Ultraist poet and anarchist who co-founded and led Mujeres Libres
In April 1936 she co-founded the magazine and organisation Mujeres Libres and became its national secretary; by 1938 it had 147 groups and 20,000 members.
A poet, anarchist and campaigner for women’s emancipation born into a working-class family in Madrid. She became a telephone operator in 1916, joined Ultraism, Spain’s first avant-garde movement, in 1919 and published poems under the male pseudonym “Luciano de San-Saor”. Joining the CNT in 1931, she wrote under several pen names in the anarcho-syndicalist press. In April 1936 she co-founded Mujeres Libres and became its national secretary, and in 1937 general secretary of International Antifascist Solidarity (SIA). She lived for the rest of her life with América Barroso, whom she met that year. Exiled to France in 1939, she returned to Spain in 1942 and died in Valencia in 1970.
Also known as: Luciano de San-Saor
Activities and affiliations
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1916–1970
Literature and arts
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1931–1939
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT)Main
Social movements and organizing -
1936–
Social movements and organizing
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1937–
Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista (SIA)
Social movements and organizing
Related historical events
From Ultraism to Mujeres Libres
She was born into a working-class family in Madrid and lost her mother in 1908. In 1916 she joined the Madrid Telephone Company (later Telefónica) as an operator and in 1927 was transferred to Valencia. In January 1919 she joined Ultraism, Spain’s first avant-garde literary movement, publishing in its leading magazines such as Grecia and Ultra, often under the male pseudonym “Luciano de San-Saor”.
She joined the CNT in 1931 and wrote in the anarcho-syndicalist press of the 1930s under pen names such as “La Compañera X”, “Vigía” and “Un Confederado”. Teaching with Mercedes Comaposada in the elementary courses for workers run by the Madrid CNT, she concluded that misogyny and prejudice in the movement made separate courses and an organisation for women necessary. In April 1936 the two, with Amparo Poch y Gascón, founded the magazine and organisation Mujeres Libres, and she became its national secretary. Within the orbit of the CNT and FAI, Mujeres Libres grew to 147 groups and 20,000 members by 1938.
When the civil war broke out she threw herself into the antifascist struggle, seeing it as a revolution concerning all humanity, and in 1937 she helped found International Antifascist Solidarity (SIA), becoming its general secretary. She lived for the rest of her life with América Barroso, whom she met that year. She held that how one lived one’s sexuality was a private matter for which no one need answer to anyone, and said nothing herself to interpretations of her as a forerunner of Spanish lesbianism. At the end of January 1939 she went into exile in France with Barroso and helped the refugees; watched and briefly arrested by the French police, she returned to Spain in 1942 and died in Valencia on 2 June 1970.