Elisa Garrido García

Garrido was born in the town of Magallón in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon. Her parents were anarchist militants and members of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). She emigrated to Barcelona where she met Marino Ruiz de Angulo, who became her partner. After the Spanish coup of July 1936 and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Garrido was mobilised as a militiawoman, joining the Ausias March barracks in Barcelona, from where she left for the Aragon front.{{cite web|url=https://www.aragonesesdeportados.org/es/838/garrido-gracia-elisa-manica/biografia.html|first1=Pilar|last1=Gimeno|first2=Cemente|last2=Arellano|year=2017|title=Garrido Gracia, Elisa (Mañica)|website=Aragoneses deportados|language=es}}{{Cite journal |last=Celaya |first=Diego Gaspar |date=2019-05-01 |title=Au combat sans armes |url=https://journals.openedition.org/chrhc/9721 |journal=Cahiers d'histoire. Revue d'histoire critique |language=fr |issue=141 |pages=37–55 |doi=10.4000/chrhc.9721 |issn=1271-6669|doi-access=free }}

After the fall of the Republic, Garrido fled to France, settling with her partner in the city of Toulouse and joining the CNT's clandestine groups to help exiles. After the Nazi invasion of France, they both collaborated with the French Resistance, within the escape group organised by {{ill|Francisco Ponzán|es}}, working as couriers and liaisons in the Hautes-Alpes department. It was there that she began to be known by her two nicknames, La mañica and Françoise.{{cite web|url=https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/4042282/0/rozalen-participara-en-magallon-en-un-homenaje-a-elisa-garrido-la-luchadora-contra-los-nazis/|author=20M EP|title=Rozalén participará en Magallón en un homenaje a Elisa Garrido, la luchadora contra los nazis|date=5 November 2019|website=20 minutos|access-date=29 May 2023|language=es}}

In October 1943, she was arrested in Toulouse by the Gestapo, who were watching her because she was the one who brought food to Francisco Ponzán's prison every day and presumably was his main courier. The Gestapo interrogated her using different methods of torture in order to obtain information about the organisation of the resistance. Garrido kept silent and was kept in an incommunicado cell for three weeks. She was transferred to Saint Michel prison and from there to Paris prison and then to Compiègne prison, from where she was taken on 30 January 1944 to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she arrived on 3 February of that year and was registered under the number 27219. In September of the same year, she was transferred to the Buchenwald camp in Leipzig to do forced labour for HASAG, who forced her to manufacture 7,000 shells a day in subhuman conditions. Garrido carried out various sabotage operations that even paralysed the plant and blew up part of it.{{cite web|url=https://www.eldiario.es/aragon/sociedad/elisa-manica-magallonera-fabrica-obuses_1_1893578.html|title=Elisa, 'la mañica' que voló una fábrica de obuses nazi|first=Eduardo|last=Bayona|work=ElDiario.es|date=12 October 2018|access-date=29 May 2023|language=es}}

She returned to Ravensbrück, where she was placed in Ward 28, awaiting execution. She unloaded coal wagons and potatoes until, after a beating by guards, she was admitted to the infirmary with a broken arm. She entered a prisoner exchange organised by the Red Cross: she was taken to Frankfurt and from there to Denmark, then to Sweden and was released in Stockholm. Finally, she was transferred to Paris, where she remained until the 1950s. She returned to Spain with her partner, Marino, and they settled for a time in the town of Cortes de Navarra, where she ran a fish shop and her partner worked as a taxi driver. After a few years, the couple decided to return to France.

Elisa Garrido died in Toulouse on 19 March 1990.{{Cite web |last=Coll |first=Javier Cauto |date=2020-01-21 |title=Elisa Garrido: la mañica que hizo explotar una fábrica nazi |url=https://www.vice.com/es/article/elisa-garrido-anarquista-exploto-fabrica-nazi/ |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=VICE |language=es}}

The French Republic recognised her work during World War II, for having provoked the explosion of a German howitzer factory, and awarded her the Legion of Honour and the honorary rank of lieutenant in the French Resistance.

