On this day, 23 November 1913, during the Mexican Revolution, Margarita Ortega, a schoolteacher, sharpshooter and anarchist was executed by the counterrevolutionary government of Victoriana Huerta.
Two years earlier, Ortega and her daughter left her partner saying “I love you; but I also love those who suffer, and for them I fight and risk my life. I don’t want to see more men and women giving their effort, their health, their intelligence, their future to make the bourgeoisie rich. I don’t want there to be men who order around other men any more”. They threw themselves into organising and fighting in the turbulent events of the revolution.
After her arrest four days earlier Ortega was tortured but refused to name any for comrades, shouting “Cowards! Tear my skin to pieces, break my bones, drink all of my blood, and I will never denounce one of my friends”.
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