Álvaro de Albornoz

Álvaro de Albornoz

Álvaro de Albornoz y Liminiana (June 13, 1879 Luarca (Asturias) - October 22, 1954 Mexico) was a Spanish lawyer, writer, and politician.

Early life

He began his early studies in his native town of Luarca, then he went to the University of Oviedo to obtain a law degree. During his university years he experienced the excitement of the Republican Party in Oviedo which was very common in the intellectual circles at that time. Some of his professors were Leopoldo Alas "Clarín" and Adolfo Álvarez Buylla, a knowledgeable Marxist and founder of the Sociology Seminary at the Faculty’s Library. After Oviedo, Albornoz continued to Madrid where he was influenced by Francisco Giner de los Ríos and the "Institución Libre de Enseñanza". Throughout these years, his social and political beliefs were shaped and reinforced.

He then returned to Luarca, where he practiced law for ten years. He became more active with socialist activities and wrote for the "La Aurora Social", a political newspaper in Asturias. In 1909 he became a member of Lerroux’s Radical Republican Party. He was named deputy for Zaragoza in 1910. Albornoz maintained this position until the following elections in 1914; at which time, he left politics and the Radical Republican Party in order to practice law and spend more time writing.

Political career

It would not be until 1929 when in the "Cárcel Modelo of Madrid" he would found along with Marcelino Domingo, the new Radical Socialist Republican Party—which in 1934 would merge with other parties to become the Republican Left.

Among many positions he held he was a member of the Revolutionary Committee of 1930, he was deputy in the "Cortes Constituyentes de la Républica", and he was Minister of Justice and Minister of Public Works during the Second Republic. Some of the legacy that came as a result of his tenure as Minister include the dissolution of the "Compañía de Jesús", divorce, suppression of the budget for the "cult and cleric", and other rules relating to the Religious Orders.

Albornoz was defended in 1930 by Victoria Kent at the court martial.

Albornoz went on to become the first president of the "Tribunal de Garantías Constitucionales". And on July 27, 1936 he was named ambassador of the Republic in Paris.

Already exiled in Mexico, he was named President of the Republic in Exile from May 11, 1940 to June 27, 1945. He was also name "Jefe del Gobierno Republicano" during 1947 to 1951, during two consecutive terms.

Family

Albornoz was married to Amalia Salas. They had two children, Alvaro II and Concha.

Among other important family members, Álvaro was the uncle of Severo Ochoa de Albornoz, Nobel Prize Winner in Medicine and Physiology. He was also the granduncle of Aurora de Albornoz, celebrated poet and literary critic.

Works