Francisco Ferrer
Francisco Ferrer | |
---|---|
Escola Moderna |
Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia (Catalan pronunciation: [fɾənˈsɛsk fəˈrej ˈɣwaɾði.ə]; January 14, 1859 – October 13, 1909), widely known as Francisco Ferrer (Spanish pronunciation: [fɾanˈθisko feˈreɾ]), was a Spanish radical freethinker, anarchist, and educationist behind a network of secular, private, libertarian schools in and around Barcelona. His execution, following a revolt in Barcelona, propelled Ferrer into martyrdom and grew an international movement of radicals and libertarians, who established schools in his model and promoted his schooling approach.
Ferrer was raised on a farm near Barcelona, where he developed republican and anti-clerical convictions. As a train conductor, he transmitted messages for the republican leader Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla, exiled in France. Following a failed republican uprising in 1885, Ferrer, too, moved to Paris with his family, where they stayed for 16 years. Ferrer began to explore anarchism and education. At the turn of the century, Ferrer had resolved to open a libertarian school modeled on Paul Robin's Prévost orphanage school. A large inheritance from a Parisian tutee provided the means to do so.
Upon returning to Barcelona in 1901, Ferrer founded the Barcelona Modern School,
In mid-1909, Ferrer was arrested and accused of orchestrating a week of insurrection known as Barcelona's
Early life and career
Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia was born January 10 or 14, 1859,
During his mid-20s, Ferrer had become a radical Republican. In 1883, he was initiated into the
He used his position as a train conductor on a route between France and Barcelona to transmit messages for the exiled Republican leader Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla and shepherd republicans, radicals and freemasons to sanctuary. After supporting an attempted coup under General Manuel Villacampa del Castillo who intended to install a Spanish Republic in late 1886, Ferrer was himself forced to flee to France with his wife and three daughters, where they would stay for 16 years.[8] While in France, Ferrer kept up his masonic activities with the Grand Orient de France.[9]
Exile in Paris
In Paris, Ferrer taught Spanish, sold wine on commission, volunteered as Ruíz's secretary (until his 1895 death), and pursued radical efforts. He was a
Ferrer began to explore anarchism following Ruíz's death. He met
While in Paris, Ferrer became interested in education, which was a hot topic in anarchist and rationalist circles. Ferrer was captivated by Paul Robin's Prévost orphanage school in Cempuis, which modeled the school Ferrer would open. Robin's' co-educational "integral" program sought to develop the children's physical and intellectual capacities without coercion. He believed that social and economic environment played a larger role in a child's development than heredity, and so his school aimed to provide nature, exercise, love, and understanding, especially towards children normally subject to stigma. Ferrer corresponded with but never visited Robin in Cempuis. Around 1900, Ferrer declared his intention to open a similar libertarian school, which became plausible when he inherited around a million francs from a middle-aged French woman whom he had tutored in Spanish and convinced of his ideas.[12]
Barcelona Modern School
With this inheritance, Ferrer returned to Spain in 1901, where he would open the Barcelona Modern School, Escuela Moderna. Spain was in a time of self-reflection after losing the Spanish–American War, particularly regarding their national education.[13] Liberals and radicals wanted more secular curriculum, with new scientific, historical, and sociological content and teachers not beholden to diocesan inspectors.[14] Ferrer, a fervent atheist,[15] became prominent in these conversations and advocated for a rational school as an alternative to the religious dogma and compulsory lessons common within Spanish schools.[16] As a speaker, he was unpretentious and uncharismatic, but his sincerity and capacity for organization inspired others.[17] Ferrer followed in a rough and ready Spanish tradition of extragovernment, rationalist education: the republicans and Fourierists schools (1840–50s), the anarchist and secularist schools (1870–80s), Paul Robin's Cempuis orphanage, Elías Puig (Catalonia), and José Sanchez Rosa (Andalusia).[16]
Ferrer's libertarian pedagogy also borrowed from 18th century rationalism, 19th century romanticism, and pedagogues including Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel,
