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

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.

The heroism of women

Whatever is said about the valuable help that women give us, it is little. They have come to offer themselves so bravely and in such large numbers. That it is impossible to give work to all of them. They treat the wounded on the same front or help the doctors in the operations they are forced to perform; they supply the fronts with food or ammunition; they encourage the combatants with their presence and enthusiasm and finally place themselves on a level with the most heroic fighters. Their courageous behavior comforts our spirits and gives us new energy to continue the action. The heroism and selflessness of Asturian women will be forever engraved in the consciences of those who participate in this heroic deed [1].

This brief study of the role played by broad sectors of women in the workers’ insurrection of 1934 does not address, in any way, the origin, development, vicissitudes, consequences, and interpretations of the 1934 revolution in Asturias. Although there are still aspects that have not been sufficiently researched, the historical bibliography of a general nature is abundant, and I refer the interested reader to it [2].

Women and girls related to the revolutionary cause

A considerable sector of working-class women encouraged and collaborated with the insurgents, miners for the most part from the Caudal and Nalón basins. Some young girls were committed from the first moment, even offering to transport weapons or to load dynamite into train cars. This is how Adelina Antuña tells her experience of helping her brothers in the task of moving dynamite in order to blow up the Civil Guard barracks, an objective, by the way, that did not have to be resorted to because the guards evicted it [3].

In Mieres, the nerve center of the insurrection, a euphoric Manuel Grossi forcefully affirms, “Women decide, in the midst of the greatest enthusiasm, to join the struggle,” and on the 7^th they were already members of the “Red Army,” of whose existence there was no hint of any indication: “Armed with a rifle, just like the men, they prepare to fight boldly for the revolutionary cause.” Of course, he then clarified his tasks a little:

“At the front, there are other needs than fighting with the rifle in hand.” Feeding the combatants, collecting and assisting the wounded, etc. All of this is the responsibility of women.

They sometimes occupy the most dangerous places, a few meters from the enemy. On the battlefield itself, they are constantly encouraging the workers [4].

From the City Council of Mieres, Manuel Grossi “Manolé” proclaimed the Socialist Republic; then, accompanied by many women, the insurgents went to the old palace of the marquises of Camposagrado. Grossi gives an account of the enthusiasm of the population, who state emphatically, “All the workers, old and young, women and children, sing in chorus the International.” [5] When the Civil Guard barracks in Sama finally fall, “popular joy overflows in the streets. Women and children go out to the balconies. […] They applauded those of us who passed by, they hugged us [6].

On the same day, 6 columns of miners from Mieres and Olloniego achieved a first victory in La Manzaneda, making their way to San Esteban de las Cruces on their march to Oviedo, and the first women who accompanied their husbands appeared—single girls and even a grandmother, whom they made desist from their endeavor—women who should have an active participation in the movement, according to Manuel D. Benavides. All the columns formed in the mining basins were followed by “these corps of volunteers who improvised nurses and rendered excellent services in the supply bases.” All of them were possessed of “an unshakable revolutionary faith [7].” On the other hand, the bourgeoisie of Oviedo “had taken refuge in the basements” while the wives of the miners “guardians of the night” took care of the wounded and fed the combatants [8].

Aurelio del Llano, an author little suspected of collusion with the revolution but a witness to the objective of the events, has left an essential work to assess day by day what happened in Oviedo and notes that when the miners entered the suburbs of the capital, “The women of those neighborhoods took to the streets to hug and cheer them [9].” Other testimonies abound along the same lines: “Women left their homes with pots of coffee and milk and distributed it among the revolutionaries, many of whom had not eaten a bite since the day before. Far be it from my intention to incur in the pettiness of attributing such conduct to flattery [10].” López Ochoa himself, when he finally arrived in Oviedo, observed how “a large part of the population was in collusion with the rioters… [11]”

In the fierce fighting throughout the city, young girls sometimes performed tasks that went beyond the role attributed to the female gender; when the Bank of Spain was assaulted on the 9th, “A red guard was responsible for (his) custody.” Even if we believe the report of the communist Valdés, there was a group of five young girls who organized “female espionage” by providing valuable reports to the Third Revolutionary Committee [12]. One of these comrades, when discovered by a regular soldier, not only managed to save his life but was able to fire three shots at him, leaving him dead:

“A carnal instinct restrained him from shooting and made him chase me, sure of catching me in the cornfield and there being able to satiate his appetites before killing me (...) He laughed; his eyes shone with lust (...). A beneficent ray illuminated my memory, and with a few steps I stumbled upon the herd I was looking for. I took the revolver, took off the safety, and knelt on the ground (...). I let him approach; he didn’t see my movements. When I had him less than 3 meters away, I fired a shot, then others, then another; he gave a guttural scream, a shriek of pain, and fell lifeless. I took away his ‘gumía,’ I took away his rifle and cartridge belts; here you have it all. That Moorish pig was too ugly to touch my mountain body... [13]”

Going back to the first days, on the day of the 8th, a group of women had participated in erecting a barricade in the Campo de los Patos, a short distance from the Arms Factory, whose seizure by the insurgents was consummated on the 9th, encouraged by the cheers of the women of those neighborhoods who “applaud them and shout at them, ‘Forward, brave! Go ahead, go ahead, the factory is yours! [14]”

The narration, somewhat fictionalized, by Alfonso Camín tells how in this first stage of euphoria the people glimpsed the triumph of the revolution; thus, in Oviedo, “Women bring large loaves of hot bread, which they cut with large knives and distribute through doors and windows: ‘Tomai, Christians, now there is bread for everyone.’” The crowds think that redemption is already a fact. That the red dawn is not a mirage of that morning. That Jesus comes from the mine in his robe dirty with coal and stars [15].”

