Vicente Alejandro Guillamón

Vicente Alejandro Guillamón (b. Spain, June 4, 1930) was a Spanish journalist and writer.

Biography

Vicente Alejandro Guillamón was born in Onda, Castellon, Spain, in 1930, the youngest child of a humble farming and ranching family.

Early Career

He earned a technical accounting degree from the Official Schools of Technical Qualified Accountants of Melilla and Málaga and a journalism degree from the old Oficial Journalism School of Madrid. He started his journalism career as a correspondent for the "Telegrama del Rif" and later worked for the weekly "Signo", "La Actualidad Económica", the old daily "El Alcazar" published by PESA, the Mexican news bureau AMEX, and the Spanish news bureau EFE, during 17 years, in different positions, like first managing editor of the newly created local bureau of EFE for the Valencia region (Comunidad Valenciana) and editor of national information. He later became the editor of the religion news magazine "Vida Nueva".

In the 1970s, as secondary focus, he taught several classes of Journalism Writing en the newly founded School of Journalism of the University of Valencia. In 1982, he founded the Catholic Union of Media Professionals and Journalist (Unión Católica de Informadores y Periodistas -- UCIP), an organization for Catholic journalist and media professional that includes a considerable number of Spanish professionals in that field.

Activist

In the years of the Francoist regime, he was part of the small group of demochristian activist opposed to the regime. In 1960 he founded, with former members of the Catholic organization JOC (Spanish acronyms of the Catholic Workers Youth), the Unionist Federation of Workers (Federación Sindical de Trabajadores -- FST), an underground union of Christian ideals. The union later folded in the Unionist Workers Association (Unión Sindical Obrera -- USO). In 1964 Guillamón joined the socialist group that was trying to articulate the Spanish Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español -- PSOE) of that era. He abandoned the socialist party in 1977 after he became disillusioned with the path taken by this party and his uneasiness with the socialists' Marxism, even if moderate, given his upbringing and personal beliefs rooted in the tradition of the Spanish political and classical liberalism. It is important to notice that his grandfather and father were supporters of the Spanish liberal movement. His grandfather was a supporter of the Liberal Party of Sagasta. His father, born in Santa Fe, Isla de Pinos (Cuba), started as a militant of the mentioned Liberal Party, with whom he run and was elected mayor of his small town, Espadilla (Castellón), and later, after the party disappeared during the republic regime, joined the Radical Party of Alejandro Leroux.

Essayist

Guillamón wrote several key essays, including:

* Justicia Social, doctrine for syndicalism of Christian base; Pluma, Madrid, 1962.
* La política al desnudo; Pluma, Valencia, 1975.
* Neopersonalismo Cristiano, A theory for participation in the public life; Editorial San Pablo, Madrid, 1997. This book was written in an attempt to clarify the contents of “Christian Humanism” and to define the criteria of where is going and how should be Christian participation in public life.
* Prologue and epilogue of the book Diez horas de Estat Catalá: la proclamación del Estado Catalán en octubre de 1934 contada por un testigo ocular, by Enrique de Angulo, Ediciones Encuentro, Madrid, 2005.
* El caos de la II República, short history of the events that happened before the Spanish Civil War, LibrosLibres, Madrid, 2006.

Guillamón understands the meaning of person from the Christian point of view, gives to each person individually the supreme dignity, without subordinating one to another, as opposed to what Mounier and Maritain, defended, by saying that the community personalism is like saying that the human acquires its being as part of the group by being a member of the community, instead of by him or herself.

Theatrical Career

Guillamón was active as a playwright and editor:

* Crónica de sucesos, AAT Asociación de Autores de Teatro, Madrid, 2000.Fiction [editor]
* Corpus de sangre en Toledo, Ediciones Encuentro, Madrid, 1985.

Satirist

*"Las señoras tienen un gran porvenir por delante" ("Women have a great future ahead of them"), Pluma, Alboraya, Valencia, 1977.

References

* [http://www.forumlibertas.com/frontend/forumlibertas/noticia.php?id_noticia=7604&id_seccion=13 Forum Libertas]
* [http://libroslibres.dev.genetsis.com/ficha_autor.cfm?id=117 LibrosLibres, citas]
* [http://www.liceus.com/cgi-bin/gui/03/1171.asp Liceus]
* [http://blogs.libertaddigital.com/Alcides/index.php?action=showcomments&id=36632&bid=1236 Libertad Digital, blogs]
* [http://www.aipenet.com/Busqueda/Article.asp?Articulo_Id=10808&PalabraClave=Guillam%F3n Agencia Interamericana de Prensa Económica (AIPE), artículos]
* [http://www.criteriaclub.com/el-caos-de-la-segunda-republica-vicente-guillamon.html Criteria Club de los lectores]
* [http://www.renatisunt.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=349 Renati Sunt]
* [http://tanger.cervantes.es/Biblioteca/Fichas/Mart%C3%ADnez%20Nieto,.%20Goyi_8276_35_1.shtml Instituto Cervantes de Tánger (Marruecos)]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=sTGKwMAfNKEC&pg=RA1-PA274&lpg=RA1-PA274&dq=vicente+alejandro+guillam%C3%B3n&source=web&ots=PLW7I64MAS&sig=d12o8g16JHee9R3CCLlN55Ndz4A La Valencia de los años 70, Francisco Pérez Puche]
* [http://www.ucm.es/info/especulo/numero22/silva.html Lorenzo Silva y su contextualización en la novela policiaca española, Salvador A. Oropesa, Department of Modern Languages Kansas State University]
* [http://www.religionenlibertad.com Libertad Digital - Religión en Libertad ]

Other

* Personalism
* Humanism
* Christian Democratic
* European People's Party
* Liberalism