Lucía Sánchez Saornil (13 December 1895 – 2 June 1970), was a
Spanish poet and
anarcha-feminist activist, best known for co-founding the
Mujeres Libres organisation together with
Mercedes Comaposada and
Amparo Poch y Gascón. Born into a working-class Madrilenian family, she taught herself from an early age and began writing poems for the burgeoning
Futurist
Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futures studies or futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities ...
and
Ultraist movements.
After the proclamation of the
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII. ...
in 1931, she joined the
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The (CNT; ) is a Spanish anarcho-syndicalist national trade union center, trade union confederation.
Founded in 1910 in Barcelona from groups brought together by the trade union ''Solidaridad Obrera (historical union), Solidaridad Obrera'', ...
(CNT) and became involved in the
Spanish anarchist movement. She quickly became discouraged by the
sexist
Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...
attitude of men within the movement, deciding it necessary to form specific women's libertarian groups in order to organise for
women's empowerment
Women's empowerment (or female empowerment) may be defined in several method, including accepting women's viewpoints, making an effort to seek them and raising the status of women through education, awareness, literacy, equal status in society, ...
. She developed a program for such an organisation and, together with Comaposada and Poch y Gascón, established the Mujeres Libres, a nationwide organisation of anarchist feminists.
During the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
, she continued her work with the Mujeres Libres and also served as secretary of
Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista (SIA), making frequent trips to the frontline and campaigning for international support for the
Republicans. After the
fall of Catalonia, she briefly fled into exile, before clandestinely returning to
Francoist Spain
Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...
and living out the rest of her life in hiding in
Valencia
Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...
.
Biography
Lucía Sánchez Saornil was born in
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
, into a poor working-class family. She was
self-taught
Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning, self-study and self-teaching) is the practice of education without the guidance of schoolmasters (i.e., teachers, professors, institutions).
Overview
Autodi ...
and from a young age developed her talents as a
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
, writing for journals of the
Futurist movement. In 1916, she started work as a
switchboard operator
In the early days of telephony, companies used manual telephone switchboards, and switchboard operators connected calls by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks. They were gradually phased out and replaced by automated syste ...
, at a time when women were beginning to become the sector's main work force.
Early activism
Following the proclamation of the
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII. ...
in 1931, Sánchez Saornil participated in a against
Telefónica
, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company with registered office and headquarters located in two different places, both in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the ...
, which first brought her into the
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The (CNT; ) is a Spanish anarcho-syndicalist national trade union center, trade union confederation.
Founded in 1910 in Barcelona from groups brought together by the trade union ''Solidaridad Obrera (historical union), Solidaridad Obrera'', ...
(CNT). She quickly came to consider that
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...
, theoretically achieved by the new republic, were still largely inaccessible to women, and started to advocate for
women's empowerment
Women's empowerment (or female empowerment) may be defined in several method, including accepting women's viewpoints, making an effort to seek them and raising the status of women through education, awareness, literacy, equal status in society, ...
through
education
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
. As an activist within the libertarian women's movement of
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, Sánchez Saornil floated the idea of establishing a women's education organization to a number of trade unions, but she was rebuffed by each of them and decided to return to Madrid.
There she met
Mercedes Comaposada, a law student at the
University of Madrid. In 1933, the pair attended a meeting of the CNT. They had been invited there to act as "women teachers", but instead found themselves being silenced by their male comrades, who still viewed women negatively. Frustrated by the experience, they left the meeting early and began to discuss alternatives at the
Retiro Park. At the time, Sánchez Saornil was working for a railway union and procured a list of anarcho-syndicalist women's groups. They wrote to these groups, inviting them to discuss their experiences and issues they were having, and ended up receiving responses from throughout Spain. By 1935, the ensuing exchange of letters between these groups had set the groundwork for a national network of libertarian women's organisations.
As the activity of these anarchist women's groups increased, Sánchez Saornil also began to contribute a number of articles about women's issues in the pages of the FAI's magazine ''
Tierra y Libertad'' and the CNT's newspaper ''
Solidaridad Obrera''. In the latter, the CNT's general secretary
Mariano R. Vázquez published two articles regarding
women in the CNT. While he expressed his sympathies with women's struggles, he ended up insisting that women's liberation ought to be put aside until workers had won the
class conflict
In political science, the term class conflict, class struggle, or class war refers to the economic antagonism and political tension that exist among social classes because of clashing interests, competition for limited resources, and inequali ...
