Francesc Macià i Llussà was a Catalan politician who served as the 122nd President of Catalonia and formerly an officer in the Spanish Army.
Life
Francesc Macià i Llussà was born in Vilanova i la Geltrú, Catalonia. Shortly after the death of his father, when he was 16, he entered the Military Academy of Guadalajara to join the Corps of Engineers of the Spanish Army, specializing himself in bridges, railways and telegraphs. He requested to be transferred to Cuba but he was send several times to Barcelona, Madrid or Seville, ascending from telegrapher to captain. As an officer in the Spanish army, he positioned himself in favor of its modernization. He achieved the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1887 he was transferred to Lleida, where he met his wife, Eugènia Lamarca, daughter of Agapit Lamarca, with whom he had three children, Joan, Eugènia and Maria. On November 25, 1905, some Spanish army officers, in retaliation for a joke of the satirical Catalan journal ¡Cu-Cut!, assaulted and destroyed the offices of the magazine, as well as the ones of the Catalanist journal La Veu de Catalunya. The Spanish Government responded by creating a Law of jurisdictions for the repression of crimes against the homeland and against the army, which caused various political groups to unite to form Solidaritat Catalana. Macià publicly condemned the military's action. As a result, his officials transferred him to Cantabria. He ran as a member of Catalan Solidarity in the election of April 21, 1907 for Barcelona and Les Borges Blanques districts, where his family came from. The resounding victory of this formation took him to the Cantabrian town of Santoña. He was re-elected deputy in 1914, 1916, 1918, 1919, 1920 and 1923. From the Spanish Parliament, he initially defended the regeneration of Spain, however, during his last years as a politician in Madrid, he moved from Catalan autonomist to left-wing independentist positions. In 1922, Macià founded the independentist party Estat Català. In 1926 he attempted an insurrection against the Spanish dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera. This uprising, the aim of which was to achieve the independence of Catalonia, was based in Prats de Molló. He was arrested in France for this and was convicted and sentenced to two months in jail and a fine of 100 francs. Macià left France for Brussels in March 1927. In April 1930 he returned to Spain after being pardoned; he was exiled again but returned once more in February 1931. In 1931, after the elections that caused the exile of Alfonso XIII of Spain and gave the local majority to his party Republican Left of Catalonia, a few hours before the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in Madrid, from the balcony of the Palace of the Generalitat, announced the "Catalan Republic, expecting that the other peoples of Spain constitute themselves as republics, in order to establish the Iberian Confederation". Macià was appointed as its acting president. Three days later, the government of the new Spanish Republic, sent three ministers to Barcelona to negotiate with Macià and the Catalan government. Macià reached an agreement with the ministers, in which the Catalan Republic was renamed Generalitat of Catalonia, becoming an autonomous government inside the Spanish Republic. Macià was the President of the Generalitat from 1932, after the first Catalan parliamentary election, until his death in December 1933.
Death
Macià died on 25 December 1933 in Barcelona. His funeral caused a massive demonstration of grief. His remains rest in the Plaça de la Fe, the Montjuïc Cemetery, in Barcelona's Montjuïc hill.
Documentation
Part of his personal collection, which consists of documentation image about the president travels throughout Catalonia and family snapshots, is preserved in the National Archive of Catalonia. They are a repository of Mrs. Teresa Peyrí i Macià. The fund contains documents generated and received by Francesc Macià, personal and family documents, correspondence from the period before the Second Spanish Republic and documentation produced primarily in terms of its political activity. The fund brings together documents relating to his conduct before being named president of the Government of Catalonia : As a Member of Parliament on Catalan State, on Catalan Army and on the corresponding period in the Directory of General Primo de Rivera. Finally, there is the collection of photographs, most made during his presidency. Another part of Macià's personal archive consists of correspondence written to/by Joan Agell, documents of Centre Català in New York, diverse documentation and press clippings. It is in the Pavelló de la República CRAI Library at the University of Barcelona.
