Cayetano Redondo Aceña (7 August 1888 – 21 May 1940) was a Spanish politician,

typographer Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...

, journalist and

esperantist An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperanto ...

. A member of the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

, he served as

Mayor of Madrid The Mayor of Madrid presides over the Madrid City Council, the government body of the capital city of Spain. The mayor has the duty of boosting the local policies, it directs the action of the other executive bodies, leads the Local Executive Admin ...

from November 1936 to May 1937, during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

Biography

Born on 7 August 1888 in

Segovia Segovia ( , , ) is a city in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Segovia. Segovia is in the Inner Plateau (''Meseta central''), near the northern slopes of th ...

, he moved young to

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

with his family. He worked as

. He became a member of the

Unión General de Trabajadores The Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT, General Union of Workers) is a major Spanish trade union, historically affiliated with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). History The UGT was founded 12 August 1888 by Pablo Iglesias Posse ...

(UGT) in 1905. In 1918, Redondo was leader of the National Federation of ''Juventudes Socialistas'', the youth wing of the

(PSOE). He worked for several political papers, including '' El Socialista''. In 1931, he was elected as Madrid municipal councillor at the , in representation of Chamberí. He was entrusted with the municipal government area of Social Work and with the responsibility over the district of Universidad. Later in the year, Redondo was elected on a PSOE platform as deputy to the

Constituent Cortes The Constituent Cortes ( es, Las Cortes Constituyentes) is the description of Spain's parliament, the Cortes, when convened as a constituent assembly. In the 20th century, only one Constituent Cortes was officially opened (Cortes are "opened" in ...

of the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII, and was di ...

in representation of the province of Segovia at the 1931 general election. A noted

, he was the Spanish representative at the Summer School organised by the Austrian Socialist Esperantist League in 1927, and he also delivered the opening speech of the 9th Spanish Congress of Esperanto in 1932. After the start of the

, at the height of the attacks and bombings carried by the

Francoist faction The Nationalist faction ( es, Bando nacional) or Rebel faction ( es, Bando sublevado) was a major faction in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. It was composed of a variety of right-leaning political groups that supported the Spanish Coup ...

on Madrid, Mayor

Pedro Rico Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...

fled for

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

hidden in a car boot. Redondo was elected his replacement on 8 November, although the decisions of the

Defence Council of Madrid , conventional_long_name = Madrid Defense Council , image = Junta de Defensa de Madrid.jpg , common_name = , subdivision = , nation = , demonym = , status_text = ...

largely determined the action of the municipal government. Redondo left the post of mayor in April 1937, replaced by Rafael Henche. After Madrid fell, Redondo was captured by Francoist forces and executed by a

firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...

at the walls of the

Cementerio de la Almudena The ''Cementerio de Nuestra Señora de La Almudena'' ( en, Our Lady of Almudena Cemetery), former ''Necrópolis del Este'' (East cemetery) is a cemetery in Madrid, Spain. It is the largest in Madrid and one of the largest in Western Europe. The nu ...

on 21 May 1940. Buried in a mass grave, his remains were later moved and buried together with those of José Gómez Osorio, the last Republican civil governor of Madrid, shot months earlier, thanks to the concern of the family of the latter. His grave is near the place chosen in memory of " The Thirteen Roses."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Redondo Acena, Cayetano 1888 births 1940 deaths People from Segovia Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians Members of the Congress of Deputies of the Second Spanish Republic Mayors of Madrid Spanish Esperantists Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction) Executed politicians People executed by Spain by firing squad Executed Spanish people People executed by Francoist Spain Madrid city councillors