. Sánchez Saornil responded with her own series of five articles titled "''La cuestión femenina''", which lay the groundwork for the establishment of a libertarian women's organization. She called for the creation of a
women's liberation
The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminism, feminist intellectualism. It emerged in the late 1960s and continued till the 1980s, primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which resu ...
organisation ran by and for women. Her program suggested classes to raise women's literacy and education, apprenticeships in different sectors of industry, and groups for developing
women's empowerment
Women's empowerment (or female empowerment) may be defined in several method, including accepting women's viewpoints, making an effort to seek them and raising the status of women through education, awareness, literacy, equal status in society, ...
through
consciousness raising
Consciousness raising (also called awareness raising) is a form of activism popularized by United States feminists in the late 1960s. It often takes the form of a group of people attempting to focus the attention of a wider group on some cause or ...
.
These discussions set the groundwork for the establishment of the
Mujeres Libres organisation, which Sánchez Saornil and Comaposada co-founded with the anarchist physician
Amparo Poch y Gascón. This new
anarchist feminist organisation set itself the goal of achieving
women's liberation
The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminism, feminist intellectualism. It emerged in the late 1960s and continued till the 1980s, primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which resu ...
from their "triple enslavement" by
ignorance
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge or understanding. Deliberate ignorance is a culturally-induced phenomenon, the study of which is called agnotology.
The word "ignorant" is an adjective that describes a person in the state of being unaware, or ...
,
sexism
Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...
and
exploitation.
Within the organisation and as a writer for its homonymous magazine, Sánchez Saornil developed a reputation as a firebrand, a keen organiser and a powerful orator, reminding many libertarian women of the Parisian anarchist heroine
Louise Michel
Louise Michel (; 29 May 1830 – 9 January 1905) was a teacher and prominent figure during the Paris Commune. Following her penal transportation to New Caledonia she began to embrace anarchism, and upon her return to France she emerged as an im ...
. Sánchez Saornil wrote a number of articles for the Mujeres Libres journal, including an article on
Castilian agricultural workers, intended to educate its readership in the big cities on rural life.
Civil War
Following the outbreak of the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
, Sánchez Saornil joined in the
defense of Madrid, working as a front line journalist and propagandist for the anarchists. She began to utilise her poetry as a form of
agitprop
Agitprop (; from , portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in the Soviet Union where it referred to popular media, such as literatu ...
, writing a series of poems that played an important role in
Republican cultural production. Her writing attracted the attention of the anarchist
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born Anarchism, anarchist revolutionary, political activist, and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europ ...
, who corresponded frequently with Sánchez Saornil, inspiring her to coordinate an international campaign to support the Spanish revolution.
Sánchez Saornil moved to the Republican capital of
Valencia
Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...
, where she became an editor in the anarchist press. As the Republicans faced a worsening subsistence crisis, exacerbated by refugees from the
Nationalist zone and an
embargo
Economic sanctions or embargoes are commercial and financial penalties applied by states or institutions against states, groups, or individuals. Economic sanctions are a form of coercion that attempts to get an actor to change its behavior throu ...
by Britain and France, she publicised the situation and fundraised for the republican cause. She became the general secretary of
Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista (SIA) and made regular supply trips to the front-line, along with other Mujeres Libres and
women of the CNT. Part of the goal in the Mujeres Libres visiting the front was for them to educate the militiamen and to create a "conscientious and responsible female force". Sánchez Saornil herself said:
Sánchez Saornil and Comaposada also requested the recognition of the Mujeres Libres by the government of
Francisco Largo Caballero
Francisco Largo Caballero (15 October 1869 – 23 March 1946) was a Spanish politician and trade unionist who served as the prime minister of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. He was one of the historic leaders of the ...
. But the government refused, stating that as the Mujeres Libres was not a formal organisation with committees and officials, they couldn't recognise it. In response, in August 1937, the Mujeres Libres held its first national conference and reorganised itself into a national federation, based on the model of the CNT. But even after reorganising, the Mujeres Libres still lacked broader support from the anarchist movement. In December 1938, the Casal de la Dona Treballadora was evicted by police and repossessed by the
Ministry of the Interior
An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement.
