Enric Pérez i Farràs

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In this Catalan name, the first or paternal surname is Pérez and the second or maternal family name is Farràs; both are generally joined by the conjunction "i".
Enric Pérez i Farràs
Other name(s)Enrique Pérez Farrás
Born1884
Lleida, Spain
Died1949
Cuautla, Mexico
Allegiance Generalitat de Catalunya
ServiceMossos d'Esquadra
Battles/warsSpanish Civil War

Enric Pérez i Farràs (1884 in Lleida – 1949 in Cuautla, Mexico) was a Catalan military commander.

Biography[edit]

Enric Pérez i Farràs was born in Lleida, in 1884, the son of Enric Pérez i Dalmau and Teresa Farràs i Vila.[1] He was married to Elisabet Coëmans.[2]

In 1930 he was the artillery commander of the Spanish Army, 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.[3] In 1931, following the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, the president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Francesc Macià, appointed him head of the Mossos d'Esquadra.[4] He was a sympathizer of Catalan nationalism.[5] During the insurrection of the Generalitat in Revolution of 1934, he seconded the proclamation of Lluís Companys and participated in the defense of the Palace of the Generalitat of Catalonia against the troops of Domingo Batet.[6] 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,[7] but the sentence was commuted by the President of the Republic Alcalá Zamora for perpetual imprisonment.[8]

The victory of the Popular Front in the 1936 Spanish general election caused him to be pardoned and released,[9] 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,[10] when he directed the attack on the headquarters of the Captaincy General of Catalunya and arrested Manuel Goded, leader of the military rebellion in Barcelona.

Once the Spanish Civil War broke out, Farrás was appointed "military chief" of the Central Committee of Antifascist Militias and later assigned to the Aragon Front as military adviser to the Durruti Column,[11][12] without ever meeting with Buenaventura Durruti.[13] He returned to Barcelona and spent the rest of the war in bureaucratic positions, as military governor of Tarragona and, later, of Girona.[14] At the end of the civil war he went into exile in Mexico. 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 during the Second World War.

He died in Mexico in 1949.[14]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Lerida - Noticia de la defunció de Enrique Pérez Dalmau" (in Spanish). La Vanguardia. January 10, 1932. p. 28.
  2. ^ "Ante la tumba del primer presidente" (in Spanish). La Vanguardia. February 13, 1934. p. 7.
  3. ^ Escofet i Alsina 1973, p. 40.
  4. ^ Gonzàlez i Vilalta & Ucelay-Da Cal 2012, p. 117.
  5. ^ Alpert 2013, p. 94n.
  6. ^ Liz Vázquez 2007, p. 57.
  7. ^ Alpert 2013, p. 11.
  8. ^ Casanova & Gil Andrés 2014, pp. 139–140.
  9. ^ Alpert 2013, p. 346.
  10. ^ Romero 1994, p. 320.
  11. ^ Alexander 1999, p. 159.
  12. ^ Gabriel 2011, p. 332.
  13. ^ Preston 2013, p. 314.
  14. ^ a b Alpert 2013, p. 347.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Alexander, Robert J. (1999). The Anarchists in the Spanish Civil War. Vol. I. Janus Publishing Company Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85756-412-9.
  • Alpert, Michael (2013). The Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. Cambridge University Press.
  • Casanova, Julián; Gil Andrés, Carlos (2014). Twentieth-Century Spain: A History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-01696-5.
  • Escofet i Alsina, Frederic (1973). Al servei de Catalunya i de la República. La desfeta. 6 d'octubre 1934 (in Catalan). Paris: Edicions Catalanes De París. ISBN 2-85041-012-8.
  • Gabriel, Pere (2011). Historia de la UGT IV. Un sindicalismo en guerra (1936-1939) (in Spanish). Siglo XXI de España Editores.
  • Gonzàlez i Vilalta, Arnau; Ucelay-Da Cal, Enric (2012). Contra Companys, 1936: La frustración nacionalista ante la Revolución (in Spanish). Universidad de Valencia.
  • Liz Vázquez, Antonio (2007). Octubre de 1934: Insurrecciones y revolución (in Spanish). Espuela de Plata. ISBN 978-84-96956-45-2.
  • Romero, Luis (1994). Tres días de julio. (18, 19 y 20 de 1936) (in Spanish). Ed. Ariel.
  • Preston, Paul (2013). El Holocausto Español. Odio y Exterminio en la Guerra Civil y después (in Spanish). Barcelona: Debolsillo.

External links[edit]

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