Juan Tizón

Juan Tizón Herreros (23 January 1895, in La Coruña – 25 December 1945, in Oporto) was a Spanish politician and writer who was exiled during the Spanish Civil War.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Tizón and the second or maternal family name is Herreros.
Juan Tizón Herreros
Born23 January 1895
La Coruña
Died25 December 1945
Oporto
NationalitySpanish
Occupation(s)railway worker, politician, writer
SpouseHerminia Ramos Ponte
ChildrenHerminia, Isabel

Political career

He was a railway worker and was active in the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and in the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) trade union. He led the local socialist group in La Coruña. Later he moved to Monforte de Lemos, and was appointed as branch secretary in the railway workers' section of the UGT.[1][2]

In the general elections of 1931 he was elected as a PSOE deputy for Lugo Province to the national parliament.[3] However, due to irregularities, the elections in that province were repeated and he lost his position. He also became an alternate member of the Federal Committee of the PSOE.

He became vice-president of the Lugo provincial government, and president of the first Republican management committee of Monforte de Lemos. During the uprising of 1934 he was arrested and spent some time in prison.[4][5] He was mayor of Monforte de Lemos from 18 March to 20 July 1936.

Exile

Upon the military rising of July 1936 he attempted to organise local resistance, by forming a militia and seizing weapons. After the declaration of war the town was occupied by the Civil Guard, compelling him to escape. He took refuge in Oporto in Portugal at the home of Portuguese friends of his, among whom was Mário Soares. He died in that city in 1945 and is buried there. While in Portugal he worked for the British secret service.[6]

All through the Franco period he was assumed in Monforte to have been killed by some Falangist death squad. This belief was supported by gunfire damage to a commemorative plaque on a fountain that he had installed.

Writings

In 1925 he published a book of short stories in Spanish, Espiando al diablo (En: Spying on the devil).[7] In 1937-38 he wrote a satirical poem in Galician, Seis cregos escollidos (Versos divinos) (En: Six chosen priests (divine verses)), published posthumously in 2001 by Xesús Alonso Montero.[8][9]

In 2010 the Luis Tilve Foundation recompiled and published all of his hitherto unpublished work under the title of Juan Tizón Herreros. El pensamiento hecho palabra (En: Thought made into words). This work brings together: two plays on social themes, Casta Maldita and Civilización (En: Accursed Breed, Civilisation); two short stories, El cristo del hallazgo and Persecución (En: Christ Discovered and Persecution) - the latter recompiled by his son-in-law Raúl Solleiro Mella - in which he writes of his flight after the military rising; various articles; and an extended biography written by the historian Rosa María López González.[10]

References
  1. Trozos de historia ferroviaria (En: Bits of railway history), La Voz de Galicia, 13 October 2009
  2. Diario El Orzán, vol. XIV, no. 3938, 9 June 1931, p. 4, accessed through Biblioteca Virtual de Prensa Histórica
  3. Archive of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
  4. Front page news of the weekly publication El Combate, 30 September 1934
  5. El Día de Alicante, vol. XX, no. 5720, 26 September 1934, p. 1. Accessed through Biblioteca Virtual de Prensa Histórica
  6. Más luz sobre la vida de Juan Tizón (En: More light on the life of Juan Tizón) (first page only), La Voz de Galicia, 13 March 2010
  7. Diario El Orzán, vol. VIII, no. 2291, 26 September 1925, p. 2. Accessed through Biblioteca Virtual de Prensa Histórica
  8. Madrygal. Revista de estudios gallegos.
  9. Xesús Alonso Montero editará en mayo la obra inédita de Juan Tizón Herreros (En: X.A.M. will publish in May (sc. 2001) the unpublished works of J.T.H.), La Voz de Galicia, 6 February 2001 Archived 20 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  10. El pensamiento hecho palabra. Juan Tizón Herreros. 2010, Fundación Luis Tilve, Ed. ISBN 978-84-95773-17-3
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