In some states, the ...
, who turned it over to the
Bank of Spain
The Bank of Spain (, ) is the national central bank for Spain within the Eurosystem. It was the Spanish central bank from 1874 to 1998, issuing the peseta. Since 2014, it has also been Spain's national competent authority within European Banki ...
. Although the
Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) responded to their requests for assistance, the CNT showed the Mujeres Libres little support. In a letter to the CNT's national committee, Sánchez Saornil wrote:
Sánchez Saornil also dismissed calls by the Communist-led to unite under their banner, as she believed the organisation was more than capable of continuing its
direct action
Direct action is a term for economic and political behavior in which participants use agency—for example economic or physical power—to achieve their goals. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct a certain practice (such as a governm ...
and
consciousness raising
Consciousness raising (also called awareness raising) is a form of activism popularized by United States feminists in the late 1960s. It often takes the form of a group of people attempting to focus the attention of a wider group on some cause or ...
without requiring standardisation within a state structure. She upheld the principle of
unity in diversity
Unity in diversity is used as an expression of harmony and unity between dissimilar individuals or groups. It is a concept of "unity without uniformity and diversity without fragmentation" that shifts focus from unity based on a mere tolerance ...
, as she believed each women's organisation should maintain its own individual character, while each working towards women's emancipation. She declared:
Later life
In February 1939,
Catalonia fell to the
Nationalists
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, Id ...
, forcing Sánchez Saornil to flee into exile in
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, where she was briefly held in the
Argelers concentration camp. After her release, she engaged in support work for Spanish republican refugees, which made her a target following the
fall of France
The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Net ...
to
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
.
She was arrested but managed to escape before she could be taken to a
Nazi concentration camp
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe.
The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...
. At the height of the
Francoist repression, she decided to return clandestinely to
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
. She lived there precariously but ultimately stayed under the radar, as she hadn't been publicly photographed during the civil war and most of her publications had been made anonymously. She was sheltered by a friend, who she had herself sheltered during the war, in
Valencia
Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...
, where she earned a living through
contingent work
Contingent work, casual work, gig work or contract work, is an employment relationship with limited job security, payment on a piece work basis, typically part-time (typically with variable hours) that is considered non-permanent.
According to ...
. She accepted the defeat of the republic, but kept her own utopian hope alive through her writing.
Sánchez Saornil spent much of the rest of her life caring for her sister Conchita, who had a
chronic condition
A chronic condition (also known as chronic disease or chronic illness) is a health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects or a disease that comes with time. The term ''chronic'' is often applied when the ...
, and lived for 30 years with her partner América Barroso. Months after the death of her sister, on 2 June 1970, Lucía Sánchez Saornil died. Barroso inscribed a line from one of her poems on her gravestone: "But can it be true that hope has died?"
Writing
Sánchez Saornil wrote under the male
pen name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
Luciano de San Saor. She wrote essays like "The Question of Feminism" and "The Women Question in our Media," followed by "A Summary on the Woman Question: For Compañero Vázquez," wherein she first developed her rationale for co-creating ''Mujeres Libres'', both the journal and the organization. One of her more scathing essays, "The Marriage Ceremony or Spiritual Cowardice," delineates her critiques of marriage as a contract of sale.
See also
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Anarcha-feminism
Anarcha-feminism, also known as anarchist feminism or anarcho-feminism, is a system of analysis which combines the principles and power analysis of anarchist theory with feminism. It closely resembles intersectional feminism. Anarcha-feminism ge ...
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Anarchism in Spain
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez Saornil, Lucia
1895 births
1970 deaths
20th-century anarchists
20th-century Spanish poets
20th-century Spanish women writers
Anarcha-feminists
Anarchist writers
Anarcho-syndicalists
Lesbian poets
Lesbian trade unionists
LGBTQ anarchism
LGBTQ history in Spain
Libertarian socialists
Mujeres Libres
People from Madrid
Spanish anarchists
Spanish anti-fascists
Spanish feminist writers
Spanish LGBTQ rights activists
Spanish LGBTQ poets
Spanish lesbian writers
Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)
Spanish women poets
Spanish women of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)