Vicente Noguera Bonora (1891–1936) was a Spanish entrepreneur. He is known as member of the economic elite in Valencia of the late 1920s and the early 1930s. Though he held stakes in companies from chemical, food, and electricity sectors, his business focus was on finance and urbanism; he co-managed numerous banks and construction firms. By scholars he is considered an "emblematic representative of the new Valencian bourgeoisie". Since 1934 he served as an honorary consul of Poland. He was killed by UGT militiamen when performing his consular duties; he tried to provide humanitarian assistance to refugees fleeing Republican terror.
Ascendants
The Nogueras was a well-known Valencian bourgeoisie family of entrepreneurs. The family business was started in the 1830s by Antonio José Noguera Belloch de Ferrer (born 1817), who set up a seed oil factory. It was inherited by his son, Antonio Noguera Fusimaña (born 1842), and turned into the Noguera Hermanos y Cía.Antonio Gomis, Pablo Noguera Borel, Generación va, y generación viene, [in:] Agnès Noguera Borel et al. (eds.), 75 Años. Libertas 7, s.l. 2021, p. 13 The company was taken over by Antonio's sons, though it was managed mostly by the oldest sibling, José Antonio Noguera Pla (born 1865), who eventually became the sole owner. He diversified the business by importing natural fertilizers (e.g. from Chile) and producing chemical ones, apart from other commodities, e.g. soap; the company transformed into José Antonio Noguera S.A. Fábrica de Productos Químicos. He engaged also in construction and insurance industry, becoming one of Valencian business and financial tycoons.Gomis, Noguera 2021, p. 14 José Antonio married Guadalupe Bonora Llorens, descendant to another Valencian bourgeoisie family. The couple had 4 children: José Antonio, Vicente, Guadalupe and Antonio Noguera Bonora; following death of Guadalupe the widower remarried with Maria Irene Aparicio Aparicio, and in this union had 2 more children: Irene and Juan Noguera Aparicio.Gomis, Noguera 2021, p. 15 It was José Antonio Noguera Bonora who emerged as leader of the family business conglomerate, which in the 1920s included also a ceramics factory producing earthenware and tableware, paving stones, and refractory materials for metalworking and cement production.Gomis, Noguera 2021, p. 19
Descendants
As a teenager Bonora frequented Colegio-Academia de San Fernando in Valencia,El Cruzado 14.11.1907 yet it is not clear whether and if yes what university path he followed. At unspecified time, though prior to 1916, he married María de la Concepción Roig Ibáñez;she descended from another Valencian bourgeoisie family and was sister to Vicente de Roig Ibáñez, PURA parliamentarian in 1933-1936, Stephen Rodger Lynam, The rise and fall of the Partido de Union Republicana Autonomista: centrist politics in the Spanish province of Valencia [PhD dissertation accepted at the University of Exeter], Exeter 2018, p. 196 the couple had three children, all of them sons, born between 1916 and 1929:Jan Stanisław Ciechanowski, Podwójna gra. Rzeczpospolita wobec hiszpańskiej wojny domowej 1936–1939, Warszawa 2014, ISBN 9788311137615, p. 233 Vicente, José Antonio, and Francisco Noguera Roig.some of them appeared not as "Noguera Roig", but as "Noguera de Roig", compare Noguera de Roig, José Antonio entry, [in:] Senado de España service The best known of them, José Antonio, excelled in business; between the late 1960s and early 1980s he presided over various commercial institutions, above all Cámara de Comercio, Industria y Navegación de Valencia. In 1977 he was elected as the Unión de Centro Democrático candidate to the senate,Noguera de Roig, José Antonio entry, [in:] Senado de España service but in the 1979 elections he decided not to stand and withdrew from politics. Until 2003 he served as Síndico de Cuentas de la Generalidad Valenciana.Miquel Alberola, José Antonio Noguera de Roig, Síndic de Comptes de la Generalitat valenciana, [in:] El País 10.12.2003 His older brother Vicente served as president of Valencia Club de Fútbol during early Francoism;Jornada 14.02.1946 in the early 1950s he was also concejal in the Valencia city council.Jornada 22.01.1952 The youngest brother Francisco entered the judiciary and all his life served as a magistrate in the Balearic Islands, entering also Academia de Jurisprudencia y Legislación de las Islas Baleares.Miguel Coll Carreras, In memoriam (en la muerte del Ilmo. Señor Don Francisco Noguera Roig), [in:] Boletín de la Real Academia de Jurisprudencia y Legislación de las Illes Balears 3 (1996), pp. 5-15 Noguera's descendants and nephews formed and form part of the Valencian business elite; the best known of their enterprises is the Libertad 7 conglomerate,it was developed from FICSA (Financiera Immobiliaria Cisneros S.A.), set up by Antonio Noguera Bonora, Fallece Álvaro Noguera Giménez, consejero del Grupo Prisa, [in:] Cinco Dias 27.03.2006 and the best known personality was Álvaro Noguera Giménez.he was son of Antonio Noguera Bonora, Vicente's younger brother, Isabel Domingo, Los Noguera, la familia valenciana que impulsó Port Saplaya, [in:] Las Provincias 29.05.2021
