“A Blessing Fulfilled,” Global Histories: Spain (2021)
“A Blessing Fulfilled,” Global Histories: Spain
A Blessing Fulfilled
When she was 14, Eva Hernández González was talking with a friend about their patriarchal blessings. In her blessing, Eva had been promised that she “would be a worker in the [Madrid] Spain Temple.” At the time, this made her laugh. There was no temple in Spain, and she didn’t think there ever would be one. As they talked, she told her friend that she would like to work on the temple as an architect. Though she said it partly in joking, Eva decided it was a goal she wanted to pursue. She studied architecture at the Superior Technical School of Architecture in Barcelona (ETSAB), and she often prayed for the opportunity to work on the temple.
When the Madrid Spain Temple was announced, Eva wrote to Salt Lake City to ask if she could see the drawings of the temple and whether there was any possibility that she could work on the project. She was told that the exterior design was finished but she might be able to work on the interior.
Eva contacted the architect in Spain who had been hired to work on the temple. He told her she would need to master English and learn how to use computer drafting software to work in his office. Over the next year, she studied hard and learned both, but when she applied again, the architect told her they had finished. He suggested she speak with Bonifacio López, who was serving as vice chairman of the Madrid Temple Committee.
She traveled to the United States and met with López and Ralph Cluff, the project manager. After looking at her résumé, they hired her as the assistant to the project manager. Describing her responsibilities, Eva said, “I assist him in everything he needs. I review with him all the things on the temple. … The plans, the duct system, fire, whatever has to be done. We do everything that concerns the temple.” Eva was actively involved at the construction site and provided the local temple committee with detailed progress reports on the temple’s construction.
Temple project leaders at the Madrid Spain Temple construction site. Eva is pictured second from the right.
In 1999, when President Gordon B. Hinckley offered the dedicatory prayer for the Madrid Spain Temple, he referred to it as an “offering given with love” by all who contributed to the effort in any way. As Eva had been promised, Spain now had a beautiful temple where members could go “to receive the higher ordinances of the gospel, to enter into covenants with [God], and to seal together their families for time and all eternity.”
After the construction was finished, Eva continued to see her blessing fulfilled. Following the dedication, she served as the first temple secretary.