The Catalan textile dynasty that nourishes the Church and Vox

BarcelonaWith the new academic year after the summer break, young Juan Pich-Aguilera Blasco joins the seminary, after resigning as a Vox member in Valldoreix and leaving everything behind to become a priest. He followed the example of his brother Pablo, who has been a priest for seven years. It so happens that they are all descendants of an important Catalan textile dynasty –the Pich-Aguileras–, which began its textile foray in 1886 and still owns the historic company Sedatex. But this lineage not only has these priests, nor has Juan been the only family asset within Vox. What is the dynasty that nourishes the Church and Santiago Abascal's party like?

In addition to Father Pablo Pich-Aguilera and the seminarian Juan, who have declined to participate in this piece considering they opt for "discretion," there is Father Xavier Pich-Aguilera Roca in the family, who is part of the pastoral community of Vallbona. Furthermore, there is another bearer of the surname within the clergy, Javier Casals Pich-Aguilera, from another branch of the family and who is part of the parish of Santa Agnès, in Sarrià. Thus, it is one of the families that provides the most priests in Catalonia by far.

At the same time, another prominent member of the family is Rosa Pich-Aguilera Roca, the media-famous mother of eighteen children, a record she achieved due to her desire to create a large family, as she had already experienced as a child with her fifteen siblings. Rosa Pich, who has written several books, appeared on the 2015 lists for the Vox-Family and Life Party coalition for the municipal elections in Barcelona, although representing the latter anti-abortion party as number four, behind the current radical right MEP Jorge Buxadé. Several members of the family have collaborated with Vox or have expressed sympathy with the far-right party, as this newspaper has verified with sources from the organization.

Rosa Pich is the daughter of a well-known Opus Dei supernumerary, the textile businessman Rafael Pich-Aguilera Girona, who promoted the International Federation for Family Development and the Viaró school, located in Sant Cugat del Vallès and linked to the prelature founded by Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer. One of Rosa's daughters, Margarita Postigo Pich-Aguilera, known as Magui, participated in a very media-famous edition ofMasterChef and her husband, Pelayo Fernández, is a Vox advisor in Parliament.

Of the lineage, the best known is Rosa Pich-Aguilera, who on social media has promoted her family and given family guidance advice, but her daughter Magui is also very popular. As was also very well known Pablo Pich, a priest who disseminated a traditionalist discourse on social networks –in fact, he wears a cassock–, but who chose to delete his accounts and focus on his daily priestly life far from the spotlight.

The origin

The creator of this textile empire was Rafael Pich i Puig, who in 1886 established the first silk production factory in Rubí. When he died, the business passed into the hands of his wife, Maria Aguilera Casas, and later to their children. This is the origin of the surname Pich-Aguilera. The company grew to have four factories – in Rubí, Badalona, Reus, and Barcelona – and was first called Pich Aguilera and later became known as Sedatex, the current name of one of the few textile industries that withstood the sector's cataclysm and is now located in Olesa de Montserrat. Furthermore, in the Pich-Aguilera Roca branch, there are some shareholders of Roca, the sanitary ware company, and it is the Pich-Aguilera Baurier family who lead the textile company (Sedatex), where Rosa Pich-Aguilera worked as a designer.