. I think my grandfather was a hero. He worked with people with autism, especially with children. These people are very special and my grandfather treated them as such.
  I would have loved to meet my grandfather, I would have spent a lot of time with him and asked him many questions. I am sure we would have gotten along very well.
  This year I am in my first year of secondary school, and in a subject at school, I presented a paper about my grandfather, and while I was researching and asking questions about him, I found out that he was a great person, who loved his family and was a great professional in his field of work. Thanks to him and my mother, I respect and also love people with autism, and I think they are wonderful.
• THANK YOU GRANDFATHER .

* Ángel Rivière (1949-2000) was an internationally renowned autism specialist, professor of Cognitive Psychology at the Autonomous University of Madrid, director of the Centre for Educational Research and Documentation and Spanish representative on the OECD Education Committee.

Javier Martinez Erdozain

May 31, 2020