page_title: Juan Bautista Soler Martí
section_title: Primoderiverista
hierarchical_section_title: Juan Bautista Soler Martí / Primoderiverista
caption_attribution_description: Español: Título original: Visita del general Miguel Primo de Rivera a la localidad de Pasai Donibane (5/6) Localización: Pasajes (Guipúzcoa)
context_page_description: Juan Bautista Soler Martí was a Spanish entrepreneur and politician. He is best known as one of key orange exporters from the Levantine coast in the interwar period; he was also one of key people behind development of the port of Burriana. He held many positions in local business and self-government, serving as mayor of Burriana in 1930–1931. Politically he headed the Carlist organization in the province of Castellón.
context_section_description: None of the sources consulted provides any information on political preferences of Soler's ancestors. One clearly partisan account claims that he was a Carlist from his childhood days, yet there is no confirmation available. His biographer does not refer to any Soler's political engagements of his youth. First press notes which point to his public endeavors flavored with politics are these from the early 1920s, though they are related to lobbying for Burriana investments rather than to any party politics. In 1924 he co-fathered a large Memorandum, which outlined further infrastructure needs of the harbor. It was intended for the military Directorio; in early 1924 Soler and other local lobbyists led by Chicharro travelled to Madrid to present the document. Their mission was successful; Miguel Primo de Rivera himself demonstrated some interest and in April 1924 he visited Burriana. As a prominent local entrepreneur and co-author of Memorandum, Soler effusively welcomed the dictator. At this opportunity he was among these who co-founded the local Somatén, an auxiliary civil militia promoted by the regime, and contributed to extensive implantation of primoderiverismo in the Castellón province.
  Since the early 1920s Soler was close business collaborator and personal friend to Jaime Chicharro, provincial Castellón jefé of Unión Patriótica. However, it is not clear what position he assumed during the mid-1920s internal squabbles among the Burriana primoderiveristas. Some local upetistas accused Chicharro of building local structures chiefly around his personal supporters, usually related to Traditionalism; the conflict climaxed in 1925, when Chicharro in protest resigned from the provincial presidency and moved to Madrid. The conflict did not prevent further Soler's political career; in 1927 he entered the executive of the Burriana branch of UP and in 1928 he temporarily held the post of acting president of the organization; in early 1929 he ceded the post to a newly elected candidate and himself was voted into the board. In 1928 he entered the local self-government, appointed by the regime a concejal of the Burriana ayuntamiento; his term was renewed in early 1930.
  The climax of Soler's public career fell on the dictablanda period. Following some sort of consultations with the Burriana "vox populi", which most likely stood for local business and political elites, in February 1930 the Berenguer regime appointed him the mayor of the city. In January 1931 members of the city council confirmed his post during an internal voting, but there is little known about his tenure, except that liberal press lambasted his appointment as demonstration of reactionary caciquismo. However, during final days of the monarchy Soler seemed rather politically bewildered; he entered the Castellón provincial board of a republican party but in the April 1931 local elections to the town hall he ran as a Conservative. His bid proved successful, yet in the new ayuntamiento he failed to gain enough support and his mayorship came to an end. Upon the advent of the Republic Soler's served as concejal, but it is not clear when his term finished.
caption: Primo de Rivera
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