Antoni Rovira i Virgili

Antoni Rovira i Virgili (1882-1949). Died in exile, at the end of World War II. Member of the Catalan government in exile under president Irla.

Rovira was a journalist, writer, politician, and historian. He was born in a working-class family. He began his career as a journalist in 1905 working as editor for the newspaper El poble català. In 1911, he founded La societat catalana d’edicions (Catalan publishers association) where he published La història dels moviments nacionals (The history of the national movements). In 1914, he quit the party Unió Nacional Federal Nacionalista Republicana (Republican Nationalist Federal Union—UFNR) in protest against San Gervasi's Pact (a union with a radical republican party). In that same year, he founded La nació (The Nation) and joined Unió Catalanista (Catalanist Union). When the Mancomunitat (a sort of regional government with limited executive power) was put in place, he became a member of spokesperson office and collaborated with La veu de catalunya and La publicitat (two catalan newspapers). In 1922, he became a member of the political party Acció Catalana. Sometime in that year, he began writing about the history of Catalonia.

During the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera he founded and directed the magazine Catalunya. In 1929, after leaving the party Acció Catalana, he founded and directed La Nau, which was the official medium for the newly founded Acció Catalana Republicana.