Diego Martínez Barrio is Born

Today in Masonic History Diego Martínez Barrio was born in 1883.

Diego Martínez Barrio was a Spanish Politician.

Born in Seville, Barrio was a member of the Radical Republican party in Spain. He would leave the party due to a disagreement with Alejandro Lerroux who was serving as Prime Minister at the time.

Barrio would go on to found the Republican Union party. In 1936 Barrio participated in the Spanish Popular Front, an organization whose primary purpose was to contest the elections result of that same year. He was also elected into the Cortes (Spanish Parliament).

In July of 1936 the Spanish Civil War broke out when conservatives in the country, led by Francisco Franco, were unhappy with the change in governement going on in Spain started a military coup. In 1939, two months before the end of the war, Barrio rejected replacing Manuel Azaña as president of the Republic. In April of that same year the Civil War ended and with Franco now in charge, Barrio fled the country.

Barrio first went to France and then Mexico. In Mexico, in 1945, Barrio was named president of the Republic in Exile.

Barrio was the Grand Master of the Grand Oriente Español.

This article provided by Brother Eric C. Steele.