Flora Sanhueza Rebolledo

Chilean teacher, anarchist and social activist, who founded the Ateneo Libertario Luisa Michel in her home city of Iquique in 1947. A life-long anarchist activist, she travelled to Spain in 1935 and took part in the social revolution during the Civil War. Following the fascist victory, she fled to France, where she remained as a political prisoner until 1942. She returned to Chile and, inspired by libertarians ateneos of the earlier part of the century, she founded Ateneo Libertario Luisa Michel in Iquique to "address the needs of female weavers". Given the fact that this was during the dictatorship of Gabriel Gonzalez Videla and the fascist persecution of anarchists and communists, much of her work virtually took place in hiding. In 1953 it opened its door to children of working women too, changing its name to the Escuela Libertaria Luisa Michel. At its peak, it had more than 70 regular students, but it closed its doors in 1957.

Flora was arrested and  tortured at the Pisagua concentration camp by the fascist regime of Augusto Pinochet. Placed under house arrest, she subsequently died as a result of the injuries she had sustained. Her son was also arrest and underwent torture.