Joan Roca i Caball
[1] Joan's paternal grandfather, Antonio Roca Calvet (1840-1917),[2] inherited nothing but clothes and had to build his position in mid-ranks of the Barcelona bourgeoisie,[3] the task facilitated by his marrying into an established Masferrer family.
[15] During his studies he worked in an unnamed "oficina comercial" and practiced law as an intern in the office of Salvador Ariza and in the civil section of the municipal court of the Hospital district, where he served as a secretary.
[23] Joan's father sympathized with possiblist[check spelling] republicanism and moderate Catalanism;[24] approaching Unió Catalanista, he was member of the local Centre Catalá Autonomista, which later adhered to Lliga Regionalista.
[35] His charity engagements were gradually turning him against the regime; forming the circle of Josep Pedragosa Monclús he focused on prison inmates and became member of the Barcelona Junta del Patronato de las Prisiones.
[36] In the late 1920s Roca formed part of an informal Jaimist nationwide network known as "La Protesta"; some scholars claim that together with Melchor Ferrer and Pedro Roma he led the Barcelona cell.
Its format emphasized mobilization and search for wider social basis rather than anti-primoderiverista activities, though at one point the Barcelona hotheads considered staging a coup in La Seu d'Urgell.
[38] "La Protesta" was somewhat at odds with generally passive policy of the Carlist executive[39] though not necessarily with position of the claimant; since 1926 openly opposing Primo, in his Paris residence Don Jaime remained in touch with the Catalanist and liberal exiles.
[40] During Berenguer's dictablanda, Roca decided to actively re-enter official politics; in the last elections of the monarchy in April 1931 he co-ordinated party campaign in the Tarragona province[41] and unsuccessfully tried his luck as a Traditionalist candidate to the local Sarrià council.
[42] After the fall of Alfonsine monarchy and declaration of the Second Spanish Republic Roca held high position within Carlist structures; he was member of the Catalan party executive, Junta Regional, serving as its secretary.
Though supporting separate traditional provincial establishments has always been a fundamental part of their program, they were anxious that autonomy might turn into a vehicle of promoting peripheral nationalisms and left-wing ideologies.
[47] Though eventually the Carlists half-heartedly decided to support the official autonomy scheme,[48] Roca concluded that his vision of Catalan future was no longer compatible within the Traditionalist format.
[49] Together with a group of young Carlists[50] Roca got in touch with offshoots from Acció Catalana[51] and encouraged by his old-time mentor, a Capuchin friar Miquel d'Esplugues, in November 1931 he co-founded Unió Democrática de Catalunya.
[52] Along Josep Cirera Soler and Lluis Vila d'Abadal he was among those most responsible for its manifesto;[53] it identified UDC as a Christian-democratic party advocating Catalonia within the future Iberic Confederation.
[54] The move marked a dramatic rupture with Traditionalism; instead of its ultra-reactionary, monarchist, antidemocratic, fanatically Catholic outlook, Roca accepted the Republican regime, democratic principles and a democristiano format of religiosity.
[69] Having earlier dismissed CEDA as an alliance partner, during talks preceding the 1936 electoral campaign Unió rejected also the offer of Companys, which consisted of few places on the Catalan Frente Popular list; they claimed that Christians could not join the Marxists.
When in August the Generalitat security[73] launched their search of Roca, result of confusing different members of the family,[74] he volunteered to Commisaria General d'Ordre Públic and was detained for 2 weeks.
Released, he concluded that remaining in the increasingly chaotic Republican zone posed a mortal threat;[75] he resigned from public functions[76] and in December 1936 the entire family, escorted by the Generalitat police,[77] crossed the French frontier.
[87] Roca remained active and indeed animated a number of likewise initiatives, e.g. similar committees in other countries[88] or separate Comité Catala per a la Pau Civil i Religiosa.
[97] Due to his corporate engagements in the mid-1940s Roca lived permanently outside Catalonia, mostly in Bilbao, San Sebastián and Madrid; he settled at Carrer de Madrazo in Barcelona as late as in 1946.
[100] Their strategy consisted of staying clear of official political life, focusing on elites, marketing cultural orientation of Catalan nationalism and playing the Catholicism card.
[109] Since 1945 allowed to travel abroad Roca became active in the world of European Christian Democracy network; in 1950 UDC applied for membership in Nouvelles Equipes Internationales, later Union européenne des démocrates-chrétiens.
[112] The 1952 Eucharistic Congress, staged in Barcelona, turned into a major success of the UDC activists; working extensively to prepare its agenda, Roca persuaded ecclesiastical hierarchs to drop pro-Francoist tones.
[129] Due to his sensitive political standing he was not in position to resume the duties during initial decades of Francoism, but in the early 1960s he re-entered the executive of Mutua del C. de F. Barcelona.
