He worked first as a miller and then as a bookbinder, and was the stepson of Anselmo Lorenzo Asperilla. A member of the Confederació Regional del Treball de Catalunya (CRTC), in 1904 he was part of the Workers' Center for Social Studies, chairing its Antimilitarist Committee.[citation needed]
He took an active part in the general strike that preceded the events of the Tragic Week of 1909,[1] in such a way that some historians consider him the true leader in the shadows. Together with Jaume Aragó i Garcia, he organized a group on La Rambla that tried to assault the police station.[2] He managed to escape the police siege and went abroad. He was imprisoned five days after the closure of the First Congress of the CNT (September 16, 1911) and when the CNT was outlawed (1913-1914) he was part of the clandestine commission of the CRTC that tried to reorganize it.[1]
He was imprisoned again in January 1919 at the beginning of the Canadenca strike, and was imprisoned on the ship Pelayo in the port of Barcelona.[1] On March 19, he took part in the rally in the bullring of Les Arenes, proposing on behalf of the prisoners the end of the strike.[1] In February 1921 he was arrested again and imprisoned for almost two years.[1]
