Aquilino Moral Menéndez

Spanish metalworker, miner, committed vegetarian and anarcho-syndicalist member of the CNT, later joining POUM and, subsequently, the UGT, before rejoining the clandestine CNT after the Falangist victory.

On August 5 – according to the death certificate on August 10 – of 1893 was born in La Felguera (Langreo, Asturias, Spain) the anarcho-syndicalist Aquilino Moral Menendez, known as Quilo, who used the pseudonyms of Mario Guzmán and Teócrito. His parents were called Dionisio Moral and Segunda Menéndez. It was the fifth child of a marriage made up of a worker of the Factory Duro-Felguera and his first companion, from which he He will soon be widowed; Although his father remarries twice, giving him two Sisters more of his last wife. When I had 10 years to work searching for coal in the debris, two years later He was a paddler apprentice and with 15 years entered from the hand of his father in Duro-Felguera to do worker work metallurgical. It is part of the Center Worker "Justice", where in 1911, with José María Martínez Sánchez, He founded the Trade Unionist Group. He was also a member of the Workers' Association of Gijón (Asturias, Spain).

After the failure of the strike of 1912, he was fired from Duro-Felguera and, to avoid the retaliation, with a false name was put to work in the mine, but I could then return to the his work in the factory. Following the August General Strike of 1917 was imprisoned in Laviana (Asturias, Spain). That same year He criticized hard in the anarchist newspaper Tierra and Freedom the creation by Laureano Piñeira, Secretary of the Confederation the Trending Metallurgists anarchist, of the political grouping Group Parliamentary Unionist (GSP) who stood for election Municipalities in Gijón. He usually collaborates in the El Noroeste newspaper Gijón. In 1918 in the newspaper Solidaridad Obrera strongly criticized the line Union of Socialists. In 1919 he helped other companions (Avelino González Mallada and José María Martínez Sánchez) to find work That same year he was appointed the National Confederation of Labour (CNT) from Asturias to Congress National (Congress of the Comedy") to be held in Madrid (Spain). In 1920 He participated as a delegate of La Felguera in the I Congress of the CNT of Asturias that He celebrated in Oviedo. That same year he was administrator of the newspaper anarchist of La Felguera The Communist and presided over the Metal Union of this population of the CNT.

At this time He contributed, under the pseudonym Teócrito, the anarchist magazine Tierra y Libertad. In 1923 he was a delegate to the Regional Congress of Asturias of the CNT and was one of the founders of the Ateneu Obrer de La Felguera, inaugurated on 16 of September 1924. In 1931 he was one of the organizers, with Benjamin Escobar, Marcelino Magdalena, José Prieto and others, from the core Asturian of the Workers' Bloc and Peasant (BOC) and in October of that year he was appointed vice president of the "El Horreo" Association. After actively participating in the Revolution of October 1934, he was one of the organizers of the Workers' Party of Unification Marxist (POUM) of Asturias and contributed, under the pseudonym Mario Guzmán, to his organ of expression The Battle and in Tribune Socialist. On January 10, 1937, he was elected president the Union Asturian Metallurgical Worker (SOMA) the General Workers' Union (UGT). In 1937, after the fall of the northern front, it was arrested and imprisoned for the Francoist army in Burgos (Castille, Spain). In 1941 achieved the provisional release and was integrated into the underground CNT, of which was Secretary of the Regional Committee. Between 1960 and 1970 Participate in the attempt of the creation of the Spanish Trade Union Alliance (ASE). In 1965 he represented Asturias in a clandestine plenary of regional confederals.

In 1968 He was in charge of transportation of propaganda between Langreo and Gijón. Participate actively in various workers' organizations, such as the Unified Fund for Workers' Solidarity of Asturias (FUSOA), the Revolutionary Communes of Socialist Action (CRAS), the USO Solidarity Committee, the Cultural Society "Gesto" of Gijón, the Committee of Solidarity and Struggle of Asturias (CSLA), etc. The 6 of March 1975 was interviewed by historian Ronald Fraser for his study Recuérdalo tú y remember to others. History oral of the Spanish Civil War (1979). The 26 In August 1976, he presided over the first legal rally of the CNT in the Sala de Festes Manacor The Felguera after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco and in 1977 was appointed Vice President of the CNT of the Nalón valley. We find articles in different publications, such as Acción Libertaria, The Battle, Trade Unionism and La Voz de Asturias. Weeks before his death, he still distributed pamphlets in the doors of the factories. Vegetarian convinced, Aquilino Moral Menéndez died on February 16, 1979 at his home in La Felguera (Langreo, Asturias, Spain) and its burial, in the Municipal Cemetery of Pando of this town, constituted one Impressive manifestation of mourning attended Almost all of them Workers' organizations in the region.

Posthumously, in October 2003, the Athenian Obrer de Gijón published his short story autobiographical under the title Mis Memories. Correspondence is deposited in the International Institute of Social History Amsterdam and the cards he will cross with Joaquín Maurín Juliá between 1959 and 1972 are in the University of California Archive (USA).