Marién García Boj, 51, made history last night in the Cartagena brotherhood world by being elected by a majority to lead her brotherhood until 2026
The mayordomo Marién García Boj, 51 years old, made history this Tuesday night in Cartagena’s Holy Week by becoming the first elder sister elected from one of her brotherhoods: that of Nuestro Padre Jesús Resucitado. He will be the ninth person to lead the youngest of the brotherhoods of the city, founded in December 1943, thanks to the 111 votes of the 186 brothers, chaplains and mayordomos participating in the process. The list of candidates was completed by Salvador Sixto Monteagudo Cobacho, who obtained 51 supports, and Fulgencio Egea Moya, who obtained 28.
García Boj replaces Ramón Pérez Saura, who resigned by surprise before Christmas, when he still had ten months left in his term and had the challenge of taking out the 2022 procession ahead of him. This resignation forced the electoral machinery to start up with Francisco Gómez Pérez as president of the board in charge of directing the entire process. In the last month, the main butler, Emilia Agüera Liarte, has served as acting first directive.
The new older sister of the Brotherhood of the Resurrected presided since 2017 the group of the head of the brotherhood, that of Nuestro Padre Jesús Resucitado. He took over from the well-known processionist Andrés Mendoza. She is married, the mother of two children, and works as deputy general manager of Cifra, the Cartagena business group run by José Javier Gómez-Vizcaíno and Óscar García Berbois. Her ties with the brotherhood are very close and lifelong, since she is the granddaughter of Joaquín Boj Segado, who was the older brother between 1975 and 1981 and a well-known merchant.
His appointment is now pending ratification by the Bishop of Cartagena, José Manuel Lorca Planes. It is a simple procedure, since the three members of the list have already obtained the prior approval of the chaplain of the brotherhood, Miguel Solana, present at the vote.
In three months, procession
The first big challenge you will have to face will be to organize the Easter Sunday procession in a relatively short time. There are barely three months left until April 17. Like the rest of the processionists, the resurrected ones work with the hope that the health situation will allow this year to take their parade to the streets of Cartagena after three blank years. Neither in 2021 nor in 2020 were there processions for the coronavirus. In 2019 neither, due to the rain.
After his election, García Boj was very moved and demanded unity from the hundred brothers who followed the vote count in the throne warehouse, where the elections were held. “Divided we go nowhere,” he said. He also asked to assess the work of his predecessor, who was not present during the count.
Among his projects for the four years of his mandate, he highlighted the incorporation of young people to the positions of responsibility of the brotherhood, the digitization of files and services, as well as the realization of an invention to quantify and value the heritage of the brotherhood.
In eight decades of history, the Brotherhood of the Resurrected has had nine older brothers, including the one still elected: José Antonio Pérez González (1943-1966), Eduardo Cañabate Navarro (1966-1975), Joaquín Boj Segado (1975-1981), Ángel Lorente Gallurt (1981-1991), Benito Martínez Escolar (1991-2006), Tomás Martínez Pagán (2006-2014), Bernardo Simó Barreto (2014-2018) and Ramón Pérez Saura (from October 2018 to December 2021).
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