José Villanueva, Laureano Cerrada’s Treasurer

Cerrada’s Friend and treasurer and Legal Affairs Secretary of the Paris Regional Committee.
One of the great unknowns of the Paris Group, but a crucial figure in Laureano Cerrada’s apparatus and in the Paris-North Regional.

Hi gang, here we go again with out scheduled end-of-month update. As mentioned last time, having skipped May, I promised to post two in June.

The first thing to say is that last weekend we spent a few days in Tolva (Huesca) at the annual tribute to the anti-Franco guerrillas in general and to the libertarian ones in particular. The ‘A les Trinxeres’ collective has been organizing this for the past 21 years and it remains a perfect opportunity for mingling and learning new stuff about our forebears’ struggles. Many, many thanks for all your efforts.

It was also a very special occasion for two reasons. Those of us from the Equip Memoria delivered our very first presentation of La Guía del maquis libertario en Cataluña, after several years of intense effort. For anybody who did not read my previous entry, the Equip Memoria was a three-man team, made up of Ru (from Ploma Negra), Victor (from Trinxera Memoria) and yours truly. [See translation of the article at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/dv43rr] As you now, Víctor passed on in April and in part the presentation was by way of a tribute paid to him. Moreover, his family was in attendance and that made the event all the more moving and gave us goosebumps on more than one occasion. Our thanks to Guiomar, Nil and Arán for sharing these difficult times with us and it was a pleasure meeting face to face and sharing a hug. Our thanks also go out to Sonia, Víctor’s friend and fellow activist, for sharing the platform with us and for the fine words she spoke about him.

Sticking to the event but with a slight change of tone, I should say that I was flabbergasted. The very first act in the event was the unveiling in the town of a moral created by Thor San, with the male and female members of A les Trinxeres having already dealt with the previous day’s unveiling unseen by us. The mural shows two women, a female guerrilla and a schoolteacher in the town of Tolva and I was flabbergasted to see that they had chosen to label it “Ni cautivos ni desarmadas”/ Neither Captive nor Disarmed (the general title for this blog). In short, I was swollen with pride and satisfaction.  

On now to today’s topic. I mentioned before that in all likelihood it would be either an addendum to the list of anarchists involved in the French Resistance, or a brief portrait of José María Villanueva Lecumberri aka Cerrada’s treasurer. I have plumped for the latter as I know that my friend Juancar Canino will be delighted by it.

Once again, as we sail through the sea of unknown stories, we run up against mistakes and difficulties when it comes to attempting to agree on the life courses of the folk we are aiming to rescue from oblivion.
José María Villanueva Lecumberri is a case in point. For one thing, the information we have managed to glean from the internet is flimsy, the most detailed outline being that provided by Rolf Dupuy on the Dictionnaire international des militants anarchistes website. We came up with two entries in the Enciclopedia del anarquismo iberico regarding him – one under Jose Maria Villaverde and another under Jose Villaverde Lecumberri, both referring to the same person.

The first problem we encounter as we travel his life story relates to his place of birth. Most sources mention Miedes (Zaragoza) – not to be confused with the Miedes where his pal Cerrada was born, the latter being Miedes de Atienza in Guadalajara. In his Enciclopedia, Miguel Iñíguez mentions a José María Villanueva born in Asturias, whilst the second entry for him mentions Miedes in Aragon. The confusion might be down – I imagine – to the resemblance between MieRes in Asturias and MieDes in Aragon. 

Luckily enough, we have a letter of his asking to be added to the list of those applying to migrate to Mexico, together with his wife Juanita: there he describes himself as an Asturian. But … more of those damned buts … the very same letter that clarifies his birthplace raises issues regarding the date. The usual birthday given for him is 13 January 1895, but in the letter in question (dated November 1940) José María claimed to be 39 years old, which creates a bit of a problem. 

Right now, as we have no birth certificate for him, the date still eludes us, but that is often the case with much of the information we cite. Antonio Téllez was correct in identifying the place of birth as Mieres, only to mention January 1895 as the date of birth. It all has to do with searching for persons long since deceased. But, moving on. 

Let us leap forwards into the 1920s. So far as we have managed to establish, Villanueva crossed into France in 1923, taking part in the incidents in Vera de Bidasoa in November 1924. In the course of those incidents, on the strength of rumours of a republican uprising, a 42-strong bunch of libertarians living in Iparralde (one of the French provinces of Euskadi), crossed the border bearing arms and headed for Vera de Bidasoa. There, they were stopped by a couple of Civil Guards, who must have miscalculated, as they were gunned down by the sizeable bunch. The ensuing manhunt after this incident left four revolutionaries dead and a further 27 wounded, with several of these being arrested. Villanueva managed to withdraw into France.

The next news we have of him relates to the part he played in the civil war. In the days after July 1936, José María popped up in Barcelona, meaning to join the fighting against the fascists. But, given his command of the French language and knowledge of the law, the CNT dispatched him to the embassy in Paris to assist with intelligence work. 

After the Republic lost the war, Villanueva belonged to the Spanish Libertarian Movement (MLE) in exile and he also began working with the SIA (International Antifascist Solidarity) agency, helping out refugees arriving in France.

Oddly enough, on 18 June 1939 he happened to be one of the people enjoying a day out on the banks of the river Marne along with Federica Montseny, Germinal Esgleas and a few others, when Mariano Rodríguez Vázquez aka Marianet – the general secretary of the CNT National Committee and the official head of the MLE at the time – lost his life. The official story is that Marianet drowned in the waters of the Marne. But the word is that Mariano was an outstanding swimmer. In spite of the witnesses who were there at the time, his death remains unclear.

