Claro de Jesús Banchón Potes was born in the city of Guayaquil on 12 August 1885, to Julián Banchón Arias and Juana Potes de Banchón.

An exemplary student from a very young age, he won a scholarship to study at the Eloy Alfaro Military College, to later pursue a career in the Ecuadorian Armed Forces. He married Marieta Ninfa Coello Ronquillo and had 6 children. In 1942 he founded the Amalia Domingo Soler Spiritist Centre. He disincarnated on the morning of July 6, 1971.

Arrival of Spiritism in Ecuador

Government of Eloy Alfaro

Political passions were running high in the country. On the one hand, coastal liberalism, and on the other, highland conservatism, were engaged in fratricidal confrontations. It was then, the second presidential term of General Eloy Alfaro Delgado, and in open opposition to the soft policies of Leonidas Plaza, he was trying to recover all the liberal gains that had been imposed with blood in Ecuador and that were slowly being turned to conservatism. There was discontent in every corner of the country, and one of those dissatisfied with General Alfaro's administration was General Rafael Puente, who had been secretly fomenting an uprising in the city of Guayaquil.

19 July 1907

An armed confrontation takes place inside the city, with the aim of capturing Eloy Alfaro, who was passing through the city. Military forces stop the confrontation and capture those involved in the uprising.

A young military man, named Claro de Jesús Banchón Potes, is unjustly accused of being part of the uprising, is condemned to death, subsequently his murder is repealed and he is sent to prison for 2 years in the city of Quito.

During the two years he was unjustly imprisoned in Quito, he met Pincheira, another prisoner of Chilean origin, who professed a new doctrine until then unknown in Ecuador; Spiritism, of Allán Kardec. It is through this link that Claro Banchón delves into the Spiritism doctrine and is a faithful witness of how the spirits open the locks of their cells at night and lead them safely to the places where those interested in this subject can carry out mediumistic sessions and receive the advice of the higher spirits. Through Pincheira, Claro de Jesús gained access to spiritism studies. So, once he was pardoned in 1910, he dedicated himself to carrying the message among family and friends, creating small guilds from which the first mediums under his care would emerge.

Foundation of the Amalia Domingo Soler Centre

On July 4, 1942, the first Spiritist Centre in Ecuador was founded in the city of Guayaquil by Claro Banchón. It was named: Amalia Domingo Soler, in honour of the pioneer of Spiritism in Latin America. The head office is still functioning in its original location to this day.

It began with mediumistic work of healing and fraternal attention to the public, carried out by the first mediums: Irene Soriano de Cárdenas, María Luisa Sañudo, Rosita Fernández, Violeta Banchón (daughter of Claro Banchón), Elenita Bolaños de Andrade, Roberto Coronel, Rosita Arriaga.

Fraternal attention has been one of the fundamental pillars for the practice of service to those who need it. The Centre has been dedicated to the diffusion and dissemination of spiritist information, through workshops, talks, conferences, meetings (national and international).

In 2017 the Centre launched its first spiritism magazine "Claridad".

In 2018 he inaugurated the project "Spiritism- Theatre", which consists of dramatising texts and books of spiritist content through theatre. Spreading the doctrine in an artistic way. There are already 7 theatrical works to date.

At present, the Centre continues its dissemination work virtually.