Mariano R. Vázquez
Spanish trade unionist (1909-1939) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 who served as Secretary General of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) during the Spanish Civil War.
Mariano R. Vázquez | |
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![]() Vázquez in 1936 | |
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 | ![]() |
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 was often imprisoned. There, he first found connection with the Spanish anarchist movement and learnt to read and write. After his release, he joined the construction union of the CNT and began writing for its newspaper Solidaridad Obrera, where he debated anarchist feminism with Lucía Sánchez Saornil. Sánchez Saornil's criticisms of Vázquez's views on gender equality led her to establish the Mujeres Libres organisation.
Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Vázquez was elected the CNT's secretary general, becoming a leading advocate for anarchist collaboration with the Republican government. After the May Days, his support for collaboration and military discipline drew criticism from parts of the anarchist movement, which condemned his continued 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 had a heated exchange with Emma Goldman, who, after supporting him during the war, questioned whether he had been "duped" by Negrín and the Communist Party of Spain, whom anarchists blamed for the Republican defeat. Vázquez held that the defeat was from insufficient support from Western democracies, and that the CNT had been premature in pursuing revolution before winning the war.
Vázquez drowned in the Marne river in June 1939. His memory soon became a target for anarchist critics of collaborationism, who held him personally responsible for the revolution's collapse. Allegations of moral and political corruption were made against him, sometimes infused with anti-Romani sentiment. In the 21st century, he has been cited as a notable example of Romani participation in the leadership of the Spanish anarchist movement.