Maria Garcia Sanchis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Spanish RepublicMaria Garcia Sanchis | |
|---|---|
 Maria Garcia Sanchis (1920s) | |
| Born | 1881 L'Olleria, Valencia, Spain |
| Died | 5 September 1936 (aged 54–55) Manacor, Mallorca, Spain |
| Allegiance | Spanish Republic |
| Years of service | 1936 |
| Unit | Anti-Fascist Women's Militia |
| Battles / wars | Spanish 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]
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, 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]
