Vicenç Albert Ballester

Vicenç Albert Ballester i Camps (September 18, 1872 in Barcelona – August 15, 1938 in El Masnou) was a Catalan nationalist, considered by some to be the designer and promoter of the "estelada", Catalonia's independence flag.

Ballester was the son of Vicenç Ballester (from Calaf, Anoia) and Cristina Camps (from Lleida), where the family owned lands and flour mills. He had early ties to the town of El Masnou, having worked there and later raised a family there. He began his studies in seamanship in 1890, having already learned to sail in El Masnou. After four years, in 1894, he obtained his merchant pilot's license which allowed him to sail as a captain. Nevertheless, his career in the merchant marine was cut short for health reasons: he had osseous problems in one of his knees. This did not, however, keep Ballester from going to Cuba, in 1898 when the Caribbean island declared its independence. Upon his return to El Masnou he became a partner and employee in a company that commercialized acetylene gas, used at the time for street lighting.

Once Ballester established himself more in El Masnou, he began to participate in political activities promoting Catalan nationalism, especially through several Catalanist publications. In 1901 he became a member of the Foment Autonomista Català and head of La Reixa, and as such organised the acts of the September 11, 1908 (Catalonia's National Day) which resulted in a prison sentence. He was also a member of the Associació Protectora de l'Ensenyança Catalana (Association for the Protection of Education in Catalan) and in 1903 founded the magazine La Tralla writing under the pseudonym VIC (whose initials in Catalan stand for "Long Live the Independence of Catalonia") and VICIME ("Long Live the Independence of Catalonia and Die Spain"). He was also a member of the Associació Nacionalista Catalana (Catalan Nationalist Association). He collaborated in the bulletin of the CADCI and formed part of the Unió Catalanista (Catalanist Union). In 1915 he took part in the foundation of the Mossèn Cinto School, of which he was president that same year.

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