José Antonio Aguirre
Encyclopedia
José Antonio Aguirre y Lecube (6 March 1904 – 22 March 1960) was a political figure of the Basque Nationalism, the first president of the Basque Autonomous Community, from 1936 to 1960.
He assumed the position of first lehendakari
or president of Euzkadi
(the Basque lands of Spain not including Navarre
) during the Spanish Civil War
. However, by the moment the Government was put together and made effective, most of the Basque region was occupied by the military rebels' troops, except for Biscay
. Given the dire circumstances, he set about creating a Basque Army
to fight on the side of the Republic.
After losing the war, he had to organize the flight of thousands of refugees in the Basque Country. He helped the Allies in the Second World War looking forward to be helped to fight Francisco Franco
in Spain. He escaped from Spain to Belgium, later to Nazi Germany
and spent there a year with a false passport. He went to Argentina
to begin a journey in the American continent to re-organize the Basque government in the exile. He finally settled in Paris and spent his last years there, working for the Basque refugees.
was born in Bilbao
, in Biscay
. He studied in the first ikastola
of the Basque Country, a school where he was taught completely in Basque language. He later studied Law in the University of Deusto
.
In 1920 his father died and all the family moved to Algorta
, a town close to Bilbao. He was 16 years old when that happened and the eldest of 10 brother and sisters. He took the role of father for his younger family members.
After finishing his law studies, he began working in the family business “Chocolates Aguirre”. He later took the responsibility of the business. He made big reforms there introducing reforms that improved workers conditions in the factory (free health care, paid holidays, donating a part of the business earning to the poor people, pushing for social housing, etc. He created a new way of managing the business, being coherent with the ideas he believed in. Until 1937, “Chocolates Bilbaínos S.A.” was the second biggest enterprise of the sector in Spain.
Aguirre was a football player and he played for Athletic Bilbao
. During the Spanish Civil War
, he was one of the main promoters of the Basque Country national football team
. This regional team played in Europe and America to raise funds for the Basque refugee children whose parents had to escape to the exile.
In 1926 he finished his Law studies and he made the military service. After this period he began to work as an attorney at Esteban Bilbao's office, but soon created his own law firm to help people he was really interested in. He began working in political issues together with workers conditions. Spain was ruled by the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera
.
He already had very clear political views and as Basque nationalist, he joined the young political party Basque Nationalist Party
, PNV. The party was then divided in two political streams, but he never liked this division. Hi thought that the Basque land was above any differences. He worked to join the two parts and the succeeded in 1930. Tough in his beliefs, he got more and more involved in politics, and he published articles in the newspapers Euzko Gaztedia and Euzkadi
. An example of his integrating and new ideals, in 1932 he proposed that the party should accept people who were not born in the Basque Country.
After the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera
finished in 1930, a new political era began in Spain. In the same time, a new and important period began in Aguirre's political life.
Aguirre was loyal to the Second Spanish Republic
, knowing that the future of Euzkadi was dependent on a Republican victory. In Euzkadi, he formed a government and an army comprising nationalists
, republicans, Socialists
, Communists and others.
Badly armed and barely trained, the Basque Army, the Euzko Gudarostea, managed to mobilize 100,000 soldiers. One of the most pressing deficiencies, that unbalanced the odds, was the absence of heavy artillery and aviation. Famous are the desperate calls of Aguirre to his allies Prieto and Azaña to send equipment to Euzkadi. Historians agree that this action was nonviable due to the difficulty in breaking the siege that Biscay
was put under.
In June 1937, the nationalists broke through the Iron Belt
of Bilbao and entered the Basque capital thanks to the defection of the engineer Goicoechea, who had designed the fortifications. Aguirre transferred his Government to Trucíos before maintaining course to Santander later to march to Catalonia, where he arranged to continue fighting with his men for the Republic.
In the meantime, the nationalist leader Juan de Ajuriaguerra agreed to a surrender in Santoña
(province of Cantabria
) to the Italians. Franco did not respect this Santoña Agreement
, all behind the back of Aguirre, who was in favor of continuing the conflict.
But events superseded the efforts of the first lehendakari in history, who fled to France after the war, being pursued for years by pro-Franco agents, leading to an incredible exile that took him to Paris, Berlin, and New York. In June 1940, the Breton Yann Fouéré
gave him documents that allowed him to escape France, which was invaded by the Nazis, allies of Franco.
, where organized the camps and services with him heading it personally. He was in Belgium
when Hitler occupied that country and so he started a long travel to Berlin under a false identity.
Under the protection of a Panamanian ambassador, he reached Sweden and, dodging SS
German intelligence, he arrived in Brazil on the ship Vasaholm to the port of Rio de Janeiro
on 27 August 1941, the Brazilian customs authorities registered that Panamanian Dr. José Álvarez Lastra and Venezuelan María de Arrigorriaga, the last accompanied by their children, José and Gloria, entered the country.
