Primo de Rivera y Orbañeja, Miguel

(1870–1930)

   A Spanish general and dictator who fought devotedly to prevent first the final fall of the Spanish Empire and then the fall of the Spanish monarchy. He was unsuccessful in both cases. Primo de Rivera was born in Jerez, Spain, on January 8, 1870, into a prominent military family. He joined the army in 1884 and advanced in rank through his participation in the Spanish colonial wars in Morocco, Cuba, and the Philippines in the 1890s. He became general in 1912. In 1915 he was appointed governor of Cádiz; in 1919 he became captain general of Valencia and Madrid, and then Catalonia, in 1922. In 1921, after the death of his uncle, Primo de Rivera became Marqués de Estella. From Barcelona he organized, with the approval of King Alfonso XIII and large support that included the Catalan high bourgeoisie, the trade unions, and the latifundistas, a military coup d’état that took place on September 13, 1923, ending the turno system under which the leading political parties took turns in power. He had married Casilda Sáenz de Heredia in 1902. She died in 1908 after bearing him six children. The first born, José Antonio, would become the founder of the Falange Española, Francisco Franco’s eventual political base. His sister Pilar ran the women’s section of the Falange and is known to have said that, “there is nothing more detestable than an intellectual woman.” José Antonio and his brother Fernando were taken prisoners and executed in the first year of the Spanish Civil War.

   FURTHER READING:

    Ratcliff, Dillwyn F. Prelude to Franco: Political Aspects of the Dictatorship of General Miguel Primo de Rivera . New York: Las Americas, 1957.

   GEORGIA TRES