The Exploradores de España was a Spanish Scout association founded by Cavalry captain Teodoro Iradier y Herrero in 1912 and inspired by the boy scouts of Robert Baden-Powell, whose objective was physical, moral, civic and patriotic education. In its early years it had a rapid growth and expansion. The association was a founding member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1922, which it belonged to until 1938.
After a royal audience granted to Iradier in early June 1912, it received the personal support of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and the authorities of the time. However, it was opposed by the Catholic Church and certain cultural sectors that viewed with suspicion the institutional evolution, which was highly militarized and subordinated to the direct service of power.
After a brief period of decline between 1914 and 1919, it received support from the Directorio Militar of Primo de Rivera during the 1920s, experiencing a change of educational direction and, consequently, a strong increase in personnel, in what could be considered the golden age of the institution. In addition to such times, the exploradores provided a renewed vision of how to practice pedagogy: the formation of the character of youth, and instruction in religious values and citizenship.
After the Spanish Civil War, the organization was declared in suspension of activities by ministerial order of 22 April 1940, as its dependence on international organizations was considered "intolerable".
Background
The first known attempt of scouting in Spain began in Barcelona. It was the initiative of Pedro Roselló Axet, Cavalry captain, friend and colleague of Teodoro Iradier; together with Ramón Solé i Lluch—an enthusiastic worker of scouting—and Narcís de Romaguera, among others. Pedro Roselló's objective was to achieve a healthy youth, physically, morally and spiritually. Thus the Exploradores de Barcelona were born in 1911, officially constituted in 1912 and that in 1913 would become part of the Exploradores de España. In 1914, they amounted to 1064 members, organized in twenty-two groups. During its decline, in 1916, the number of members dropped to less than 450 members.
Parallel to the Exploradores Barceloneses, there were other less successful Catalan initiatives such as the Jovestels de Catalunya of Ignasi Ribera-Rovira in 1912, related to the Republican Nationalist Federal Union, and with two groups, Cataluña and Canigó. Also the Exploradores Republicanos (radical boy scouts), organization under the aegis of Alejandro Lerroux and led in Barcelona by Antonio Cruz.
Foundation
Teodoro Iradier received the support of King Alfonso XIII and from 1911, with the help of the publicist Arturo Cuyás Armengol, a public awareness campaign was launched and the youth movement was very well received, especially among the wealthier classes. In Iradier's words: "Scouting is life in the open, the learning of useful things, the doing of good works", as well as "the explorador of today will be the practical man of tomorrow" and "will proudly hold the title of transformer of our homeland".
Once obtained the necessary support and approved its statutes by the Civil Government of Madrid on 30 July 1912, Iradier relocated to his hometown. On 11 August 1912 he founded the first Exploradores de España troop, the Exploradores de Vitoria, and the Madrid Troop in October.
Members of the first National Council By the end of 1912, the first steering committee and executive council of the institution was constituted, including the following personalities:
President
Duque de Tamames (honorary colonel, dean of the Spanish Nobility, grandee of Spain and senator of the Kingdom).
Vice-Presidents
Antonio Tovar y Marcoleta (Major General) Francisco García Molinas (doctor in Medicine, first deputy mayor and secretary of the Senate) Baldomero González Álvarez (physician and academic)
Treasury
Salvador García Dacarrete (First Officer of the Military Quartermaster's Office)
Advertising and Resources Section
Vicente Vera y López (professor and assistant secretary of the Real Sociedad Geográfica de España) Leopoldo Serrano y Domínguez (Minister of the Tribunal de Cuentas)
Organization Section
José Castaño de la Paz (Captain of the Estado Mayor)
Instruction Section
Arturo Cuyás (editor-in-chief of El Hogar Español) Javier Cabezas Montemayor (inspector of the Patronato de Protección a la Infancia)
Secretary - General Commissioner
Teodoro de Iradier (Cavalry captain)
Deputy Secretary
Casimiro Juanes (engineer of roads, canals and ports)
Expansion, supporters and detractors
On 27 April 1913, 2397 exploradores gathered at the Atlético Madrid field for the promise ceremony, with the attendance of the kings of Spain. The Madrid districts of Buenavista, with three groups; Palacio, with six groups; Latina, with two; Centro, with four; Congreso, with three; Inclusa with two; Hospicio, with three; and Universidad, Hospital and Chamberí, with two each That same year, the first issue of the magazine El Explorador, and Pedro Rosselló's Exploradores Barceloneses became part of the Exploradores de España.
In January 1914, there were already 68 Exploradores en España committees and in July the first national camp was held in Riofrío, Real Sitio de San Ildefonso,El Explorador Magazine, n.º 21, June 1914. in which 580 troops from 18 towns from Aragón, Asturias, Barcelona, Burgos, Galicia, Granada, Guadalajara, Madrid, Murcia, Palencia, Salamanca, Santander, Valladolid and Zamora participated. In December the first census appeared, with 18 024 young men and 115 committees throughout Spain. That same year, the Royal Order of February 12 of the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts granted legal personality to the Asociación de los Exploradores de España.
