Pedro Calvo Calvo

Aragonese basketmaker, railway worker, anarcho-syndicalist and anti-fascist fighter. His four siblings, Isidro, Andrés, José and Jesús, were all members of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). In 1927, he was a member of an anarchist group and, with the proclamation of the Second Republic, he joined the CNT in Jaca. Leaning the trade of basketmaking, he was able to travel the region, distributing anarchist literature alongside his baskets. In July 1932, he began working for the Ferrocarril del Nord and 2 years later joined the timber workers union. When Jaca fell into Franco's hands, he was able to cross into France and from there he made his way to Barcelona. There, he joined the 25th Division, fighting on the Aragon front. Later in the 130th Brigade, he worked in supplies and fought as a sapper in the area of Huesca (Olivan, Broto) and was a quatermaster in the 176th Brigade. Exiled in France at the end of the war, he was interned in the camp at Septfonds and, in September 1939, he was sent with the Compagnie de travailleurs to the mines at Gravan. In 1940, he was confined in the internement camps at Argelés, Bram and again at Argelés. Requisitioned to work in Germany, he managed to escape in July 1941 and then participated in the anti-Nazi resistance. After the war, he worked as a forester in various places (Arbusol, Illas, Canet, Perpignan, etc.) and belonged to the MLE in exile in Perpignan. He lived with Adelina, a nurse whom he had met on the Aragon front. He also collaborated on 'Tierra y Libertad' and was the author of 'Un arrancapinos de la provincia de Huesca' (A small man from Huesca province; 1987 & 1991, revised and enlarged) and 'La sociedad liberal y sus contradicciones' (The liberal society and its contradictions; 1987).

Pedro Calvo Calvo died on November 14, 1992 in Perpignan (Roussillon, Northern Catalonia) and was cremated in Canet.