Lozano, Maria 1914-2000 aka Maria Mombiola

Maria Mombiola
Born 3 March 1914 - Saragossa, Spain, died 19 February 2000

Maria Lozano Molina was born on 3rd March 1914 in Saragossa, Spain. Her family ran a boarding house there, and often welcomed anarchist militants, including members of the Los Soliarios group, like Durruti, Garcia Oliver, and Jover. In 1932 she married the anarchist Angel Mombiola Allué. They had one daughter. During the Spanish Revolution both Maria and Angel joined the Durruti Column.

With the victory of fascist General Franco after the Spanish Civil War, Maria was separated from her daughter when she was interned in the French concentration camp in the Tarn region. Angel was interned at Vernet, the destination for many surviving ex-members of the Durruti Column.

She managed to escape from the camp, joining her compañero Angel in the Maquis (rural Resistance). Angel was killed in August 1944 in the Haute Garonne, machine-gunned with 3 other members of the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist union, the CNT, when he attempted to blow up a bridge near Ondes.

The Liberation Maria moved to Toulouse. She crossed the Pyrenees secretly to find her daughter, but was disappointed to find that she had no wish to accompany her back to France. On the way back, Maria was lost in the mountains, and was in great danger, eventually managing to locate the house of a friend.

She continued the struggle against Franco alongside people like Francisco Sabate Llopart, or “El Quico” as he was known, and with another celebrated guerilla fighter, Facerias, working with the Libertarian Youth (FIJL), the AIT (International Workers Association), the CNT and groups of autonomous action, (like the Pallarés Action Group or Los Queros Guerrillas) and with the archives centre CRAS of which she was elected life president.

She gave tremendous support to the young militants of the Iberian Libertarian Movement (MIL) the International Revolutionary Action Groups (GARI), to those who had just come out of prison for their activities, and to fugitives. The door was always open to social rebels at her house.

She also wrote poems for a number of libertarian publications, and was active up to the end of her life in various local campaigns, including a presence on every demonstration against the nuclear power plant at Golfech.

She died on 19th February 2000 and her ashes were thrown into the river Garonne to eventually go to the sea, as was her wish.

Nick Heath