Valentí Almirall i Llozer (;

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

, 8 March 1841 – 1904) was a

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

politician, considered one of the fathers of modern

Catalan nationalism Catalan nationalism is the ideology asserting that the Catalans are a distinct nation. Intellectually, modern Catalan nationalism can be said to have commenced as a political philosophy in the unsuccessful attempts to establish a federal state ...

, and more specifically, of the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

variety.

Biography

Education

Almirall was a student of the

School of Fine Arts The School of Fine Arts or College of Fine Arts is the official name or part of the name of several schools of fine arts, often as an academic part of a larger university. These include: The Americas North America *Alabama School of Fine ...

but had to leave after criticising the Professor

Claudi Lorenzale Claudi Lorenzale i Sugrañes (; 8 December 1814 – 31 March 1889) was a Spanish painter, associated with the German Nazarene movement and local efforts to recover the history of the Catalan region. Biography He was born in Barcelona. H ...

. In the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat de Barcelona, UB; ; es, link=no, Universidad de Barcelona) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, in Spain. With 63,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities i ...

, he studied

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

between 1854 and 1857Diccionari d'Història de Catalunya; ed. 62; Barcelona; 1998;

Politics

Almirall was originally a federal republican who campaigned for the

Catalan Countries The Catalan Countries ( ca, països catalans, , ) refers to those territories where the Catalan language is spoken. They include the Spanish regions of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Valencia, and parts of Aragon (''La Franja'') and Murcia ( ...

to be united to form an administrative entity as a part of a Spanish Federal Republic. He participated in the Glorious Revolution of 1868. His wealth and the little vocation he had as a lawyer pushed him into politics. He participated in the preparation and the facts of the revolution of 1868 in

, directed the newspaper ''El Federalista'' (The Federalist) and collaborated with the ''Federal-Republican Journal'', where he published leaflets quite radical like ''Guerra a Madrid!'' (War with

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

!), ''Bases para la Constitución federal de la Nación Española y para la del Estado de Cataluña'' (Basis for the federal Constitution of the Spanish Nation and for the one of the Catalan State), ''Observaciones sobre el modo de plantear la confederación en España'' (Observations on the way to propose the confederation in Spain). As a

republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

he declared himself hostile to any kind of agreement with the

monarchic A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic ( constitutional monarc ...

and took part in the

Tortosa Pact The Federal Tortosa Pact, or simply, Tortosa Pact ( or ), was an ideological manifesto and organizational project from Republican and Federal forces of Aragon, the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and the Valencia region, signed in Tortosa on May 18, ...

(18 May 1869), signed by representatives of Republican organizations in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

, the

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...

and

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to s ...

. Between 1868 and 1881 he was a member of the

Federal Democratic Republican Party The Federal Democratic Republican Party ( es, Partido Republicano Democrático Federal, PRDF) was a Spanish political party founded in 1868 during the Glorious Revolution that was active until 1912. Its ideology was federal republicanism and pro ...

(PRDF). He was the leader of the ''federal intransigents of Barcelona'', a minority group within the federal republicanism, based around the Federalists Club (1868–1869) (of which he was chosen to be the first president) and the newspaper ''El Estado Catalán'' (1869–1870 and 1873). Between 1868 and 1869 he guided the publication of ''El Federalista,'' characterized by the dogmatism, intransigence, maximalism and

idealism In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to ...

of its ideas. This movement wanted to transform the centralized and standardizing

Spanish state Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

, into a decentralized federal state through a federal revolution from below, emerged from the initiative of the grassroots classes, a revolution that would involve the federal division of Spanish sovereignty between the Spanish historical regions and the government of the federation. From 1869 to 1873 he published a newspaper called ''El Estado Catalan'' and between 1870 and 1874 he led a cultural organisation called ''La Jove Catalunya'' (''The young Catalonia''). In 1880 he founded ''

El Diari Català EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American ...

'' (''The Catalan newspaper''), which was the first daily newspaper to be printed in

Catalan language Catalan (; autonym: , ), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as '' Valencian'' (autonym: ), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern ...

. Soon after he organised the 'Catalanist Congress' which was attended by 1200 people but was criticised by the

Renaixença The ''Renaixença'' (; also written ''Renaixensa'' before spelling standardisation), or Catalan Renaissance, was a romantic revivalist movement in Catalan language and culture through the mid 19th century, akin to the Galician ''Rexurdimento ...

. In 1881 he abandoned federalism because it was too Spanish in his opinion. In 1882 he founded the Centre Català which tried to bring together all the Catalan cultural and regionalist associations under one umbrella organisation. In 1886 he published 'Lo Catalanisme' which criticised federalism. The Valentí Almirall square in

is named after him.https://www.idealista.com/archive/barcelona-barcelona/plaza-valenti-almirall

Bibliography

* 'Valentí Almirall' by Antoni Rovira i Virgili (1936)

References

External links

Webpage devoted to Valentí Almirall at LletrA (UOC), Catalan Literature Online)
in Catalan. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Almirall I Llozer, Valenti 1841 births 1904 deaths University of Barcelona alumni Politicians from Barcelona Lawyers from Barcelona