Julio Cervera Baviera
Encyclopedia
Julio Cervera Baviera was a Spanish
engineer
, pioneer in the development of radio
, educator, explorer, and military man. He also authored various scientific and geographic books and articles.
, he studied Physical and Natural Sciences at the University of Valencia but abandoned these studies to join the Army. He first graduated from the Academy of Cavalry
(1875) and then from the Academy of Military Engineers
at Guadalajara
(1882).
At the beginning of 1886, Cervera was working in the photoengraving
industry in Barcelona
. However, in the summer of 1886, under the sponsorship of the Spanish Society of Commercial Geography (Sociedad Española de Geografía Comercial), Cervera, the Arabic interpreter Felipe Rizzo (1823–1908), and biologist and meteorologist Francisco Quiroga Rodríguez (1853–1894) traversed the Spanish colony of Rio de Oro
, part of Spanish Sahara
, where they made topographical and astronomical observations in a land whose features were barely known at the time to geographers. They traversed the area between Cape Blanc and Cape Bojador
, reaching Adrar after a journey of 900 km. It is considered the first scientific expedition in that part of the Sahara
. They also signed the treaties of Idjil (near Atar
) with the emir of Adrar
and Saharawi chiefs.
In 1884, Cervera supervised the construction of a series of blockhouses around Melilla
. Between 1888 and 1890, he served as Military attaché
in the Embassy of Spain in Tangiers.
. However, on December 19, 1890 he published a criticism of the Spanish colonial government in Morocco in El Imparcial, and he was arrested after being tried, and incarcerated in the Santa Bárbara at Alicante
in 1891. He was released two years later.
After 1894, he served as aide-de-camp
to General Manuel Macías y Casado
in the latter’s assignments as Commander General of Melilla; Captain General of the Canary Islands
; Commander-in-Chief of the Seventh Corp of the Army at Valladolid; and Captain General of Puerto Rico.
, he was in charge of defense of Guamaní, a peak that commanded the road between Cayey and Guayama. He was thus involved in the Battle of Guamaní (August 9, 1898), and was responsible for repulsing an attack by American
troops there.
After the war, he gained notoriety as the author of a pamphlet
called La defensa de Puerto Rico
, which supported Governor General Manuel Macías y Casado, who had become head of the government of Puerto Rico under the Autonomous Charter created in February 1898 (Puerto Rico soon passed under American control). Its purpose was to support the actions of General Macias before the Spanish public but it ended up criticizing the Puerto Rican volunteers in the Spanish Army. After Spain's defeat against the United States
, Spaniards looked for reasons to explain it. Cervera wrote: "I have never seen such a servile, ungrateful country [i.e. Puerto Rico]... In twenty-four hours, the people of Puerto Rico went from being fervently Spanish to enthusiastically American... They humiliated themselves, giving in to the invader as the slave bows to the powerful lord."
A group of angry young sanjuaneros
agreed to challenge Cervera to a duel
if the commander did not retract his pamphlet. The young men drew lots for this honor; it fell to José Janer y Soler (his “seconds” - in Spanish
, padrinos- were Cayetano Coll y Toste y Leonidas Villalón). Cervera’s seconds were Colonel Pedro del Pino and Captain Emilio Barrera. The duel never took place, as Cervera explained his intentions in writing the pamphlet, and all parties were satisfied.
on resolving the problem of a wireless communication system, obtaining some patents by the end of 1899. Research by professor Ángel Faus credits Baviera with inventing the radio
in 1902 and patenting it in England
, Germany
, Belgium
, and Spain. "The inventor of radio was not Marconi, nor John Ambrose Fleming
, nor Lee de Forest
, Fessenden
or David Sarnoff
, but rather the Spaniard Julio Cervera Baviera," Faus asserts. Marconi invented the wireless telegraph, demonstrating its effectiveness in December 1901, but did not produce radios until 1913. Faus points out that Cervera, who worked with Marconi and his assistant George Kemp
in 1899, resolved the difficulties of wireless telegraph and obtained his first patents prior to the end of that year.
On March 22, 1902, Cervera founded the Spanish Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Corporation in the presence of the Madrid
notary
Antonio Turón y Boscá. Cervera brought to the Spanish Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Corporation the patents he had obtained in Spain, Belgium, Germany and England. He established the second and third regular radiotelegraph service in the history of the world in 1901 and 1902 by maintaining regular transmissions between Tarifa
and Ceuta
for three consecutive months, and between Xàbia
(Cap de la Nau
) and Ibiza
(Cap Pelat). This is after Marconi established the radiotelegraphic service between the Isle of Wight
and Bournemouth
in 1898.
In 1906, Domenico Mazzotto wrote: "In Spain the Minister of War has applied the system perfected by the commander of military engineering, Julio Cervera Baviera (English patent No. 20084 (1899))."
