Person
Albar Catalán, Manuel (1900-1955)Other forms
Saragossa 1900-06-04 - Ciudad de México (México) 1955-04-17
Spanish politician and journalist, exiled. He was born in Zaragoza in 1900. Albar was a typographer, but he decided to work in journalism. He was a member of CNT (an anarcho-syndicalist union) and the Socialist Party. Albar participated in the UGT Extraordinary Congress in 1927 as a representative of some Working Class Societies of Zaragoza. The same year, the Court of Zaragoza sent Albar into exile, so he moved to Irún (Guipúzcoa). In 1928 he arrived to Madrid thanks to Andrés Saborit, and joined the editorial office "El Socialista". Albar became the editor-in-chief of this paper, even though he had already contributed in it from Irún under the pseudonym of "Juan de Alzate".
Coming from anarchism, Albar joined the UGT Graphic Federation, the Socialist Party of Zaragoza on 15 February 1926. He also was the secretary-treasurer of the PSOE Executive Board, from April 1931 to October 1932, being the chairperson from June 1936 to April 1939. In the 1931 general elections, he was elected deputy for Zaragoza (province), and participated in the Committee on Budget and Finance. Moreover, Albar was the chairperson of the Socialist Parliamentary Group from October 1931 to May 1932, the acting chairperson of the Court of Responsibilities on July 1932, and full chairperson of the Court which judged responsibilities in Jaca, on July 1933.
He joined the Revolutionary Committee of Madrid in October 1934. The same year on December, he finally was arrested and imprisoned in "La Modelo", Madrid. During the Spanish Civil War, he headed the newspaper "El Socialista" (1937-1938), and handled its publication in Barcelona, which finally came out from May 1938 to January 1939. At the end of the War, Albar went into exile to Mexico along with his family, arriving on July 1939; at that time he was 39-years-old. He got married with María Espallargas, but he finally travelled with his children Manuel and María Albar Espallargas (12 and 10 years old respectively).
In Mexico, he represented the PSOE Executive Committee, and headed the newspaper "Adelante", from its appearance in 1942 to 1946, and then from 1952 to 1955. Albar was also in charge of the Expression Body of the Spanish Liberation Board, "El seminario España" (Spain seminar) from 1944 to 1945 in Mexico. In 1946, he moved to France as a representative of the Socialist Party of Mexico in the II PSOE Congress in exile. Then, he stayed in Toulouse because he was elected press secretary of the PSOE Executive Commission until 1948. Albar was also the chairperson of this commission and of UGT in 1951 and 1952, working also as the manager of "El Socialista" in Toulouse between 1950 and June 1952.
He quitted PSOE and UGT in June 1952, coming back to Mexico, where Albar died in 1955. All Albar's work which was developed during his exile in Mexico was compiled by his son-in-law Ramón Pardo in 1958, being published in this country.
Date of the event: 1936 - 1939
Description: Diputado por Zaragoza-provincia en las elecciones generales de 1931, miembro de la Comisión de Presupuestos y de la de Hacienda. Vocal del Grupo Parlamentario Socialista (de octubre de 1931 a mayo de 1932), vocal suplente del Tribunal de Responsabilidades (julio de 1932) y vocal titular del Tribunal para juzgar las responsabilidades dimanantes del proceso de Jaca (julio de 1933)
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