Lorenzo Portet (1870–1917) was a Spanish
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
and an associate of anarchist and educational reformer
Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia
Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia (; January 14, 1859 – October 13, 1909), widely known as Francisco Ferrer (), was a Spanish radical freethinker, anarchist, and educationist behind a network of secular, private, libertarian schools in and aroun ...
).
Biography
Born in
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 north ...
in 1870, Portet was raised in
Barcelona, Spain
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 ...
. He attended 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 ...
, then went to
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
to teach. In 1895, after five years away, Portet returned to Spain and soon got involved in an insurrection.
He fled to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
where in 1896 he met
Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia
Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia (; January 14, 1859 – October 13, 1909), widely known as Francisco Ferrer (), was a Spanish radical freethinker, anarchist, and educationist behind a network of secular, private, libertarian schools in and aroun ...
, founder of the
Escuela Moderna
The Ferrer school was an early 20th century libertarian school inspired by the anarchist pedagogy of Francisco Ferrer. He was a proponent of rationalist, secular education that emphasized reason, dignity, self-reliance, and scientific observatio ...
or Modern School movement. He returned to Barcelona to get information and report on the people being
tortured in Montjuic after the
1896 Corpus Christi procession bombing in Barcelona.
He then returned to Paris where he ran the publishing house Ferrer had established. After Ferrer was executed in 1909 following the events known as the ''
Tragic Week'', Portet led a mass demonstration in Paris in front of the Spanish embassy. Though Ferrer left him his house in Paris, his publishing house and stock in Barcelona, and shares in two companies to enable Portet to carry on Ferrer's work, Portet was arrested and expelled from France. Portet fled to
Liverpool, England where he taught foreign languages.
Portet met American radical and fellow exile,
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Higgins Sanger (born Margaret Louise Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966), also known as Margaret Sanger Slee, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control ...
, in a Liverpool café.
See also
*
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Higgins Sanger (born Margaret Louise Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966), also known as Margaret Sanger Slee, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control ...
*
Modern School (United States)
The Ferrer Center and Stelton Colony were an anarchist social center and colony, respectively, organized to honor the memory of anarchist pedagogue Francisco Ferrer and to build a school based on his model in the United States.
In the widesprea ...
*
Escuela Moderna
The Ferrer school was an early 20th century libertarian school inspired by the anarchist pedagogy of Francisco Ferrer. He was a proponent of rationalist, secular education that emphasized reason, dignity, self-reliance, and scientific observatio ...
*
Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia
Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia (; January 14, 1859 – October 13, 1909), widely known as Francisco Ferrer (), was a Spanish radical freethinker, anarchist, and educationist behind a network of secular, private, libertarian schools in and aroun ...
*
Anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessa ...
References
Further reading
* Avrich, Paul.'' The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States'' (Princeton University Press, 1980)
* Constant, Leroy, ''Los Secretos del Anarquismo: Asesinato de Canalejas y el caso Ferrer.'' Mexico, 1913.
* Heath, Nick.
Lorenzo Portet, 1870-1914'
* Katz, Esther, Cathy Moran Hajo and Peter Engelman, eds. ''The Margaret Sanger Papers Microfilm Edition: Smith College Collections'' (University Publications of America, 1996)
* Katz, Esther, Cathy Moran Hajo and Peter Engelman, eds. ''The Margaret Sanger Papers Microfilm Edition: Collected Documents Series'' (University Publications of America, 1997)
* Katz, Esther, Cathy Moran Hajo and Peter Engelman, eds. ''The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger, vol 1: The Woman Rebel, 1900-1928.'' Urbana:University of Illinois Press, 2003.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portet, Lorenzo
Spanish anarchists
1870 births
1917 deaths
Spanish expatriates in Argentina
Spanish expatriates in France