The recently approved Historical Memory Law recognized them as victims of Francoism. Before this rule, despite the evidence of the persecution suffered, the Freemasons had not received express recognition of the repression they suffered. Jesús Soriano, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the 33rd and last Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for Spain, starred last week in one of the moments of the act in which the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, honored the memory of the retaliated. An acknowledgment that he received after having visited Santa Cruz de Tenerife to celebrate the ceremony to lay the first stone of the rehabilitation work of the Masonic Temple from Santa Cruz. Soriano attended DIARIO DE AVISOS during this visit, an interview in which he showed his satisfaction for the recovery of a property that, he is convinced, will become one of the most important symbols of current Masonry in the world.
-The act of laying the first stone has been very special for you. How long had it been since they held a ceremony like this?
“I would practically say that, since the year 36, it is the first time that it has been done… For us it is very important because it is not only about recognizing the Lodge of Añaza, but also everything that the temple meant at the time, a center of culture and education, who taught thousands of people to read and write, they are brothers who deserve very important recognition and we have given it to them”.
-Do you have proof of the number of reprisals from the Lodge of Añaza?
“When the military rebellion broke out, as the temple was only 300 meters from the military government, it was the first site they took, and according to the story, it was the place where the first Freemason was executed. From there is where the repression of Freemasonry begins. Keep in mind that when the war broke out in 1936 there were around 4,500 Masons in Spain. The retaliation was such that some 8,000 people accused of being Freemasons were shot, and in the Salamanca archive there are more than 60,000 processes against people for being Freemasons. Therefore, when they wanted to get someone out of the way, they accused him of being a Freemason.”
-Spain was the only country in the world that passed a law against Freemasonry…
“Against Freemasonry and Communism. Thanks to the new Democratic Memory Law, all the trials that were made based on that law have been declared null, trials in which the Freemasons’ lives were taken, the chair was taken or they were forced into exile. All this is now fixed with this new law, which comes to recognize that Freemasonry is an honorable institution, made up of good people”.
-Have you come to understand why Franco persecuted Freemasonry in this way?
“I suppose that like all dictators, someone who defends freedom, equality and fraternity, is someone because he likes very little.”
-You say that, despite everything, the law of repression served to prevent them from being killed.
“Yes. Until it was issued in 1940, they shot you directly. With that law they couldn’t shoot you, yes, they sent you to jail for 35 years. Even depending on the degree you had within Freemasonry, you were entitled to so many years in prison.
-The rehabilitation of the Masonic Temple to turn it into an interpretation center is good news for Freemasonry…
“That is what the mayor (José Manuel Bermúdez) has told us. The files of the Lodge of Añaza are in Salamanca, everything is there, the library and even the furniture. I understand that through some type of agreement with the State, these files can be brought here.”
-What role is the Supreme Council going to play in that interpretation center?
“We will collaborate on everything. We have to emphasize that it will be a unique temple in the world. When you tell this to my colleagues from the rest of the world they are delighted, because what happened in Spain is such an exceptional thing, that now we can recover this temple is a real wonder”.
-At what point is Freemasonry in Spain?
“We must speak of Freemasonry in the plural. The regular one, which is the one in which the Supreme Council is integrated, and which is in turn divided into two parts, the symbolic one, the first three degrees, which is administered by the Grand Lodge of Spain, which is the most important regular obedience, and the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree, which administers the degrees from 4 to 33, this is the case throughout the world. It is a path like many others, this is one more”.
-Do you think there is still a bad opinion of Freemasonry?
“If so, I don’t understand. In regular Freemasonry, which complies with the norm, what we do is scrupulously comply with the norms of before, those established by Frederick the Great of Prussia, who was the one who organized the Supreme Council. Many times it is difficult to understand that Spain has such a bad opinion of Freemasons, when the founding fathers of the United States, of the 30, 13 were Freemasons, so are the kings of England, almost all of them. Faced with this, I believe that this temple can help to better understand Freemasonry, to all those who want to approach it with a clean heart”.
-What does someone who wants to be a Mason pursue?
“The ultimate goal is to improve yourself. What the first three degrees do is that the good person who approaches Freemasonry becomes a better person, and the Supreme Council turns that better person into nothing more and nothing less than a good citizen. I think it is to build our inner temple, but I insist, it is one more path, there are thousands. There are people who enter and after a while they leave because they understand that it is not their path”.
-But in that desire to be better you differentiate between men and women…
“There are female, male and mixed Freemasonry. If we defend freedom, we have to respect what each one chooses. There are men who are more comfortable with men, women more comfortable only with women, and men and women being together. There are many Masons. The freedom of each person is respected.
-In the Canary Islands, what is the situation of Freemasonry?
“Canarias is very important within the Spanish assembly. The three most important places are the Canary Islands, Catalonia and Madrid, which are where there are more brothers in all bodies. In the specific case of the Supreme Council, which is the one I can talk about, there are lodges on all the islands, except La Gomera and El Hierro, because they have less population. And within the Supreme Council, taking into account that the maximum that can be reached is 33 active, right now we are 26, and from the Canary Islands there are five, which gives an idea of the weight that the Canary Islands have within Spanish philosophical Freemasonry”.
