Onésimo Redondo Ortega (16 February 1905 – 24 July 1936) was a Spanish

Falangist Falangism ( es, falangismo) was the political ideology of two political parties in Spain that were known as the Falange, namely first the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS) and afterwards the Fal ...

politician. He founded the Juntas Castellanas de Actuación Hispánica, a political group that merged with

Ramiro Ledesma Ramiro Ledesma Ramos (23 May 1905 – 29 October 1936) was a Spanish philosopher, politician, writer, essayist, and journalist, known as one of the pioneers in the introduction of Fascism in Spain. Early life Born in Alfaraz de Sayago ( provinc ...

Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista (, JONS) was a nationalist and fascist movement in 1930s Spain, merged with the Falange Española into the Falange Española de las JONS in 1934. History JONS was founded on 10 October 1931 as the fusio ...

and

José Antonio Primo de Rivera José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquess of Estella (24 April 1903 – 20 November 1936), often referred to simply as José Antonio, was a Spanish politician who founded the falangist Falange ...

Falange Española Falange Española (FE; English: Spanish Phalanx) was a Spanish fascist political organization active from 1933 to 1934. History The Falange Española was created on 29 October 1933 as the successor of the Movimiento Español Sindicalista (MES ...

. Together with Ledesma and Primo de Rivera, Redondo was one of the key figures of

Francoist Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

Biography

Redondo was born in Quintanilla de Abajo (renamed after him as Quintanilla de Onésimo),

Valladolid Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...

to a family of

landowners In common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "tenir" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land owned by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement between both individual ...

. His father was Buenaventura Redondo Iglesias and his mother was Juana Ortega Pico. He studied

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

at the

University of Salamanca The University of Salamanca ( es, Universidad de Salamanca) is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the city of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It was founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX. It is th ...

and subsequently taught Spanish at the

University of Mannheim The University of Mannheim (German: ''Universität Mannheim''), abbreviated UMA, is a public research university in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1967, the university has its origins in the ''Palatine Academy of Sciences'', ...

(1927–1928), where he became acquainted with

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. (Historian

Paul Preston Sir Paul Preston CBE (born 21 July 1946) is an English historian and Hispanist, biographer of Francisco Franco, and specialist in Spanish history, in particular the Spanish Civil War, which he has studied for more than 30 years. He is the winn ...

has written that Redondo's

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

derived more from fifteenth century Castile than from Nazi models however, though he did translate

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

's ''

Mein Kampf (; ''My Struggle'' or ''My Battle'') is a 1925 autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The work describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germ ...

'' into Spanish.) He worked in

for the Castilian union of

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together wi ...

harvesters and joined the Acción Nacional during his youth. He was greatly influenced by Enrique Herrera Oria, brother of the founder of the ''Asociación Nacional Católica de Propagandistas'' and editor of ''El Debate'',

Ángel Herrera Oria Ángel Herrera Oria (19 November 1886 – 28 July 1968) was a Spanish journalist and Roman Catholic politician and later a cardinal. He established the Instituto Social León XIII (later renamed Fundación Pablo VI) to promote the social doctr ...

. Enrique Herrera believed that

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

and

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

were working to destroy religion and the Fatherland, and encouraged Redondo to read the virulent anti-Jewish tract by

Léon de Poncins Viscount Léon de Poncins (3 November 1897 – 18 December 1975) was a French aristocrat and a traditional Catholic journalist and essayist. He authored numerous books and articles advancing a Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory. Léon de Poncins' ex ...

, ''Las fuerzas secretas de la Revolucion''. image:Léon de Poncins.jpg, 150px,

, author of the virulent Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory, anti-Jewish and anti-Masonic tract, ''Las fuerzas secretas de la Revolucion''A Spanish translation of ''Les Forces secrètes de la Révolution''; which was translated into English as ''The Secret Powers Behind Revolution''— the work which introduced Redondo to ''

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' () or ''The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax was plagiarized from several ...

'' and fed his anti-Semitism When the Second Spanish Republic, Second Republic was proclaimed in 1931, and after the elections of June 1931 gave a majority to the

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

coalition, he rejected

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

and broke from Acción Nacional. On 13 June in Valladolid he brought out the anti-Republican newspaper ''Libertad'', where he wrote violently against

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

, Jews (he published an annotated translation of ''

''), and

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

Capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...