They didn't suspect that they were José Antonio Aguirre, his wife María Zabala and their sons Aintzane and Joseba, escaping the long arms of the Nazis. But in spite of the intense efforts made by Manuel de Ynchausti in the United States, the difficulties remonstrated by the English consul Ralph Stevenson around the impossibility of entering with a name and leaving with another, it seemed far from being solved. While after a month his true personality was in danger of being discovered.
He wrote then to Ramón María de Aldasoro, former Counseler of Intendency and Commerce of the Basque government, who led the Euzkadi Delegation in Buenos Aires
. This representation, begun by Isaac López Mendizabal, Santiago Cunchillos and Pablo Artzanko, had arrived to America on November 1938. But the efforts made by Aldasoro didn't succeed because Argentine authorities sympathized with the European "New Order".
Seeing it, Aguirre went to Uruguay and there asked to a reduced group of Basque patriots what Argentina denied. The Uruguayan president general Alfredo Baldomir
not only was willing to do it but to receive him with the honors corresponding to his high dignity. Six men mobilized the political personalities there not only to get safety but to awaken the consciences of the diaspora, dormant because of Francoist propaganda.
Culminated the arrangements, the public announcement of the arrival of the president would be made on 8 October, when the Montevidean newspapers informed widely about his arrival and his biographical whereabouts. A little delegation integrated by congressional representatives Julio Iturbide and Juan Domingo Uriarte went to the Brazilian state of Río Grande do Sul
accompanied by its Uruguayan consul, to accompany him in his last stage of his travel.
. When the United States
decided to back Franco in 1952 he went to France anew where the Basque Government in exile was established. Also there he encountered that the pro-Nazi
French government of Vichy
confiscated the Basque Government building and De Gaulle
maintained it under the Franco government possession, building that today is the Instituto Cervantes
premises.
The president of the government in exile was always a PNV member and even the Spanish sole representative in the United Nations was the Basque appointee, Jesús de Galíndez, until his murder in an obscure episode in the time of the Spanish entry in the United Nations. He also decided to put the big Basque exilees network at the service of the Allied side and collaborated with the US Secretary of State and the CIA along the Cold War
to fight Communism in Latin America.
Aguirre died in Paris on 22 March 1960 of a heart attack, aged 56. His body was shipped from Paris to Saint-Jean-de-Luz
in the French Basque Country where it spent a night in the Monzón house. He was buried on 28 March after a funeral mass
at the Saint Jean parish church.
folk play (pastoral), Aguirre presidenta ("The president Aguirre").
He assumed the position of first lehendakari
Lehendakari
The President of the Basque Government , usually known in English as the Basque regional president, is the head of government of Basque Country. The president leads the executive branch of the regional government....
or president of Euzkadi
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....
(the Basque lands of Spain not including Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...
) during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. However, by the moment the Government was put together and made effective, most of the Basque region was occupied by the military rebels' troops, except for Biscay
Biscay
Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...
. Given the dire circumstances, he set about creating a Basque Army
Euzko Gudarostea
Euzko Gudarostea was the name of the army commanded by the Basque Government during the Spanish civil war. It was formed by Basque nationalists, socialists and communists under the direction of lendakari José Antonio Aguirre and coordinating with the army of the Second Spanish Republic...
to fight on the side of the Republic.
After losing the war, he had to organize the flight of thousands of refugees in the Basque Country. He helped the Allies in the Second World War looking forward to be helped to fight Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
in Spain. He escaped from Spain to Belgium, later to Nazi Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and spent there a year with a false passport. He went to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
to begin a journey in the American continent to re-organize the Basque government in the exile. He finally settled in Paris and spent his last years there, working for the Basque refugees.
Life
Jose Antonio Agirre, the man who was going to be the first president of the Basque governmentBasque Government
The Basque Government is the governing body of the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain. The head of this government is the lehendakari or Basque president that is appointed by the Basque Parliament every four years...
was born in Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...
, in Biscay
Biscay
Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...
. He studied in the first ikastola
Ikastola
An Ikastola is a type of primary and secondary school in the Basque Autonomous Community, Navarre and the French Basque Country in which pupils are taught either entirely or predominantly in the Basque language...
of the Basque Country, a school where he was taught completely in Basque language. He later studied Law in the University of Deusto
University of Deusto
The University of Deusto is a Spanish Jesuit University, with campuses in Bilbao and San Sebastián, Spain.-History:The University of Deusto first opened in 1886, having been founded because of the Basque Country's desire to have its own university and the Society of Jesus's wish to move its School...
.
In 1920 his father died and all the family moved to Algorta
Algorta
Algorta is a locality within the municipality of Getxo, in the province of Biscay, Basque Country, Spain. In 1996, the population of Algorta was 35,600....
