The many problems, internal and external, that began to affect the proper development of the Holy Week Parades in the first years of the 20th century, led, as reflected in its Constitutional Act, and at the initiative of the then Parish Priest of the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Mr. Juan José Marco Banegas, that in 1914 a 'Permanent Board of Processions' was erected (known as such until 1915).

"In the Villa of Cieza and the sacristy of the same Parish, after summoning the Parish Priest, Mr. Juan José Marco Banegas, to deal with the worsening of the Processions of this town, Mr. Juan José Marco, the aforementioned Parish Priest, met; Mr. Mariano Marín-Blázquez de Castro, Mayor; Mr. Arturo Trigueros, Elder Brother of Loneliness; Mr. Antonio Aguado Moxó, Elder Brother of Jesus; Mr. Antonio Marín Oliver, Elder Brother of the Holy One; Mr. Pascual Piñera, Elder Brother of the Convocation; Mr. Julián Pérez Cano, representing Saint John; Mr. Manuel Buitragos, Elder Brother of Veronica; Mr. Diego Martínez Pareja, President of the Casino; Mr. Pedro Pérez Gómez, representing the local Press; and Mr. Manuel Amorós González, representing the Center of Conservative Youth of Cieza. Mr. Juan José Marco took the floor to explain the purpose of the meeting, which was none other than to form a permanent Board that would understand and resolve on the improvement and organization of the Processions and all the things related to them with the same...".

The truth is that between the year of its foundation and the drafting of its first statutory regulation, its name changed, although it cannot be specified why it did so.

Until 1915 it was known as 'Permanent Board of Processions'. In 1916 it changed its name to 'General Committee of Processions', modifying it slightly the following year ('Permanent General Board of Processions'). Between 1918 and 1919 it returned to the original name, 'Permanent Board of Processions', with the variant 'General Board of Processions', abbreviating it between 1923 and 1955, and on some more occasions, to 'Board of Processions' and converting it in 1954. and only for that year, in 'Local Procession Board'.

The name 'Board of Passionate Processions', in force between 1956 and 1957, gave way in 1958 to the current name, 'Board of Passionate Brotherhoods' (sometimes abbreviated to 'Brotherhood Board'), which is thus fixed in the text of its first statutory regulation, which did not prevent some nostalgic secretary from occasionally referring to it later by its name. original, 'Permanent Board'.

However, the year 1914 is not the first attempt by the Ciezana Brotherhoods to coordinate: already in 1797 the Brotherhoods of Jesus and Our Lady of Loneliness agreed that "if some day any difficulty occurred for the processions to leave on Good Thursday or Good Friday , for the decision, its members join together with Mr. Priest and proceed according to their resolution". On the other hand, certain glimpses of corporatism between the Brotherhoods of Jesus, Our Lady of Loneliness and the Brotherhood of the Holy Christ are also frequent during the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th when it comes to hiring music bands.

Since its constitution, the Board of Passionate Brotherhoods has been the institution that has housed the set of Ciezana Brotherhoods, currently eighteen, constituted in a General Assembly (supreme body of the Board and in which each Brotherhood has a voice and vote, reason of one vote for each of them) and represented by a Board of Directors (with voice but without vote, except for the President's casting vote) which has the mission of coordinating and ensuring the organization of the Holy Week Events and Processions, and to execute the Agreements of the previous one, always joining forces in pursuit of a common and supportive project.

As the supreme governing body of the Board of Passionate Brotherhoods, the General Assembly has decision-making power over matters such as the Schedule and Itinerary of all Processions (both those in which a single Brotherhood participates and those in which several participate), organization and rules to be followed in them, supervision and approval of any patrimonial developments that directly affect the Processional Parades proposed by the Brotherhoods, application of disciplinary sanctions...

Emerged to face the socioeconomic and structural problems that in the first decades of the 20th century threatened the continuity of the Processions, it had to undertake in the hard post-war years the difficult task of reorganizing the Passion Parades with the little heritage that was preserved, two decades of consolidation and progressive development of the Brotherhoods and, in addition, of our Holy Week, which then revives moments of splendor and aggrandizement; splendor and aggrandizement that will be multiplied again in the final decades of the century, thanks both to the intensified investments of the Brotherhoods in the conservation and expansion of their particular heritage and to their joint actions channeled through the Board of Passionate Brotherhoods.

