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Spanish guerrilla fighter (1917–2004) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Florencio Pla Meseguer, known as La Pastora ("The Shepherdess") (Teresa Pla Meseguer; February 1, 1917 – January 1, 2004), was an intersex Spanish fighter in the Maquis, the anti-fascist guerrilla resistance during and after the Spanish Civil War. Born in the village of Vallibona, province of Castellón, Florencio became a symbol of defiance against both political oppression and rigid gender roles. His journey through the Maquis and his eventual legal recognition as a man after years of imprisonment represents a story of personal transformation and resistance.
Florencio was born as Teresa Pla Meseguer on February 1, 1917, in Vallibona, a remote village in the province of Castellón.[1] He was the youngest of seven siblings,[2] growing up in a small farmhouse known as Mas de la Pallissa, inherited from his grandfather.[3] Life was hard, and at a young age, Florencio began working with the family's livestock, tending sheep and goats.[4] Due to his remote upbringing, he received little formal education, attending school briefly just long enough to take his First Communion.[3]
Florencio's intersex condition became a significant factor in the decisions made about his future.[1] A family friend, aware of the potential difficulties Florencio might face in fulfilling military service due to his physical condition, advised his father to have him registered as female in the civil registry.[3] As a result, Florencio was officially named Teresa Pla Meseguer, a decision that would shape much of his life and identity. Despite being assigned female at birth and being socially forced to wear women's clothing, Florencio always identified more closely with male roles.[3] He also displayed very masculine behavior and, especially after puberty, developed a distinctly masculine appearance. Initially, he was called Teresot ('big Tereso') behind his back, but in later years, before joining the Maquis, people began addressing him as Teresot openly, and he no longer took offense.[5]
Florencio's first encounters with the Maquis, the resistance fighters against Franco's dictatorship, took place while he was living in the mountains. Although he had been largely isolated from the political struggles of the time, he occasionally interacted with Maquis fighters who passed through the area.[3] A turning point came when, during a snowstorm, three Maquis fighters sought refuge in a remote summer house, El Cabanil. The Civil Guard tracked them down and burned the house.[3]
On the morning of the burning, the Civil Guard, having learned of Florencio's intersex condition and driven by nothing more than their curiosity, subjected him to a humiliating encounter, forcing him to strip, as at this point they had no reason to suspect he had any involvement with the Maquis.[6] As Florencio recounted,
“Tenien curiositat per saber com una pastora era meitat home i meitat dona. [...] El «teniente Mangas» va fer cas omís de totes les regles i em van fer despullar, em van fer emportar fins que van assaciar la seua curiositat. I quan van acabar, em van dir: «bueno, a hacer bondad». I vaig sentir molta ràbia, molta impotència.”[3]
"They were curious to see how a shepherdess could be half man and half woman. [...] 'Lieutenant Mangas' ignored all protocol and made me undress until their curiosity was satisfied. When they finished, they said, 'Well, behave yourself.' I felt such rage, such impotence."
The following day, the Civil Guard arrested the owner of El Cabanil. Fearing that he, too, would face reprisals, Florencio fled.[3] This series of events left him with a deep sense of rage and injustice, prompting him to join the Maquis as both a political statement and a way to align with his own identity, fully embracing a male role within the resistance. In his own words:
Jo ja havia volgut presentar-me a la guerra voluntari, amb els rojos, per veure si em podia fer amb la documentació d'home, perquè jo anava pel carrer i tots deien: mira, si pareix un home.[3]
"I had already wanted to volunteer for the war, with the Reds, to see if I could get male documentation, because when I walked down the street, everyone would say: look, she looks like a man."
Upon joining the Maquis in 1949, at the age of 32, Florencio started dressing as a man, cut his hair in a masculine style combed back, and took on the alias Durruti in honor of the legendary anarchist leader, Buenaventura Durruti.[7] 'La Pastora' is the alias given to him by the Civil Guard and the press, and, consequently, it became the name by which the public would know him.[8] Although some sources mistakenly label him as a leader,[9] he clarified that his role was more modest.[3] He was required to complete three months of military training before beginning his operations as a maqui.[10]
He joined the guerrillas of the XXIII Sector of the Agrupación Guerrillera de Levante y Aragón (AGLA), led by Jesús Caelles Aymerich, known as Carlos el Catalán. During the endless hours in the camp, José González López, known as Rubén, taught him to read, while Francisco Serrano Iranzo, known as Francisco, helped shape his ideological orientation. In return, Florencio taught them how to survive in the region he knew like the back of his hand.[11]
He spent twenty months with the Maquis, but as the situation grew increasingly dire and they feared for their lives, they set out for France.[3] However, he never made it there and stayed in Andorra, working as a shepherd. To support himself, he also engaged in small-scale smuggling (tobacco and nylon) but was eventually apprehended in 1960 after being betrayed by a former associate.[3]
Following his capture, Florencio was handed over to Spanish authorities, who charged him with crimes he did not commit. He explained that several murders attributed to him were actually the work of another guerrilla named Cinctorres. Due to ongoing propaganda and misreporting, he faced two separate trials, receiving a 40-year sentence in one and, initially, the death penalty in the other, which was later commuted to 30 years.[3]
Due to his legal status as a woman, Florencio was initially placed in a women's prison, causing considerable personal distress, as he had to wear women's clothing again and was isolated.[3] But this situation didn’t last long, because a few days later, he was presented before the forensic doctors at the Military Hospital in the Valencia Police Station. They reported that Teresa Pla Meseguer, La Pastora, was, in fact, a man whose "defective" genital condition classified him as a case of 'male pseudohermaphroditism.'[12] Transcript of the report:
Primera.— El individuo reconocido pertenece al sexo masculino.
Segunda.— La constitución de sus órganos genitales es defectuosa, presentando un hipospadias perineal y un escroto bífido que, junto a las reducidas dimensiones del pene, hacen que sea clasificable entre los casos de pseudohermafroditismo masculino.
Tercera.— Dado su sexo gonadal, no debe ser recluido en la cárcel de mujeres por ser peligrosa su convivencia con individuos del sexo contrario al suyo.[13]
First.— The individual in question belongs to the male sex.
Second.— The constitution of his genital organs is defective, presenting a perineal hypospadias and a bifid scrotum, which, along with the reduced size of the penis, make him classifiable among cases of male pseudohermaphroditism.
Third.— Given his gonadal sex, he should not be confined in a women's prison due to the danger of cohabiting with individuals of the opposite sex.
Thus Florencio was transferred to a men's prison, where he worked and served out his sentence while legally still female but medically recognized as male.[14] In 1977, after nearly two decades of exemplary conduct in prison, Florencio was released with the assistance of the prison officer Marino Vinuesa Hoyos.[3]
After his release, he underwent a legal process to have his identity officially recognized as male and his name changed from Teresa to Florencio, receiving his official documentation as a man on March 25, 1980.[15] Returning to Vallibona, he was met with acceptance and support from local residents.[16] Despite the hardships he faced, Florencio's life story, marked by resilience in the face of gendered prejudice and political strife, continues to resonate as a symbol of defiance and self-determination in the struggle against oppressive regimes and societal norms.
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