Mariano R. Vázquez
Spanish trade unionist (1909-1939) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Mariano Rodríguez Vázquez[lower-alpha 1] (1909 – 18 June 1939), popularly known by his nickname Marianet[lower-alpha 2], was a Catalan anarcho-syndicalist politician that served as Secretary General of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) during the Spanish Civil War.
Mariano R. Vázquez | |
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Secretary General of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo | |
In office 18 November 1936 (1936-11-18) – 10 February 1939 (1939-02-10) | |
Preceded by | Horacio Prieto |
Succeeded by |
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Personal details | |
Born | Mariano Rodríguez Vázquez 1909 (1909) Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain |
Died | 18 June 1939(1939-06-18) (aged 29–30) La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Seine-et-Marne, France |
Citizenship | Spanish |
Nationality | Catalan |
Political party | Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) |
Profession | Bricklayer |
Signature | |
Nickname | Marianet |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Spanish Republic |
Battles/wars | Spanish Civil War |
Born into a working class Calé family in Barcelona, his mother died while he was young and his father subsequently abandoned him. He spent his teenage years in poverty and frequently in prison, where he first found connection with the Spanish anarchist movement and learnt how to read and write. After his release, he joined the construction union of the CNT and began writing for its newspaper Solidaridad Obrera, getting involved in a debate on anarchist feminism with Lucía Sánchez Saornil that culminated in the establishment of the Mujeres Libres.
Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Vázquez became the CNT's secretary general, a position from which he was a leading advocate for anarchist collaboration with the Republican government. In the wake of the May Days, his positions on collaboration and military discipline drew criticism from parts of the anarchist movement, which questioned his loyalty to the government of Juan Negrín. After the victory of the Nationalist forces, Vázquez fled to France, where he organised aid for Spanish refugees and the transfer of the CNT's archives to the International Institute of Social History. He also entered into a polemical exchange with Emma Goldman, who had supported him throughout the war but now questioned whether he had been "duped" by Negrín and the Communists. Vázquez himself held that the Republican defeat had been due to a lack of support from Western democracies, and that the CNT had been premature to pursue revolution before winning the war.
Vázquez drowned in the Marne river in June 1939. His memory quickly became a target for anarchist critics of collaborationism, who held him personally responsible for the collapse of the Revolution. Allegations of moral and political corruption were made against him, sometimes infused with anti-Romani sentiment. In the 21st century, he has been cited together with Helios Gómez as a notable example of Romani participation in the leadership of the Spanish anarchist movemenet.