The participation of working-class women in support of the revolution can be traced in the multiple places of the regional geography where the insurrection gained greater intensity. In the assaults on the Civil Guard barracks, girls also had their role; thus, in Carbayín a young woman named Carmen approached the barracks to parley, without any result. In Nava, according to the account of Jesús Soverón, coadjutor of the Church at that time, young people, almost children between 16 and 20 years old, burst in; there were also women whose mission was to take care of the wounded and prepare the ranch:

“They wore red ribbons on their chests and in their hair. They were more enthusiastic and more determined than the men. Almost all of them, very young sisters, daughters, or wives of miners, were also convinced that the social revolution had triumphed and that only the desperate nuclei of the army of dying capitalism were resisting [16].”

Meanwhile, in the Turón valley, trucks of men left for the battlefields, and as Aurelio del Llano points out, “Even girls dressed as ‘monkeys’ and armed with pistols go with them. – “Where are you going?” A young woman asked another when she saw her dressed as a man and with a pistol in her belt. “I’m going to the front; I have as much as the men [17].”

Similarly, in the Cimadevilla neighborhood of Gijón, young women intervened on the barricades, encouraging the combatants, although it is true that, days later, after the “savage bombardment to which the neighborhood had been subjected [...] many women and children went out to the villages [18].” Previously, a demonstration of working women from La Calzada approached the sailors inciting them to “join their fellow workers in arms.” They had to stop that crowd, but they couldn’t [19]. Later, what happened in the port of Musel resulted in new disappointments in the neighborhood; the desertion of two sailors made the rebels suppose that the sailors were all with the revolution, before which hundreds of men and women resolutely went to the dock cheering for the revolution. “The carabineros who saw that mass of people approaching, received it with a clean shot, blocking their way. Several victims fell there, including some women [20]”.

From La Felguera, the other CNT stronghold, a train was mobilized in support of the Gijón militants: “At the station, the compañeras bid farewell to the revolutionaries, cheering them on for the Revolution and the CNT; some of them accompanied them as stretcher-bearers, who not only were full of enthusiasm for the struggle, but with their presence they transmitted their healthy optimism to the others [21].” Meanwhile, in Avilés, after the requisition of goods at the docks of the port, it was women and children who transported them to the popular fishing neighborhood of Sabugo, where there were armed clashes, and a young woman, María Santos, was killed by a bullet in her own home [22]. However, in the town of Avilés, the ‘reds’ soon fled in the face of enemy fire and abandoned a truck adorned with red flags; a vehicle that “is used by the women who come with them encouraging them to fight. They, as they pass through the Port, cheer for the social revolution and sow panic in that quiet neighborhood [23].”

For its part, in Grado, a military train was also organized, before whose departure, “a mostly female audience anxiously awaits the show”; Carlos Vega harangues the peasants, about to leave; but an unfortunate incident occurred when “a very young woman drags her brother, a rifle boy, off the platform; he doesn’t want it to expose life.” The other women, who are aware of the fact and who have mostly their sons, brothers, or husbands in the red squads, want to lynch her [24].”

But, if there is any place emblematic for the presence of women, mostly young, it is, without a doubt, the southern front, where the fight was hardest and prolonged; there “girls from eighteen to twenty-two years of age, with their arms in the air, short skirts, and leather belts, from which hung one or two pistols, were going to bring food to those who fought in the line of fire in the mountains of Vega del Rey [25].” At first, when the insurgents had to fight General Bosch’s army, “Many young miners,” says José Díaz Fernández, “had taken their girlfriends and their wives with them and this was the quartermaster they had. These women full of courage and rebellion encouraged and helped them, but they constituted an extraordinary impediment in the fight with the troops [26].” It was the combatants themselves who had to transfer the wounded, helped by a certain number of “nurses”, women volunteers, “who at the same time as encouraging the men in the fight, collaborated in the quartermaster missions and in those of health care [27].”

In this regard, it is worth taking into account the high participation of the nuns of different religious orders who, from the first moment, offered to help the sick and wounded, as well as to make meals in the improvised refreshment centers; this selfless collaboration took place in Oviedo, Sama, and in other localities [28]. Manuel D. Benavides spoke in similar terms: “the medical service was completed with the volunteer nurses who accompanied the columns. The nuns were preserved; all female hands were needed [29].” The various testimonies coincide in the respectful treatment given to all the women’s religious orders that the insurgents helped in their forced displacements and contributed to the fact that they did not lack food, clothing or a safe place to take refuge; in the same way, they behaved with the students in charge of those religious institutions, although Aurelio del Llano echoes some hostility on the part of women [30]. In turn, Díaz Fernández puts a critical note when analyzing the reasons for the presence of medical professionals and auxiliaries in charge of hospitals: “Nurses and health workers were, in general, people of the neutral mass who volunteered to a work that, in addition to being humanitarian, had the advantage of protecting those who carried it out from the hazards of the struggle [31].”

