Blas Infante

Who was Blas Infante?

Blas Infante Pérez de Vargas. Blas Infante was an Andalucista politician, writer, historian and musicologist, known as the father of Andalusian nationalism.

Infante was a Georgist idealist who initiated an assembly at Ronda in 1913. This assembly adopted a charter based on the autonomist Constitución Federal de Antequera written in 1883 during the First Spanish Republic. It also embraced the current flag and coat of arms as "national symbols", designed by Infante himself based on various historic Andalusian standards. During the Second Spanish Republic, the Andalucismo was represented by the Junta Liberalista, a federalist political party led by Infante.

Infante was among numerous political figures who were summarily executed by Franco's forces when they took over Seville at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. As both a regional autonomist and a kind of libertarian socialist, he twice "merited" inclusion on their liquidation list.

His last residence in Coria del Río now hosts the Museum of Andalusian Autonomy.