Abstract

Research Article

The Revolution was [only?] A Man’s Thing: Asturian Women in October 1934

Carmen García*

Published: 15 September, 2025 | Volume 9 - Issue 1 | Pages: 010-021

The aim of this paper is to analyze the role of women in Asturias in October 1934, which has hardly any specific studies. Especially women from the mining working class and politicized young women actively participated in support of men; of course, almost always in functions “appropriate to their sex” (nurses, provisioners of the support of the combatants and caregivers of the children). They were victims of repression by Moors and legionnaires and some fell in combat.

Read Full Article HTML DOI: 10.29328/journal.apmh.1001058 Cite this Article Read Full Article PDF

Keywords:

Mobilization of working women; Girl activists; Women in mourning; Sexual repression; Aida de la Fuente

References

  1. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar; 1979;58. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
  2. Taibo II PI. Asturias. Octubre 1934. Barcelona: Crítica; 2013. Available from: https://www.planetadelibros.com.pe/libro-asturias-octubre-1934/185191
  3. Archivo de Fuentes Orales para la Historia Social de Asturias (AFOHSA). Oral testimony; series and signature as cited. Oviedo: AFOHSA; 2024;14-15.
  4. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar. 1979;36. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
  5. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar; 1979;29. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
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  7. Benavides MD. La revolución fue así: (octubre rojo y negro): reportaje. Barcelona: Imprenta Industrial; 1935;248. Available from: https://search.worldcat.org/es/title/revolucion-fue-asi-octubre-rojo-y-negro-reportaje/oclc/954633734
  8. Benavides MD. La revolución fue así: (octubre rojo y negro): reportaje. Barcelona: Imprenta Industrial; 1935;263. Available from: https://search.worldcat.org/es/title/revolucion-fue-asi-octubre-rojo-y-negro-reportaje/oclc/954633734
  9. Llano Roza de Ampudia A del. Pequeños anales de quince días: la revolución en Asturias (octubre 1934). Oviedo: IDEA (Instituto de Estudios Asturianos); 1977;17. Available from: https://bibliotecavirtual.asturias.es/i18n/catalogo_imagenes/grupo.cmd?path=4006324&posicion=1&presentacion=pagina&registrardownload=0
  10. Original note retained: Arturo Vázquez added that adulation if there was any, "in those who promised us gold and the Moor to earn indemnity ... and then they dedicated themselves to informing us." VÁZQUEZ, Arturo, Los hombres de octubre , cit. in RODRÍGUEZ MUÑOZ, Javier, La revolución de octubre de 1934... Opus cit. , p. 323
  11. Original note retained: LÓPEZ OCHOA Y PORTUONDO, Eduardo, Campaña militar de Asturias en octubre de 1934 (Narración táctico-episodica) (Madrid, 1936, Ediciones Yunque, p. 23), and in similar terms he expresses himself in his Memoirs: General Eduardo López de Ochoa y Portuondo. Memoirs of a soldier. Family Memory of Purificación Celeiro and Libertad López de Ochoa (Barcelona, 2007, ed. BELACQUA, p. 309)
  12. Original note retained: Vid. Extensive Report by the communist Valdés, member of the PCE in the third revolutionary committee, representing the peasants (151 pages, typed text, n.d., Valdés being a refugee in the USSR, in the Historical Archive of the PCE; Memoirs and Testimonies Section-3, Sig. 79/33) The chapter is entitled: OUR ESPIONAGE SERVICE, pp. 113-114 (capital letters and emphasis in the original)
  13. Original note retained: Valdés concluded the detailed description of the young woman: "our beautiful comrade" was saved by "her beauty", vid. Report cited in previous note, p. 115. There are no more comments.
  14. Original note retained: LLANO ROZA, Opus cit. (verbatim quotes on p. 49). Similar situations are described in all the combat scenarios around the capital.
  15. Original note retained: CAMÍN, Alfonso, El valle negro. Asturias-1934 (Mexico, 1938, Edit. "Norte", p. 252)
  16. Original note retained: See RODRÍGUEZ MUÑOZ, The October Revolution... Opus cit. p. 294 and pp. 296- 297
  17. Original note retained: LLANO ROZA, Opus. Cit ., p. 170
