Jesús Guillén Bertolín

Jesus Guillen Bertlin was a student at the industrial school in Barcelona and then studied painting and decoration for six years at the School of Fine Arts. Since 1931, he was a member of the CNT and especially of the Jeunesses libertaires (FIJL) and attended diligently the Ateneo libertaire of the Plaza de la Concordia. In the early 1930’s, he drew notably for Solidaridad obrera and Guerra a la guerra.

During the Francoist coup d’état of July 1936, he joined the Revolutionary Committee of the district of Las Corts, of which in 1937 he was appointed secretary. Then he was a soldier in the 26th Division (Column “Durruti”). Injured in Monteoscuro, he then joined the 28th Division on the Madrid front. At the end of the war, he was in Extremadura and after a journey through Villajoyosa, Valencia and Barcelona, he managed to pass through France where he was interned in the camps of Agde and Saint-Cyprien. In December 1939, he had been enlisted in a group of workers as a farm worker in the vineyards. At the end of 1940, he had won Marseille hoping to embark for Mexico and participated in an exhibition of which he won the first prize. Having failed to embark, he won Bram in 1941, participated in the clandestine reorganization of the CNT in the Aude and of which he assumed the secretariat.

At the Liberation he was appointed secretary of the Regional No. 1 (Aude, Hérault, Pyrénées-Orientales, Gard, Lozère) whose headquarters were in Montpellier and gathered at the beginning of 1946 about 4200 members; the other members of the Regional Committee were Aurelio Martinez (vice-secretary), Enrique Batet (treasurer), Patricio Guijarro (press and propaganda), Antonio Sala (coordination)Osoc Srabi, In 1945, he tried to reconstruct the CNT of the Las Corts district in exile. At the end of 1946, with his partner Sara Berenguer, he moved to Béziers where he worked as a painter decorator and drew for many newspapers of the libertarian exile. He also participated in the making of false papers for companions who went clandestinely to Spain, which earned him arrest in 1963.

In 1965, he attended the CNT congress in Montpellier before being excluded that same year. He then joined the Grupos de Presencia Confederal, linked to the newspaper Frente libertario, and of which he was a member of the secretariat alongside Acracio Ruiz. He was also very active at the Colonia español de Béziers where he organized several exhibitions and of which he was secretary (1982-1983).

Jesus Guillen Bertolin, who testified in R's film Otro Futuro. Prost and was then a member of the Spanish CGT died on 20th at least 1999 in Montady.

Work : In addition to the illustration of several book and brochure covers (F. Alaie, Victor Garcia, S. Jesus Guillen was also the author of the illustrations and strips of the newspapers Ruta, Boletín interior FIJL, CNT, Solidaridad obrera, Mujeres libres. He also collaborated with Tribuna confederal y libertaria, Ruta (Caracas), Mujeres libres (London & Montady), and Frente Liberario, among others.