Antonio Téllez Solà

Antoni Téllez Solà was born on 18 January 1921, in the Catalan city of Tarragona.{{Sfnm|1a1=Ballarín Aured|1y=2005|2a1=Christie|2y=2005}} After completing his secondary education, in January 1936, he began an apprenticeship as a carpenter.{{Sfn|Ballarín Aured|2005}} As fascism was on the rise in the country, he also joined the Libertarian Youth.{{Sfnm|1a1=Ballarín Aured|1y=2005|2a1=Christie|2y=2005}} Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he attempted to join the Aguiluchos Column, but he was rejected due to his young age.{{Sfn|Ballarín Aured|2005}} When he turned 18, in January 1939, he was conscripted into the Spanish Republican Army to fight against the Catalonia Offensive. The following month, he fled to France and was held in an internment camp for 18 months.{{Sfnm|1a1=Ballarín Aured|1y=2005|2a1=Christie|2y=2005}}

In the wake of the Battle of France, the Vichy government drafted him into a forced labour company, within which he contributed to the refurbishment of a barracks in Mende. When Téllez demanded a pay rise, in February 1943, the French police transferred him to work in a mine in Le Collet-de-Dèze. There he was fined three days' pay for missing a day of work, and when he requested repayment, his demands were backed by German officers who had fought in the Spanish Civil War. He was later put to work fortifying the ports of Sète and Agde, and at a hospital in Avairon. In March 1944, he was ordered to report to Rodès for transfer to Nazi Germany, as part of the Service du travail obligatoire (STO). Téllez escaped to La Cavalariá,{{Sfn|Ballarín Aured|2005}} where he joined the Avairon branch of the French Resistance.{{Sfnm|1a1=Ballarín Aured|1y=2005|2a1=Christie|2y=2005}} Under the nom de guerre of Tarra (short for Tarragona), he linked up with the Spanish Maquis, with whom he participated in the liberation of Rodès on 10 September 1944.{{Sfn|Ballarín Aured|2005}}

Téllez then joined the {{ill|Spanish National Union (anti-Francoist){{!}}Spanish National Union|es|Unión Nacional Española (antifranquista)}}, which began planning an offensive against Francoist Spain with an invasion of Val d'Aran.{{Sfnm|1a1=Ballarín Aured|1y=2005|2a1=Christie|2y=2005}} He was appointed as a lieutenant and given command of a small platoon, which crossed over the France–Spain border into the Val d'Aran on 16 October 1944. After hiding out in an abandoned mine, on 19 October, he went to Salardú, where his unit attacked the local garrison of the Civil Guard and Spanish Army. After 8 hours of fighting, they withdrew once Francoist reinforcements arrived. Short on supplies and facing adverse weather conditions, they fled back over the border to Sent Gironç. Téllez was ordered to convince the anarchist guerrillas to return, but he refused to continue fighting, believing the operation to have been futile. He and the other anarchists left and the UNE sentenced them at a court martial for desertion.{{Sfn|Ballarín Aured|2005}}

Téllez moved to Tolosa, where he clandestinely established an arms depot for the maquis.{{Sfn|Christie|2005}} He also contributed to the anarchist publications Ruta and Solidaridad Obrera.{{Sfn|Ballarín Aured|2005}} In 1946, he attempted to link up with the underground anarchist movement in Spain.{{Sfnm|1a1=Ballarín Aured|1y=2005|2a1=Christie|2y=2005}} He spent three months there, but was unable to convince the leadership of the National Confederation of Labour (CNT) to support the maquis.{{Sfn|Christie|2005}} After the Spanish authorities murdered his friend Josep Lluís Facerias in Barcelona, in August 1957, Téllez launched the anarchist publication Atalaya. After the subsequent assassination of Quico Sabaté in 1960, Téllez withdrew from activism and turned to writing as a historian and journalist.{{Sfn|Ballarín Aured|2005}} He moved to Paris, where he worked for Agence France-Presse (AFP) until 1986. During this time, he wrote several books about the maquis and the resistance to Francoism. He then moved to Ceret, then on to Perpinyà.{{Sfn|Christie|2005}} In February 2005, he was hospitalised by a pulmonary embolism, making him anxious that he would not live to see the publication of his book about Agustín Remiro.{{Sfn|Ballarín Aured|2005}} Antonio Téllez Solà died on 27 March 2005, leaving behind his partner and two children.{{Sfn|Christie|2005}}

• The Anarchist Resistance to Franco (1994) {{ISBN|1-873605-65-X}}
• The Anarchist Pimpernel Francisco Ponzán Vidal, 1936-1944 (1997) {{ISBN|1-901172-04-X}}
• Sabaté: Guerrilla Extraordinary (1998) {{ISBN|1-902593-10-3}}
• The Assassination Attempt on Franco from the Air: 1948 (2006) {{ISBN|1-873605-80-3}}
• Anarchist International Action Against Francoism From Genoa 1949 to The First Of May Group (2010) {{ISBN|978-1-873605-85-1}}

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• {{Cite web|last=Ballarín Aured|first=Manuel|date=2005-04-18|title=Antonio Téllez Solá, A Historian in the Service of the Forgotten|url=https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/k98tb2|work=Rojo y Negro|issn=1138-1019|via=Kate Sharpley Library|translator-first=Paul|translator-last=Sharkey|access-date=2025-04-09}}
• {{Cite news |last=Christie |first=Stuart |date=2005-05-09 |title=Antonio Téllez Solà |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/may/10/guardianobituaries.spain |access-date=2025-04-09 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

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• [http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/15dvbs Articles by and photos of Téllez] at the Kate Sharpley Library

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Category:1921 births

Category:2005 deaths

Category:20th-century Spanish historians

Category:20th-century Spanish journalists

Category:Anarchists from Catalonia

Category:Catalan Anti-Francoists

Category:French Resistance members

Category:Historians from Catalonia

Category:Historians of anarchism

Category:Journalists from Catalonia

Category:People from Tarragona

Category:Spanish emigrants to France

Category:Spanish maquis

Category:Spanish military personnel of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)