Victòria Pujolar: Difference between revisions

| image = [[File:Victòria Pujolar Amat.png|thumb|Victòria Pujolar Amat]]

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2017|06|24|1921|07|26|df=y}}

| occupation death_place = Spanish Republican activist, painter[[Madrid]]

'''Victòria Pujolar Amat''' (26 July 1921- – 24 June 2017) was a [[Spanish Republican]] activist and member of the [[Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia]]. Subject to reprisals by [[Francoist Spain|Franco's regime]], she suffered torture, imprisonment and exile. She lived in France, [[Czechoslovakia]] and [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021 |editor-last=Institut Català de les Dones. Gencat |title=100 anys del naixement de Victòria Pujolar Amat (2021). Orígens |url=http://dones.gencat.cat/ca/ambits/activitats/commemoracions/-100-anys-del-naixement-de-victoria-pujolar-i-amat/ |access-date=2022-05-01}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Salabert |first=Juana |title=Hijas de la ira - Vidas rotas por la guerra civil- (Capítol dedicat a Victòria Pujolar Amat, pàgina131pàginas 131-168) |date=2005 |publisher=Random House Mondadori,S.A. |isbn=84-01-37913-X |location=Barcelona |page=232 |language=castellàes}}</ref> She never gave up the political struggle and was the first voice in Catalan on the clandestine Radio España Independiente,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Martí Garcia Ripoll-Duran i Cinto Niqui Espinosa |title=La ràdio en català a l'estranger (Victòria Pujolar- pag. 89) |date=2007 |publisher=Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |isbn=978-84-490-2499-3 |location=Bellaterra (Barcelona) |page=109}}</ref> popularly known as La Pirenaica, based in [[Bucharest]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=4.1.2 La ràdio en català a l'exili {{!}} dones i noves tecnologies {{!}} codi lela |url=https://donestech.net/node/1567 |access-date=2018-10-21 |language=catalàca}}</ref> She was also a sportswoman and painter.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Victoria Pujolar Amat: Los colores de la resistencia |date=9 April 2018 |url=http://www.mataderomadrid.org/ficha/9267/victoria-pujolar-amat:-los-colores-de-la-resistencia.html |access-date=2018-10-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=Mundo Obrero despide a Victoria Pujolar Amat, una de las camaradas que hicieron posible este periódico |url=http://www.mundoobrero.es/pl.php?id=7217 |journal=Mundo Obrero |language=castellàes-es}}</ref>

Victòria Pujolar Amat was born in Barcelona on 26 July 1921 into a progressive family. Her father Joan Pujoar Marich was an employee of the [[Generalidad de Cataluña]] and her mother Merè Amat Duran worked at the Registro Civil.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Qui és Victòria Pujolar Amat? |url=https://dones.gencat.cat/web/.content/03_ambits/activitats/exposicions/itinerants/cataleg/Victoria_Pujolar/Victoria-Pujolar-Exposicio.pdf}}</ref> She was very fond of art and sport as a child. She attended primary school at the Mutua Escolar Blanquerna, and high school at the Instituto Escuela de la [[La Barceloneta, Barcelona]].

She lived through the Spanish Civil War and the bombing of Barcelona. In 1939, with the defeat of the [[Spanish Republican Armed Forces|Republican side]] in the [[Spanish Civil War]], the teenage Victòria went into exile with her parents in [[Toulouse]], France. During the Second World War, when the area was under German occupation, she was intercepted without papers and interned in the Récébédou [[Internment|concentration camp]], south of Toulouse. She managed to escape the camp with her sister and mother.<ref name=":0" />

Pujolar joined the [[Unified Socialist Youth|Unified Socialist Youth (JSU)]] of the [[Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia]] ([[Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia|PSUC]]) and in 1944 returned to [[Barcelona]] to join the anti-fascist resistance. She found work as editor on the first Vox dictionary and later in the graphic studio of [[Ediciones B|Editorial Bruguera]]. She was appointed secretary general of the Joventut Socialista Unificada de Catalunya (JSUC). She was given the pseudonym Anna and with her elegant appearance as ''a Chica del [[Eixample]]'' (young woman from Eixample), she managed to go unnoticed and organised guerrilla contacts in the city. A denunciation led to her arrest and the arrest of several militants, among them the guerrilla Francesc Serrat Pujolar Sisquet, head of the JSU, who was later shot.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jofre Padullers, Manuel Delgado Ruiz i Gerard Horta |title=Lluites secretes - Testimonis de la clandestinitat antifranquista pàg. 27 |date=2012 |publisher=Publicacions i edicions Universitat de Barcelona |isbn=978-84-475-3559-0 |location=Barcelona}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Borràs |first=Xavier |date=22-10- October 2018 |title=Olot recordarà el maquisard Francesc Serrat amb una placa al carrer on va néixer |url=https://www.naciodigital.cat/garrotxa/noticia/18684/olot/recordara/maquisard/francesc/serrat/amb/placa/al/carrer/va/ixer |journal=Diari digitalDigital Garrotxa.cat}}</ref> Taken to the cellars of the [[Via Laietana|Vía Layetana]] police station, she was interrogated, abused and tortured by the brothers Vicente and Antonio Juan Creix, sinister policemen of the [[Political-Social Brigade|''Brigada Político-Social'']] under the orders of Commissioner Eduardo Quintela.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Theros |first=Xavier |date=2012-08-14 |title=La casa de los horrores |url=https://elpais.com/ccaa/2012/08/13/catalunya/1344888537_227502.html |journal=El País |language=castellàes-es |location=Madrid |issn=1134-6582}}</ref>