Returning to the story about the female presence in the spaces of the insurrection, it is worth noting how the departure of an armored train from Mieres, with reinforcements for the Campomanes front, was another occasion in which enthusiasm was manifested at the time of his departure: “Men and women said goodbye to him with their ‘fists’ raised. UHP shouted below, and UHP answered from the train [32].”

In any case, the continued presence of working-class women in the harshest days of the clashes on the southern front is beyond doubt; this is how practically all the authors of the time reflect it. Solano Palacio echoes the courage constantly shown by the young women:

“In Vega del Ciego they had opened food houses for the combatants served by comrades who, with astonishing courage, walked the parapets feeding the revolutionaries.

[…]

Some girls donned monkey costumes, grabbed shotguns, and moved from parapet to parapet, delivering food to the revolutionaries while encouraging them with supportive words during the struggle, unafraid of the bullets whistling overhead. That was taken as a natural thing that no one was afraid of [33].”

Manuel Grossi, or Alfonso Camín, expressed himself in a similar way [34], although the latter does not leave some protagonists in a good place, showing a clear misogynistic aftertaste that leads him to ridicule the role of the “Red Ladies”: “... two men and three women arrived to ration the miners with machine gun combs, rifle loads, some bread, some preserves and some bottles of wine barbed wire.” But where his offense to the women alluded to is manifested, is in the following passage, which occurred, if we are to believe his story, in Nava:

“In the courtyard of the church they install ranch kitchens for the people and the red troops. María, ‘La Molinera’ shouted with a torch in her hands.

If the guards come back, we’ll burn down the church!

They did not return. At Empalme and at other strategic points, the ‘red’ guards spent time without looking at patent leather.

With the miners, rough and demure, are some women from Oviedo, somewhat vociferous, who play the ‘red ladies.’

One of the chiefs said, without looking at their faces:

-Dynamite is the one that speaks now. Then the women and the chickens will speak

And they all fell silent [35].

After the flight of the first committee and the short-lived life of the second, the third tried to prolong the resistance, despite being fully aware of its inevitable defeat. Government troops were slowly taking control of the region; the southern front and some neighborhoods of Oviedo, such as San Lázaro or some positions in the Naranco, barely resisted, and of course, the mining basins had not even been sighted. A communist member of the third committee, Valdés, boasted of the “cheerful mood” that was breathed in Sama, where the third committee was installed: “You see a lot of red armbands in the female youth. This is another town; what a contrast with Oviedo! There, everything is desolation and ineptitude. Here virility, optimism [36].

However, also in Oviedo they were reluctant to accept defeat; although the troops were already in the city, the struggle continued: “Nobody wanted to listen to those who spoke of organising the retreat [...] Groups of girls went from one place to another encouraging the revolutionaries, giving news of victories in the rest of Spain.” And when, in a last effort the last column of a few hundred miners was organized in Sama, “Not a mother, nor a son, nor a wife did incite any of their people not to follow the revolutionary army [37].”

The communist Valdés praises Asturian women in his assessment of the role of women in the revolution, dedicating a chapter of his report to this topic:

“It was very capital. What importance can it not have in the march of the Revolution that women encourage their comrades, their parents, and their brothers and sisters with their presence and their services? They were cooks and waitresses in the red barracks, nurses in ambulances and in the intern hospitals, clever spies on liaisons during the Third Committee, and soldiers in the defensive moments. They carried to our breasts the breath that sometimes wanted to weaken us. They served the Revolution proudly wearing the armband of the Red Army, and in this, it is fair to say, there was no distinction of ideological nuances: socialists, communists, and anarchists competed in courage and enthusiasm. And in the anguished moment of the flight, they said, ‘Take care of yourself, comrade. That I will take care of the children [38].’”

When the insurrection was in its final throes and defeated, many abandoned the struggle; those who showed the greatest courage, in the opinion of Manuel Grossi, are “the revolutionary women”: “They are the ones who encourage the workers in these moments of danger.” And rectifying her own opinions, she makes an extraordinary praise of the role of women in the emancipation of the proletariat from her action in the Asturian October:

“Before the movement, I had held the view that proletarian women would not take an active part in insurrectionary action. I have to confess my mistake. After the experience of the Asturian Commune, I have to recognize that working women can play as important a role in the revolution as that of the proletarians. Their value sometimes even exceeds that of the workers themselves. Not only at the height of the revolution, but even during the repression, Asturian women have given surprising proofs of self-denial and heroism, conquering forever their place in the struggles towards the triumph of proletarian emancipation [39].”

There is no doubt that the very notable role of working women in the insurrection is recognized and clearly explained in these pages; however, we must bear in mind that, regardless of their encouragement to the combatants and sustaining the morale of the revolutionaries, the role assigned to women, with few exceptions, was what could be expected of their gender, which was none other than that of care, as mother, wife, girlfriend, sister, or daughter of the insurgents.