José María Quintana Cabanas cites a period of disagreements with the Church which, as was happening in other countries, accused the Explorers of Spain of naturalism and of hindering the religious practices of children. On the other hand, a series of internal conflicts in the organization forced the resignation of Iradier as secretary-commissioner in February 1915 and, in solidarity with him, also that of the president of the explorers, José Messía y Gayoso, duke de Tamames. As reported in El Explorador:...the General Commissioner Mr. Teodoro de Iradier, dissatisfied with the direction taken by the Institution, resigns from all his posts and, as a consequence, the resignation of His Excellency the Duke of Tamames, President of the Association.The Duke of Tamames was reinstated on 11 March 1915, at the request of the national assembly, a position he held until his death in 1917, being replaced by Julio Quesada-Cañaveral. The new governing board was formed by Antonio Trucharte Samper as secretary, Arturo Cuyás as general commissioner and Teodoro Iradier y Herrero as member.
The distrust was not limited to the ecclesiastical sphere, since educational renovationists also distrusted the excessive militarization of the exploradores in their particular vision of scouting.
In 1913, the Al-lots Guaites sponsored by the Catholic Church were created in Mallorca, which would be integrated into the Exploradores de España in 1918. The Mallorcan exploradores, a section of the Mallorcan Catholic Sports Federation, were led by their founder and organizer, the priest Francesc Sureda Blanes.
In 1915 King Alfonso XIII gave the explorers a plot of land on El Pardo mountain to be used as a permanent camp. That same year the first group of sea scouts appeared in Santander, también con apoyo real. In 1917 the king accepted the honorary presidency of the Scouts of Spain.
In 1920, a contingent of Exploradores de España participated in the first world jamboree at Olympia, London. That same year, there were 305 exploradores committees. It was at that time that the confessionality of the institution was defined—which grew and evolved secularly— and the image and the theoretical and pedagogical knowledge of the scout movement in Spain was improved. On 26 February 1920 the association received the consideration of national by Royal Decree.
After international recognition in 1922, the government decided to reorganize the institution, but without dispensing with the centralist and pro-government character that characterized it. On 13 September 1923 a coup d'état by the captain general of Catalonia, Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, would give way to a military dictatorship. Primo de Rivera, father of exploradores and of whose National Council he was a founding member, granted it greater protection in all areas. In those early years of the Dictatorship, Francisco García Molinas, vice president of the National Council, made the Exploradores de España available to the Government as a means for civic education, a school of citizenship for the "improvement of the race" and an example of solidarity between classes. The idea was well received by the Directorio Militar, which began to propose a national plan of physical and pre-military training among young people, and by royal order of May 1925, a commission of various ministerial departments and civilian entities was created for this purpose. The more progressive sectors did not look favorably on the dictator's support; in the words of Alexandre Galí, the exploradores were perceived as an instrument of the dictatorship and the regime's support distanced them even further from the people.
In 1926 Antonio Trucharte Samper died unexpectedly, his absence provoked an internal crisis in the national council of the association. He was replaced by Luis de la Gándara Marsella, who also died suddenly two years later, in 1928.El Explorador Magazine, n° 229, April 1928.
In the mid-1920s, the English engineers who had come to work in the Riotinto Mines gave a very important push for the creation and consolidation of scouting in the Huelva area. The golden age in Minas de Riotinto was under the leadership of Francisco (Frank) Timmis (d. 1931), president of the Local Council, English national and great connoisseur of Baden-Powell's work. In 1924, the Alto Patronato de Exploradores en Minas de Riotinto, under the Schools Department of the Rio Tinto Company Limited, left the organization in the hands of Timmis and in a short time they had about 300 members among the students of the RTCL schools where they learned to march, practiced sports, olympic gymnastics, first aid, and were inculcated with scouting principles. Also in the north, San Sebastián and Bilbao, whose exploradores troops had been active since 1913, received help and saw remarkable growth with contributions from Englishmen working in the mines of the Estuary of Bilbao.
Emili Beüt led the changing trend towards Baden-Powell scouting in Valencia, advocating a less centralized and militaristic institution. According to Beüt, certain sectors intended to perpetuate the image of the scouts as children's battalions. He was the originator of the Federación Regional Valenciana de Exploradores in 1927.
There were also intellectuals who showed some opposition to the exploradores, among them Miguel de Unamuno, who stated in the magazine Nuevo Mundo on 16 November 1917, that he did not believe in the pedagogical function of the boy scouts because of their "contrived character", an article answered by J. Cueto in El Explorador;"Juego Limpio." El Explorador, issue 53, 1917 (Madrid). such a manifesto provoked an outcry from the institution and a reply from Juan Antonio Dimas (Lobo Gris) of the Águilas Troop (Murcia) on November 19. In 1921, Unamuno published again with the same argument, proposing football for the formation of young people, as "spontaneous, free, and less intervened".Unamuno, M. «Boyscouts y footballistas» (31 January 1921) Boletín de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza, year XLV, nº 730: pp. 14-15.