Muñiz Diez, Román (1914-1994)

Román Muñiz was born in Olleros de Sabero in Spain on 30th September 1914.His family was related to that of Buenaventura Durruti. Like many others from peasant and worker backgrounds in Spain, he left school at the age of ten and worked in the mines. Following an argument with his father, he left Spain and enlisted in the Spanish army, serving 36 months in Africa. There he met some of those involved in the military revolt at Jaca in 1930, which had aimed at overturning the monarchy.

Returning to Spain, he worked as an electrician on the Madrid Metro. He returned to his home province of Leon in 1932, and worked as an electrician at the Hospital de Orbigo. He met two well known anarchists who operated under the names of ‘Sindi’ and ‘Gatiti’ and became involved in the anarchist movement, joining the Libertarian Youth. He became a member of the anarchist group Audaces (The Audacious Ones) and took an active part in the October 1934 uprising. He was a member of a militia which attempted to stop the Valladolid regiment on its way to suppress the Asturian miners. He was also involved in act of sabotage which led to a prison sentence of four months and one day.

Sentenced to four months and one day in prison on January 18, 1935.

As an active member of the CNT, he was forced to flee after the coup of July 1936, via Villaobispo towards Matuecas and arriving in Cármenes, where from September 1936 he fought as a militiaman in Onofre García Tirador's 207th Battalion, participating in the capture of the Simancas barracks in Gijón and in the fighting in Mazucu. With the fall of the Northern Front, he joined the 206th Battalion until he was arrested.

He was sentenced to two death sentences, which he served in the Valencia de don Juan prison, in Valderas, and later in the Burgos prison, one of the camps with the largest number of prisoners in northern Spain.
After leaving prison in the mid-1940s, he returned to León, although he remained a suspect. In fact, every time Franco passed near the province, even if he did not stop, the Civil Guard took Román Muñiz to the police station. As the years went by, prison was exchanged for expulsion to La Candamia, from where he could not leave for several days.

Despite everything, his commitment continued and for several years he provided logistical help to the maquis who still remained in the mountains of León.

He donated his huge collection of anarchist books to the library of the CNT of Puerta Castillo de Leon, a library that he catalogued. This thus became one of the most important libertarian libraries in Spain. Román Muñiz Díez died on June 6, 1994 in León.

Nick Heath

Sources:
https://www.diariodeleon.es/monograficos/revista/211017/393558/anarquista-ilumino-leon.html
https://www.estelnegre.org/anarcoefemerides/3009.html