As Aida Rodríguez Campesino rightly points out, the later mythologized Aida de la Fuente, like so many other young women during the revolution, “had dedicated herself to caring for the wounded and bringing bread and milk to the people around Oviedo. He had taken care of the sick and children, as well as providing food, water, and tobacco to the troops at the barricades.” Mundo Obrero published a profile of Aida on the eve of the February 1936 elections. In short, as the author notes, “the emphasis is not on her work as a revolutionary but on her role as a nurse.”

These were the traditional tasks of women in times of war: encouraging men to fight and providing logistical support in the form of food and care, a narrative associated with motherhood [40].”

And we have to touch on another aspect that sometimes slips into certain works of the time: prostitution. Some mention it to deplore it; José Díaz Fernández alludes to how the girls “were afraid and hungry on the knees of the revolutionaries; they did not tremble with passion but with panic [41].” Meanwhile, the always courageous Manuel Grossi, places them in the ranks of the revolution; criticizing the pillage, the profiteers and the scoundrels, he excludes from these obstacles “not a few public women ( ) from the first moment they place themselves on the side of the revolution. In the lines of fire, at great risk to their lives, they run to help the wounded.” Carlos Vega, for his part, places the houses of prostitution as the “headquarters” of numerous individuals, “ambushed in the neighborhood where they were located, and who during the previous afternoon and night refused to go to the front of the struggle [42]”.

Valdés also echoes the problem: “But, comrades, like at that time, the mining hosts, imitating the soldiers of Carthage in Capua, also gave themselves up to the mollicie; on more than one occasion they had to be torn from the arms of prostitutes by deeply persuasive means.” However, in a surprising handwritten note in his report, he even suggests that it might be an acceptable and beneficial solution to address the men’s needs by relocating the “cheerful neighborhood” of pleasure and “humanely gathering the poor women taken into a large convent to manage the masculine energy essential during those hours of intense fighting [43].”

Women victims of the revolution

Women and children died while queuing for supplies in the context of combat, especially during the air raids; this occurred in Oviedo or Mieres [44]. Many of the female victims were victims during the insurrection as they were gathered in groups waiting for supplies, basically bread or any kind of food: “the scenes of horror followed one another without interruption. One afternoon a woman came in, with two children, wounded by shrapnel, when she was waiting in line for bread [45].” Solano Palacio, when mentioning the damage caused by government aviation on the unarmed civilian population, especially when it affected women and children, stressed that “the revolutionaries did not take due reprisals against the bourgeois and police prisoners they had in their power [46].”

While Carlos Vega, author of the official report of the PCE on the Asturian October, maintained that the distribution of food had improved significantly when a Supply Committee was established in a separate place “of greater security for the lives of numerous women, who came for vouchers of food items,” his comrade Valdés, very critical of the performance of Carlos Vega and Gustavo de la Fuente in the first Revolutionary Committee, counterpointed what the leadership maintained:

“The casualties we have had among the female civilian population were mainly caused by the fault of the Committee that installed its barracks in the most dangerous area of the population and that, as my colleague stated, was deliberately done so that in this way the voucher office would not be so visited [47].”

As we can see, the binomial “women and children” is being conjugated by all the authors, as well as its centrality in obtaining food vouchers. Nothing new emerged in the revolution regarding the roles traditionally associated with women. And in this way, it is explained that many women fled with their children from the combat zones, terrified, seeking refuge in mountains, villages, and towns far from danger. In the face of fear, Alfonso Camín narrated, “Women climb the slopes and walk through brañas and mountains with their children in their arms [48].” On the other hand, López Ochoa observes how in the numerous hamlets near Oviedo, there were only women “who watched us pass by with faces distorted by worry and fright [49].” Aurelio del Llano also provides his first-hand testimony about what happened in Oviedo. In the face of the attack on the 8th on the Pumarín barracks, “The women with their children in their arms, fled crying and saying goodbye forever to their husbands, who were left fighting against an enemy superior in number and in class of armament.” When the Civil Guards go to the Pelayo barracks, the large number of families that are housed in the pavilions “creates a distressing situation among the defenders” with their shouting: “There are one hundred and forty-six children there, children of chiefs and officers and of civil guards, and one hundred and thirty-five women [50].” Later, while the fire devastates numerous homes, the women “leave the burned houses and flee in terror with their children in their arms”. After the end of the siege of Oviedo, Aurelio del Llano continues, they “carry imprinted on their faces the sufferings they went through for so many days (.) They are crying, such is the emotion produced by the desolate picture that appears before their eyes [51].”

However, there are plenty of examples of wives and girls who, in the most adverse conditions, show integrity, courage, and daring, looking for their relatives among piles of corpses, confronting the troops that lend themselves to shooting three ‘rebel’ brothers, or sending emotional letters to the press so that someone can give them news about the whereabouts of their husband. disappeared, like so many others, “lost forever in the tragic whirlpool of gunpowder and flame [52]” Nor are there any shortage of examples of nurses who in the most adverse circumstances do not abandon their patients, or the case of a girl who “in a hail of bullets”, ventures to rescue a dejected young man: “A bomb that explodes next to her, covers her with earth, but she continues her work, picking up the wounded man for whom she is killed. she was making efforts unbecoming of a woman, carrying him away from there until he was safe [53].”