  18. Original note retained: Grapevine. Report to the Regional Plenum of Asturias, León and Palencia on the revolutionary events in Gijón (n.d.), collected in SÁNCHEZ G. SAÚCO, The revolution of 1934... Opus cit. , (Appendix no. 1, pp. 161-177, verbatim quotation on p. 173)
  19. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar; 1979;108. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
  20. Original note retained: Grapevine. The Men of October , cit. in RODRÍGUEZ MUÑOZ, The October Revolution... Opus cit. p. 370. In the Report to the Regional Plenum of Trade Unions , cited in a previous note, the CNT, in its assessment of what happened in El Musel, stresses, on the contrary, that the forces of order "even though they did not cause casualties, they managed to take prisoner thirty-six men and twenty-five women", Report to the Regional Plenum of Trade Unions, ... see in SÁNCHEZ G. SAÚCO, The Revolution of 1934... Opus cit. , p. 171
  21. Benavides MD. La revolución fue así: (octubre rojo y negro): reportaje. Barcelona: Imprenta Industrial; 1935;112. Available from: https://search.worldcat.org/es/title/revolucion-fue-asi-octubre-rojo-y-negro-reportaje/oclc/954633734
  22. Original note retained: SALCINES CAMPOLLO, David, The revolutionary experience of 34 Avilés (Master's Thesis, University of Oviedo, 2019, p. 47, p. 54 and 60)
  23. Original note retained: LLANO ROZA, Opus cit., p. 138
  24. Original note retained: Grapevine. Report of the communist Valdés, already cited. Textual quotations on pp.100 and 101
  25. Original note retained: LLANO ROZA, Opus cit. (from the author's prologue dated in Oviedo, August 15, 1935, p. XI)
  26. Díaz Fernández J. Octubre rojo en Asturias. Madrid: Marsiega; 1935;39. Available from: https://rodriguezacevedo.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/jose-diaz-fernandez-octubre-rojo-en-asturias.pdf
  27. Vega C. Copia de informe remitido al Comité Central del PCE relativo a los sucesos revolucionarios de octubre de 1934. 1934 Nov 21. Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica (PARES);268. Available from: https://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/find?archivo=1&idAut=101985&nomAut=Revoluci%C3%B3n+de+Asturias%2C+1934&tipoAsocAut=1
  28. Original note retained: SOLANO PALACIO recognized the positive help of the 'sisters', for example, in Mieres: "The nuns volunteered to attend the service of this soup kitchen, pleased to be useful as they said, and the respect they were the object of by the revolutionaries," vid. The October Revolution... Opus cit. p. 54.
  29. Benavides MD. La revolución fue así: (octubre rojo y negro): reportaje. Barcelona: Imprenta Industrial; 1935;262. Available from: https://search.worldcat.org/es/title/revolucion-fue-asi-octubre-rojo-y-negro-reportaje/oclc/954633734
  30. Original note retained: Vid. DÍAZ NOTY, La comuna... Opus cit., p. 266; LLANO ROZA, Pequeños anales... Opus cit., pp. 19-20, p. 29, p. 39, and on p. 40 he notes that in view of the obligation to house nuns and students in the Casona on San José Street, making room for them in their rooms, "The women who were in those neighborhoods insulted them gravely", p. 53, p. 63, p. 73; CAMÍN, Alfonso, El valle negro... Opus cit. , pp. 186-187
  31. Díaz Fernández J. Octubre rojo en Asturias. Madrid: Marsiega; 1935;65-66. Available from: https://rodriguezacevedo.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/jose-diaz-fernandez-octubre-rojo-en-asturias.pdf
  32. Díaz Fernández J. Octubre rojo en Asturias. Madrid: Marsiega; 1935;59. Available from: https://rodriguezacevedo.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/jose-diaz-fernandez-octubre-rojo-en-asturias.pdf
  33. Original note retained: SOLANO PALACIO, The October Revolution. Fifteen Days of Libertarian Communism (Granada, 1994, Anselmo Lorenzo Foundation for Libertarian Studies, p. 81, italics in original)
  34. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar; 1979;47. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
  35. Original note retained: CAMÍN, El valle negro... Opus cit., pp. 420-421; previous textual quotation on p. 173
  36. Taibo II PI. Asturias. Octubre 1934. Barcelona: Crítica; 2013;94. Available from: https://www.planetadelibros.com.pe/libro-asturias-octubre-1934/185191