Incarcerated in the [[:es:Prisión_de_Les_CortsPrisión de Les Corts|Les Corts Women's Prison]] for more than a year while awaiting trial, Pujolar exercised an important leadership role among the inmates, promoting the practice of sport and becoming captain of the prison basketball team.<ref>{{Cite thesis |surname=Alcalde Ribalta |url=https://www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/352226 |date=2016-01-21 |type=Ph.D. Thesis}}</ref> She also painted the sets for some of the theatrical performances organised by the nuns for special occasions. Victoria's time at the prison coincided with the communists [[Tomasa Cuevas]], [[Isabel Vicente|Isabel Vicente García]], [[Angela Ramis]] and the Madrid born [[Adelaida Abarca Izquierdo]] who had been a teenage mmebermember of the [[Las Trece Rosas]] group, sentenced to 20 years in prison instead of execution due to her youth. Thanks to her organisational skills, Abarca had become a trustworthy prisoner and took advantage of her sentence to work in the prison office. She manipulated letters, files and records, to facilitate the escape of Victoria Pujolar in conjunction with the contacts they maintained with Party members inside and outside the prison. Pujolar was able to escape, on the occasion of her transfer to Madrid to be [[Drumhead court-martial|court-martialled]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cuevas |first=Tomasa |title=Presas (Mujeres en las carceles Franquistas) Capítol XX: Victòria Pujolar - Breve historia de una detención interrumpida. Pàgines 155 a 160 |date=2005 |publisher=Icaria |isbn=9788474268300 |page=176 |language=castellàes-es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Cronologia {{!}} Presó de les Corts |url=http://www.presodelescorts.org/ca/cronologia/1946 |access-date=2018-10-24}}</ref>

Shortly afterwards, Adelaida Abarca and Ángela Ramis also escaped the prison.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cuevas |first=Tomasa |title=Presas (Mujeres en las carceles Franquistas) Capítol XXI La fuga - testimoni d'Adelaida Abarca |date=2005 |publisher=Icaria editorial,S,A. |isbn=978847426839788474268300 |page=176 |language=castellàes-es}}</ref>

With the complicity of friends and family, Pujolar managed to cross the French border and reach her parents' home in Toulouse. In 1947, she met the journalist and communist leader [[Federico Melchor|Federico Melchor FernándeFernández]]<nowiki/>z, who had just returned from exile in [[Mexico]], and they married and had four children.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Melchor |first=Federico |title=Federico Melchor:Testimonio de una vida (El viejo topo) |date=2010 |publisher=Intervención Cultural - Colección memorias |isbn=9788492616701 |page=320 |language=castellàes-es}}</ref>

The couple had settled in Paris when, in response to the [[Cold War]], the French government expelled all foreign communist leaders from the country. They decided to emigrate to [[Prague]], where they met [[Teresa Pàmies|Teresa Pàmies.]]. Later, Federico Melchor was called to [[Bucharest]] in [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]] to direct Radio España Independiente (REI) and there they coincided with the Catalan collective, including Josep Bonifaci i Mora and later [[Jordi Solé Tura]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Casademont Comas |first=Emili |date=13-12- December 2009 |title=En Solé Tura, el de la Pirenaica |journal=Diari de Girona}}</ref>

Emili Vilaseca, the person in charge of REI broadcasting in Catalan, suggested to Pujolar that she take a voice test, and so she becoming the first female announcer. She addressed the listeners of the clandestine Radio Pirenaica in [[Catalan language|Catalan]], under the nickname Montserrat Canigó, a job she alternated for years with her study of painting and fine arts at the [[Bucharest National University of Arts|InstitutulNicolae deGrigorescu ArteFine PlasticeArts "Nicolae Grigorescu"Institute]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pàmies |first=Teresa |title=Ràdio Pirenaica- Emissions en llengua catalana de Radio España Independiente. Capítol dedicat a Victòria Pujolar pàg. 48 a 54 |date=2007 |publisher=Cossetània |edition=primera |location=Valls}}</ref>n

The death of the Spanish dictator [[Francisco Franco]] opened the way for the [[Spanish transition to democracy]]. The legalisation of the [[Communist Party of Spain]] (PCE) allowed the couple to move to Madrid. Federico Melchor continued to manage the Mundo Obrero publication and was a member of the Executiveexecutive Committeecommittee of the [[Communist Party of Spain]] until his death in 1985. Pujolar devoted herself fully to painting and held three retrospective exhibitions, in Paris in 1992, in the Sala Blanquerna in Madrid in 2002 and in the [[Francesca Bonnemaison]] library in Barcelona in 2005.<ref name=":0" />

In 2016, Pujolar's son Jorge Amat, a French filmmaker, dedicated the documentary ''La memoria rota'' (Broken Memory) to her.<ref>{{Cite web |title=La Resistencia - La Memoria rota- (Cineteca) Documental de Jorge Amat - Cerca amb Google |url=https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-ab&ei=z9fNW9qkJKzVgAbz4aLIBw&q=la+memoria+rota+jorge+amat&oq=+la+memoria+rota&gs_l=psy-ab.1.1.35i39k1l2j0i7i30k1l3j0i203k1l2j0i30k1l3.66323.68840.0.73139.21.11.0.0.0.0.431.1363.0j3j2j0j1.6.0....0...1c..64.psy-ab..18.1.430....0.N9HD4wHel1o |access-date=2018-10-22 |language=castellàca}}</ref>

[[Category:Spanish womenexpatriates in Romania]]