On the other hand, all the testimonies coincide in pointing out the good treatment given to the prisoners by the revolutionaries, especially if there were women and children among them. For example, the teacher of Campomanes recognized, once the insurrection was defeated, that the rebels “were not so monstrous. At least with women and children. The tragedies have been from men to men.” Aurelio del Llano himself expressly acknowledges this when he collects testimonies from those responsible for the committees in Oviedo: “These are workers like us and we have to treat them humanely (...). The porters’ wives made their food while they were there.” A few pages later he transcribes a conversation between “a red guard” and the prisoners: “Have you eaten? And yesterday we only had one bowl of soup. This cannot be tolerated when there are women [54].”

From the first moment, in the assaults on the barracks, it was kept in mind that the families had to get to safety, ceasing the attacks while women and children left, as happened in the Vega barracks in Riosa. In Mieres, the wife of a civil guard shouted, asking for her husband; Solano Palacio says that they immediately took her “to where he was wounded, to console her. The people are generous to their enemies when they are dejected.” In the Mieres barracks, Solano Palacio continues to narrate,

“People rushed inside in obvious danger to save the women and children, who were self-conscious, full of fright, and hidden under the mattresses. The workers duly cared for those families, sheltering them with great care in the nearby houses [55].”

However, not all the wives of the Civil Guards assumed the role of victims, leaving the barracks when they were ordered to do so. There were several cases of women who chose to remain in their position with their husbands, some suffering the same fate. In La Felguera it was difficult to let children and mothers out, but one woman remained with her sick husband in bed; after hours of shooting, the barracks began to collapse. Finally, they found only one body: that of the wife who did not want to leave her husband. He was the only one killed [56].” In Ciaño, on October 6, the guards, under the command of Corporal Dionisio López, defend themselves in desperation and “Doña Julia Freigedo is on the parapet, next to the corporal, her husband, firing with a pistol (...) When they reach the door of a central courtyard of the building, the corporal and his wife fall dead side by side, weapons in hand [57].” Chaves Nogales, who denies the numerous outrages attributed to the revolutionaries, affirms, on the contrary, that there were murders including Julia Freigedo in this category: “It is true that in Sama a priest was murdered; it is true that in Ciaño the wife of a civil guard was shot to death...”, however, she does not say that she was just another combatant among the defenders of that barracks [58].

However, other accounts of Julia’s courage adopt a harsh and misogynistic tone; this is evident in the description of the facts provided by Manuel D. Benavides:

“The shots show civilians looking for mining meat. They are given a truce to evict the women and children. Julia Freijedo, the corporal’s wife, refuses to leave. […]

The rifles answered; amid the din of their shots, the dry detonations of a revolver could be heard; it was managed by Julia Freijedo. The brave female joined the fight with the sexual fury of the females who take sides. […]

Minutes later, Dionisio López and Julia Freijedo descended through a hole to the ground floor. The woman was still holding the revolver. They both showed expressionless faces. I don’t know if anyone tried to save them. A volley sounded and Corporal Dionisio López, ‘as socialist as the most,’ and his wife continued together until death.

Was it the civilians who fought or was it the civilian female, Julia Freijedo, who stubbornly fought them? [59]”

Even more brutal and vulgar is Alfonso Camín’s account of this episode: “Let the children and women come out! The corporal’s wife (...) refuses, heroic and emphatic. The female does not leave the male: “I die here.” The female roars and goads like a lioness. He throws a rifle at his arm (...). The guards are lost. They want to turn themselves in. Julia Freijedo, a woman with chest hair, does not allow the man to falter, as he already looks at her in defeat. Julia (.) splashes in the blood, gun in hand (...). The corporal wants to surrender. But the female roars, “If you give up, I’ll kill you!” There is no remedy. The corporal shoots. Julia shoots (...) a lifeless wheel. Julia covers the corpse with the body. He shoots (...). Julia (.) also falls dead on the corporal’s body. It is the last copulation. Bestial copulation: of vigor, of hatred, and of blood. The race is opening up in a channel. The dead are no longer men. They look like skinned wolves [60].”

Another similar case, although without resulting in death, was that of María García, wife of the guard Aurelio Freire in the Grado barracks; although, on this occasion, Aurelio del Llano interviews him after the events:

“I spoke to her. She’s small and all nervous. Weren’t you afraid? I asked him

No, sir. The wife of a civil guard should not be afraid of anyone. I started shooting next to my husband. We were behind a mattress. The pistol I fired was not standard, and it had little ammunition. After I finished them, I devoted myself to giving porters to my husband. The bullets fell next to us, and I said to my husband, “Go with them, go with them; they won’t enter here as long as we have life left.” And I took the regulation pistol from one of the guards and fired!

Then I treated the wounded guard and attended to our son, who was sick with diphtheria and had a forty-degreefever...

When dawn broke, the revolutionaries, in view of the resistance they were putting up against them from the barracks, withdrew [61].”

