Mercedes Comaposada

Mercedes Comaposada

Mercedes Comaposada Guillén , in Catalan Mercè Comaposada i Guillén (born August 14, 1901 in Barcelona , † February 11, 1994 in Paris ) was a Spanish educator , journalist , translator , anarchist and syndicalist . She was one of the founders of the feminist organization Mujeres Libres .

Life

Mercedes Comaposada was the daughter of Josep Comaposada, an active socialist and shoemaker. She grew up in an environment that was shaped by the labor movement . At a young age she started working as an editor in the film industry . Shortly thereafter, she joined the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT).

Comaposada studied law and education in Madrid . Her lecturers included Antonio Machado and José Castillejo . She met Lucía Sánchez Saornil , with whom she developed the idea of ​​founding a specific organization for women within the libertarian movement. The reason for this was the sexism that was rampant within the movement .

During the Second Spanish Republic she gave training courses for workers organized by the CNT. She wrote regularly for the newspaper of the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) Tierra y Libertad and Tiempos Nuevos , where she had a column on health and sexuality.

First edition of Mujeres Libres

In April 1936, Comaposada finally founded the feminist organization Mujeres Libres together with Lucía Sánchez Saornil and Amparo Poch y Gascón , which from then on had an impact on the Spanish libertarian movement alongside the CNT, the FAI and the Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertarias (FIJL). During the Social Revolution and the Spanish Civil War , around 28,000 women joined the organization by 1938.

In May 1936 the first edition of the newspaper Mujeres Libres appeared . Comaposada was the editor-in-chief. The authors included Lucía Sánchez Saornil, Carmen Conde , Federica Montseny and Emma Goldman . The only man working for the newspaper was the graphic artist Baltasar Lobo .

After the defeat in the civil war in early 1939, Comaposada and her companion Baltasar Lobo went into exile in Paris, where they were protected by Pablo Picasso during the Second World War . She then worked for Picasso as a secretary and representative of her husband's artistic work. She also translated numerous Spanish authors, especially Lope de Vega . From the 1960s and 70s she wrote again for Mujeres Libres , Tierra y Libertad , Tiempos Nuevos and other newspapers such as Ruta and Umbral .

Mercedes Comaposada died in Paris on February 11, 1994.

factories

• Esquemas. 1937.
• Las mujeres en nuestra revolución. 1937.
• La ciencia en la mochila. 1938.
• Conversaciones con los artistas españoles de la Escuela de París. 1960 (as Mercedes Guillén ).
• Picasso. 1973 (as Mercedes Guillén ).

literature

• Miguel Ìñiguez: Esbozo de una Enciclopedia histórica del anarquismo español . FAL, Madrid 2001, ISBN 84-86864-45-3 , p. 158.
• Lola Iturbe : La mujer en la lucha social y en la Guerra Civil de España. Tierra de Fuego - La Malatesta 2012, ISBN 978-84-938306-3-2 , pp. 143-157.
• Silke Lohschelder (Ed.): AnarchaFeminismus. On the trail of a utopia . Unrast Verlag, Münster 2000, ISBN 3-89771-200-8 , pp. 116-133.