Ángel Llorca
(Orcheta, Alicante, 1866 - Madrid, 1942)

Ángel Llorca obtained his degree as teacher of Primary Education in 1887 and began teaching in Elche two years later. In 1892, he moved to Madrid to continue his studies at the Escuela Normal (teachers’ school) and graduated in 1895. That same year, he attended the Assembly of Teachers in Valencia, and the Educational Conferences in Alicante. Thereafter, he became very active in the processes of modernization and reform of the Spanish educational system. In 1905, he received the honorary prize and the gold medal in the Schools Exhibition in Bilbao for the work of his school in Elche. Miguel de Unamuno and Manuel Bartolomé Cossio were among the members of the jury; Cossío and Llorca became close friends. He taught primary school between 1907 and 1909 in Madrid, and then moved to Valladolid, where he worked until 1913, when he returned to teach in Madrid until his retirement in 1936.

He lived in the Residencia de Estudiantes during his visits to Madrid and became close to Giner de los Ríos’ group. Giner and the Instititución Libre de Enseñanza initiated the reform of the educational system in Spain, a process interrupted by the Civil War, in 1936.

In 1910, Llorca won a grant from the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios (JAE) to study the public education systems in France, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland. In 1912, he headed a commission of teachers who were sponsored by the JAE to visit educational institutions in France, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland. In 1921, he took
a group of school inspectors and teachers to visit several European educational centers. In 1922, he took a course at the J. J. Rousseau Institute and visited elementary schools in Heidelberg, and Munich.
In 1925, he returned to the. J.J. Rousseau Institute with a group of teachers from the Grupo Escolar Cervantes in Madrid. He had been director of the Cervantes School since its foundation in 1916. The Cervantes center was designed to train prospective teachers for the Instituto-Escuela, established by JAE, and teachers in general. It was the result of a meeting held at the Residencia de Estudiantes between Ruiz Jiménez -Minister of Public Education in Romanones’ cabinet-, Cossío, and Llorca. The Grupo Cervantes was the testing ground for the educational innovations later implemented in other schools.

Llorca retired in July 1936 and continued with his educational activities during the Civil War, promoting the Family Education Communities in El Perelló (Valencia), and in Madrid.