María García far exceeded everything that could be expected from a devoted wife and mother; not only did she behave like a warrior, but she also acted as a nurse with the wounded and, of course, as a loving mother, attentive to her son’s poor health in those exceptional circumstances...

Also, from the headquarters of the Catholic Union of Moreda, they clashed with the insurgents; inside the building there were 27 men and one woman well equipped with pistols, shotguns, and some sticks of dynamite [62]. On other occasions, it is the insurgents themselves who are somewhat perplexed by the attitude of some women who, voluntarily, go to accompany their husbands, for example, to the arms factory - as is the case - in order to suffer the same fate, despite the fear and anxiety that overwhelms them. One of the attackers asks the director’s wife, Mrs. Anita Pulido, “taking her kindness to the extreme”: “How are you doing here, ma’am? -Regularly - Well, let you rest. Good night. “But how are we going to rest,” said the director’s wife, “with the shootings that are going on?” -Ba! -replied the boss smiling- In this neighborhood it will end soon, because tonight we take the factory... [63]”

Although later in time, it should be noted that the widows of the Civil Guards who fell in combat in Sama (74) and in Campomanes (25) in 1934 showed tenacity and perseverance in the defense and dignification of their husbands when, once the Valley of the Fallen was inaugurated, they made representations to all the authorities of the regime requesting that their remains be buried in the Valley. They faced refusals, since the great grave only had room for the dead of the war. However, they did not give up and continued fighting until they achieved their goal. About 60 guards who died in the 1934 revolution were transferred to the Valley, where they rest, this being the only exception made by the Dictatorship [64].

To conclude this section, it is necessary to count the deaths caused by the rebels in a context outside the fighting, that is, deaths of the unarmed civilian population and of the female gender. With Pablo Gil’s study we can pinpoint the number of deaths with total accuracy; most of them were at the hands of the gang commanded by Pichilatu, whose members dedicated themselves to murdering and robbing their victims. In Oviedo, on Mon Street, 8 people were executed on October 8, of which 4 were women. The other two were produced by assailants whose objective was the arrest of “enemies of the people,” resulting in the death of a maid and José Merediz’s mother-in-law when she “tried to dissuade the revolutionaries from taking the men [65].”

Government repression: and then women “dressed in mourning”

“We give them knowledge of the crimes committed by the troops (.) in Oviedo and in the towns near the cemetery of the capital, as well as the courage and resistance shown by the revolutionaries [66].”

As is well known, in the neighborhoods of Oviedo, troops of regulars, and especially Moors, committed all kinds of excesses and revenges against the defenseless population; this happened in Villafría, or in the hamlets surrounding the Church of San Pedro de los Arcos, not to mention the massacre of Carbayín. They went house to house looking for men; sometimes they were executed in front of their family; at other times they were taken away and never heard from again. Their women searched and searched and then “dressed in mourning”; “Those brave women dressed in mourning gained very little by saying what they said [67].” When a woman was asked by the examining magistrate about her marital status, she had to answer “Widow supposes it will be”, and Pablo Gil Vico adds: “Perhaps worse than knowing the death of a loved one was – and is – not knowing, remaining in ignorance, finding all the doors and mouths closed, fighting after months, when everything is lost, but nothing is still known [68]”.

The chroniclers of the time narrate episodes of extreme cruelty exercised mainly by the Moors; Alfonso Camín, not always reliable, tells what happened in Villafría:

“The father was paralyzed. The mother did not. He went behind his children, who were marching with other prisoners. The mother was clinging to the soldiers.

[…]

The Moors did not pay attention to her... Indifferent to the mother’s roars, they lined up the men. Behind me looked a sister, trembling (...). When they were aiming, the mother wanted to take the rifle away from them

[…]

The blow knocked her to the ground. He did not lose his aim. But he was not satisfied. Before the woman got up, he killed her, plunging the bayonet into her belly [69].

For his part, Solano Palacio stated that “the Moors rape women who then slit their throats and cut off their breasts” and went on to affirm that young women had been raped “in front of their own families,” and then they were murdered [70]. Manuel Grossi also insists that there were rapes and mutilation of the breasts:

“In Villafría, next to the match factory and a short distance from the cemetery, the Moorish soldiers and the legionnaires have raped several women, committing incredible abuses against them, after which they have cut off their breasts, leaving them truly dismembered [71].”

The symbolism of this brutal gender repression is not escaped [72], even if the massacres reported cannot be corroborated by documentation, at least until the present. Pablo Gil Vico in his rigorous study puts the number of women murdered at 5, including Aida de la Fuente, whose fate is more uncertain. Four of them - one was 12 years old - were murdered, unarmed, in house number 2 in Villafría [73]. This massacre, carried out on October 13, claimed the lives of 32 people; of the four female victims, the eldest, Carmen, was 48 years old and was the mother of Laura and Rosario, 12 and 19 years old respectively:

“Domingo Franco was bleeding from one arm and speechless with terror; without saying anything, half kneeling with his hands together, he moved from right to left, begging for mercy. Argentina Franco, his daughter, threw her arms around the neck of the captain, or of the one who commanded the most, at the same time saying to him, “Since they killed my mother, my two brothers, and my two sisters, leave me at least my father and brother’ [74].”

