Luis Dionisio de Lezama Leguizamón y Sagarminaga (1865-1933) was a Spanish entrepreneur, Vascologist and politician. As a businessman he kept developing the family-owned mining conglomerate, which controlled part of iron ore, carbon, fluorite, anhydrite and plaster exploitation in Vascongadas and Asturias. As a linguist he was a longtime executive of Sociedad de Estudios Vascos, owned one of the largest collections of Basque literature and contributed few scientific works himself. As a politician he supported the Traditionalist cause, first as a Carlist, in 1919-1931 as a breakaway Mellista, and then again as a Carlist; in the early 1930s he held the provincial party jefatura in Biscay.
Family and youth
The Lezama family is among the oldest in Vascongadas, traced back to the 12th century; one branch settled in Biscay. Some of its representatives rose to high posts in Madrid; the Biscay branch, apart from having been among largest landholders in the region, specialized as merchants and were army suppliers. The great-grandfather of Luis, Juan Antonio de Lezama Jugo, was the first one to call himself Lezama Leguizamón; the surname incorporated the name of a related distinguished branch, which was about to extinguish. The grandfather of Luis, Gregorio Lezama Leguizamón Eguia (1781-1857), was the one who transformed the family into business tycoons. Though one of the largest terratenientes in Biscay, he turned major protagonist of industrial revolution in the province. Initially owner of an ironworks mill, he engaged in industrial-scale iron mining, made possible thanks to introduction of Bessemer converters and the richest vein of iron ore in Europe, located in Biscay. In the mid-19th century he obtained a number of mining concessions and in the 1850s formed an emergent new social class of industrial moguls.
The youngest son of Gregorio, Manuel Lezama Leguizamón Aldama (1817-1884), inherited part of the family business and developed it further on. He kept obtaining new mining concessions, counted among “destacados miembros de las élites bilbaína” and owned one of the most successful industrial conglomerates in Biscay. He married María Concepción Sagarminaga Zabala, descendant to a less affluent, but prestigious Basque family. The couple had 2 sons, Luis born as the younger one. Nothing is known about his early education; later he was prepared to take over the family business and at unspecified time, though most likely in the late 1880s, he studied engineering in Barcelona. Following the death of their father, Manuel and Luis set up Hijos de Lezama Leguizamón company, which owned the family business; Luis inherited also 13 ha between Begoña and Etxebarri, plus 7 ha in Gipuzkoa.
In 1894 Luis married Felicia Zuazola Escuza (1875-1958), descendant to a noble Gipuzkoan family. The couple settled at the Lezama estate in Etxebarri, but in the early 20th century Luis purchased from his cousin a residential building in Getxo, later re-modeled and to be known as Palacio Lezama Leguizamón. The couple had 7 children, born between 1898 and 1906; 4 sons and 3 daughters. The oldest son, Luis Lezama Leguizamón Zuazola, was the provincial Carlist leader in the mid-1930s; he died of typhus when fighting as requeté during the Civil War; neither José survived the conflict. Manuel also served as requeté and in the Francoist Spain he emerged as head of the family business conglomerate; Fernando was involved in Carlism until the 1960s. Most of Luis’ grandchildren landed corporate managerial positions, but did not grow to nationwide prominence; the exceptions are Pedro Muruá Lezama-Leguizamón (field-hockey bronze Olympics medalist in 1960) and Ramón Vargas Lezama-Leguizamón (a painter). Among other Luis’ relatives, his older brother Manuel was deputy mayor of Bilbao in the 1890s, provincial deputy in 1907-1911 and a Carlist senator in 1921–1923.
Entrepreneur
With his brother Manuel, Luis was co-owner of Hijos de Lezama Leguizamón-Negocios de Minería, the company which owned the inherited business; it consisted of opencast iron ore mines in Etxebarri and Ollargan. Until the late 1890s the Lezamas were granted 5 more mining licenses and ranked as 6th most successful concessionaires in Biscay. At the turn of the centuries they attempted to restructure their mining portfolio; in 1895 the brothers sold Sociedad Coto Minero de Ollargan and in the early 1900s they received first anthracite mining concessions in Asturias. Apart from new licenses in Biscay, in the 1910s the Lezamas obtained further concessions in Asturias; along coal they covered also exploitation of fluorites, plaster and anhydrite deposits.