Mariano Puigdollers Oliver (1896–1984) was a Spanish academic, politician and civil servant.
Between 1920 and 1966 he held various jurisprudence chairs in numerous Spanish universities, mostly in Valencia (1924-1936) and in Madrid (1940-1966); he is known among key representatives of Spanish Natural law of the 1940s and 1950s. Initially a conservative monarchist, in the mid-1930s he joined Carlism and briefly served as its regional Valencian jefe. Since the late 1930s he identified with the Franco regime. During early and mid-Francoism he was employed at key posts at Dirección General de Asuntos Ecclesiásticos department within the Ministry of Justice, at Consejo Superior de Protección de Menores and at Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Between 1943 and 1965 he served in the Francoist Cortes. He is considered one of key officials implementing post-civil-war purges among the academics.
Family and youth
Mariano was descendant to an old Catalan family; the Puigdollers were of noble origins and got very much branched throughout the centuries.Puigdollers entry, [in:] Heraldry Institute of Rome service, available here Some of his distant ancestors and relatives distinguished themselves locally as writers, lawyers or astronomers.González Díaz-Llanos, Antonio Ezequiel, Don Mariano Puigdollers y Oliver, [in:] Anuario de filosofia del derecho 1966, p. 347 His paternal grandfather Mariano Puigdollers, the native of Vich, was a craftsman and member of the local petty bourgeoisie. He married a local girl, María Vinader; she was the daughter of Ramón Vinader, a conservative Cortes deputy during the late Isabelline period and the minister of justice in the Estella-based Carlist government during the Third Carlist War.Díaz-Llanos, Ezequiel 1966, pp. 347-348 Their son and Mariano's father, Mariano Puigdollers Vinader (died 1928),Las Provincias 04.12.28, available here moved from Catalonia to Madrid, where he initially worked in a jewelry studio and specialized in diamonds;Díaz-Llanos, Ezequiel 1966, p. 347 it is not clear whether he was its owner.Díaz-Llanos, Ezequiel 1966, pp. 347-348 At unspecified time he married Remedios Oliver Ceniceros, originating from La Mancha but partially Catalan herself; nothing closer is known about her family.his maternal grandparents were Juan Oliver (from Bergoña, Gerona) and Andrea Ceniceros (from Cenicero, Logroño); Natividad Araque Hontangas, Puigdollers Oliver, Mariano (1896-1984), [in:] Diccionario de catedráticos españoles de derecho (1847-1943), UC3M service 04.04.2014, available here In 1903 Mariano Puigdollers Vinader and his brother Luciano purchased a defunct watermill La Moneda in Segovia; they re-launched it in 1907 and operated afterwards.Amparo Martín Espinosa, Molinos de la Casa de Moneda de Segovia, [in:] Mario Sanz Elorza, Asunción Valdés del Fresno, José María Izaga Reiner (eds.), X Congreso Internacional de Molinología, Segovia 2016, , p. 476 After death of her husband Remedios Oliver sold the business.Araque Hontangas 2014. Some sources refer to Mariano Puigdollers as member of the "industriales" or "gran burguesía industrial", but it is not clear what the basis for this statement is, A. Sáez Alba, La ACNP: La otra cosa nostra, Paris 1974, available online here. No other sourcr confirms Puigdollers' engagement in industrial or business activities
The couple had numerous children; Mariano was the oldest son.followed by Ramón, see Ramón Puigdollers Oliver entry, [in:] Geneanet service, available here, Luciano, see Luciano Puigdollers Oliver entry, [in:] Asociación Católica de Propagandistas service, available here, María, see ABC 23.08.84, available here, Rosario and José, see Rosario Puigdollers Oliver and José Puigdollers Oliver entries, [in:] My Ancestry service, available here They lived in the Madrid district of Buenavista,Araque Hontangas 2014 raised in a very pious ambience marked by Catholic zeal and multiple religious engagements of Puigdollers Vinader.compare e.g. 1914 Catholic engagements of Puigdollers Vinader and his siblings, El Correo Español 13.08.14, available here, or La Epoca 11.05.14, available here It is not clear where Puigdollers Oliver received his early education.probably in Madrid, Díaz-Llanos, Ezequiel 1966, p. 347 Then he joined the Madrid Instituto General y Técnico de San Isidro and obtained baccalaureate with excellent marks in 1911.Araque Hontangas 2014 At unspecified time though probably in the early 1910s Puigdollers enrolled at Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Sociales at Universidad Central in Madrid; he graduated in 1916.Araque Hontangas 2014 Initially he intended to join Cuerpo de Letrados del Consejo de Estado, an elite group of lawyers working for a governmental consultative body; however, as recruitment was adjourned, he opted for doctoral research in law.Díaz-Llanos, Ezequiel 1966, p. 347 In 1919 he got his PhD laurelsAraque Hontangas 2014 thanks to a thesis on Christian German philosophy of law.Díaz-Llanos, Ezequiel 1966, p. 348 The same year Puigdollers applied for a post at Universidad de Murcia, but eventually he switched to Galicia and having defeated 33 counter-candidatesDíaz-Llanos, Ezequiel 1966, p. 349 in 1920 he assumed the chair of Elementos de Derecho Natural at the faculty of law of Universidad de Santiago.Díaz-Llanos, Ezequiel 1966, p. 349