The Escuela Moderna opened on Barcelona's Carrer de les Corts with thirty students in September 1901. More than 126 students were enrolled five years later, in 1906, when the state shuttered the school. The Escuela Moderna charged
The Escuela Moderna additionally hosted a school to train teachers and a radical publishing press, which translated and created more than 40 textbooks adequate for Ferrer's purposes, written in accessible language on recent scientific concepts. The Spanish authorities abhorred the books, which covered topics from math and grammar to natural and social sciences to religious mythology and the iniquities of patriotism and conquest, for upending social order.[22] The press's monthly journal hosted the school's news and articles from prominent libertarian writers.[23]
Aside from the school's purpose of fostering self-development, Ferrer believed it had an additional function:
Ferrer was the center of Barcelonian libertarian education for the decade between his return and his death. The Escuela Moderna's program, from Ferrer's anticlericalism to the quality of guest intellectual lecturers, had impressed even middle-class liberal reformers. Anarchist Emma Goldman credited the success of the school's expansion to Ferrer's methodical administrative ability.[26]
Other schools and centers in his model spread across Spain and to South America.[5] By the time Ferrer opened a satellite school in the nearby textile center Vilanova i la Geltrú towards the end of 1905, Ferrer schools in the image of his Escuela Moderna, for both children and adults, grew across eastern Spain: 14 in Barcelona and 34 across Catalonia, Valencia, and Andalusia. The Spanish Republicans and the secular League of Freethinkers organized their own classes using materials from the school press, with around 120 such rationalist schools in all.[27]
Politics
The rapidity of Ferrer's rise in influence troubled Spanish authorities. His monetary inheritance and organizing ability amplified his subversive efforts,[27] and authorities viewed his school as a front for insurrectionary sentiment.[28] Ferrer represented peril to many social institutions—the church, the state, the military, the family, gender segregation, property—and the conservatives who wished to preserve them.[29]
During the school's early years, Ferrer adopted principles of anarcho-syndicalism, a philosophy of worker co-ownership that grew in prominence during this period. He published La Huelga General (The General Strike), a syndicalist journal, between 1901 and 1903, and worked to organize the Catalonian revolutionary labor movement and promote direct action.[11] Ferrer led a parade of 1,700 children for secular education on Good Friday in April 1906.[27]
Ferrer was intimidated and vilified for his work in Barcelona. Police raided his house and tailed his movements. He was subject to slanderous public rumors to tarnish his reputation, including intonations of gambling, financial speculation, and hedonism. Ferrer's various romantic relations with women were presented as indications of his school's moral lessons.[28]
In 1905, Ferrer and the Modern School voiced their opposition to bullfighting, cautioning against using abolition of the practice as a means to stoke political nationalism.[30]
He was held in association with the
Ferrer's role in the Morral affair remains indeterminate, as of 1985.[33] Ferrer was a militant anarchist, contrary to his proclamations otherwise, who believed in direct action and the usefulness of violence.[34] The Spanish authorities attempted to connect Ferrer with two assassination attempts prior to Morral's.[33] The Oxford historian Joaquín Romero Maura credits Ferrer with coordinating the Morral assassination attempt and a similar attempt a year earlier. Based on papers from French and Spanish authorities, Maura argues that Ferrer supplied the bombs and funds for the attempt to provoke insurrection.[34] These types of official records from this period, however, were famous for their partiality and, even before some evidence from the case went missing, were altogether insufficient for conviction in Ferrer's time.[33]
After Escola Moderna
Ferrer was released from prison in June 1907,[33] backed by an international coalition of anarchist and rationalist organizations who presented Ferrer's case as another iniquitous Spanish inquisition.[31] The next month, Ferrer toured the European capitals as an advocate of the Spanish revolutionary cause.[5] When he returned to Barcelona in September, though Ferrer was prohibited from reopening his school, he reopened his press, where he published new textbooks and translations. He additionally helped the creation of the syndicalist labor federation Solidaridad Obrera and its journal.[33]
