José Iglesias Sada

José Iglesias Sada, active in the CNT in Pamplona under the republic, passed away on 1 July 1999. He was born on 19 April 1910 in Pamplona, the capital of Navarre, into a poor family. Shortly after the proclamation of the Republic, he joined the CNT. He was one of 14 comrades who set up the Pamplona Metalworkers’ Union on 28 November 1931. He lost his own job at the Gamarra foundry due to the depression. He was active in the mobilisation of the unemployed, as a result of which the establishment was obliged to draw up public works schemes to ease the unemployment problem. In 1934 he was re-hired by Gamarra. Come the strike in October that year, he was the only Gamarra employee to go on strike and was sacked as a result.

Shortly after that he joined the Mugica company as a moulder. Again he was the sole employee of the firm to back the strike that was called after a prisoner was killed in the San Cristobal fort. By 1936 he served on the council of his union.

He was a big bullfighting fan, taking part in many practice fights and in 1935 he even fought some bulls along with Rafael Gimeno Armendariz “El Chico de Artajona”. It was this passion for bullfights that saved him from jail – and maybe even a firing squad – come the Franco revolt.  As it happened, on 18 July 1936 José had gone to Pasajes to a bullfight with the team of “El Chico de Artajona”. It was to be another 21 years before he returned to Pamplona.

The entire team joined the CNT militias. They resisted the rebels in the Loyola barracks and later manned positions in Polloe, Lasarte and Tolosa. José was elected platoon leader. In Bilbao, he joined the Isaac Puente Battalion. He was involved in the Villareal offensive, in which his company lost one out of every two men. Later he transferred to the Durruti Battalion as a muleteer and later served with the Liaison and Signals Corps. When Santander was captured, he began a drawn out pilgrimage through prisons, concentration camps and labour battalions all over Spain. While in the Catalan Pyrenees in February 1940 he was one of 11 runaway prisoners, equipped with grenades, who made it out to France. Where more concentration camps – in Argelès and Barcarés – awaited him. At the earliest opportunity José fled to Barcelona. He was arrested and sentenced to 12 years in jail. Again he escaped. He adopted a false identity and from then on was José Lafuente Gutiérrez to one and all.

In 1975 he suffered a stroke that seriously affected his physical and mental capabilities. Even so, in 1981 he managed to complete the writing of his memoirs, Historia de un Hombre Comun. 

CNT no.250, September 1999. (Edited)

Translated by: Paul Sharkey.