During the organisation of the Jornadas de Memoria Histórica de Magallón "Desenterrando el silencio", which took place in 2018, the researcher Juan Manuel Calvo Gascón, member of {{ill|Amical de Mauthausen|es}}, made the first acknowledgement of Garrido. He communicated the identity of "la Mañica" or "Francoise" in the course of a round table in which he participated together with the journalists Ramón Lobo, Conchi Cejudo and Pilar Barranco, and the Valencian magistrate Joaquim Bosch.

On 29 June 2019, the Magallón Town Council named a street after her on the outskirts of the town.{{cite web|url=https://www.elperiodicodearagon.com/noticias/la-cronica-del-campo-de-borja/magallon-rinde-homenaje-figura-elisa-garrido-nacida-pueblo_1372792.html|author=f.m.h.|title=Magallón rinde homenaje a la figura de Elisa Garrido, nacida en el pueblo|date=5 July 2019|work=El Periódico de Aragón|access-date=29 May 2023|language=es}} A few months later, in November of the same year, the Association of Relatives and Friends of those Murdered and Buried in Magallón (AFAAEM) and the Magallón Town Council, with the collaboration of the {{ill|Zaragoza Provincial Council|es|Diputación Provincial de Zaragoza}} and the Cortes of Aragon, paid tribute to Garrido and held a colloquium with journalists such as Javier del Pino, Gervasio Sánchez, Ramón Lobo, Conchi Cejudo and Gonzalo Barros.{{cite web|url=https://www.elperiodicodearagon.com/aragon/2019/11/08/magallon-homenajea-nuevo-heroina-nazis-46586457.html|author=El Periódico|title=Magallón homenajea de nuevo a su heroína contra los nazis, Elisa Garrido|date=8 November 2019|work=El Periódico de Aragón|access-date=29 May 2023|language=es}} Subsequently, another tribute was paid to her at the Fosa de Magallón, during a day of democratic memory in which the Manchega singer-songwriter Rozalén took part.{{cite web|url=https://arainfo.org/un-documental-sonoro-revive-a-elisa-garrido-magallonera-resistente-y-antifascista-superviviente-de-la-guerra-y-el-nazismo/|title=Un documental sonoro revive a Elisa Garrido: magallonera, resistente y antifascista, superviviente del nazismo|first=Iker|last=González Izagirre|date=16 December 2021|work={{ill|AraInfo|es}}|access-date=29 May 2023|language=es}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|title=El carretó dels gossos. Una catalana a Ravensbrück|year=2005|language=ca|first1=Manil|last1=Suri|first2=Mercè|last2=Núñez Targa|publisher=Edicions 62|isbn=978-8429756449}}
• {{cite book|title=De la resistencia y la deportación. 50 testimonios de mujeres españolas|year=2015|first=Neus|last=Català|author-link=Neus Català|publisher=Generalitat de Catalunya|isbn=978-8439393436}}
• {{cite book|title=Dentro de poco os podré abrazar. Supervivientes aragoneses de los campos nazis|year=2019|first=Juan Manuel |last=Calvo|publisher={{ill|Amical de Mauthausen|es}}|isbn=978-84-09-09765-4}}

• {{cite web|url=https://loquesomos.org/las-grandes-olvidadas-las-mujeres-espanolas-la-resistencia-francesa/|first=Isabel|last=Munuera Sánchez|title=Las grandes olvidadas: las mujeres españolas en la Resistencia francesa|website=Los que somos|date=20 June 2017|access-date=29 May 2023|language=es}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrido, Elisa}}

Category:1909 births

Category:1990 deaths

Category:Buchenwald concentration camp survivors

Category:Confederación Nacional del Trabajo members

Category:Female resistance members of World War II

Category:French Resistance members

Category:People from Campo de Borja

Category:Ravensbrück concentration camp survivors

Category:Recipients of the Legion of Honour

Category:Spanish anti-fascists

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

Category:Spanish people of World War II

Category:Spanish women of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)

Category:Spanish women trade unionists

Category:Anarchists from Aragon