  37. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar; 1979;177. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
  38. Original note retained: VALDÉS, Report already cited, p. 28. (emphasis in original) He then refers to the bloody repression that hung over women, directing against them, "his sadism and his savage instinct, immolating girls, puberty, young, middle and old, after committing all kinds of barbarity with them." Ibid.
  39. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar; 1979;101. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
  40. Original note retained: Vid. RODRÍGUEZ CAMPESINO, Aida, "From warrior to victim. Aida de la Fuente: History of a revolutionary myth", in VV.AA., Authority, power and influence: women who make history. (Vol. 2, Barcelona, 2018, Icaria Editorial, pp. 343-357, quotes on p. 246) Aida's eulogy, dated January 11, 1936, was entitled: "Our heroes: Aida de la Fuente died at the foot of the machine gun" I thank my friend and colleague, Francisco Erice, for providing me with this article
  41. Díaz Fernández J. Octubre rojo en Asturias. Madrid: Marsiega; 1935;85. Available from: https://rodriguezacevedo.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/jose-diaz-fernandez-octubre-rojo-en-asturias.pdf
  42. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar; 1979;187. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
  43. Original note retained: Vid. VALDÉS, Report already cited (p. 30 and handwritten text on p. 37)
  44. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar; 1979;140-141. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
  45. Díaz Fernández J. Octubre rojo en Asturias. Madrid: Marsiega; 1935;29. Available from: https://rodriguezacevedo.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/jose-diaz-fernandez-octubre-rojo-en-asturias.pdf
  46. Original note retained: SOLANO PALACIO, The October Revolution... Opus cit., p. 185
  47. Vega C. Copia de informe remitido al Comité Central del PCE relativo a los sucesos revolucionarios de octubre de 1934. 1934 Nov 21. Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica (PARES);188. Available from: https://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/find?archivo=1&idAut=101985&nomAut=Revoluci%C3%B3n+de+Asturias%2C+1934&tipoAsocAut=1
  48. Original note retained: Vid. CAMÍN, El valle negro... Opus cit., p. 411
  49. Original note retained: LÓPEZ OCHOA, Military Campaign... Opus cit., p. 90.
  50. Original note retained: López Ochoa expresses himself about this massive presence of relatives in the Pelayo barracks, with critical tones, who considers that they hinder the movements "gravitating with the cries and lamentations of women and children on the spirit of the besieged", see LÓPEZ OCHOA, Campaña militar... Opus cit., p. 100
  51. Original note retained: LLANO ROZA, Pequeños anales de quince días... Opus cit., pp. 37, 58, 78 and 108. The same female terrors occurred in Trubia or Gijón, and of course on the southern front, vid. p. 22, 126, 188 and 195 in which he collects an interview with a neighbor of Vega del Rey, Leonarda González.
  52. Original note retained: See numerous examples in the work of CAMÍN, El valle negro... Opus cit. , especially on pp. 139 and 182
  53. Benavides MD. La revolución fue así: (octubre rojo y negro): reportaje. Barcelona: Imprenta Industrial; 1935;180. Available from: https://search.worldcat.org/es/title/revolucion-fue-asi-octubre-rojo-y-negro-reportaje/oclc/954633734
  54. Original note retained: LLANO ROZA, Pequeños anales de quince días... Opus cit., p. 51 and previous citation on p. 41; references to Campomanes' teacher in CAMÍN, El valle negro... Opus cit., p. 61
  55. Original note retained: SOLANO PALACIO, The October Revolution... Opus cit., p. 92, cit., on the barracks of La Vega on p. 119, ref. to the wife of the wounded guard on p. 48. Other assertions of this author are of doubtful verification; for example, when he alludes to the uprising of civil guards against his lieutenant alleging that "women and children came before duty" (p. 90)
  56. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar; 1979;90. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
