Augusto Moisés Alcrudo Solórzano

The anarchist doctor Augusto Moisés Alcrudo Solórzano was murdered on 30 September 1936 in Valdespartera (Zaragoza, Aragon). Born on 7 January 1892 in La Puebla de Alfindén (Zaragoza, Aragon), he was the son of the local doctor, José Alcrudo Roche who was forced out of the area into Zaragoza because of his liberal beliefs and had a brother, also a doctor and anarchist, Miguel José. He studied medicine in Zaragoza from 1913 to 1915 and was one of the editors of the university magazine Paraninfo. Between 1915 and 1920 he was a regular contributor to the newspaper El Ideal de Aragón. During those same years he mixed in artistic circles and struck up a friendship with the painters Rafael Barradas and José Zamora and with the enameller Pedro Viñado. In July 1916 when he graduated, he worked as a doctor treating “secret” diseases (venereal disease) and with his brother set up a medical mutual society, the patients mostly anarcho-syndicalist workers. He was active in a range of republican groups such as the Radical Socialist Republican Party (PRRS) and the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Left (ARYA) led by the Peruvian César Falcón. But in 1930, with his brother, he joined the CNT and the freemasons (Moncayo lodge). His role in the anarchosyndicalist trade union was much more significant than his brother’s who was more involved with the freemasons and he contributed to the libertarian press and held rallies and meetings. On 1 May 1931 he took part in a CNT rally alongside Ángel Pestaña and Ricardo Sanz. At that time he was part of the editorial team behind the resurrected Cultura y Acción. In July 1931 he represented the Zaragoza CNT’s Hygiene and Health Union at the third CNT congress held in Madrid in the Conservatorio Theatre. In November that year he and Isaac Puente attended the congress of CNT Health Unions in Madrid which saw the establishment of the Health Industry National Federation (FNIS) of which he was appointed vice-president: its statutes were drawn up by him along with Orive and Isaac Puente. He gave many talks to Zaragoza unions and ateneos and was a regular face at the “Salduba Club” which met in the Zaragoza café of the same name, along with Luis Mainar, Miguel Abós, Ramón Acín, Servet Martínez, Isaac Puente and his own brother, among others. On 1 January 1933 he was arrested by Zaragoza’s civil governor along with other comrades and spent some time in prison. In May that year, in the newspaper CNT, he expounded upon the concept of libertarian communism, espousing a middle of the road line. He suggested that a range of economic and health defence committees be formed across Zaragoza and this motion was debated at a local and later regional gathering in July 1933 and was eventually carried. From 8 to 14 December 1933 he served on the National Revolutionary Committee alongside Buenaventura Durruti, Isaac Puente and Cipriano Mera, to name but a few, and he and his brother were jailed up until April 1934 in the prisons in Torrero and Burgos. Once freed, he joined the commission dispatched to Madrid to oversee the evacuation of the children of striking Zaragoza construction workers. In 1935 he was arrested on the orders of the new governor, Duelo. Weary of all this harassment and having just taken up with Augustina Andrés, a teacher and activist in the Libertarian Youth, he chose to withdraw from the CNT, a decision that was ill received by his comrades, but within months he was back. Over his lifetime he was a contributor to many publications such as CNT, Diario de Aragón, Estudios, Hojas Médicas, Independencia, Iniciales, Mañana, Solidaridad Obrera, Suplemento de Tierra y Libertad, etc.

The fascist coup in July 1936 caught him in Zaragoza. On 29 September he was arrested in his surgery after turning himself over to the fascist authorities after they had threatened the lives of his wife and their two month old daughter Aurora. Augusto Moisés Alcrudo Solórzano was shot at noon on 30 September 1936 on waste ground on Valdespartera (Zaragoza, Aragon), along with his brother Miguel José.

Translated by: Paul Sharkey.