, a town close to Bilbao. He was 16 years old when that happened and the eldest of 10 brother and sisters. He took the role of father for his younger family members.
After finishing his law studies, he began working in the family business “Chocolates Aguirre”. He later took the responsibility of the business. He made big reforms there introducing reforms that improved workers conditions in the factory (free health care, paid holidays, donating a part of the business earning to the poor people, pushing for social housing, etc. He created a new way of managing the business, being coherent with the ideas he believed in. Until 1937, “Chocolates Bilbaínos S.A.” was the second biggest enterprise of the sector in Spain.
Aguirre was a football player and he played for Athletic Bilbao
Athletic Bilbao
Athletic Club, also known as Athletic Bilbao, is an association football club from Bilbao in Biscay, Spain. The club has played in the Primera División of La Liga since its start in 1928. They have won La Liga on eight occasions...
. During the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, he was one of the main promoters of the Basque Country national football team
Basque Country national football team
The Basque Country football team is considered the national team of the Basque Country greater region as selected players from the Basque Country Autonomous Community, the nearby Navarre and the Northern Basque Country in France play for it...
. This regional team played in Europe and America to raise funds for the Basque refugee children whose parents had to escape to the exile.
In 1926 he finished his Law studies and he made the military service. After this period he began to work as an attorney at Esteban Bilbao's office, but soon created his own law firm to help people he was really interested in. He began working in political issues together with workers conditions. Spain was ruled by the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera
Miguel Primo de Rivera
Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, 22nd Count of Sobremonte, Knight of Calatrava was a Spanish dictator, aristocrat, and a military official who was appointed Prime Minister by the King and who for seven years was a dictator, ending the turno system of alternating...
.
He already had very clear political views and as Basque nationalist, he joined the young political party Basque Nationalist Party
Basque Nationalist Party
The Basque National Party is the largest and oldest Basque nationalist party. It is currently the largest political party in the Basque Autonomous Community also with a minor presence in Navarre and a marginal one in the French Basque Country...
, PNV. The party was then divided in two political streams, but he never liked this division. Hi thought that the Basque land was above any differences. He worked to join the two parts and the succeeded in 1930. Tough in his beliefs, he got more and more involved in politics, and he published articles in the newspapers Euzko Gaztedia and Euzkadi
Euzkadi
Euzkadi may refer to:*Basque Country *Euzkadi , a Basque nationalist newspaper published from 1913 to 1937*Euzkadi, a Mexican tire manufacturer...
. An example of his integrating and new ideals, in 1932 he proposed that the party should accept people who were not born in the Basque Country.
After the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera
Primo de Rivera
Primo de Rivera is a Spanish family prominent in politics of the 19th and 20th centuries:*Fernando Primo de Rivera, Spanish politician and soldier, 1831-1921*Miguel Primo de Rivera , dictator of Spain from 23 September 1923 to 1930...
finished in 1930, a new political era began in Spain. In the same time, a new and important period began in Aguirre's political life.
Spanish Civil War
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
, knowing that the future of Euzkadi was dependent on a Republican victory. In Euzkadi, he formed a government and an army comprising nationalists
Basque nationalism
Basque nationalism is a political movement advocating for either further political autonomy or, chiefly, full independence of the Basque Country in the wider sense...
, republicans, Socialists
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...
, Communists and others.
Badly armed and barely trained, the Basque Army, the Euzko Gudarostea, managed to mobilize 100,000 soldiers. One of the most pressing deficiencies, that unbalanced the odds, was the absence of heavy artillery and aviation. Famous are the desperate calls of Aguirre to his allies Prieto and Azaña to send equipment to Euzkadi. Historians agree that this action was nonviable due to the difficulty in breaking the siege that Biscay
Biscay
Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...
was put under.
In June 1937, the nationalists broke through the Iron Belt
Iron Belt
The Iron Ring , was a vast, labyrinthine fortification around Bilbao, consisting of bunkers, tunnels, and fortified trenches in several rings, protected by artillery.It was hurriedly built during the Spanish Civil War by the Basque Government....
of Bilbao and entered the Basque capital thanks to the defection of the engineer Goicoechea, who had designed the fortifications. Aguirre transferred his Government to Trucíos before maintaining course to Santander later to march to Catalonia, where he arranged to continue fighting with his men for the Republic.
In the meantime, the nationalist leader Juan de Ajuriaguerra agreed to a surrender in Santoña
Santoña
Santoña is a town in the eastern coast of the autonomous community of Cantabria, on the north coast of Spain. It is situated by the bay of the same name. It is 45 km from the capital Santander. Santoña is divided into two zones, an urban plain, and a mountainous area, with Mount Buciero at its...
(province of Cantabria
Cantabria
Cantabria is a Spanish historical region and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community , on the south by Castile and León , on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea.Cantabria...
