User:Birdhudson/Remedios Montero Martínez

== Remedios Montero Martínez (Beamud Mountains, Cuenca 1927 – Valencia, October 24, 2010), who is known as “Celia”, was a significant guerrilla who fought against the ideals of Franco. She was one of the few Spanish guerrilla fighters against Franco and his forces, and she was friends with the great Florián Garcia Velasco, leader of the Guerrilla Group of Levante and Aragón. Her life has provided inspiration for the film “Memories of a Guerrilla,” which reconstructs her life events and served as a basis for Dulce Chacón to write her novel “The Sleeping Voice,” which later was made into a movie of the same title by director Benito Zambrano. == Biography

First years and Spanish Civil War

Remedios Montero “Celia” belongs to the Guerrilla Group of Levante and Aragón. She began to contribute to the group when she was just a teenager. The Civil Guard discovered which revolutionary group she was a part of, and she subsequently escaped to the mountains before she was arrested. It was here where she adopted the name “Celia” and became a maqui.

She lost her father and her brother in the war. Her brother was killed in an ambush by people who posed as anti-Fascist guerrillas, but who were actually Civil Guards. The tragic passing of her father and brother was especially hard for Celia, as she demonstrates in her memories of her book.

Maqui Period and Exile

Her first period of exile began the moment that she escaped to the mountains and joined the maquis.

The lowest moments of her life began at the end of the Civil War, as she escaped to the mountains simply to survive. She stayed there with other guerrilla fighters from 1949 until 1952. It was around this time when she met her husband Florián García “El Grande”.

Six years later, the guerrilla fighters were told to withdraw from France. Celia abandoned the mountains and came back into exile, this time in Paris, where she continued to fight for freedom of the Spanish.

Return to Spain

Celia had to return to Spain in a clandestine mission of the Communist Party. She was found in Salamanca and was moved as a detainee to Madrid, where she was cruelly tortured and imprisoned. Her injuries from these beatings were so bad that it prevented her from having children. She spent eight years in prison, where she received false news that her great friend Florián had died.

When Celia was released from prison, she returned to exile. She managed to obtain a fake passport and traveled to France before traveling to Prague for an official mission. She was reunited with her partner Florián in Prague. This was a special and emotional occasion for both Celia and Florián because both thought that the other had died after spending many years separated. The two were soon married in Prague.

In 1978, after the death of Franco during the embryonic transition, Celia and Florián returned to Spain and settled down in Valencia.

On October 24th of 2010, Celia died, just one year after the passing of her great friend and life partner.