Thus, in 1970 the 'House of Saints' was built (subsequently, several Brotherhoods acquired their own House, transforming them over the years into museums), converted today into the House-Museum of Holy Week in Cieza, which houses a important number of Thrones on one of its floors and the other is used as a Meeting Room, Exhibition Room, Archive and Secretariat, and offices of the different Brotherhoods. Among other tasks, it is worth noting that in the following decade, the Board of Brotherhoods assumed the organization of the Events in honor of Our Lady the Blessed Virgin of Good Success, Patroness of Cieza, whose Brotherhood and heritage it took charge of, as will also happen starting in 1998 with the Procession of the Blessed Sacrament on the day of Corpus Christi.

The decade of the eighties will also see the creation and consolidation of the Act of Convocation, Procession of the Banners and Proclamation on the morning of Passion Sunday; and the successive establishment of the painting and photography contests for the election of the Holy Week Announcement Poster. Likewise, series of conferences and exhibitions related to Holy Week will also begin to become common.

Declaration of Regional Tourist Interest for our Processional Parades (1993); of the creation of the Banner of the Board of Passionate Brotherhoods (1994), embroidered in gold on black velvet by Ms. María Dolores Camacho Lucas and carried by three Nazarenes dressed in the traditional Cieza tunics (made by Ms. Piedad del Baño Montiel in black velvet with gold decorations and complemented with the typical 'executioner's cap'); of the recovery of the traditional Drummed; of the first editions (1995 and 1999) of the recordings of marches and 'pasodobles' typical of Holy Week in Cieza (among them the procession march 'Semana Santa ciezana' and the pasodoble 'La Cortesía', written in 1994 by José Gómez Villa, composer from Cieza, commissioned by the Board itself); the creation of an Art Commission to advise on any innovations, restorations or modifications that concern the heritage of the Processional Parades in matters of Steps, Equipment and Costumes (1995); to the restoration and representation of the Arrest (1996); and to the successive calls, since 1995, of Drawing and Short Story Contests, in addition to the organization of a long series of cults, exhibitions, events and activities of a cultural and social nature, to which with their own they have been adding to in turn the Brotherhoods.

Now that the new century has entered, it is worth highlighting the Declaration of National Tourist Interest (2011) and thanks to the hard work of several generations of Cieza brothers, Holy Week in Cieza was finally rewarded with the recent Declaration of International Tourist Interest (2023). To all of them we must add the Golden Shield of the City of Cieza, awarded by the Hon. City Council, and the Gold Medal of the Region of Murcia, awarded by the Autonomous Community, both distinctions in 2014, precisely the year in which the commitment signed in the old sacristy of the parish church turned a century.

Finally, as far as the dissemination of our Processions is concerned, the work of the Board of Passionate Brotherhoods focused from its origins on the publication of the Holy Week Magazine, today 'El Anda' Magazine. Over the years and as a complement to the Magazine, the Guide to Events and Processions, the Announcer Poster and the Proclamation Poster have come to light; On an exceptional basis, several promotional videos and two documentary films have been made and edited about Holy Week in Cieza ('The Portico of the Glory' and 'The Spring of the World'), in addition to other specific monographic publications.

At the head of the Board of Passionate Brotherhoods, the following have succeeded one another as Presidents since its constitution: Rev. Mr. Juan José Marco Banegas (1914-1920), Rev. Mr. José Espín Jiménez (1921-1925), Rev. Mr. Mariano Aroca López (1926-1936), Rev. Mr. Antonio Sánchez Oliva (1940-1954), Rev. Mr. Manuel Pereira Navarro (1955-1958), Mr. Mariano Camacho Blaya (1959-1964), Mr. Fulgencio Serra Peña (1964-1965), Mr. Antonio Lucas Saorín (1965-1966), Mr. José Lucas Avellaneda ( 1966-1969), Mr. Fulgencio Serra Peña (1969-1973), Mr. Antonio Galindo Tormo (1973-1979), Mr. José Motos Marín (1979-1982), Mr. José Salmerón Salmerón (1982-1988), Mr. José Gómez Rubio (1988-1993), Mr. Rafael Salmerón Pinar (1993-2011) ) and Mr. Joaquín Diego Gómez Rubio (since 2011). The management of all of them at the head of the Board of Passionate Brotherhoods has resulted in more than one hundred years of continuous activity by the Brotherhoods to shape Holy Week in Cieza as we all know it and as we all have wanted it to be.

Photograph by Manuel Carpio.

© Archive of the Board of Passionate Brotherhoods of Cieza