Cervera thus achieved some success in this field, but his radiotelegraphic activities ceased suddenly, the reasons for which are unclear to this day.
He published his Enciclopedia científico-practica del ingeniero mecánico electricista, published in 2 editions (1904, 1915). The institution also published a magazine called Electricidad y Mecánica. The institution later renamed itself the Institución de Enseñaza Técnica, and offered two new degrees: agricultural engineering and therapeutic teacher. It also offered a long-distance language learning program by phonograph
.
Cervera was also responsible for designing the original Tenerife Tram
system. He helped build a tramway system in his native Segorbe.
republican
. He was also a militant Freemason who founded a masonic lodge
in Segorbe. In 1890, he founded, with Felipe de Borbón y Braganza, an order of Masons in Morocco
, comprising 12 lodges and 200 masons (the members were Africans, European
s, Americans
). A year later it was integrated with the Spanish G.O. (Gran Oriente).
Cervera was friends with the republican politician Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla
. His political views caused him trouble with his superiors and may have been the reason behind some of his failures. In 1891, he ran as Republican candidate to the Cortes
for Segorbe, but the military coup prevented him from running or achieving victory. He tried again in 1893 and was about to act as deputy, when electoral rigging prevented this from happening. In 1908, he obtained a seat in the partial elections as candidate of the Partido Republicano Radical for Valencia, but did not win again in 1914, when he represented Xàtiva
.
He had married María de los Desamparados Giménez in 1883. They had two girls, Amparo and Pilar, and a boy, who died as a child. With Amparo he spent his last years in Madrid, where he died around 1929.
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
, pioneer in the development of radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, educator, explorer, and military man. He also authored various scientific and geographic books and articles.
Education
Born in SegorbeSegorbe
Segorbe is a municipality in the mountainous coastal province of Castelló, autonomous community of Valencia, Spain. The former Palace of the Dukes of Medinaceli now houses the city's mayor...
, he studied Physical and Natural Sciences at the University of Valencia but abandoned these studies to join the Army. He first graduated from the Academy of Cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
(1875) and then from the Academy of Military Engineers
Military engineer
In military science, engineering refers to the practice of designing, building, maintaining and dismantling military works, including offensive, defensive and logistical structures, to shape the physical operating environment in war...
at Guadalajara
Guadalajara, Spain
Guadalajara is a city and municipality in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha, Spain, and in the natural region of La Alcarria. It is the capital of the province of Guadalajara. It is located roughly 60 km northeast of Madrid on the Henares River, and has a population of 83,789...
(1882).
Work in Africa
He traveled to Morocco in 1877 and published a book called Geografía militar de Marruecos in 1884, and the Army commissioned him in 1884 to explore this area once more. He published Expedicion geografico-militar al interior y costas de Marruecos (1885).At the beginning of 1886, Cervera was working in the photoengraving
Photoengraving
Photoengraving also known as photo-chemical milling is a process of engraving using photographic processing techniques. The full form of photoengraving is photo mechanical process in the graphic arts, used principally for reproducing illustrations. The subject is photographed, and the image is...
industry in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. However, in the summer of 1886, under the sponsorship of the Spanish Society of Commercial Geography (Sociedad Española de Geografía Comercial), Cervera, the Arabic interpreter Felipe Rizzo (1823–1908), and biologist and meteorologist Francisco Quiroga Rodríguez (1853–1894) traversed the Spanish colony of Rio de Oro
Río de Oro
Río de Oro , is, with Saguia el-Hamra, one of the two territories that formed the Spanish province of Spanish Sahara after 1969; it was originally taken as a Spanish colonial possession in the late 19th century...
, part of Spanish Sahara
Spanish Sahara
Spanish Sahara was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was ruled as a territory by Spain between 1884 and 1975...
, where they made topographical and astronomical observations in a land whose features were barely known at the time to geographers. They traversed the area between Cape Blanc and Cape Bojador
Cape Bojador
Cape Bojador or Cape Boujdour is a headland on the northern coast of Western Sahara, at 26° 07' 37"N, 14° 29' 57"W. , as well as the name of a nearby town with a population of 41,178.It is shown on nautical charts with the original Portuguese name "Cabo Bojador", but is sometimes...
, reaching Adrar after a journey of 900 km. It is considered the first scientific expedition in that part of the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
. They also signed the treaties of Idjil (near Atar
Atar, Mauritania
Atar is a town in northwestern Mauritania, the capital of the Adrar Region and the main settlement on the Adrar Plateau. It is home to an airport, a museum and a historic mosque, constructed in 1674...
) with the emir of Adrar
Adrar (region)
Adrar is a large region in Mauritania, named for the Adrar Plateau. Its capital is Atar. Other major towns include Choum, Chinguetti and Ouadane...
and Saharawi chiefs.
