WITHOUT MEMORY, WE ARE NOTHING
Angeles was born in Blimea in the Asturias region of Spain. She was the fourth of six children. She had three sisters – Aurora, Argentina and Anita, and two brothers, Antonio and Secundino.
Her father, Jose, was a miner and her mother, Restituta, a midwife.
Life for miners was very tough. With long hours and low pay, they were treated almost as slaves. There were no showers at the mine, and they received no food. Angeles remembered that there was no help forthcoming from the Catholic church. “And then there were the priests, who only knew how to talk about hell and sin…”
Jose became an ardent socialist, joining the PSOE (Socialist Workers Party).
When Angeles was very small, her parents split up. Shortly afterwards, her father was run over by a car and was killed.
Life was very hard and by the age of just nine, Angeles was working as a cleaner to raise more money for the family. “I never had a doll, and I never went to school.”
In 1931, the socialist Second Republic was voted into power in Spain. The government immediately set about improving conditions for the working people, particularly women. They were given the vote, the right to civil marriage, the opportunity to take exams and were allowed to ask for a divorce.
However, there was a right-wing backlash to the social reforms. A group called the Falange, supported by the Spanish army, protested – and mobilized.
When Angeles was just fifteen, her older brother, Antonio, was one of 24 men killed during the brutal repression of a revolutionary miner’s strike, by the Civil Guard. He was stabbed with a bayonet. The victims are known as the ‘Martyrs of Carbayin’. Angeles said that she never recovered from the pain of losing her brother.
It led to her joining the Socialist Youth movement of Spain.
Angeles was a keen performer in amateur dramatics. In 1936, she was performing the lead role of Maricuela, in the play ‘Arriba los Pobres del Mundo’ (Up with the Poor of the World), by Jacinto Sanchez, when the Spanish Civil War broke out.
The socialists always called the war, the ‘Fascist Coup’. Angeles immediately joined the Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) and joined the left-wing militia. Her sister Argentina became part of the movement and brother Secundino also went off to fight.
Angeles said, “At only seventeen years old, I was already aware that they were stealing something that was ours, and it was up to us to defend it.”
Angeles took the nom-de-guerre ‘Maricuela’, from the character she was playing at the outbreak of hostilities.
She served in the kitchens at Oviedo. It was her job to take food up to the front-line where troops were fighting. On one occasion, the soldier she had taken lunch to, stood up, and was promptly killed – right next to her.

Despite the contribution women were making to the war, they were vilified, not just by their Fascist opponents but by many Republicans. They had been brought up in conservative, Catholic Spain where women’s traditional role was expected. To see women engaged in combat defied these norms.
There was a propaganda smear campaign against the women combatants.

The Republicans decided to withdraw women from the front line. Angeles subsequently trained as a nurse and went to work in a field hospital in Gijon. However, she never bore arms.
In October 1937, the Fascist forces led by General Franco, captured the Asturias region. Angeles was immediately arrested, alongside her sister. Her hair was shaved off.
Angeles was put on trial on the trumped-up charge of killing two men and was found guilty. She was sentenced to fifteen years in jail (later reduced to nine). She said later, “What nonsense. The trials were a farce.”
She was sent to the brutal Saturraran prison in Gipuzkoa, as was Argentina. Whilst there, she learned brother Secundino had been sent to a concentration camp and her boyfriend, Chano, had been shot.
In her prison cell, Angeles could hear the sounds of torture and of people being taken outside to be executed. She said in later years, “What truly keeps me alive and active is that desire to remember all those women who were tortured, murdered and erased from history.”
She also noted that nuns were helping the prison guards. Angeles was once subjected to five days torture for not following the instructions of a nun.
However, there was one benefit from her time in prison. It was there that she learned to read.
Her sister, Argentina, was removed to another brutal prison, Durango, where she was tortured.
Unexpectedly, Angeles was released on parole after four years in prison. She went firstly to live with one of her sisters, working in a bar, before going to work in a pharmacy in Oviedo.
As a condition of being released, Angeles was forced to report to a local judge once a month.
It was in Oviedo that she met Graciano Rozada Vallina. He had fought for the Republicans in the war and had also been captured and imprisoned.
Now released, he was organizing the PSOE (Socialist Workers) in the area and was an extremely active trade unionist, working for the UGT (Union General de Trabajadores).
When Graciano proposed to Angeles, she said, “If you want to get married, I’ll get married, but I’m not going to be a piece of furniture at home. I believe in the equality of women and men.”
They were married in 1946, and soon afterwards had a daughter, Maria Angeles Rozardo.
Whilst in childbirth, she was unable to attend her monthly meeting with the judge. Angeles was immediately arrested again.
When hauled before the judge, he reminded her that although she had served her sentence, she was not actually free. He let her go, but told her that if she missed another appointment she would be back in prison. Childbirth was no excuse!
In 1947, the persecution of socialists in Spain intensified. Graciano was tipped off that he was on a list of wanted men as a ‘suspected terrorist’. He fled to France, leaving his wife and daughter behind.
Nevertheless, the authorities pestered Angeles constantly, threatening her and demanding to know where her husband was.
Shortly afterwards, the army killed a group of left-wing guerillas near to her home. Angeles decided it was time to leave.
Angeles and 10-month-old Maria, hid in her (now released) sister Argentina’s house in Baracaldo, before catching a boat to France.
She was told she could take nothing with her other than one handbag. So, despite the fact it was boiling hot, she put on three dresses and a thick coat and wore high heels.
On the boat, Angeles and baby Maria were forced to lie on the bottom, covered in an oilcloth.
The moment she arrived in France, Angeles was arrested. French police fined her 1,000 francs for entering the country illegally.
Angeles then joined her husband, who was living in the French town of St Eloy des Mines. There, they had a son named Jose Antonio.
She remained politically active, working for the PSOE in exile. In 1958, Angeles joined the Socialist Workers Party Congress.
In 1960, General Franco announced a mini-amnesty. “Those without blood on their hands”, would be allowed to return to Spain. Angeles realised this would give her the opportunity to see her mother again.
However, she was instantly arrested as she crossed the border into Spain. After a short while in custody, Angeles was allowed to travel onto Asturias to see her mother. She was then allowed back into France on the condition she did not return to Spain again.
Whilst Angeles was in exile, her sister Argentina and her husband were killed in a train crash (later on, sister Aurora died of cancer and brother Secundino died of an allergic reaction to medication he was taking).
In 1975, General Franco died, and fascism collapsed in Spain. Angeles still did not dare to return home.