Businessman: finance
Initially Noguera was engaged at various roles in the chemical family enterprise managed by his father, later acting as Consejero Delegado of the company, José Antonio Noguera S.A. However, what defined his role in the Valencian business elite was engagement in the finance sector. He was among of a group of entrepreneurs who re-established the ailing Banco de Valencia. Since the mid-1920s he remained one of its key managers, along members of the Villalonga Villalba and Casanova families;Gomis, Noguera 2021, p. 20 periodically he held the rotating presidency of the board of directors. It was Noguera who directed the bank towards engagement in Valencian agriculture, either by means of credit or co-ownership. In 1932 Banco de Valencia purchased shares of another bank, Banco Internacional de la Industria y Comercio,Gomis, Noguera 2021, p. 21 which ensured Noguera's seat in its Consejo de administración and later its presidency.El Financiero 06.04.1934, also Revista de economia y hacienda 03.03.1936 He entered also the board of other financial institutions, be it from the banking sector (Banco de Castellón, Banco Hispano Colonial, Banco Exterior de España, Banco Vitalicio) or insurance (Mutua Valenciada de Seguros, La Mutua Valenciana de Accidentes de Trabajo, Unión Levantina de Seguros).Gomis, Noguera 2021, p. 21
Businessman: other sectors
Noguera entered executive boards or got otherwise engaged in companies from numerous other business sectors, especially these which were co-owned or remained related to financial institutions he co-managed; he acted as their representative, though in some cases also as a private shareholder or representative of the Noguera family conglomerates. Traditionally, some formed part of the chemicals sector and specialized in fertilizers: Derivados de los Agrios Industriales S.A., Applicaciones Químico Industriales, S.A., Fosforera Canariense,in numerous sources referred to wrongly as "Fosforera Canadiense", compare Vicent Gabarda Cebellán, El cost humà de la repressió al País Valencià (1936-1956), Valencia 1996, ISBN 9788491348559, p. 448, Ciechanowski 2014, p. 228, Gomis, Noguera 2021, p. 21. For correct spelling, compare e.g. Mundo Financiero 15.11.1935. The company was based in Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands and Compañia Arrendataria de Fósforos. Some were related to food industry, namely Azucarera de Sevilla (sugar) and Romani y Miguel S.A. (citrus fruits).by the Polish press he was referred to as "orange tycoon", see Hiszpański potentat pomarańczowy polskim konsulem honorowym, [in:] Dzien Dobry 25.01.1935 However, he was gradually focusing on urban development. He purchased at least 7 very large plots in suburban areas marked in municipal planning as future "ensanches" and co-managed construction companies, Compañía Madrileña de Mejoras Urbanas and Compañía de Mejoras Urbanas de Valencia. Within this urban development framework he engaged also in the utilities sector, be it water (Sociedad Española de Abastecimientos) or electricity (Luz y Fuerza de Levante).Gomis, Noguera 2021, p. 21 Apart from the Valencian Levantine coast, he was commercially active also in Madrid, Andalusia, Catalonia and the Canary Islands.
Businessman: overview
Noguera was member of numerous organizations grouping business moguls, e.g. various local chambers of commerce. However, the key one was Federación Industrial, Mercantil y Agrícola, at the time the premier association of employers in Valencia and the entire Levantine region; in 1931 he was nominated its president. Because of his diversified entrepreneurial activity, and in particular because of his role in infrastructural (finance, urbanism) and cross-business (chemicals and agriculture, construction and utilities) environment, a present-day scholar considers him "un représentant emblématique de cette nouvelle bourgeoisie valencienne", which not merely developed their own businesses, but strove also to shape the general economic framework they were operating in.Pepita Villanueva, Le nationalisme valencien au début du XXie siécle [PhD dissertation accepted at Université Paris Nanterre], Paris 2017, p. 130 Another scholar counts him among entrepreneurs who took "a leading role" in urban development, and thrived partially thanks to their influence in the ayuntamiento and preferential treatment received.the 1924 municipal statute and the Low Costing Housing Law earmarked "bigger sites in areas designated for development", which translated to subsidies, tax exemptions, credit concessions and other, Joaquín Azagra Ros, Urban Growth and 'Ensanches': Neighbours and Householders in 1930s Valencia, [in:] Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 75/5 (1998), p. 151 On the list of the biggest property owners in Valencia of the early 1930s Noguera ranked at No. 7, with net annual income of 74,754 pesetas.Azagra 1998, p. 153 The position of the Nogueras was demonstrated by the splendid family residence at the Castelar Plaza.Azagra 1998, p. 148
Politics