Enric Pérez i Farràs (1884 in

Lleida Lleida (, ; Spanish: Lérida ) is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital city of the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It is also the capital city of the Segrià comarca, as ...

– 1949 in Cuautla,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

) 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 ...

military commander.

Biography

Enric Pérez i Farràs was born in

, in 1884, the son of Enric Pérez i Dalmau and Teresa Farràs i Vila. He was married to Elisabet Coëmans. In

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...

he was the artillery commander of the

Spanish Army The Spanish Army ( es, Ejército de Tierra, lit=Land Army) is the terrestrial army of the Spanish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is one of the oldest active armies — dating back to the late 15th century. The ...

, he opposed to the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, due to the confrontation between the artillery corps and the dictator. He participated in clandestine meetings of officers against the monarchy of Alfonso XIII. In 1931, following the proclamation of the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII, and was di ...

, the president of the Generalitat de Catalunya,

Francesc Macià Francesc Macià i Llussà (; 21 September 1859 – 25 December 1933) was a Spanish politician from Catalonia who served as the 122nd president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and formerly an officer in the Spanish Army. Politically, he evolve ...

, appointed him head of the Mossos d'Esquadra. He was a sympathizer of

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 i ...

. During the insurrection of the Generalitat in Revolution of 1934, he seconded the proclamation of

Lluís Companys Lluís Companys i Jover (; 21 June 1882 – 15 October 1940) was a Catalan politician who served as president of Catalonia from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War. Companys was a lawyer close to labour movement and one of the most prominent l ...

and participated in the defense of the Palace of the Generalitat of Catalonia against the troops of

Domingo Batet Domingo may refer to: People *Domingo (name), a Spanish name and list of people with that name *Domingo (producer) (born 1970), American hip-hop producer *Saint Dominic (1170–1221), Castilian Catholic priest, founder of the Friars popularly cal ...

. For this Pérez i Farràs was tried in a court martial and sentenced to death along with other officers such as Federic Escofet i Alsina, but the sentence was commuted by the President of the Republic Alcalá Zamora for perpetual imprisonment. The victory of the Popular Front in the

1936 Spanish general election Legislative elections were held in Spain on 16 February 1936. At stake were all 473 seats in the unicameral Cortes Generales. The winners of the 1936 elections were the Popular Front, a left-wing coalition of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ...

caused him to be pardoned and released, being readmitted to the army. With the Generalitat restored, he regained his position at the head of the Mossos and was one of the officers who contributed to quelling the

July 1936 military uprising in Barcelona The July 1936 military uprising in Barcelona was a military uprising in Barcelona, the capital and largest city of Catalonia, Spain on 19 July 1936 which contributed to the start of the Spanish Civil War. Most of the Spanish Army officers in the c ...

, when he directed the attack on the headquarters of the Captaincy General of Catalunya and arrested

Manuel Goded Manuel Goded Llopis (15 October 1882 – 12 August 1936) was a Spanish Army general who was one of the key figures in the July 1936 revolt against the democratically elected Second Spanish Republic. Having unsuccessfully led an attempted insur ...

, leader of the military rebellion in

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 ci ...

. Once the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

broke out, Farrás was appointed "military chief" of the

Central Committee of Antifascist Militias The Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia ( ca, Comitè Central de Milícies Antifeixistes de Catalunya, CCMA) was an administrative body created on July 21, 1936 by the president of the Government of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, ...

and later assigned to the Aragon Front as military adviser to the

Durruti Column The Durruti Column (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Columna Durruti''), with about 6,000 people, was the largest anarchist column (or military unit) formed during the Spanish Civil War. During the first months of the war, it became the most recogniz ...

, without ever meeting with Buenaventura Durruti. He returned to Barcelona and spent the rest of the war in bureaucratic positions, as military governor of

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; Phoenician: ''Tarqon''; la, Tarraco) is a port city located in northeast Spain on the Costa Daurada by the Mediterranean Sea. Founded before the fifth century BC, it is the capital of the Province of Tarragona, and part of Tar ...

and, later, of

Girona Girona (officially and in Catalan language, Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter River, Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 in ...

. At the end of the civil war he went into exile in

. He held a high position in a bank run by Catalan exiles. He collaborated with articles on military strategy in the magazine '' Quaderns de l'exili'' and proposed to form a unit of Catalan soldiers together with the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He died in Mexico in 1949.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Correspondència amb Enric Pérez Farràs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perez I Farras, Enric People from Lleida Spanish military personnel of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction) 1884 births 1949 deaths Spanish emigrants to Mexico