Blas Infante Perez was born in Calle Carrera no. 51 on the 5th of July, 1885. He was the son of Luis Infante Andrades and Ginesa Perez Romo, a family of well-off farmers.

Although at 11 years of age he began studying at a boarding school in Archidona, in 1902 he returned to Casares to work as a transcriber in the Municipal Court to help his father. In 1904, he began studying at the Faculty of Law in Granada, graduating with a degree within two years, before studying to be a notary public. In 1910, he received a posting in Cantillana.

infante_blasIn this period, Blas Infante joined the Ateneo in Seville where he met people from the “Andalucismo Culturista” (Andalusian Culture) nationalist movement, which gave birth to “El Ideal Andaluz” (The Andalusian Ideal), his first work and one which contained the ideological basis for Andalusian nationalist politics.

Also in this period, he founded the Centro Andaluz (Andalusian Centre) in Seville, a platform for his regionalist plans.

In 1918, he stood for election in the district of Gaucin, which then formed part of Casares, and, as well, in the district of Seville for Candidatura Democracia Andaluza political party.

His following destinations as a notary public were Isla Cristina from 1922, where he wrote a large part of his published works, and, in 1930, Coria del Río, where he built what was his house, Dar Al Farah or Casa de la Alegría (House of Happiness).

Closer to Seville and during the Second Republic, Blas Infante participated actively in political life. In 1931, he stood once again for election for Candidatura Republicana Revolucionaria Federalista Andaluza and in this period he also contributed to the transformation of the Centros Andaluces into the Juntas Liberalistas de Andalucía, revitalising the statutory process.

Blas Infante dedicated a large part of his life to dignifying Andalusia, its history and its people. His restlessness did not go unnoticed and on the night of the 10th of August, 1936, around 11 o’clock, he was driven in a truck to the road of Carmona. At kilometre 4 on the hot night of San Lorenzo, unknown assailants pulled the trigger. Blas Infante, the noted Casares native and leader of the Andalusian movement, died by gunfire.

imagesBlas Infante gave Andalusia its symbols of identity: he wrote the lyrics to the anthem, whose music was provided by the master Castillo, inspired by the song the Santo Dios (Holy God) that the peasants sang during the harvest. For the coat of arms of Andalusia, he used “Hércules fundator” as a reference which is recognised in the motto of the Centro Andaluz: “Andalucía por sí, para España y la Humanidad” (Andalusia by itself, for Spain and Humanity).

The flag of Andalusia is made of three horizontal fields of green, white and green, the same colours as the women’s flag of the Commune of Casares. Blas Infante wrote that these colours reflect the countryside, the villages, the blossoming lemon trees, purity and hope in the region for its future.

“My village is there, in the extreme rise of a southern slope, nestled like an eaglet on the heights of an advanced rock, eternally facing the escarpments of Africa, across the Strait, sensing the encouragement of the interior sea in its coastline which roars sweetly on days of calm…”

Blas Infante