Juan Tomás Gandarias

Juan Tomás de Gandarias Durañona (8 March 1870 – 17 July 1940) was a Spanish businessman and politician. He founded some of the most important industrial, mining, and financial companies in Spain, such as Altos Hornos de Vizcaya, , Talleres de Guernica, and many others; all of which seeded in Biscay. He is thus widely regarded as the fundamental head behind the industrialization and industrial development of Biscay and the Basque Country, being present in practically all sectors, and subsequently in the social identity of those regions from the 20th century onwards.

Even though iron mining was the basis of his industries, he did not hesitate to participate and invest in the new sectors that were beginning to develop in the country, such as metallurgy, banking, chemistry, transportation, telecommunications, and press. His influence was also noted in energy and a sector as important as construction was also not immune to his reach. He participated in numerous boards of directors, presiding over companies such as La Basconia S.A., Talleres de Deusto, Talleres de Guernica, Unión Española de Explosivos, Ferrocarril Amorebieta-Guernica-Pedernales, Coto Teuler, Mina del Morro, and Cementos Pórtland Lemona, and he was also vice president of Banco Urquijo Vascongado and Ferrocarril Bilbao-Portugalete. He also participated, among many others, on the boards of Argentifera de Córdoba, Minas de Alcaracejos, Duro Felguera, Basauri S.A., Electra de Castilla, and of the Basque Railways. daughter of Juan Durañona, from a family of wealthy iron mining owners. Gandarias obtained a degree and doctorate in Civil and Canon Law from the Universidad Central de Madrid and completed his training with financial and industrial studies.

Gandarias was a promoter of business associations about mining, presiding over the Bilbao Mining Circle, a prominent member of the Biscayan League of Producers, and of the Spanish Mining Union, a representative of the Coastal Chambers of Commerce.

With the help of his brother-in-law and trusted man José Manuel de Arispe, the Marquis of Urquijo, he appeared on the boards of the Banca López Bru and of the . This company would be followed by many other companies dedicated to metal and cutlery, such as the Los Pirineos dairy industry, but also with Joyería y Platería de Guernica (jewelry and silversmithing), Cerámica de Murueta (ceramic), Española de Cementos Portland, which later become Cementos Pórtland Lemona (cement), and most importantly the Talleres de Guernica (Guernica workshops), which was dedicated to, among other things, the manufacturing of weapons, especially during the First World War. The Certification of Oath took place on 16 May of the following year.

In 1919, he was a founding member of the Monarchist Action League, which was dissolved in 1931. This League was a political union that brought together all liberal monarchists, Maurists, conservatives, and independents from Biscay, such as Biscayan industrialists. During the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, he withdrew from politics as well as during the Second Spanish Republic, except for the specific management he carried out with Indalecio Prieto, with whom he maintained a friendship, to alleviate through public works and subsidies the industrial and employment crisis that took place between 1931 and 1933 in Biscay.

Sporting career Gandarias owned yawls with which he participated in regatta competitions on the Cantabrian coast. On one occasion, at the beginning of August 1920, he won a regatta in Santander, as the owner of Alai against Giralda V, owned and skippered by Alfonso XIII.

As for football, he was at some point named honorary vice president of the Arenas Club de Getxo, most likely thanks to the influence of his son José, who was the club's president at the time. All of his three oldest children, Pedro, Juan Manuel, and José, played football for the youth teams of Madrid FC, but only the latter made it to the first team, doing it so in a friendly match in 1916, when he was still a child of 12.

Later life During the Spanish Civil War, Gandarias was twice arrested in Biscay, first on 19 July 1936 in Portugalete, being released just a few days later, and later on 23 August of the same year in Arrazua, being transferred to neighboring Guernica where he was taken to walking through the streets of the town guarded by armed militiamen before being then transferred to Bilbao and released the next day, less than 24 hours after his arrest. Gandarias was able to pay the bail/ransom on both occasions thanks to the efforts of Indalecio Prieto. He was subsequently exiled to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France, where he lived until the end of the war in 1939.

Death Gandarias died at his home on the Churruca de Portugalete Pier on 17 July 1940, at the age of 70. In his obituary, the only title that appeared was that of Congregant of Nuestra Señora del Carmen (Congregant of Our Lady of Carmen).

Legacy Gandarias' economic, industrial, and political power is a clear example of the Biscayan plutocrat. However, unlike his co-religionists, the so-called "steel nobles", he declined the honor of holding noble titles. Despite that, he was still named the favorite son of Gernika-Lumo and there are streets named after him in Portugalete, Sestao, and Guernica.