) to the Italians. Franco did not respect this Santoña Agreement
Santoña Agreement
The Santoña Agreement or Pact of Santoña was an agreement signed in the town of Guriezo, near Santoña, Cantabria, the August 24, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, between politicians close to the Basque Nationalist Party , fighting with the Republican Side, and Italian forces fighting with the...
, all behind the back of Aguirre, who was in favor of continuing the conflict.
But events superseded the efforts of the first lehendakari in history, who fled to France after the war, being pursued for years by pro-Franco agents, leading to an incredible exile that took him to Paris, Berlin, and New York. In June 1940, the Breton Yann Fouéré
Yann Fouéré
Yann Fouéré was a Breton nationalist and an European federalist. He was born as Jean-Adolphe Fouéré in Aignan, Gers....
gave him documents that allowed him to escape France, which was invaded by the Nazis, allies of Franco.
In Exile during World War II
Aguirre went first to FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where organized the camps and services with him heading it personally. He was in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
when Hitler occupied that country and so he started a long travel to Berlin under a false identity.
Under the protection of a Panamanian ambassador, he reached Sweden and, dodging SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
German intelligence, he arrived in Brazil on the ship Vasaholm to the port of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
on 27 August 1941, the Brazilian customs authorities registered that Panamanian Dr. José Álvarez Lastra and Venezuelan María de Arrigorriaga, the last accompanied by their children, José and Gloria, entered the country.
They didn't suspect that they were José Antonio Aguirre, his wife María Zabala and their sons Aintzane and Joseba, escaping the long arms of the Nazis. But in spite of the intense efforts made by Manuel de Ynchausti in the United States, the difficulties remonstrated by the English consul Ralph Stevenson around the impossibility of entering with a name and leaving with another, it seemed far from being solved. While after a month his true personality was in danger of being discovered.
He wrote then to Ramón María de Aldasoro, former Counseler of Intendency and Commerce of the Basque government, who led the Euzkadi Delegation in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. This representation, begun by Isaac López Mendizabal, Santiago Cunchillos and Pablo Artzanko, had arrived to America on November 1938. But the efforts made by Aldasoro didn't succeed because Argentine authorities sympathized with the European "New Order".
Seeing it, Aguirre went to Uruguay and there asked to a reduced group of Basque patriots what Argentina denied. The Uruguayan president general Alfredo Baldomir
Alfredo Baldomir
Alfredo Baldomir Ferrari was an Uruguayan soldier, architect and politician. He served as President of Uruguay from 1938 to 1943 and is most notable for leading Uruguay to support the Allies during World War II....
not only was willing to do it but to receive him with the honors corresponding to his high dignity. Six men mobilized the political personalities there not only to get safety but to awaken the consciences of the diaspora, dormant because of Francoist propaganda.
Culminated the arrangements, the public announcement of the arrival of the president would be made on 8 October, when the Montevidean newspapers informed widely about his arrival and his biographical whereabouts. A little delegation integrated by congressional representatives Julio Iturbide and Juan Domingo Uriarte went to the Brazilian state of Río Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...
accompanied by its Uruguayan consul, to accompany him in his last stage of his travel.
In Exile after World War II
His personality was reinstated and given visa to New York, where he established under the protection of American-Basques as teacher of Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. When the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
decided to back Franco in 1952 he went to France anew where the Basque Government in exile was established. Also there he encountered that the pro-Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
French government of Vichy
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
confiscated the Basque Government building and De Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
maintained it under the Franco government possession, building that today is the Instituto Cervantes
Instituto Cervantes
The Cervantes Institute is a worldwide non-profit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. It is named after Miguel de Cervantes , the author of Don Quixote and perhaps the most important figure in the history of Spanish literature...
premises.
The president of the government in exile was always a PNV member and even the Spanish sole representative in the United Nations was the Basque appointee, Jesús de Galíndez, until his murder in an obscure episode in the time of the Spanish entry in the United Nations. He also decided to put the big Basque exilees network at the service of the Allied side and collaborated with the US Secretary of State and the CIA along the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
to fight Communism in Latin America.
Aguirre died in Paris on 22 March 1960 of a heart attack, aged 56. His body was shipped from Paris to Saint-Jean-de-Luz
Saint-Jean-de-Luz
Saint-Jean-de-Luz is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.Saint-Jean-de-Luz is part of the province Basque of Labourd and the Basque Eurocity Bayonne - San Sebastian .-Geography:...
in the French Basque Country where it spent a night in the Monzón house. He was buried on 28 March after a funeral mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
at the Saint Jean parish church.
Influence
His life was the subject of a SouleSoule
Soule is a former viscounty and French province and part of the present day Pyrénées-Atlantiques département...
folk play (pastoral), Aguirre presidenta ("The president Aguirre").