Rotaryism was an idea Paul P. HarrisChicago lawyer, in 1905, to promote meetings, relationships and mutual interests between people related to professional or commercial fields. He grew up in the United States and later moved to Europe. In 1922, the Rotary International with a Central Council, a governor in each country or District and local clubs. Rotarianism emphasized altruism, civility and not having a “religious, political, philosophical, hierarchical, seditious or secret character.” Other commitments were friendship, the well-being of others, tolerance and the promotion of peace.
In Spain, the first club was born in Madrid in 1920, and several others emerged during the same decade. In 1927, the District 60 with FLorestan Aguilar as first governor. As the researcher indicates Julio Ponce Swimming Pool (1995), to the elitist profile of the partners was largely added their harmony with “the political right”. In the 1930s, new clubs emerged, including that of Toledo, whose beginnings, without the existence of primary sources, can only be supported for the moment by journalistic references.
Birth and conviction
A single printed page preserved in the Municipal Archives of Toledo includes the date of founding of the Rotary Club of Toledo (March 15, 1932), the place and the day of its meetings: “Hotel Castilla, Tuesdays 2 and 4 at two o’clock, on others at three in the afternoon. This luxurious accommodation welcomed a select clientele. It was managed by the Priede family, one of whose daughters, Mercedes, married to the professor and writer Félix Urabayen. On March 17, 1932, the newspaper NOWin convening the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Madrid, cited the presence of the secretary of the Club of Toledo, “Don Antonio Infantes”, who presided Antonio Llanso. The gazette also announces the visit to Toledo, on the 22nd, of the Spanish “district governor”, Miguel Manteconthe governor of the French district, André Gardotand the secretary of the European Office of the Rotary Club International in Zurich, Alex O. Potter.
The first presidents of Rotary from Toledo were the forest engineer Antonio Llanso Ruiz (1933), The Lawyer José Esteban-Infants Martín (1934) and later, until 1936, followed by the notary Diego Soldevilla Guzmán, Public Works engineer José Gallarza Cebeira and prosecutor Wenceslao Manzaneque Fraile. The club’s members brought together “distinguished people”, and it was common to see their individual presence at any official, civil or religious event in the city.
However, the appearance of Rotary Club Toledo caused immediate alarm. On March 19, 1932, the Ecclesiastical Bulletin of the Archbishopric published a circular from the Vicar Capitular recalling Pastoral Exhortation signed in 1929 by Primate Pedro Segura, supported in turn by the encyclical Genus Humanum (León XIII, 1884) who condemned Freemasonry. The above Admonition He pointed out that Rotarianism has been condemned by the Holy See, prohibiting the faithful from joining it. The Castellan He then added two articles praising the Vicar’s circular which other Catholic newspapers supported. In June 1935, a new alarm sounded citing ABC the Primate’s invitation to Rotary Toledo at a religious ceremony. Which the secretary of the Chamber of Mgr Gomá immediately denied, because it caused “twisted interpretations”. Despite the reasoned responses of Rotarians to the Spanish ecclesiastical authorities, the pressure which would be added to the banning of Rotaryism in 1940 continued.
Other news up to 1936
Among the first public acts of Rotary local is the welcome offered, with the authorities and the press, to the participants of the competition of “regional beauties” who arrived in Toledo on February 19, 1933 amid great curiosity. In April, Toledo Rotarians received an oak presidential gavel with a dedicated plaque from their Ohio counterparts. They responded by sending a small replica of the old “vermejo banner” of Toledo, in addition to cooperating with the Relations Committee created and encouraged by different people and by the City Council.
Activity was greater in 1934. On March 9, the president of Rotary International, the Canadian society John Nelson with members of other clubs to get to know Toledo. Soon the Club would become involved in the approved program to present the city’s gold medal to its American namesake, a process we covered in two previous articles. So, he took care of the formal welcome banquet. Three members (Esteban-Infantes, Antonio Lillo and Diego Diego Soldevilla) offered their cigars for relaxed evenings and other partners provided resources for guests during their stay.
That same year, 1934, the Rotary Club of Toledo participated in the donation of the Order of the Republic to Francisco Navarro Ledesma Already Adoration Gómez Camareroas well as aid to “state forces”. In 1935, he attended the inauguration of the Provincial Archaeological Museum, the Historical Archives and the installation of the painting by the Russian painter Sergei Rovinsky in the Cathedral. The most notable event this year occurred on November 3 with an excursion to El Toboso in honor of Cervantes. The authorities of the province, the region and members of the Madrid and Aranjuez clubs were present. The Castellan And NOW They published a similar column quoting the Rotarians of Toledo and their companions present: “Gallarza, Soldevilla and Mrs., Moro, Lillo and their daughters. Olmedo, Bretaño (Adolfo), Lanzaró and Riesco with their wives, Talavera, their brothers and Fúster. They visited the Church of the Trinitarias, the library, Dulcinea’s house and the parish temple. There was an evening at school and, between speeches, Urabayen read some “interesting pages” and a chapter from Don Quixote, a work in which “the doctrine of Rotarianism” is inscribed. Finally, a collection was made, half of which was donated to the town hall for charitable purposes and the rest to the Cervantine Society.
On July 8, 1936, one of the last events of the Rotarians of Toledo took place: a tribute to German Erausquin, the Spanish from Toledo, Ohio, who strengthened relations between the two cities. The civil and military authorities were present and, ten days later, they found themselves face to face in the street, weapons in the middle. The war and the “new state”, with the Law repressing Freemasonry and Communism (1940), marks the end of Rotaryism. Its legalization took place in 1977. Rotary Club de Toledo was reborn in 2012, far from the old elitism, with renewed objectives as demonstrated by its humanitarian missions in African countries or its continuous projects applied to children and people in need and with different types of disabilities, among the many challenges that the current world.