In 1884, Cervera supervised the construction of a series of blockhouses around Melilla
Melilla
Melilla is a autonomous city of Spain and an exclave on the north coast of Morocco. Melilla, along with the Spanish exclave Ceuta, is one of the two Spanish territories located in mainland Africa...
. Between 1888 and 1890, he served as Military attaché
Military attaché
A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...
in the Embassy of Spain in Tangiers.
Imprisonment
Cervera's work in Spanish Africa earned him the promotion of commanderCommander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
. However, on December 19, 1890 he published a criticism of the Spanish colonial government in Morocco in El Imparcial, and he was arrested after being tried, and incarcerated in the Santa Bárbara at Alicante
Alicante
Alicante or Alacant is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Alicante and of the comarca of Alacantí, in the south of the Valencian Community. It is also a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city of Alicante proper was 334,418, estimated , ranking as the second-largest...
in 1891. He was released two years later.
After 1894, he served as aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
to General Manuel Macías y Casado
Manuel Macías y Casado
Manuel Macías y Casado was a Spanish general. He served as Governor-General of Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War and as governor of Melilla , and occupied various other posts. Born in Teruel, Spain, Macías attended the Colegio de Infantería and became a sub-lieutenant at the age of 17....
in the latter’s assignments as Commander General of Melilla; Captain General of the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
; Commander-in-Chief of the Seventh Corp of the Army at Valladolid; and Captain General of Puerto Rico.
Spanish-American War
During the Spanish-American WarSpanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
, he was in charge of defense of Guamaní, a peak that commanded the road between Cayey and Guayama. He was thus involved in the Battle of Guamaní (August 9, 1898), and was responsible for repulsing an attack by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
troops there.
After the war, he gained notoriety as the author of a pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
called La defensa de Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, which supported Governor General Manuel Macías y Casado, who had become head of the government of Puerto Rico under the Autonomous Charter created in February 1898 (Puerto Rico soon passed under American control). Its purpose was to support the actions of General Macias before the Spanish public but it ended up criticizing the Puerto Rican volunteers in the Spanish Army. After Spain's defeat against the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Spaniards looked for reasons to explain it. Cervera wrote: "I have never seen such a servile, ungrateful country [i.e. Puerto Rico]... In twenty-four hours, the people of Puerto Rico went from being fervently Spanish to enthusiastically American... They humiliated themselves, giving in to the invader as the slave bows to the powerful lord."
A group of angry young sanjuaneros
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
agreed to challenge Cervera to a duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
if the commander did not retract his pamphlet. The young men drew lots for this honor; it fell to José Janer y Soler (his “seconds” - in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, padrinos- were Cayetano Coll y Toste y Leonidas Villalón). Cervera’s seconds were Colonel Pedro del Pino and Captain Emilio Barrera. The duel never took place, as Cervera explained his intentions in writing the pamphlet, and all parties were satisfied.
Radio Pioneering
In May-June 1899, Cervera had, with the blessing of the Spanish Army, visited Marconi’s radiotelegraphic installations on the English Channel, and worked to develop his own system. He began collaborating with Guglielmo MarconiGuglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
on resolving the problem of a wireless communication system, obtaining some patents by the end of 1899. Research by professor Ángel Faus credits Baviera with inventing the radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
in 1902 and patenting it in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and Spain. "The inventor of radio was not Marconi, nor John Ambrose Fleming
John Ambrose Fleming
Sir John Ambrose Fleming was an English electrical engineer and physicist. He is known for inventing the first thermionic valve or vacuum tube, the diode, then called the kenotron in 1904. He is also famous for the left hand rule...
, nor Lee de Forest
Lee De Forest
Lee De Forest was an American inventor with over 180 patents to his credit. De Forest invented the Audion, a vacuum tube that takes relatively weak electrical signals and amplifies them. De Forest is one of the fathers of the "electronic age", as the Audion helped to usher in the widespread use...
, Fessenden
Reginald Fessenden
Reginald Aubrey Fessenden , a naturalized American citizen born in Canada, was an inventor who performed pioneering experiments in radio, including early—and possibly the first—radio transmissions of voice and music...
or David Sarnoff
David Sarnoff
David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American commercial radio and television. He founded the National Broadcasting Company and throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his...
, but rather the Spaniard Julio Cervera Baviera," Faus asserts. Marconi invented the wireless telegraph, demonstrating its effectiveness in December 1901, but did not produce radios until 1913. Faus points out that Cervera, who worked with Marconi and his assistant George Kemp
George Kemp
George Kemp may refer to:* George Stephen Kemp, Electrical engineer and assistant to Guglielmo Marconi* George Meikle Kemp , Scottish carpenter/joiner, draughtsman, and self-taught architect...
in 1899, resolved the difficulties of wireless telegraph and obtained his first patents prior to the end of that year.
