Tomàs Caylà i Grau (1895-1936) was a Spanish publisher and àsCaylàa Carlist politician.
Family and youth
Tomàs d'Aquino Caylà i Grau was descendant to a well-off Catalan family. His grandfather, Tomás Caylá y Sardá (1810-1888), was member of the emerging Tarragona bourgeoisie. He fought for the liberal side against the Carlists in the First Carlist War (1833-1840) and was then mayor of Reus and a friend of General Prim. His father, Josep Caylà i Miracle (1856-1919), studied law in University of Barcelona; following 1881 graduation he settled in Valls, the capital of Alt Camp county in the Tarragona province. He became secretary and then co-owner of the newly created Banc de Valls, growing to its director in 1914; he was also administrator of rural holdings belonging to the local Vaciana and Miguel families. Active in the local business milieu, he co-founded the local landholders’ organization Sindicato Agrícola de Valls and represented it on various fora, becoming also president of the local Asociación de Propietarios. In 1894 Josep married Teresa Grau i Torner (1865-1943). The couple had 3 children; two sons died in their early infancy.
Tomàs was brought up in fervently religious ambience; both his parents were profoundly Catholic. Josep Caylà served as president of the local Ateneu Católic and secretary of Germandat de Cristaires in the local parish, apart from performing other minor functions. Nothing is known of his political preferences apart that he was attached to traditional values; he nurtured the idea of society organized along religious lines and animated by the spirit of harmonious co-operation. Demonstrating vivid interest in social question, he was committed to his vision of social responsibility and promoted the idea when presiding over the proprietors’ association. He is credited for bringing the concept into life when dealing with local vineyard tenants affected by the phylloxera plague. During unrest triggered by massive strike in the Catalan electricity sector in 1919 he was assassinated on the Valls street in what was probably an anarchist ambush.
Following his earlier education in 1911 Tomàs moved to Barcelona, where he started to study law; he graduated in derecho in 1916 and commenced practicing in his native Valls, gaining anecdotal reputation for his honesty and dedication. Inheriting fervently religious outlook he commenced activities in various lay Catholic organizations; he was co-founder and active member of the local Congregacio Mariana de la Verge de la Candela and helped to set up its review Estel Maria. Caylà has never married; as he explained to his mother, he intended to dedicate himself entirely to the cause of God served by means of Traditionalism.
Restoration and dictatorship
In 1919 young local activists led by Caylà founded a Valls-based weekly titled Joventut. Spanning across modest 4 pages and appearing with the sub-heading Per la fe i per la pátria, the periodical was issued in Valls and partially other comarcas of the Tarragona province; its circulation remains unknown. Contemporary scholar classified its political line as conservative, another present-day biographer underlines that it was based on ideas of Christian humanism and justice. Caylà and the co-founders explained their political identity in a clear-cut manifesto, declaring themselves to be first Catholics, then Spaniards, then Catalans, then Traditionalists and finally legitimists. Caylà emerged as the moving spirit, manager, chief author and organizer of the weekly, which remained sort of his personal tribune for the next 17 years. He contributed under his own name or using various pen-names, most commonly "C.V." and "Almogáver"; his contemporaries admired him for writing ease.