{"id":10965,"date":"2019-02-01T13:20:24","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T21:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=10965"},"modified":"2019-02-01T13:45:33","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T21:45:33","slug":"jose-maria-arizmendiarrieta-as-in-arizmendi-bakery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2019\/02\/01\/jose-maria-arizmendiarrieta-as-in-arizmendi-bakery\/","title":{"rendered":"Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Arizmendiarrieta (as in Arizmendi Bakery), founder of Mondrag\u00f3n Co-op"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Arizmendi<\/th><\/tr>
<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Born<\/th>22 April 1915
Barinaga, Markina-Xemein<\/a>, Biscay<\/a>, Spain<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Died<\/th>29 November 1976 (aged 61)
Arrasate<\/a>, Spain<\/td><\/tr>
Nationality<\/th>Spanish<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Occupation<\/th>Catholic priest; co-operative organiser<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

Father Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Arizmendiarrieta Madariaga<\/strong> (22 April 1915 \u2013 29 November 1976) was a Spanish<\/a> Catholic<\/a> priest and founder of the Mondrag\u00f3n cooperative movement<\/a> in the Basque Autonomous Community<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biography<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Arizmendiarrieta, whose name is often shortened to “Arizmendi”, was born in Barinaga, Markina-Xemein<\/a>, Biscay<\/a>, the eldest son of a family of modest means. He had lost an eye in a childhood accident so could not be a soldier<\/a>. Instead he was a journalist for Basque language<\/a> newspapers. His actions caused him to be arrested after the Spanish Civil War<\/a> and he was sentenced to death for his activities; legend has it that he escaped the firing squad<\/a> only through an administrative oversight. Released, he returned to his studies in Vitoria<\/a> and went on to take holy orders<\/a>.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arizmendi wanted to continue his studies in Belgium<\/a> but was assigned to a parish 30 miles from his own home town. He arrived in Arrasate<\/a> (in Spanish<\/a>, Mondrag\u00f3n<\/em>) in February 1941, as a 26-year-old newly ordained priest to be assistant curate<\/a>, to find a town still suffering from the aftermath of the Civil War and severe unemployment. The local priest had been shot by Franco’s forces.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arizmendi did not impress his new flock. Their one-eyed priest read badly; one parishioner described him thus: “He spoke in a monotone with intricate and repetitive phraseology difficult to understand. He hardly ever [read] with grace.”[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup> They initially asked the Bishop<\/a> to replace him. Nevertheless, he was determined to find a way to assist his congregation and realised that economic development – jobs – was the key to solutions to the town’s other problems. Co-operatives<\/a> appeared the best way to achieve this. Co-operatives, both consumer and worker, and self-help organisations had a long tradition in the Basque Country but had died away after the War.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his quest for community welfare, he started to focus his efforts on vocational training, such as the school providing Uni\u00f3n Cerrajera<\/a>, a flagship factory of Arrasate. However, his attempts to enhance and expand the school were not welcomed by the management. He focused instead on creating another school, for which he relied on donations and popular subscription. In 1943, Arizmendi set up a Polytechnic<\/a> School,[1]<\/a><\/sup> now the Mondrag\u00f3n University<\/a>, a democratically-administered educational centre open to all young people in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Polytechnic School provided the springboard for students of different backgrounds to new jobs apart from the Uni\u00f3n Cerrajera. Now Arizmendiarrieta was intent on creating a company catering to the positions required by the students graduating from the School. That took the name of Ulgor, after the initials of the entrepreneurs embarking on the venture. It transformed soon on into Fagor<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arizmendi died in 1976 in Arrasate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Arizmendi Born 22 April 1915Barinaga, Markina-Xemein, Biscay, Spain Died 29 November 1976 (aged 61)Arrasate, Spain Nationality Spanish Occupation Catholic priest; co-operative organiser Father Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Arizmendiarrieta Madariaga (22 April 1915 \u2013 29 November 1976) was a Spanish Catholic priest and founder of the Mondrag\u00f3n cooperative movement in the Basque Autonomous Community. Biography Arizmendiarrieta, whose name is often shortened to “Arizmendi”, was… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10965"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10965"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10976,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10965\/revisions\/10976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}