Hi Marta,

My grandfather, Ramon Lopez-Pozas was Spanish, born in the Philippines to a spanish general( he has a street in Madrid named after him General Lopez-Pozas) who was in charge of the province of Cebu when Spain held the Philippines. He left the Philippines with his father when Spain ceded control to the United States. He came back to the Philippines in 1918 with some people from Tabacalera company which was a tabacco company. He then married my grandmother and bore my father, Jose Thomas Lopez-Pozas and my aunt, Ma Carmen Thomas Lopez-Pozas. Last year i went to the Spanish embassy hoping to apply for spanish citizenshiip but was told by a filipina in charge of applicants that i had to have proof that my father renounced his spanish citizenship before i was born in 1951 in order for that to happen. She showed me a card file that showed that my grandfather had entered the Philippines in 1918 with a certain document(tarjeta not a passport) but that he was a spanish citizen. The card also had my fathers name on it with a passport number which was issued in 1946 right after world war 2 (most documents-birth certificates,marriage certificates were destroyed during the second world war). I told that what she said did not make any sense. If my father renounced his citizenship before i was born then i was not a spanish citizen. She said 'basta' which infuriated me and i asked if i could talk to anyone else and she said no so i left since it was useless( the consulate where we met puts too much power in this woman). Could you clarify this for me? I also have a brother and two sisters.The elder sister and i are both listed as spanish citizens in our birth certificates although we were never registered with the Spanish embassy. My grandfather passed away in 1960.