In 1922El Eco de Santiago 02.03.22, available here Puigdollers married María Isabel del Rio y Pérez-Caballero (died 1982);ABC 05.01.82, available here she was daughter to José del Río y Paternina, an engineer and head of Negociado de Montes departmentLa Lectura Dominical 24.01.14, available here in Dirección General de Agricultura, Industria y Comercio, itself the section of Ministerio de Fomento.Guia Oficial de España 1910, p. 686, available here The couple had no children; until outbreak of the Civil War they lived mostly in Valencia, afterwards in Madrid.no children and grandchildren are listed in death notice of Puigdollers’ wife or his own one, compare ABC 01.05.82, available here, and ABC 23.08.84, available here Among more distant Puigdollers’ relatives the one which gained nationwide notoriety was his paternal cousin, Josep Dencas Puigdollers,Josep Dencas Puigdollers is reported as the son of Francesca Puigdollers i Vinadé from Vich, a Catalanized name of Francesca Puigdollers Vinader, the sister of Mariano Puigdollers Vinader, Josep Dencas i Puigdollers, [in:] Memoria Esquerra service, available here an Estat Català politician, Cortes deputy during the Republic days and member of the Catalan self-government in 1932-1934. The younger brother of Mariano, Luciano, also an ACNdP activist, was killed by Republican militiamen when trying to flee to Andorra in 1938.Luciano Puigdollers Oliver entry, [in:] Asociación Católica de Propagandistas service, available here
Academic career
When assuming Elementos de Derecho Natural in Santiago in 1920 Puigdollers took over an auxiliary post and according to his later account, as a hardline Catholic he was constantly harassed by academics of Institución Libre de Enseñanza.allegedly activists related to Institución Libre controlled university promotions by of Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios, Díaz-Llanos, Ezequiel 1966, p. 349 In 1922 he was listed at position 488 at the national ranking of academics; the same year he took over the same chair in Seville. In 1924 he moved to Valencia, still chairing Elementos de Derecho Natural.Araque Hontanas 2014 Initially he was among the youngest catedráticos,however, he was not exceptionally young and there were few catedráticos younger than Puigdollers, Yolanda Blasco Gil, Entre la trayectoria universitaria y social: los catedráticos de derecho de Valencia, 1900-1939, [in:] Armando Pavón Romero (ed.), Promoción universitaria en el mundo hispánico, siglos XVI al XX, Mexico 2012, p. 196 in constant pursuit of permanent employment.Blasco Gil 2012, p. 197 Over time his position grew; apart from supervising secondary educationand 1929 Puigdollers featured in Tribunal de Examen Final del Bachillerato Universitario, entrusted with verification of bachillerato titles awarded by Instituto de Segunda Ensañanza of Valencia, Las Provincias 02.06.29, available here in the late 1920s he was also taking part in internal assignment procedures.Pascual Marzal Rodríguez, Una historia sin justicia: Cátedra, política y magistratura en la vida de Mariano Gómez, Valencia 2011, , p. 59 He was also appointed to internal bodies investigating disciplinary cases. The one which gained particular attention was a 1929 investigation related to a secondary school professor, charged with antipatriotic and antireligious propaganda.the female professor of Normal Femenina de Valencia, Carmen García de Castro, was charged with dissemination of antipatriotic and antireligious ideas. In 1929 the rector of Valencian University appointed Puigdollers juez instructor in her case; she was denounced by a father of her student as “haberse pronunciado, dentro del ejercicio de la docencia, de manera antipatriótica, antirreligiosa, antifamiliar y antimonárquica”. The charge was chiefly about a list of mandatory books to be read by students, which included Gargantua and Pantagrual; Carmen Agulló Díaz, Expediente instruido por la Universidad de Valencia en 1929 a la profesora Da. Carmen García de Castro, debido a la acusación de “difundir entre sus alumnas doctrinas perniciosas”, [in:] Historia de la educación 20 (2001), p. 469 Puigdollers was nominated juez instructor; he found the defendant guiltyPuigdollers ended his investigation with conclusion that the student's right to “modesty and virtue” is above the teachers right to liberty of instruction; Puigdollers argued in favor of “subordinar el derecho a la libertad de Cátedra al de libertad de conciencia del alumnado cuando ambos derechos entren en colisión”, the student right to “pudor y virtud”, and the parents to educade his daughter the way he liked, Agulló Díaz 2001, p. 470 and recommended most severe measures, which indeed led to the person in question being fired.Puigdollers recommended maximum penalty allowed, dismissal; it was applied indeed until in 1930 Berenguer's amnesty allowed the professor back to work. She was again dismissed – this time permanently – by the Francoist regime in the 1940s; it is not clear whether Puigdollers was involved in this second dismissal, Agulló Díaz 2001, p. 471
According to some historians, in the early 1930s Puigdollers started to count among “profesores más brillantes” of law in Valencia;Blasco Gil 2012, p. 197 on the other hand, he published relatively few works and trailed behind many of his Valencian academic peers.in the 1920s-30s Puigdollers was not a very prestigious or distinguished scholar; on a university chart of scholars in law he was listed with 15+ publications, while there were 3 cases of 50+, publications, 2 cases of 40+ publications, 1 case of 30+ publications and 2 cases of 20+ publications, Blasco Gil 2012, pp. 222-223 In 1931 he was listed at position 331 in the national academic ranking.Araque Hontangas 2014 According to his own account, the new Republican authorities targeted him for ideological purges. Puigdollers was reportedly blacklisted by Fernando de los Ríos, minister of high education and the liberal militant pundit; it was the right-wing electoral victory of 1933 which prevented Puigdollers’ dismissal.Díaz-Llanos, Ezequiel 1966, p. 351 He continued at his Valencian postaccording to one source Puigdollers recorded also a brief teaching episode in Granada, apparently in the 1920s or 1930s, Blasco Gil 2012, p. 202 until outbreak of the Civil War;in 1932 Puigdollers was behind the presidential table during the opening of academic course in Valencia, Las Provincias 02.10.32, available here in 1935 he was listed at position 263 in the academic ranking.Blasco Gil 2012, p. 200