  57. Original note retained: LLANO ROZA, Pequeños anales de quince días... Opus cit., p. 157. This is the most even-handed account of all those that describe the facts.
  58. Gil Vico P. Verdugos de Asturias: la violencia y sus relatos en la revolución de Asturias de 1934. Gijón: Trea; 2019;213. Available from: https://trea.es/producto/verdugos-de-asturias-la-violencia-y-sus-relatos-en-la-revolucion-de-asturias-de-1934/
  59. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar; 1979;211-215,. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
  60. Original note retained: CAMÍN, El valle negro... Opus cit., pp. 354-355
  61. Original note retained: LLANO ROZA, Pequeños anales de quince días... Opus cit., p. 139. Francisco Aguado Sánchez, in his work The Revolution of October 1934, attributes a good part of the success of the defense of the Grado barracks to the fact that they were "well commanded" by Lieutenant Juan Domínguez, and to the "very high morale of Doña María García, wife of one of the guards who did not cease fire throughout the night". cit. in RODRÍGUEZ MUÑOZ, La revolución... Opus cit., p. 283
  62. Original note retained: RODRÍGUEZ MUÑOZ, La revolución... Opus cit., pp. 282-283
  63. Original note retained: LLANO ROZA, Opus. Cit ., p. 47
  64. Original note retained: Vid. Archive of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen: Books Register of burials; Historical Archive of Asturias, Section: Civil Government , Boxes: 25378 and 25379. The first request is dated September 6, 1959, signed in Madrid by Remedios Carretero, widow of the lieutenant of the Civil Guard, Fernando Halcón
  65. Gil Vico P. Verdugos de Asturias: la violencia y sus relatos en la revolución de Asturias de 1934. Gijón: Trea; 2019;338, 342, 344. Available from: https://trea.es/producto/verdugos-de-asturias-la-violencia-y-sus-relatos-en-la-revolucion-de-asturias-de-1934/
  66. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar; 1979;102. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
  67. Gil Vico P. Verdugos de Asturias: la violencia y sus relatos en la revolución de Asturias de 1934. Gijón: Trea; 2019. Available from: https://trea.es/producto/verdugos-de-asturias-la-violencia-y-sus-relatos-en-la-revolucion-de-asturias-de-1934/
  68. Gil Vico P. Verdugos de Asturias: la violencia y sus relatos en la revolución de Asturias de 1934. Gijón: Trea; 2019;151-152. Available from: https://trea.es/producto/verdugos-de-asturias-la-violencia-y-sus-relatos-en-la-revolucion-de-asturias-de-1934/
  69. Original note retained: CAMÍN, El valle negro... Opus cit., p. 264
  70. Original note retained: SOLANO PALACIO, The October Revolution ... Opus cit., p. 181, 185. He also told of the case of a girl who, for calling them "criminals", had been "insulted profanely", beaten "taking her into custody with us" Ibidem. p. 188
  71. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar; 1979;99. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
  72. Original note retained: See RODRÍGUEZ CAMPESINO, "From warrior to victim..." Art. cit. in VV.AA., Authority, Power and Influence... Opus cit., p. 248. Also BUNK, Brian D., "'The Bride of Spain': Aida Lafuente, youth and gender in the memory of the revolution of 1934", in BERAMENDI, Justo and BAZ, Mª Xesús (Coords.), Memory and identities (VII Congreso da Asociación de Historia Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela-Ourense, 21-24 September 2004, University of Santiago de Compostela, Servizo de Publicaciones e Intercambio Científica, 2004, CD-ROM, passim. ) I have to thank Francisco Erice again for providing me with this text
  73. Gil Vico P. Verdugos de Asturias: la violencia y sus relatos en la revolución de Asturias de 1934. Gijón: Trea; 2019;379-431,. Available from: https://trea.es/producto/verdugos-de-asturias-la-violencia-y-sus-relatos-en-la-revolucion-de-asturias-de-1934/
  74. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar; 1979;149. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
  75. Gil Vico P. Verdugos de Asturias: la violencia y sus relatos en la revolución de Asturias de 1934. Gijón: Trea; 2019;151. Available from: https://trea.es/producto/verdugos-de-asturias-la-violencia-y-sus-relatos-en-la-revolucion-de-asturias-de-1934/