On March 22, 1902, Cervera founded the Spanish Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Corporation in the presence of the Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
notary
Civil law notary
Civil-law notaries, or Latin notaries, are lawyers of noncontentious private civil law who draft, take, and record legal instruments for private parties, provide legal advice and give attendance in person, and are vested as public officers with the authentication power of the State...
Antonio Turón y Boscá. Cervera brought to the Spanish Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Corporation the patents he had obtained in Spain, Belgium, Germany and England. He established the second and third regular radiotelegraph service in the history of the world in 1901 and 1902 by maintaining regular transmissions between Tarifa
Tarifa
Tarifa is a small town in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, on the southernmost coast of Spain. The town is located on the Costa de la Luz and across the Straits of Gibraltar facing Morocco. The municipality includes Punta de Tarifa, the southernmost point in continental Europe. There are five...
and Ceuta
Ceuta
Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain and an exclave located on the north coast of North Africa surrounded by Morocco. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies on the border of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta along with the other Spanish...
for three consecutive months, and between Xàbia
Xàbia
Xàbia is a coastal town located in the comarca of Marina Alta, in the province of Alicante, Spain, by the Mediterranean Sea. Situated behind a wide bay and sheltered between two rocky headlands, the town has become a very popular small seaside resort and market town.-Geography:Xàbia is situated in...
(Cap de la Nau
Cap de la Nau
The Cap de la Nau or Cabo de la Nao , literally “Cape of the Ship,” is a headland located central-eastern coastal Spain on the Gulf of Valencia, Mediterranean Sea...
) and Ibiza
Ibiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...
(Cap Pelat). This is after Marconi established the radiotelegraphic service between the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
and Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
in 1898.
In 1906, Domenico Mazzotto wrote: "In Spain the Minister of War has applied the system perfected by the commander of military engineering, Julio Cervera Baviera (English patent No. 20084 (1899))."
Cervera thus achieved some success in this field, but his radiotelegraphic activities ceased suddenly, the reasons for which are unclear to this day.
Other activities
He also worked as a technical instructor, after being appointed on August 27, 1900 royal commissary at the Escuela Superior de Artes e Industrias de Madrid. After 8 months, he became frustrated with his inability to reform the curriculum and traveled to Europe and the United States from May 1903, where he became interested in instruction via correspondence. He abandoned his military career, and set up the Internacional Institución Electrotécnica, in Valencia in 1903, one of the first long-distance education programs in the world. It gave degrees for the careers of mechanical engineer, electrician, and mechanic-electrician.He published his Enciclopedia científico-practica del ingeniero mecánico electricista, published in 2 editions (1904, 1915). The institution also published a magazine called Electricidad y Mecánica. The institution later renamed itself the Institución de Enseñaza Técnica, and offered two new degrees: agricultural engineering and therapeutic teacher. It also offered a long-distance language learning program by phonograph
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
.
Cervera was also responsible for designing the original Tenerife Tram
Tenerife Tram
Tenerife Tram is a light rail or tram service located on the island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands . It is operated by Metropolitano de Tenerife, a limited company 80% owned by the Cabildo of Tenerife. Service started on 2 June 2007 over a line which links the Intercambiador in Santa...
system. He helped build a tramway system in his native Segorbe.
Personal life and political life
Cervera was a liberalLiberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
. He was also a militant Freemason who founded a masonic lodge
Masonic Lodge
This article is about the Masonic term for a membership group. For buildings named Masonic Lodge, see Masonic Lodge A Masonic Lodge, often termed a Private Lodge or Constituent Lodge, is the basic organisation of Freemasonry...
in Segorbe. In 1890, he founded, with Felipe de Borbón y Braganza, an order of Masons in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, comprising 12 lodges and 200 masons (the members were Africans, European
European ethnic groups
The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
s, Americans
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
). A year later it was integrated with the Spanish G.O. (Gran Oriente).
Cervera was friends with the republican politician Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla
Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla
Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla was a Spanish politician. He served as prime minister of Spain for a little over ten weeks in the summer of 1871, and again for eight months between June 1872 and February 1873....
. His political views caused him trouble with his superiors and may have been the reason behind some of his failures. In 1891, he ran as Republican candidate to the Cortes
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
for Segorbe, but the military coup prevented him from running or achieving victory. He tried again in 1893 and was about to act as deputy, when electoral rigging prevented this from happening. In 1908, he obtained a seat in the partial elections as candidate of the Partido Republicano Radical for Valencia, but did not win again in 1914, when he represented Xàtiva
Xàtiva
Xàtiva is a town in eastern Spain, in the province of Valencia, on the right bank of the river Albaida and at the junction of the Valencia–Murcia and Valencia Albacete railways....
.
He had married María de los Desamparados Giménez in 1883. They had two girls, Amparo and Pilar, and a boy, who died as a child. With Amparo he spent his last years in Madrid, where he died around 1929.