Lucía Sánchez Saornil

Lucía Sánchez Saornil (born December 13, 1895 in Madrid; died June 2, 1970 in Valencia), was a Spanish anarchist, telephone operator, writer, poet, and activist in the years leading up to and during the Spanish Civil War. She was one of the founders of the "Mujeres Libres" and served as the general secretary of the "Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista" (a sort of anarchist Red Cross). Arguably the most radical of the "Mujeres Libres" leaders, she went further than her "compañeras" in rejecting the ideal of female domesticity that permeated anarchist circles, arguing that "before you can reform society, you had better reform your homes" and that "the concept of mother is absorbing that of woman, the function is annihilating the individual." She was openly lesbian, though both she and the "Mujeres Libres" maintained that sexuality was a personal and not political issue, and thus she did not make it a focus of her activism.

ee also

*Anarcha-feminism
*Anarchism in Spain
*Spanish Civil War
*Mujeres Libres

References

*Ackelsberg, Martha A. Free Women of Spain: Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1991.
*Nash, Mary. Defying Male Civilization: Women in the Spanish Civil War. Denver, CO.: Arden Press, 1995.