, and admired European

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

s. He founded a fascist party, Juntas Castellanas de Actuación Hispánica (the Castilian Hispanic Action Groups) in August 1931 and in November it merged with

Ramiro Ledesma Ramos Ramiro Ledesma Ramos (23 May 1905 – 29 October 1936) was a Spanish philosopher, politician, writer, essayist, and journalist, known as one of the pioneers in the introduction of Fascism in Spain. Early life Born in Alfaraz de Sayago (province ...

's ''La Conquista del Estado'' to form the Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (JONS). They refused to participate in

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

because they believed in

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

. It was anti-democratic and

imperialist Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...

and sought the "extermination of the Marxist parties". Redondo and the JHAC sought violent confrontation and recruits armed themselves for street fights with the predominantly Socialist working class of Valladolid, a city previously noted for the tranquility of its

labor relations Labor relations is a field of study that can have different meanings depending on the context in which it is used. In an international context, it is a subfield of labor history that studies the human relations with regard to work in its broadest ...

. In Redondo's rhetoric,

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...

, Jews, and the Left were all merged into one: by asserting that Marxism was a Jewish invention and implied the 're-

africanisation Africanization or Africanisation (lit., making something African) has been applied in various contexts, notably in geographic and personal naming and in the composition of the civil service via processes such as indigenization. Africanization ...

' of Spain, Redondo was identifying Spain's archetypal ''others'', the Jew and the Moor with the Right's new enemy: the Left. The war Spain needed to fight was a new '

Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...

', and ideologues such as Redondo's offered a 'murderous justification of violence against the left.' In 1932, he collaborated with the frustrated

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

General Sanjurjo A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED On ...

and had to flee to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. He returned to Valladolid in April 1933. On 24 March 1934 JONS and

merged. He was arrested on 19 March 1936, and was moved to the prison in

Ávila Ávila (, , ) is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Ávila. It lies on the right bank of the Adaja river. Located more than 1,130 m abov ...

in June. He was freed by the Nationalists after the beginning of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. He organized the Falange's

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

s in Valladolid and commanded the so-called "dawn patrols" that were responsible for the murder of hundreds of suspected liberals and leftists in Valladolid. He then left for the

Guadarrama Guadarrama is a town and municipality in the Cuenca del Guadarrama comarca, in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Its population is 13,032 (winter, according to a 2006 census); the population swells to approximately 60,000 in summer. Its name co ...

mountains, where he died in combat in Labajos, Segovia on July 24.

propaganda extolled him insistently as a

war hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''hero' ...

Legacy

His widow, Mercedes Sanz-Bachiller, founded Auxilio de Invierno (Winter Aid), after Auxilio Social (Social Aid), which was the

welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

agency of Falange, further fully integrated in the Francoist State organization. The

Workers' University of Córdoba The Workers’ University of Córdoba (''Universidad Laboral de Córdoba'') was inaugurated on 5 November 1956 under the name of Onésimo Redondo in Córdoba, Spain. Located at "km 395" of the old motorway to Madrid, its estate covered an area o ...

was established in 1956 as ''Universidad Laboral "Onésimo Redondo" de Córdoba''. Monumento de Onésimo Redondo (Valladolid)

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

to Redondo was erected on top of , at the southern end of the municipality of

. The Monument to Onésimo Redondo was

inaugurated In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inaugu ...

in 1961, and demolished in compliance with the

Historical Memory Law Law 52/2007 That recognises and broadens the rights and establishes measures in favour of those who suffered persecution or violence during the Civil War and the Dictatorship (in Spanish: ''Ley 52/2007 por la que se reconocen y amplían derechos ...

in February 2016.

Writings

* ''Protocolos de los Sabios de Sión'', Valladolid: Libertad, 1932 (translation and commentary). * ''Onésimo Redondo, caudillo de Castilla'', Valladolid: Libertad, 1937 (newspaper articles and political speeches) * ''El Estado Nacional'', Valladolid: Libertad, 1938 * ''Obras Completas: edición cronológica'' (2 vols.), Madrid: Publicaciones Españolas, 1954-1955 * ''Textos políticos''. Madrid: Doncel, 1975.

Bibliography

* * * *

References

External links