Businessman and philanthropist from Alava born in Llodio on 6 June 1806. Dedicated to trade in Manila (1821) as a clerk in a strong house, he left it to found the company which, under the name of Matia, Menchacatorre y Compañía, was to acquire justified credit, prospering his business (mainly exporting silk products) and extending it to various branches. It was then that he arrived in Cadiz, owning a beautiful fleet of frigates dedicated to the traffic this city and those islands. His business prospered and in agreement with his partners, he decided to establish the Head Office in Cadiz, which he did in 1841. At this time he already had more ships, such as the frigates ‘Colón’, ‘Mariveles’, ‘Bella vascongada’, ‘Teide’ and ‘Cercantes’. When the company was dissolved, he devoted himself to the philanthropic works that his heart dictated to him and which brought him many expressions of appreciation and consideration. He died in Cádiz, where he lived, on 29th May 1871, establishing in his will that two asylums should be founded with his inheritance, one in Cádiz and the other in San Sebastián. The utors of the will carried out the will of the deceased in Cadiz. The Asylum - as we read in Streets and Squares of Cádiz, by Guillermo Smith Somariba (pp. 227-228. Cádiz, 1913) - is a beautiful and solid building built from scratch, the work having begun on 16th July 1883 under the plans and direction of the architect Cayetano Santolalla. It was inaugurated four years before that of San Sebastián. The needs of the establishment to enlarge its gardens and build some outbuildings meant that in 1900 the 348 square metres that were on Cabildo Street were added to it. There is now a street dedicated to his memory. On 16 December 1889, the Matía Asylum was inaugurated in San Sebastián, located in the Ibaeta valley. Grateful for the humanitarian work carried out by José Matía y Calvo, the Donostia City Council approved, at a meeting held on 8 June 1891, the naming of the street from the Plaza de Alfonso XIII to Venta-Berri after the benefactor. Nowadays in San Sebastián we can admire the exemplary General Geriatric Hospital, with 400 beds, governed by the ‘José Matía Calvo’ Foundation, the same one that created our asylum and which has arranged, for this community of origin, ‘that those born and living in Cádiz can benefit, if they are elderly, from this general hospital and its services’.
- Retegui, Mariano: Grandes hombres de nuestra historia: José Matía Calvo, «Diario de Cádiz», 28-VIII-1983;
- Garmendia Arruabarrena, J.: Las fundaciones de J. Matía Calvo, «Diario Vasco», 27-II-1982.