In April 1908, Ferrer founded the International League for the Rational Education of Children, which would advocate for libertarian education across Europe. Its primary of three journals, L'Ecole Renovée, included articles by major anarchists and figures in libertarian education. Through its first year, the League led to libertarian schools in Amsterdam, Brussels, and Milan and worked with the libertarian schools of Sébastien Faure and Madeleine Vernet.[35] But Ferrer would not see a second year with the League.[2]
Ferrer was arrested at the end of August 1909 following the previous month's civil unrest and week of outright insurrection in Barcelona known as
Although Ferrer participated in the events of the Catalan Tragic Week, he did not mastermind the events as charged.[2] Reliable retellings of the insurrection credit spontaneous forces rather than anarchist premeditation.[2] Ferrer likely participated in the week's events, though historian of anarchism Paul Avrich considered Ferrer's role marginal.[2] The evidence presented at Ferrer's military court trial included testimony from his political enemies and Ferrer's prior subversive writings, but no evidence of his having orchestrated the rebellion.[36] Ferrer maintained his innocence and was barred from presenting complementary testimony.[37]
The court case, which would culminate in Ferrer's death by
Legacy
Ferrer's execution became known as "martyrdom"[38] to the causes of free thought[39] and rational education.[5] Ferrer was widely believed to be innocent at the time of his death.[38] His execution sparked worldwide protest and indignation.[37][5] Beyond anarchism, liberals across society viewed Ferrer as a martyr to the collusion of a vengeful church and traditionalist state.[40] Protests in many of Europe's major cities coincided with hundreds of meetings across America, Europe, and Asia. A 15,000-person throng descended on Paris's Spanish embassy, and the anarchist black flag draped from the Milan Cathedral.[37] British luminaries spoke in outrage, including George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and Arthur Conan Doyle alongside anarchists Kropotkin, Errico Malatesta, and Tarrida.[39] Ferrer's death was covered widely, from the front page of The New York Times to a number of books.[38]
The worldwide protest became the Ferrer educational movement in his honor.
Groups erected and named public memorials to Ferrer across Europe. Brussels displayed a marble commemoration for Ferrer in its
The international fallout from Ferrer's execution led to the demise of the Antonio Maura administration.[41]
Personal life
Ferrer separated from his wife, Teresa Sanmartí, and later had relations with a friend of the woman whose inheritance funded the Barcelona school. He then fell in love with a teacher at his Escuela Moderna, Soledad Villafranca.[28]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b While sources commonly report Ferrer's birth date as January 10, a local historian found records in 2022 that list Ferrer's birth date as January 14. "La Viquipèdia i l'Enciclopèdia Catalana rectifiquen la data de naixement de Ferrer i Guàrdia a partir d'un article de la revista Alella". Revista Alella (in Catalan). January 20, 2022. Archived from the original on January 20, 2022. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f Avrich 1980, p. 31.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-299-17634-1. Archivedfrom the original on December 21, 2019. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
- Avrich 1980, p. 32.
- Cooke, Bill (June 28, 2010). A Rebel to His Last Breath: Joseph Mccabe and Rationalism. Prometheus Books. p. 217. ISBN 978-1-61592-749-4.
- Hughes, Robert (2011). Barcelona. Knopf Doubleday. p. 523. ISBN 978-0-307-76461-4.
- ISBN 978-84-306-0449-4.
- ^ a b Avrich 1980, p. 3.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Fidler 1985, p. 103.
- ^ Avilés Farré 2006, p. 42.
- ^ Martínez Olmedilla 1960, p. 250.
- ^ a b c Avrich 1980, p. 4.
- ^ Avilés Farré 2006, p. 43.
- ^ Avrich 1980, pp. 24–25.
- ^ a b Avrich 1980, p. 25.
- ^ Avrich 1980, pp. 4–6.
- ^ Avrich 1980, p. 6.
- ^ Avrich 1980, pp. 6–7.
- ^ Avrich 1980, p. 8.
- ^ a b Avrich 1980, p. 7.
- ^ Avrich 1980, p. 19.
- ^ Avrich 1980, pp. 7–8.
- ^ Avrich 1980, pp. 9–10.
- ^ Avrich 1980, p. 20.
- ^ a b Avrich 1980, p. 21.
