Julia Hermosilla Sagredo, “Paquita” (1916-2009)

At the beginning of the Civil War, she enlisted as a militiawoman in one of the anarchist battalions and was sent to the Otxandio front (Vizcaya). She was then entrusted with the mission of going into rebel territory to rescue Dr. Isaac Puente, but unfortunately, he ended up being arrested and shot before she could even rescue him. Then, on 22 July 1936 began the bombing of Otxandio, killing 61 people on the first day in what is considered to be the first European Guernica. As a result of the bombing, which did not stop until the fall of the city, her eardrums were sclerosed and she was deaf for some time.

In spite of this, she never ceased to be involved in libertarian culture, and in 1937 she began cooperating with the Grupo Artístico Confederal of Santurtzi (Artistic Alliance Group of Santurtzi). When Euskadi fell into the hands of the fascists, she managed to escape with her family and they set out on the road to exile to France. After two months there, she came back to continue fighting from Catalonia and joined the war front.

When Catalonia fell, she went back into exile, crossing the Pyrenees and going through different refugee camps. After the end of the Second World War, she went back to Bayona to reunite with Julián Ángel Aransáez and pursued her political engagement with the CNE from a more “collaborative” perspective, cooperating with the Government of the Republic in Exile.

As for her involvement in the fight against Franco, she liaised with Home affairs on various missions in Spain. In 1948, together with a group led by Laureano Cerrada, she took part in an attempted anarchist-led attack to kill the dictator. Their plan was to bomb Franco’s yacht, the Astor, from the air using a plane bought in France.

Laureano realised that it would not be easy to attack their target on the road or to mine El Pardo. Any of these projects would have required a great deal of preparation, money and manpower, none of which they had. Moreover, Franco was under tight surveillance and it was impossible to get to him. The only way that occurred to them to overcome these obstacles was to attack from the only place that was unprotected: the air.

Franco was in San Sebastian, where we had gone to attend the second day of the regatta. Thousands of people gathered around La Concha beach, eager not to miss the show. The anarchists had been planning the magnicide for months. Their cover was a travel agency that had been created especially for that purpose under the name Empresa de Transportes de Galícia. It was supposed to operate as a transport company and it even managed to make some profits.

Cerrada found an aircraft dealer in Paris and he bought the Nord 1202-Norécrin II aircraft, with a maximum speed of 280 kilometres per hour. On one of the trips that the company organised to San Sebastián, Cerrada’s henchmen took a close look at La Concha beach and drew a plan of the outworks. Although the police ended up dissolving the company for suspicious activities, the mission to kill the dictator was not aborted. Nevertheless, when the day of the attack came, all their meticulous preparation was to no avail. They came within a hair’s breadth of exploding the device and bombing the Astor with incendiary bombs and shrapnel. What happened was that, at the last moment, the anarchists were surprised by military aircraft from the Air Force which made them desist.

Afterwards, Julia still continued to be involved in the struggle against the dictatorship. During the 1970s, together with Julián Ángel, she joined the group that published the newspaper Frente Libertario and attended the annual meetings that they held in Narbonne. After Franco’s death, she helped rebuild the CNT in the Basque Country. On 10 November 2001, her companion Angel Aransáez passed away in Anglet (Basque Country), where they lived. On 18 June 2006 she received a tribute in Artxanda together with other anti-Francoist fighters.

Julia Hermosilla died on 10 January 2009 at the Hospital de la Côte Basque of Bayona (Basque Country) at the age of 92. Her testimony was collected in Aitor Azurki’s book Maizales bajo la lluvia. Testimonios de los últimos gudaris y milicianos de la Guerra Civil en Euskadi (2011) in which she recounts her adventurous life and defines herself as “always a rebel, always CNT, always Aransaez”.

Transcript

Julia Hermosilla Sagredo, known as “Paquita,” dedicated her life to resistance against the Franco regime and the reconstruction of the CNT, an anarcho-syndicalist labor union, in post-war Spain. Born in 1916 in Sestao, Basque Country, she inherited a leftist spirit from her parents and became involved with the CNT at the age of 14. Her activism led her to participate in various resistance activities, from aiding politically persecuted peasants to serving as a militiawoman during the Spanish Civil War. Despite facing exile and hardship, she remained steadfast in her commitment to freedom aiding Spanish republicans and Jews fleeing persecution. Hermosilla was involved in multiple attempts to assassinate Franco, showcasing her unwavering dedication to the anti-fascist cause. Even in her later years, she continued to contribute to libertarian organizations, leaving behind a legacy of resilience and commitment. Her life serves as a testament to the enduring spirit of rebellion and solidarity.

Script/Narration: Gabriela Moreno, Irene Gozalvez, Lara Ledo

Coordination: Manos Avgeridis, Ioanna Vogli
Audio editing – Mastering: Alexey Arseny Fokurov
Recorded at Antart Studios, Athens