
background and establishment of the Patronato
	testimonies
In 1881, Giner de los Ríos and Cossío petitioned José Luis Albareda, Minister of Fomento (Public Works) under the government of Sagasta, to establish traveling missions to bring the best teachers to remote villages in order to infuse rural schools with a modern spirit. In 1899, Joaquín Costa proposed to send groups of two or three people to each region, “as missionaries,” to meet with rural teachers in the main towns and to explain to them in a practical manner “how could they improve education, given their present conditions.” In 1912, Rafael Altamira promoted some experiences called “educational missions” to fill the social and intellectual vacuum in which rural teachers often worked. In 1922, Cossío again urged the Consejo de Instrucción Pública (Public Education Committee) to consider the need for these “traveling missions.” The first missions started in the Hurdes region, in Extremadura, led by Fausto Maldonado, in 1930. When the Second Republic was proclaimed, there was already a commission studying the possibility of extending this experience to other regions of Spain.

The proclamation of the Republic on April 14, 1931 showed that the cities were republican. However, the villages and hamlets remained untouched by the progress of the scientific-technical revolution that was leading the cities to a better life. The government of the Republic immediately felt the need to win the support of the rural population and took up the old dream of Giner and Cossío. Cossío was then in Switzerland and returned immediately. He was greeted at the station by his disciple Domingo Barnés, who showed him the draft of the decree establishing the Patronato de Misiones Pedagógicas and informed him that the government wanted to appoint him chairman of the new organization. From May 6, 1931, when the ministerial order establishing the Patronato was signed, until his death in 1935, Cossío devoted himself to develop the missions, personally interviewing young people who wanted to join the project, and taking care of all the details so that the missions would be a successful venture.
Members of the Patronato
According to the ministerial decree signed on August 6, 1931, the members of the first Patronato de Misiones Pedagógicas were: President Manuel Bartolomé Cossío Vice president Domingo Barnés Central Committee Rodolfo Llopis Ferrandiz Marcelino Pascua y Martínez Francisco Barnés Salinas Antonio Machado Ruiz Lucio Martínez Gil Luis Bello Trompeta Pedro Salinas y Serrano Enrique Rioja Lo Bianco Juan Uña Shartou Óscar Esplá Triay Ángel Llorca y García José Ballester Gozalvo Amparo Cebrián y F. Villegas María Luisa Navarro y Margothi Secretary Luis Álvarez Santullano