- ^ Avrich 1980, p. 22–23.
- ^ a b Avrich 1980, p. 23.
- ^ Avrich 1980, p. 24.
- ^ Avrich 1980, p. 22.
- ^ Avrich 1980, pp. 25–26.
- ^ a b c Avrich 1980, p. 26.
- ^ a b c Avrich 1980, p. 27.
- ^ Avrich 1980, pp. 26–27.
- ^ Ferrer, Francisco (February 17, 1905). "Against Bull-Fighting and Human Exploitation". Letter to the Commission for the Abolition of Bull-Fighting.
- ^ a b c Avrich 1980, p. 28.
- ^ Avrich 1980, pp. 27–28.
- ^ a b c d e Avrich 1980, p. 29.
- ^ a b Avrich 1980, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Avrich 1980, pp. 29–30.
- ^ Avrich 1980, pp. 31–32.
- ^ a b c d e Avrich 1980, p. 32.
- ^ a b c d Veysey 1973, p. 77.
- ^ a b c d e f Avrich 1980, p. 33.
- ^ Avrich 1980, pp. 32–33.
- ISBN 978-0-8108-5483-3.
References
- from the original on December 24, 2019. Retrieved October 17, 2017.
- Fidler, Geoffrey C. (1985). "The Escuela Moderna Movement of Francisco Ferrer: 'Por la Verdad y la Justicia'". S2CID 147119437.
- ISBN 978-0-06-014501-9. Archivedfrom the original on December 24, 2019. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
- Avilés Farré, Juan (2006). Francisco Ferrer y Guardia: pedagogo, anarquista y mártir. Marcial Pons Ediciones de Historia. ISBN 9788496467194.
- Martínez Olmedilla, Augusto (1960). Cien años y un día. London: Aguilar.
Further reading
- OCLC 6972391.
- OCLC 1312124.
- Bray, Mark (2022). The Anarchist Inquisition: Assassins, Activists, and Martyrs in Spain and France. LCCN 2021038606.
- "Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia". Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana. Archived from the original on June 9, 2018. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
- Garcia-Yeste, Carme; Redondo-Sama, Gisela; Padrós, Maria; Melgar, Patricia (2016). "The Modern School of Francisco Ferrer i Guàrdia (1859–1909), an International and Current Figure". from the original on June 13, 2020. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
- Gay, Kathlyn; Gay, Martin (1999). Encyclopedia of Political Anarchy. ABC-CLIO. pp. 75–76. ISBN 978-0-87436-982-3.
- Goldman, Emma (1917). "Francisco Ferrer and the Modern School" (PDF). Anarchism and Other Essays. New York: Mother Earth Publishing Association. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 11, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
- Laqua, Daniel (September 2014). "Freethinkers, anarchists and Francisco Ferrer: the making of a transnational solidarity campaign". European Review of History: Revue Européenne d'Histoire. 21 (4): 467–484. S2CID 144888403.
- Park, Tiidu Peter (1970). The European Reaction to the Execution of Francisco Ferrer (PhD). Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia. OCLC 20310763.
- Park, T. Peter (2007). "Ferrer Guardia, Francisco". In Dawkins, Richard (ed.). The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. pp. 326–327. ISBN 978-1-61592-280-2. Archivedfrom the original on December 22, 2019. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
- Rodríguez, Pau (December 6, 2020). "Ferrer i Guàrdia, la utopía educativa de hace más de 100 años de un pedagogo que acabó fusilado". ElDiario.es (in Spanish). Archived from the original on March 21, 2022. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
- Steele, Tom (2007). "Francisco Ferrer and the Modern School". Knowledge is Power!: The Rise and Fall of European Popular Educational Movements, 1848–1939. Oxford: Peter Lang. pp. 114–118. ISBN 978-3-03910-563-2. Archivedfrom the original on December 22, 2019. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
- Ullman, Joan Connelly (1968). The Tragic Week: A Study of Anti-Clericalism in Spain, 1875–1912. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. OCLC 396076.
External links
- Francisco Ferrer Collection at the Mandeville Special Collections and Archives