It was only in 1989, that the role of women in the Spanish Civil War was formally recognized by the government.
In 2003, Angeles’ husband Graciano died. He had always wanted to be buried in his native land, so the following year, she took his ashes back. This time she stayed, living in Gijon.
From now on, Angeles dedicated her life to telling the stories of the Spanish Civil War. “We have to defend what we have fought for all of our lives. I don’t want a world of misery like the one I lived in.”
She added, “Without memory, we are nothing.”
Angeles was noted for always having a smile on her face. She preached tolerance and the acceptance of people who might have different viewpoints, advocating, “The need to be a democrat and respect those who have different ideas from mine.”
Angeles would only ever be interviewed, or answer questions from journalists or the public, if she was wearing earrings.
In 2009, she published her autobiography. It was called ‘Memorias de Angeles Florez Peon’ and told the story of the build up to the war and her experiences during the conflict. In it, she said, “I was never afraid of General Franco’s bullets.”
She recounted, “We moved between shootings and bombs and slept with our clothes on so we could run when necessary.” Consequently, she considered her biggest luxury was clean sheets on a comfortable bed.
Angeles said she had sacrificed her youth to the Civil War.
The autobiography became the most-read book in Spain in the Twenty First century.
In 2013, she published the second volume of her story – ‘Maricuela’s Secrets’. It was an incredibly positive book, not dwelling on the horrors of the past.
Angeles started her own Facebook page in 2014, when she was 95, aiming to spread her political message.
“We must always fight to build a better, fairer, more supportive world.”
In 2016, she received an award from the feminist group ‘Club of 25’, whose aim was ‘Making women and their problems, visible.’
This was given to Angeles for, “Her defense of freedom and democracy.”
The following year, she received the Pozu Fortuna award, given to, “Those people, organisations or entities that have distinguished themselves in the achievements of actions or works that enhance the values of humanity, freedom, solidarity, peace and defense of human rights.”
The presentation ceremony was at the Mieres Well, one of the largest mass graves in the Asturias.
In 2018, Angeles gave a talk at the Madrid Book Fair. She was introduced as “A symbol of Spanish women who fought, and still fight, against fascism.”
She expressed her deep concern about the rise of right-wing politics.
However, although she said she couldn’t forgive what had happened to her, “Hatred is absolutely useless.”
Right up until her dying day (aged 105), Angeles was Honorary President of the Socialist Youth of the Asturias.
She continued to play an active part in elections. In 2023, she was photographed shaking hands with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who was also leader of her PSOE party.
Fearing she might be perceived as biased, she insisted on having a photograph with the leader of the opposition.
Angeles’ last surviving sister, Anita, died in January 2024.

When Angeles died, tributes flooded in. The Deputy Secretary of the PSOE, Adriana Lasta, said, “Friend and soulmate. We will miss you so much – but your example remains. We will never forget you.”
Adrian Barbon, the President of the Asturias, said, “We love you, Maricuela. And we will always remember you. Asturias and socialism are in mourning today.”
It is believed that Angeles was the last surviving socialist militia-woman from the Spanish Civil War.
RIP – Republican’s Indomitable Pensioner