There were, of course, more cruelties in other neighborhoods of Oviedo, such as Los Arenales; at home, Julia Álvarez saw how a group of regulars killed her entire family “right under her nose.” Children of 8, 12, and 16 years old, and his companion Manuel, “when he went to implore that they were creatures.” There was no compassion, and Pablo Gil acutely specifies, “The prevailing machismo rewarded her with the torture of surviving the complete annihilation of her own [75].”

If we move from these chilling stories to the massacre of men in Carbayín, discovered by several women and denounced to the mayor of Sama, we find ourselves again with the female protagonist; many of them “raise their arms in anger”:

“They dress in black and, to make their gestures free, they change the children from one arm to the other or corner the older ones against their skirts, as if they were all afraid that the devil would come for them. Women cry with tears alive. All faces are wet [76].”

The extrajudicial repression continued, above all, by the hand of Commander Doval, but we must not overlook the regulated repression that, of course, also affected women. On the 13th, the hospital was occupied by the forces of the Tercio commanded by Yagüe; numerous prisoners were taken to the Pelayo barracks, “taking many weapons from them.” According to General López Ochoa, “50 or 60” were arrested, of which “half, about half, were women, who were taking care of the wounded as ‘Red Ladies,’ and who had taken part in the combat, some of them perishing in the shooting.”They were then locked in the basements and ordered that they proceed with all urgency; the General continues:

“Starting with the women, to instruct attestations to release those who, caught without weapons, were shown not to have carried out any criminal act... the next morning, many of them were able to be released, including all the women [77].”

Possibly he was trying to avoid or, at least, alleviate the continued extrajudicial executions such as those that took place in the Barracks itself, where, at least, 43 men were murdered and “crowded with disorder and almost reluctance” on the esplanade, in full view of anyone who passed by [78].

There were house searches in the homes of women who were considered “sympathizers (.) of the revolution”; arbitrary detentions and murders were “officially” considered suicides. For example, in the council of Las Regueras, there is the case of Constantino Fernández, who left Oliva Suárez a widow [79].

On the 13th, Aida de la Fuente died and that same day, her sister Maruja was arrested in the occupation of the Provincial Hospital; the next day, a legionary officer “mistreated and humiliated her in prison,” and María “had already been told that Aida had been shot.” At the time of the humiliation, they compared her to her sister, who they said had died bravely [80].” Loading, without a doubt, the ink on “Niní Lafuente” Grossi Mier recounts the mistreatment to which Aida’s entire family was subjected:

“Niní Lafuente, sister of the heroic Aida killed on Mount Naranco, was arrested and forced to be completely naked in a cold room of the Pelayo barracks, standing for hours and hours in the presence of all those who wanted to see her. A civil guard present, seeing the youth of the girl thus mistreated—she is about eighteen years old—could not prevent some tears from flowing. The captain of the Legion who ordered this boasted in front of her that he had killed his sister, and after hours of having her in that position, he beat her and insulted her, telling them that she was less brave than Aida. He let her get dressed and sit on the floor when Nini called him a coward and a bastard. Nini and Aida’s mother was detained for four or five days without eating and continuously threatened that her family would be exterminated. Niní has been tried by a court and sentenced to prison. Father Lafuente also went through his odyssey of prisons and ill-treatment [81].”

The prisons were filled with prisoners, most of whom were held in the model prison of Oviedo; their number must have been quite high according to the information contained in the prison file of Maria de la Fuente Penaos; this young woman suffered from highly contagious “erysipelas,” so the doctor, after recognizing the prisoner, advised “her transfer to the Provincial Hospital.”given the “large number of detainees” [82] Another testimony in this regard is that of Pasionaria, who spent a night at the Model and recalls: “There was nowhere to lie down. The detained women made room for us on their beds and there we spent the night until it was time to wake up, listening to each of those heroic women terrible details of the repression [83].”

Several women had to go through a court martial and some were sentenced to long sentences; among others, Gloria Solís Benito was sentenced to 20 years for “aiding the rebellion” and 14 years and 8 months “for complicity in the murder of the priest Tomás Suero [84].” Another court martial took place in Gijón against a teacher from the council of Allande, parish of Arrancina, accused by the priest “in the name of the neighbors”. Up to twelve witnesses parade supporting the priest’s complaint; the accused had only expressed in public that “The Moorish forces and the Tercio de África have committed more murders and more looting in homes in Asturias than the unruly revolutionaries.” Finally, she is saved by “an irrefutable testimony” and is acquitted [85].

Returning to the imprisonment and trial of María de la Fuente Penaos, she entered prison on October 13, by order of the military authority and was released on December 22, 1934; she was readmitted on February 10, 1935, from the prison of León, being at the disposal of the Military Court No. 6 of Oviedo. His case is number 1,130; his alleged crime is nothing more and nothing less than “military rebellion.” The Council took place on May 24, 1935, “being sentenced to 6 years.” She served her sentence in the central women’s prison in Madrid [86]. In September of that year she was called by the judge to give a statement about the death of her sister Aida. He could barely clarify that “Lieutenant Dimitri” had told him “How his sister had been shot (...) and the aforementioned officer presented her with a handkerchief that he said belonged to his aforementioned sister and that the deponent recognized as her property [87].”

