On this day, 24 November 1916, Concha Liaño, Spanish revolutionary feminist, was born in France. Joining an anarchist group aged 15, her mother beat her to get her to stop attending meetings, however her father told her mother to stop as Concha was “far more intelligent than” them.
Liaño was a leading member of Mujeres Libres (Free Women), a women’s group within the anarchist CNT union, to which some male union members were hostile. Liaño later recounted: “Now many years later we are accepted. Machismo, then as now, was as if genetic. That was the mentality then.”
Liaño played an active role in the Spanish civil war and revolution, then after its defeat escaped a French concentration camp and supported the underground resistance. She subsequently moved to Venezuelan and worked for the Maracaibo airline, living until the age of 97.
Learn more about the Spanish civil war in our podcast episodes 39-40: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e39-the-spanish-civil-war-an-introduction/ https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1861136914071450/?type=3