Antonio Moreno Ronchas

Antonio Moreno Ronchas was born on October 1, 1910 in Medina de Rioseco. He was the third of 13 brothers and when he had only four years the whole family emigrated to Paris. His father, a libertarian and antimilitarist, joined the CGTSR (French libertarian trade union center). Thus, in 1925 Antonio was able to meet Durruti in his Parisian exile. In 1930, at the age of 20, he returned to Valladolid with the intention of doing military service, but his father deterred him. He returned to Paris and was working for the French Basque Country and Castellón. Because of his vindicative spirit he was often dismissed from many jobs.

At the outbreak of the civil war in 1936, while his brothers Isidoro and Lázaro fought, in the Durruti Column and in a communist unit, respectively, Antonio Moreno fought from the first moment in San Sebastian in the confederal militias of Guipúzcoa, first in San Sebastian (in the taking of the hotels, in the cemetery of Polloe and around the Loyola barracks) and, later, in the Confederal militias of Guipúzcoa When Irún fell, it was one of those that passed to Hendaya and from there to Barcelona. It was enlisted in the “Red and Black”, where it opposed the militarization that would later make it the 28 Division. He was in the 3rd battalion of the 127th Mixed Brigade and then as a chauffeur in the 4th battalion of the 4th Transport Company.

When the war was lost, he managed to reach France. His knowledge of the language, the country and his geography served him and other refugees to escape the concentration camps as soon as the occasion came. Still, he spent some time in the fields of Barcarès and Bram. Faced with the Nazi threat, he enlisted in the 3rd Battalion of Foreigners and was destined for the Middle East (Syria and Lebanon).

The armistice of Pétain returned him to France and headed to Brest, where much labor was needed to build the German submarine bases. There he helped to escape Spaniards sentenced to forced labor, which meant being arrested by the Gestapo. The judge’s benevolence soon freed him from greater evils. After the liberation of France, Antony devoted himself mainly to propaganda in the F.L. of CNT in the Exile of Saint-Denis (Paris).

In the 60's it was related to Vallisoletan emigrants arrived in France, trying to associate them in the French CNT. In May '68 he tried to win over the most radical young people in order to impress a more libertarian bias to the student mobilizations. After Franco’s death and following the example of his father, the main promoter of the Riosean CNT, he tried to open a CNT premises in Medina de Rioseco, but then he did not find people willing.

The last twenty years of his life he lived in Benquet and Tartas (Las Landas), from where he developed an intense propaganda campaign to denounce in the media and various official instances the barbaric fascist repression in his hometown: A total of 155 Rioseans were shot and 37 others “disappeared”. One of the first killed was his father Antonio Moreno Fernández, founder of the CNT during the Republic. Three other relatives of his were also shot. His remains are supposed to rest on Mount Torozos. At this stage he contacted the companions of the FL of Valladolid and with whom this he writes.

In May 2004, his wife Lorenza Ronchas Martín, also a rioscana with several murdered relatives (her parents and older sister, socialists) died. The fellow Valladolid paid tribute to him in the cemetery of Medina on December 1, 2004, when the niche that contained his ashes was deposited in the family niche.

Comrade Antonio could not be present, but he was excited when he was informed by the comrades of Valladolid about the details of the act and when he was able to read the text of the speech delivered on that occasion. He was impressed to such an extent to claim a similar funeral for himself. Not for the sake of prominence, but because it considered that it would be an occasion that should not be lost to remember the Riosecans, once again, the sacrifice of a generation of fellow citizens who dreamed, fought and died for the supreme libertarian Ideal and for the general welfare.

The comrade Antonio bequeathed, to his death, by a testament olographer before a notary, all his assets to the CNT of Valladolid, in the hope that, through propaganda and union action, a confederal and libertarian nucleus will be formed in his beloved native town in the future. How much we would all like this last will of yours to be fulfilled soon!