The family of the communist militant Juan Ambou was also persecuted, who, many years later, recounts how his “sister—with my father—was held in the Investigation and Surveillance Police Station. And they couldn’t take my mother... She defended herself as best she could, but not even dragging her could have led her to jail...” [88] Some young women committed to the insurrection were also able to flee to Russia, as is the case of Estefanía Cueto “Fanny”, a communist leader in the war, after whose end she fled to the mountains “integrating herself into guerrilla groups” until, located at the beginning of 1939, she was sentenced to the last sentence and executed on August 29, 1939 [89].

Another form of repression, less bloody, of course, consisted of the purge of men and women employed in the Cadellada Psychiatric Hospital in Oviedo, dependent on the Provincial Council. This was a form of administrative punishment that entailed the suspension of employment and salary, the opening of disciplinary proceedings, and on many occasions, expulsion, temporary or permanent, from work. 16 nurses (including the “Senior Nurse”), two nursing assistants, and one intern, as well as the subordinate staff: three “domestics,” seamstresses, ironers, kitchen assistants, or those in charge of the “wardrobe,” were subjected to the suspension of employment and salary until their participation in the events of October was clarified [90].

I do not have enough space to analyse each of the purging files; however, it is worth summarizing the most outstanding aspects of the resolutions of the Commissions in charge of processing and resolving the sanctions that have occurred. First, the interim and junior staff received generally negative reports, many of which resulted in dismissal and, consequently, permanent expulsion from their workplace. Staff nurses were subject to temporary sanctions; none was exonerated for their “alleged” actions in collusion with the insurgents, or for lack of attendance at their workplace in the days when the Hospital fell into the hands of the rebels. The most repeated accusation is that of “abandonment of service,” in response to which the following is made:

“Suspension of employment and salary while the appropriate file of purification of the responsibilities that may have been incurred by abandonment of the service is instructed [91]”.

And perhaps the most significant and regrettable fact has to do with the fact that a good part of the accusing speakers, doctors, directors, and managers of the center did not appear at any time in the psychiatric hospital, because the occupation of the hospital prevented them from doing so [92]. They were in their homes or hidden in basements, half-ruined houses, in any place not dominated by miners swollen with hatred and loaded with dynamite. As soon as the troops occupied the capital, they came out of their hiding places to applaud the Army that paraded through the central streets of Oviedo, as General López Ochoa recounts with relish:

“The enthusiasm of the civilian population that witnessed the passage of the troops during this parade was enormous, being warmly applauded amid great applause and cheers for Spain and the Republic, not lacking those that were paid to me [93].”

In short, the good society of Oviedo could once again feel calm and well defended by law and order and will demand exemplary punishments. A real cataclysm had happened; its effects were visible everywhere.

Aida de la Fuente: the myth of victim and warrior?

The multiple, conflicting, and contradictory accounts of the circumstances of the death of the 19-year-old girl, Aida de la Fuente, lead us to think that in reality these circumstances remain unknown. At first her death went unnoticed in the context of the fighting in the different positions of Oviedo that continued to offer resistance to the troops of Moors and regulars under the command of Yagüe. So, the image of the young heroine who, to save her comrades, wielded a machine gun until she was killed by the army, would be, in any case, one more fallen combatant in the resistance sustained in San Pedro de los Arcos.

On the other hand, the story of the treacherous murder at the hands of a legionary, whose denunciation by the journalist Luis Sirval would have been the cause of his cold-blooded execution, is also not contrasted with the various and opposing accounts of the young Aida. If this version were true, she would not have been the only or the most pubescent of the women killed by the legionary troops, as has been demonstrated in massacres as brutal as those of Villafría in Oviedo.

The Communist Party itself, to which he belonged, at first reported to the Central Committee from the mouth of Carlos Vega that there is no allusion to people outstanding for their heroism within their own ranks. Neither the young Juan Ambou nor Aida de la Fuente are mentioned in the first analysis of the October Revolution elevated to the leadership of the national PCE. Nor was she mentioned in the Report prepared and sent by the Youth to the Central Committee of the Union of Communist Youth of Spain [94]. For its part, Valdés’ extensive text detailing the massacres committed by colonial troops does mention “that (sic.) criminal way they had murdered the young Aida Lafuente for having answered affirmatively to the question of whether he was a communist [95].”

Under what circumstances did the young woman meet her death? We do not know for sure because relatively soon, in 1936, the myth began that obscured, perhaps forever, his death on October 13, 1934, when the workers’ insurrection was in its last throes (Figure 1).

In view of the Popular Front election campaign card, Aida was brandished as a warrior who fought until she fell mortally wounded to save her comrades. Like the Church, the left also needed to equip itself with heroes and martyrs capable of mobilizing a population that had been severely punished by the insurrection of October 1934. And yet, we do not know in what circumstances the young revolutionary, symbol of the unequivocal Asturian October, lost her life.

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
6. Taibo II PI. Asturias. Octubre 1934. Barcelona: Crítica; 2013;159. Available from: https://www.planetadelibros.com.pe/libro-asturias-octubre-1934/185191
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)