Lucía Sánchez Saornil

Lucía Sánchez Saornil
Lucía Sánchez Saornil in 1933
Born	December 13, 1895 Madrid, Spain
Died	June 2, 1970(1970-06-02) (aged 74) Valencia, Spain

Lucía Sánchez Saornil (Madrid. December 13, 1895 – Valencia. June 2, 1970), was a Spanish poet, militant anarchist and feminist. She is best known as one of the founders of Mujeres Libres and served in the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista (SIA).

Raised by her impoverished, widowed father, Lucía attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. At a young age she began writing poetry and associated herself with the emerging Ultraist literary movement. By 1919, she had been published in a variety of journals, including Los Quijotes, Tableros, Plural, Manantial and La Gaceta Literaria. Working under a male pen name, she was able to explore lesbian themes at a time when homosexuality was criminalized and subject to censorship and punishment.

In 1931, Lucía Sánchez Saornil, who had been working as a telephone operator since 1916, participated in a strike by the anarcho-syndicalist labor union, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), against Telefónica. The event was a turning point in her life, serving as an entry into political activism. From this point forward, Lucía dedicated herself to the struggle for anarchist social revolution.

In 1933, Lucía was appointed Writing Secretary for the CNT of Madrid, producing their journal in the run up to the Spanish Civil War. In May 1938, she became the General Secretary of the Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista (SIA), an anarchist aid organization similar to the Red Cross.