Miguel García García
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Miguel García García (1908–1981) was a
Spanish anarchist Anarchism in Spain has historically gained some support and influence, especially before Francisco Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, when it played an active political role and is considered the end of the golden age of c ...
and writer. A veteran of the resistance to
Francoism 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 ...
he was 20 years a prisoner in Spain. In the 1970s, he lived in exile in London where, through the ''
Centro Iberico Centro Iberico, London, in the early 1970s was an international anarchist support centre founded and presided over by Spanish Civil War veteran Miguel Garcia. After leaving Chalk Farm in 1976, and moving into a squatted school building in Notting ...
'' and the monthly ''Black Flag,'' he helped raise funds for his imprisoned comrades and to sustain an anarchist critique both of the Spanish dictatorship and of the Marxist left.


Resistance fighter and prisoner in Spain

In his memoirs, Garcia describes a youth in Barcelona, where, with his father, he and his sisters were supporters of 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), the anarchist trades union. When he was 11, his father weakened a result police detention and torture, succumbed to the post-war global influenza epidemic (known as the
Spanish Flu The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...
). He worked as a newsboy; briefly had to take refuge over the border in France after injuring a
Guardia Civil The Civil Guard (; ) is one of the two national law enforcement agencies of Spain. As a national gendarmerie, it is military in nature and is responsible for civil policing under the authority of both the Ministry of the Interior and the Minis ...
officer in rally for better pay; was engaged as a
typesetter Typesetting is the composition of Written language, text for publication, display, or distribution by means of arranging metal type, physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or ''glyphs'' in digital systems representing ''char ...
at the age of 13; and at age 14 entered the ranks of the CNT which, under the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, was banned. 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 ...
, with the Anarchist militia he helped hold Madrid, after the Republican government had fled, during its two and a half year siege. After the defeat of the Republic, and the triumph of the Francoist forces, he spent two and a half years in Unamuno concentration camp in Madrid where he befriended
Josep Lluís i Facerias Josep is a Catalan masculine given name equivalent to Joseph (Spanish ''José''). People named Josep include: * Josep Bargalló (born 1958), Catalan philologist and former politician * Josep Bartolí (1910-1995), Catalan painter, cartoonist an ...
and
El Quico EL, El or el may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities * El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit * Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things'' * El, fami ...
. Upon their release in 1941, they together joined the Spanish Resistance. They helped reorganise the CNT, smuggled guns and people, including many Jews, across borders, raised funds through bank robberies and, with their bases in the Pyrenees, mounted sabotage missions against both the Franco's regime on the Spanish side and the
Axis An axis (: axes) may refer to: Mathematics *A specific line (often a directed line) that plays an important role in some contexts. In particular: ** Coordinate axis of a coordinate system *** ''x''-axis, ''y''-axis, ''z''-axis, common names ...
occupiers on the French. Their resistance continued after the Axis defeat. Led by Marcelino Massana, Garcia's group operating in
Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...
, was known to the police and the press as "the Tallion Gang". Funding its operations through bank robberies, it procured arms and documents for their anarchist comrades across both Spain and Portugal. García was captured in 1949 and sentenced to death but international pressure led his sentence to be
reduced Reduction, reduced, or reduce may refer to: Science and technology Chemistry * Reduction (chemistry), part of a reduction-oxidation (redox) reaction in which atoms have their oxidation state changed. ** Organic redox reaction, a redox reacti ...
to 20 years in prison. After his release in 1969 García was to write about his incarceration in ''Franco's Prisoner'' (1972).


Exile in London

In Madrid’s Carabanchel Prison, Garcia had met
Stuart Christie Stuart Christie (10 July 1946 – 15 August 2020) was a Scottish anarchist writer and publisher. Aged 18, Christie was arrested while carrying explosives to assassinate the Spanish caudillo General Francisco Franco. He was later alleged to be ...
a Scottish anarchist who was serving time for his part in a plot to assassinate Franco. In 1967, following a personal pardon from Franco, Christie returned to London and to the work of the
Anarchist Black Cross The Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), formerly the Anarchist Red Cross, is an anarchist support organization. The group is notable for its efforts at providing prisoners with political literature, but it also organizes material and legal support for c ...
'','' an anarchist prisoners’ aid organisation which took up the case of Garcia. Garcia joined Melzer in the organisation when, in the parish hall of Holy Trinity, Kingsway, in 1971 he started the Centro Ibérico as a meeting place for anarchist exiles and their sympathisers. In June 1973, the Centro Ibérico moved to a large basement, at 83a Haverstock Hill, near Chalk Farm, Camden. Here he was able to accommodate the printing press on which the newsheet '' Black Flag'' newspaper and other anarchist material was produced. Among those prisoners for whom Garcia, the Black Cross and ''Black Flag'' campaigned was a young Catalan
anarcho-syndicalist Anarcho-syndicalism is an anarchist organisational model that centres trade unions as a vehicle for class conflict. Drawing from the theory of libertarian socialism and the practice of syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism sees trade unions as both ...
,
Salvador Puig Antich Salvador Puig Antich (; 30 May 1948 – 2 March 1974) was a Spanish militant anarchist from Catalonia. His execution for involvement in a bank robbery and shooting a police officer dead became a '' cause célèbre'' in Francoist Spain for Cata ...
. He had been in the circle of activists around Miguel Garcia in Centro's the early days, but had returned to Spain in September 1973. There, after a series of robberies to fund the
Iberian Liberation Movement The ''Movimiento Ibérico de Liberación'' (MIL, sometimes known as 1000) was a Catalan left-wing political and urban guerrilla organisationPolitical Terrorism - A new guide to actors, authors, concepts, data bases, theories & literature by Alex ...
(''Movimiento Ibérico de Liberación'', or MIL), he was charged with killing a policeman in a shootout. Despite the international outcry, Puig Antich was executed in March 1974. Garcia's visitors to the Centro Iberico included the
ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...
leader Pedro Iñaki Pérez Beotegui (alias Wilson), who was involved in planning the December 1973 assassination of Franco’s prime minister Admiral-General
Luis Carrero Blanco Admiral-General Luis Carrero Blanco (; 4 March 1904 – 20 December 1973) was a Spanish Navy officer and politician. A long-time confidant and right-hand man of dictator Francisco Franco, Carrero served as Prime Minister of Spain. Upon gr ...
. On weekends, there was a regular cabaret nights, compeered by anarchist artist and performer John Olday.


Last years

At the end of the 1970s, following the death of Franco, and restoration parliamentary democracy in Spain, Garcia returned to his native Barcelona where he opened his own bar, La Fragua, a former forge in Barcelona’s Raval District. Like the Centro Ibérico, it was a meeting place for anarchists and libertarians from both Spain and abroad. García died of
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
in 1981.


References


Selected works

* ''Franco's Prisoner'' ** ''Prisionero de Franco. Los anarquistas en la lucha contra la dictadura. Traducción y notas José Ignacio Alvarez Fernández'' * ''Looking Back After Twenty Years of Jail: Questions and Answers on the Spanish Anarchist Resistance'' * ''Unknown heroes: biographies of Anarchist resistance fighters''


Further reading

* Christie, Stuart ''Granny Made Me An Anarchist'' *


External links


Miguel Garcia articles
at the Kate Sharpley Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia Garcia, Miguel 1908 births 1981 deaths Writers from Barcelona Confederación Nacional del Trabajo members 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in England Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in the United Kingdom Spanish expatriates in England 20th-century Spanish male writers