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Maria Garcia Sanchis

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Maria Garcia Sanchis
Photograph of Maria Garcia Sanchis
Maria Garcia Sanchis (1920s)
Born1881 (1881)
L'Olleria, Valencia, Spain
Died5 September 1936(1936-09-05) (aged 54–55)
Manacor, Mallorca, Spain
Allegiance Spanish Republic
Years of service1936
UnitAnti-Fascist Women's Militia
Battles / warsSpanish Civil War

Maria Garcia Sanchis (1881–1936) was a Valencian weaver and militiawoman who was one of Las Cinco de Mallorca.[1][2] She was also a spiritist and anarchist.[3]

Biography

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A weaver by trade, Garcia Sanchis was self-taught and an avid reader, with firm spiritual convictions. She was committed to anarchism and a great orator. Garcia Sanchis took part in the 1934 Catalan local elections, in a women's rally held at the Teatro Principal in Sabadell. She enlisted in the Anti-Fascist Women's Militia led by her fellow member of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC), Gavina Viana [es], in the early days of the Spanish Civil War.[4] Garcia Sanchis was photographed by Robert Capa and Gerda Taro at Camp de la Bota, where the militia women were training, and also appeared in Life magazine.[5]

On 16 August 1936, María and her fellow militia members of the women's battalion embarked for Mallorca from the port of Barcelona in the Republican army expedition commanded by Captain Alberto Bayo. After twenty days of fighting, she and four of her companions were captured, tortured and executed in Manacor on 5 September 1936. The Nationalist troops were led by the Italian fascist Arconovaldo Bonaccorsi. They have gone down in history under the name of Las Cinco de Mallorca (The Mallorca Five).[6] Mallorca was one of the first places where the anti-fascist women fighters went into combat in the Civil War.[7]

Recognition

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Monument to Maria Garcia Sanchis

The documentary Milicianes by Tania Balló, Jaume Miró and Gonzalo Berger, recovered her name and those of the other combatants, Teresa Bellera, Daría and Mercedes Buxadé, although the name of the fifth, who kept a diary, is unknown. They appear in a photograph taken a few hours before they were shot.[5][8]

On 27 March 2022, in Sabadell, a steel stolperstein bearing her name was placed in the Can Rull neighbourhood, in the Carrer de Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer.[9] The memorial was laid at the gates of what was Maria's family residence from 1935 onwards, where she had a handloom and a winding machine in the courtyard.[6] She thus became the first woman with one of these stones in Sabadell.weaver and militiawoman who was one of Las Cinco de Mallorca.[1][10] The cobblestone was exhibited a few days earlier at the Sabadell History Museum, together with the exhibition on the teacher Joaquima Torres i Oriol [ca].[11]

References

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  1. ^ a b Pujadas Carreras, Aleix (25 January 2022). "Sabadell tindrà dues noves llambordes Stolpersteine". Diari de Sabadell (in Catalan). Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  2. ^ "La miliciana valenciana Maria Garcia Sanchis, assassinada a Manacor, tendrà una pedra de la memòria a Sabadell". DBalears [es] (in Catalan). 4 March 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  3. ^ "MARIA GARCIA SANCHÍS. TEIXIDORA, ESPIRITISTA, ANARQUISTA I MILICIANA. EXPOSICIÓ". Ajuntament de Sabadell (in Catalan). 8 March 2022. Archived from the original on 8 March 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  4. ^ "El Govern presenta en Sabadell una 'piedra de la memoria' en recuerdo de la anarquista María García Sanchís". Europa Press (in Catalan). 4 March 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  5. ^ a b Marimon, Sílvia (4 February 2019). "Les milicianes afusellades a Mallorca recuperen la identitat". Ara (in Catalan). Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  6. ^ a b "El Govern presenta a Sabadell una pedra de la memòria en record i homenatge a la miliciana víctima del franquisme María García Sanchís". Govern de les Illes Balears (in Catalan). 4 March 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  7. ^ "El govern de les Illes i l'Ajuntament de Sabadell homenatgen la miliciana de l'Olleria Maria Garcia". VilaWeb (in Catalan). 28 March 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  8. ^ Torrús, Alejandro (22 January 2019). "'Milicianas': la desconocida historia de cinco mujeres que cogieron el fusil para enfrentarse al fascismo". Público (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  9. ^ "El Govern coloca en Sabadell la Piedra de la Memoria que recuerda a Maria Garcia Sanchís, ejecutada en Mallorca en 1936". Europa Press (in Spanish). 27 March 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  10. ^ Hernàndez, Albert (1 March 2022). "La miliciana Maria Garcia Sanchís serà la primera dona amb una llamborda «Stolpersteine» a Sabadell". Nació Digital [ca]. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  11. ^ "DUES EXPOSICIONS EN EL MARC DEL DIA INTERNACIONAL DE LES DONES". Sabadell History Museum (in Catalan). 4 March 2022. Archived from the original on 25 March 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
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