Who was Blas Infante and why do we mention him?

Blas Infante Pérez de Vargas is known as 'the father of Andalucía' and today is Andalucía Day. Born in Casares on 5 July 1885, he was summarily executed by Franco's forces in Seville on 11 August 1936. Blas Infante was an andalusist politician, writer, historian and musicologist. He was an idealist who initiated an assembly at Ronda in 1918, which adopted a charter based on the autonomist Constitución Federal de Antequera written in 1883 during the First Spanish Republic and embraced the current flag and coat of arms as 'national symbols', (see them below) designed by Infante himself based on various historic Andalusian standards. During the Second Spanish Republic, Andalucismo was represented by the Junta Liberalista, a federalist political party led by Infante. He was among numerous political figures who were executed by the insurgent forces that invaded Seville at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939). As both a regional autonomist and a kind of libertarian socialist, he twice 'merited' inclusion on their liquidation list. He was shot without trial or sentence, at Km 4 on the road between Seville and Carmona, leaving a wife and four children. His last residence at Coria del Río now hosts the Museum of Andalusian Autonomy.>

 Official flag of Andalucía.

Official escutcheon of Andalucía.