So now we have José Villanueva living in Paris and – if we go by that letter written to the Mexican consulate – living at No 82, Rue Pierre Lescot. When he became acquainted with Laureano Cerrada, we do not know. We do know that Cerrada must have arrived in the French capital sometime between mid-1943 and early 1944. They were soon to become fast friends and worked hand in glove. Cerrada, the very definition of an illegalist, must have found that a fluent French-speaker who could deal adroitly with legal and bureaucratic issues suited him down to the ground.

When Paris was liberated, Cerrada – the MLE’s strong man in Paris and across the Northern Region – set about installing his records and personnel in the committees. Villanueva was soon signing things off as secretary for legal affairs.

And what sort of thing did that legal affairs secretariat handle? Allow me to offer a quick run-down of them and offer a summary of its activities between October 1946 and December 1947, with Villanueva at the wheel. 

Regularizing the legal status of persons arriving from Spain lawfully (in this case, upwards of 60 who arrived in Paris), plus updating their documents in the case of hundreds more, arranging changes of profession, permit extensions, etc.

Arranging and facilitating medical attention for exiles, putting them in touch with specialists and surgeons, providing information about dispensaries, solidarity centres, refugee aid agencies, etc.

Financial assistance and support for CNT prisoners, whether in hospitals or prison facilities. In respect of the latter, we have word of its supporting 18 comrades, the circumstances of whose detention entitled them to support from the Organization, with the following lawyers – Henri Torres, Marie Klotz and Suzanne Levy – being made available to them. But assistance was afforded, not only to prisoners, but also those on the run or in danger of expulsion from France.

30 male and female comrades wishing to return from Britain to France, but who had been refused the right of return by the French authorities, were helped. Thanks to the efforts of the secretariat and the mediation of influential persons, 15 of the 30 secured leave to remain in France. 

As for comrades arrested by the Vichy authorities in connection with resistance activity, 6 of them were successfully released prior to an amnesty law coming into effect.

The disabled and sick were provided with financial support.

Individuals arriving almost penniless were funded until they could find work in the city or its surrounding areas and put in touch with other regional committees in those areas where there might be labour shortages.

Legal assistance was supplied to comrades in respect of claims made on social security funds, whether due to sickness, work accidents or whatever.

Legal assistance was supplied with regard to securing placements in sanatoriums, given the large numbers of French citizens seeking such placements. In spite of which, 5 comrades were found placements.

Food parcels were supplied through the Red Cross and an American society to CNT prisoners held in Francoist prisons.

A report listed Spanish doctors and their services to exiles.

Blood tests and certain surgical operations were fully funded.

Police authorities and the Ministry of Labour were lobbied, ironing out all sorts of things, free of charge.

So much for what the report stated, but it needs saying that Villaverde was simultaneously overseeing the organizing of the so-called Paris Group, the clandestine side of the operation. Legalizing Cerrada’s businesses, looking for comrades with no problems with the law or who had sound Resistance records, for use as front men. Lawful acquisition of properties for his network of hotels and safe accommodation, in which not only did many of the group’s members live but so did lots of libertarians, either in Paris or closer to the Spanish border, where there was a need for safe housing for the transit of the libertarian guerrilla effort, the Mas Tartás base being the best known of such bases. Moving around huge sums of cash without drawing undue attention, sums earmarked either for property dealings as mentioned, or for the procurement of arms, of that US speedboat or the notorious Norecrin light aircraft used in the attempt to assassinate Franco in San Sebastián Bay in 1948. Indeed, when that plane was bought, they had to test fly it and Georges Fontenis, in whose name the purchase had been made (it had to be a French national) insisted that Cerrada and he make the flight together. Cerrada had never flown before and had no damned plans to do so, but he finally caved into the Frenchman’s insistence. Whereupon he sent for Villanueva and handed him a number of sealed envelopes before calling upon Antonio Ortiz to see to it that he would keep an eye on the man as well as the documents he had just been handed. They contained all of Cerrada’s secrets. Another task entrusted to Villanueva was the handling of Cerrada’s B accounts, the monies funnelled to, among others, Federica and Esgleas, through the Paris Group’s clandestine network, to cover the costs of all the folk working for the organization, be it as drivers, printers, couriers, search and recovery of weapons teams, etc. I am none too sure if Cerrada’s expropriator teams were paid on a commission basis – the way that Huet used to handle his armed robbery ventures – or were paid a basic wage. That is a question that would need to have been put to the likes of Juan Sánchez, José Bañón or José Villagrasa, but I doubt that they would have had a word to say on the subject, as security was the number one consideration.

Between late 1949 and January 1950, the MLE booted a fraction of the Paris Group out of the ranks of the CNT. One of those thrown out was Laureano Cerrada and there were also the comrades from the Passage Goix printworks who were arrested in May [1949]; so was José Villanueva, at a later date. Actually, the fact is that Villanueva agreed to stand down as suggested to him in September 1949, as he carried on offering legal support for those involved in the case and that did not go down very well with the more bureaucratic elements within the CNT movement, which was bringing a lot of pressure to bear. Villanueva’s departure from the legal affairs secretariat created a short-lived chaos within the section, because, even months afterwards, as is evident from the minutes, normal service had still not been restored.

Villanueva was also the one who saw to it that the disaster closing in on Cerrada and some of the team, did not affect Cerrada’s son, Floreal, and so he made contact with Luis Andrés Edo who put his shoulder to the wheel, joining with Lucio Urtubia to launch the Clichy Libertarian Youth in the 1950s, all three of them being active within that organization during Laureano’s time in prison.

José Villanueva remained active in the Paris CNT in the 1970s and right up until his death in January 1977.

Villanueva and Cerrada were life-long friends. 

El Salto, 29 June 2026 https://www.elsaltodiario.com/ni-cautivos-ni-desarmados/tesorero-amigo-cerrada-secretario-juridica-regional-parisina 

Translated by: Paul Sharkey.