  76. Original note retained: CAMÍN, El valle negro... Opus cit. , p. 324. The mayor cannot believe such cruelty, vid. pp. 324-327
  77. Original note retained: LÓPEZ OCHOA, Military Campaign of Asturias... Opus cit., p. 132, previous references at p. 131. Regarding the "Red Ladies," Colonel Yagüe maintained that more than half of the health personnel, "about fifteen or twenty, were pretend doctors and nurses. Among the nurses there were eight or ten lay nurses", ref. taken from RODRÍGUEZ MUÑOZ, The October Revolution... Opus cit., p. 587 (italics in original)
  78. Gil Vico P. Verdugos de Asturias: la violencia y sus relatos en la revolución de Asturias de 1934. Gijón: Trea; 2019;140,. Available from: https://trea.es/producto/verdugos-de-asturias-la-violencia-y-sus-relatos-en-la-revolucion-de-asturias-de-1934/
  79. Gil Vico P. Verdugos de Asturias: la violencia y sus relatos en la revolución de Asturias de 1934. Gijón: Trea; 2019;201. Available from: https://trea.es/producto/verdugos-de-asturias-la-violencia-y-sus-relatos-en-la-revolucion-de-asturias-de-1934/
  80. Gil Vico P. Verdugos de Asturias: la violencia y sus relatos en la revolución de Asturias de 1934. Gijón: Trea; 2019;159,. Available from: https://trea.es/producto/verdugos-de-asturias-la-violencia-y-sus-relatos-en-la-revolucion-de-asturias-de-1934/
  81. Grossi Mier M. La insurrección de Asturias. Madrid: Ediciones Júcar; 1979;208-209. Available from: https://elsudamericano.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/244-la-insurreccion-de-asturias-manuel-grossi-mier.pdf
  82. Original note retained: Vid. Historical Archive of Asturias, Section: Prisoner Files . Box: 135935/8, De la Fuente Penaos, María, Oviedo Provincial Prison (15/10/1934-10/01/1941)
  83. Original note retained: IBÁRRURI, Dolores, El único camino ref. taken from RODRÍGUEZ MUÑOZ, La revolución de octubre... Opus cit., p. 752
  84. Original note retained: Vid. LLANO ROZA, Pequeños anales de quince días... Opus cit., p. 173. The court-martial was held on May 10, 1935, and the two male defendants were sentenced to "life imprisonment"
  85. Original note retained: CAMIN, The Black Valley... Opus cit. p.482-483
  86. Original note retained: See AHA, Section: Prisoner Files... cit. in footnote 82. In June 1935 the examining magistrate requested a "report of conduct" from María, "in order to initiate the corresponding pardon", but, on June 27, she was transferred to "the Women's Prison of Madrid", and in September she was still imprisoned. Ibid.
  87. Gil Vico P. Verdugos de Asturias: la violencia y sus relatos en la revolución de Asturias de 1934. Gijón: Trea; 2019;159. Available from: https://trea.es/producto/verdugos-de-asturias-la-violencia-y-sus-relatos-en-la-revolucion-de-asturias-de-1934/
  88. Original note retained: See AMBOU, The Communists in the Resistance... Opus cit., pp. 211-212. Juan Ambou managed to flee to the Soviet Union.
  89. Original note retained: Vid. GARCÍA, Carmen (dir.) Database of the victims of the Civil War and Francoist repression in Asturias. University of Oviedo, 2025. About Estefanía Cueto Puertas
  90. Original note retained: Historical Archive of Asturias, Fonds: Provincial Council, Purification Files , Boxes : 224153, 224323, 225079, 225080, 224342, 224322, 224544, 224313, 224405. Some files are prolonged in time and continue with those already urged by the rebels in the war and in the post-war period
  91. Original note retained: Vid. AHA, Fonds: Diputación, File of the practitioner, Elisa Llanos, dated in Oviedo, November 19, 1934
  92. Original note retained: AHA, Fonds: Provincial Council, Purging files, vid. previous note
  93. Original note retained: LÓPEZ OCHOA, Military Campaign of Asturias... Opus cit. , p. 138; other similar references on p. 35
  94. Original note retained: Vid. Text in ERICE SEBARES, Francisco (Coord.) The Communists in Asturias 1920-1982 (Gijón, 1996, Ediciones Trea, Documentary Appendix, doc. nº. 11: Report of comrade Juan González to the Central Committee of the Union of Communist Youth of Spain on the revolutionary events of October 1934 in Asturias, dated December 1934;517-522 .
  95. Original note retained: See VALDÉS, Report cit., AHPCE. 114 (emphasis added)

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