Pedro Fernández Eleta

Pedro Fernández Eleta. known as el taxista (the taxi-driver) was born in Torneros (Leon) on 29 June 1919 and died in Zaragoza on 29 August 2006. The son of a railwayman, he was one of nine brothers and step-brothers, his father having remarried after the death of his first wife. They lived in the “Los Chiflaos” district between San José and Torrero and Pedro worked there as a baker and later as a mechanic. On 19 July 1936, with the sound of shooting coming from the streets surrounding the San Blas barracks in the city centre he and his brother Cándido handed out leaflets in the Plaza de la Independencia calling for a general strike.

For two months they went to ground in Zaragoza, watching as batch after batch of prisoners was hauled away to Valdespartera to be shot and as the corpses of others, riddled by fascist bullets, bobbed up in the Imperial Canal. Among those killed was his brother, the machinist Luis Fernández Quilez.

On 30 September 1936 a ten man CNT team - Pedro and Cándido Fernández, Ángel Marín, Ángel Cebrián, Francisco Sanclemente Bernal, Ramón Maza and Santiago “el autobuserico” among them - armed with two pistols and a revolver , embarked on a risky bid to escape into the republican zone, following the railway tacks from Utrillas and making for Fuendetodos. The reached Fuendetodos the next day after coming under machinegun fire from Carlist troops and thanks to a CNT-FAI team that ventured out into the open ground to meet them. Among their rescuers was Francisco Fuster from the Valdealgorfa CNT (Teruel) who died in 2003. After their wounds had been tended and their feet, cut to pieces by the walk from Azuara, had been sorted out, they moved on to Lécera and thence to Alcañiz where they made a report on the situation inside Zaragoza. There, Pedro joined the Regeneración centuria which later became the first Confederal Regiment.

At the suggestion of the Aragonese centurias of Saturnino Carod and Durruti, some 300 militians were trained in La Puebla de Híjar in preparation for a guerrilla raid into Zaragoza; this was vetoed by the high command, in favour of classical positional warfare and a campaign of frontal attacks that were to squander all hope of military victory on the Aragon front.

With the imposition of militarisation, Pedro quit the front and left for Barcelona, whereas his brother Cándido joined No 2 Company, 2nd Battalion, 25th (Ortiz) Division as a lieutenant and died in action at the age of 27 in the failed offensive against Zaragoza (August 1937) known as the battle of Belchite, perishing in the slaughter occasioned by the attempt to capture Monte Sillero.

Meanwhile, Pedro shuttled between all of the battlefronts as a driver with the baggage train that had become the CNT transport battalion. He shuttled between Barcelona and Madrid, distributing the Durruti Column newspaper El Combatiente del Este, escorting two French reporters to the battle of Teruel, ferrying supplies to the troops from Mora during the battle of the Ebro and even after the retreat from Catalonia he stayed with his lorry, loading it up with refugees and driving them over the border to France. He was then interned in the camps at Agde, Saint Cyprien and Argelès-sur-Mer. He was drafted from the camp into a work squad to work on the construction of a gunpowder plant in Saint Librade (Haute Garonne). Deported by train as far as Figueras, the entire convoy was handed over to the Civil Guard. Pedro served time in the La Corbonera, Miranda de Ebro and Valdenocada (Burgos) concentration camps before finishing up in the Torrero prison in Zaragoza where he faced a court martial that condemned him to death, although this was commuted to a 30 year prison term. After serving almost three years in jail, he was released on licence and was assigned to No 35 Disciplinary Battalion, performing hard labour on the building of an airport rail link. In the end he was forced into three years’ compulsory military service in Jaca.

In 1977 he and a group of elderly CNT militants travelled up to Toulouse where they took part in a rally, meeting up again with comrades that they had not seen for decades. 

Pedro was an active participant in the rebuilding of the Aragonese CNT as a militant with the Transport, General Trades and Pensioners’ Union.

The journalist Ricardo Vázquez Prada used part of Pedro’s story as the basis for a novel published in 2005 [Los inocentes de Ginel]. Set during the civil war, it is located in the Aragon where Pedro was active as a militian for the CNT.

Raul Mateo Otal (CNT Huesca)

From CNT (Madrid ) No 328 (November 2006) See https://aragon-rioja.cnt.es/en-memoria-del-companero-pedro-fernandez-eleta/

Translated by: Paul Sharkey.