Antonio Soto (syndicalist)
| Antonio Soto Canalejo | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
8 October 1897 Ferrol, La Coruña, Kingdom of Spain |
| Died | 11 May 1963 (aged 65) Punta Arenas, Magallanes Province, Chile |
| Resting place |
Cemetery of Punta Arenas 53°09′10″S 70°53′51″W |
| Other names | El Gallego |
| Citizenship | Argentine and Spanish |
| Known for | Patagonia Rebelde (Rebel Patagonia) |
| Movement |
Anarchism Anarcho-syndicalism Socialism |
| Children | Isabel Soto |
Antonio Soto Canalejo (8 October 1897 – 11 May 1963), also known as "El Gallego Soto", was one of the principal anarcho-syndicalist leaders in the rural strikes in the Patagonia of Argentina in 1921.
Antonio Soto was born on 8 October 1897 in the Galician village of Ferrol (La Coruña) to Antonio Soto and Concepción Canalejo. He arrived in Buenos Aires when he was 13 years old. Fatherless, he began a life of misery and privation in Argentina. Soto was unable to complete much of primary school. He worked in a diverse variety of jobs, suffering exploitation and punishments. Ever since he was a boy, he was attracted to anarchist ideas, particularly those of the syndicalists. In 1914, when Soto was 17 years old, Soto refused to join the Spanish militia to go and fight Morocco. In 1919 he embarked with the theater company Serrano-Mendoza, which visited the different Patagonic ports in Argentina and Chile.
In January 1920, a popular rebellion broke out in Trelew, Chubut. It began with a strike by commercial employees which grew in support by most of the population against the governor, the police, and the large traders. Soto arrived and began to agitate and support the striking workers, which lead to his arrest and expulsion from Chubut. Soon after he arrived in Río Gallegos, where the militant labor climate that reigned in the city attracted him.
Before and after the theatrical performances, Soto attended meetings of la Sociedad Obrera de Río Gallegos (Workers Society of Río Gallegos). There he would listen to Doctor José María Borrero who was a captivating orator, who suggested Soto stay and join the union. Borrero had realized that Soto was a militant who had a good ideological foundation and who knew how to express himself in the union's assemblies. Soto abandoned the theater company and settled in the Patagonia, where he enrolled as a longshoreman to work in the port.
On 24 May 1920 he was chosen as Secretary General of the Workers Society of Río Gallegos. In July of that year the Workers Society, in agreement with all of the unions in the rest of the province of Santa Cruz, declared a strike of all hotel personnel and dockworkers, demanding improved wages. While the dockworkers lost the strike, but the union of waiters, peasants and cooks of the hotels continued.
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