Lucía Sánchez Saornil

Today she is considered to be an anarcho-feminist. However, she did not consider herself a feminist. The concept of feminism was associated with the upper-class. Therefore, working-class women who aligned themselves with the class struggle did not embrace feminism. However, many of the ideals they did embrace would be considered feminist by today's standards. Many of her peers shared this view.[1]

Lucía Sánchez Saornil and Emma Goldman

Sánchez Saornil was involved with Emma Goldman, a well-known anarchist. Emma Goldman corresponded with Sánchez Saornil and assisted anarchist causes in the Mujeres Libres organization. Goldman's agenda aligned in many aspects with the agenda of Mujeres Libres.[2]

Sánchez Saornil met América Barroso, the woman she would spend the rest of her life with, right as Mujeres Libres was gaining significant traction.[3] Although they faced backlash for their lesbian relationship from the state and from their communities, as well as risked putting their lives in danger, Sánchez Saornil and Barroso stuck together as they fled to Paris, returned to Madrid, and fled again to Valencia, wherein they would continue the rest of their relationship and their lives in secret.[4]

With the defeat of the Second Republic, Sánchez Saornil and her partner América Barrosa were forced to flee to Paris, where Sánchez Saornil continued her involvement in the SIA. With the fall of France to Nazi forces, it was soon necessary for them to move again and they returned to Madrid in 1941 or 1942. Her exile and return are still somewhat mysterious.

Sánchez Saornil wrote under the male pen name Luciano de San Saor.[5] Her poetry revolved around themes of lesbian desire during a time (i.e., Francoist Spain) in which portrayals of queerness were heavily policed.[6] She also wrote poems about industrialism, religion, marriage, anarchism, and economic revolution. Some of these poems include "Sensual Twilight,"[7] "Suburban Landscape," "Sunday," "Landscape in Memory," "To Sarah, Dead, who Desperately Cried Out to God," and "Romance of Durruti."[8] She also wrote essays like "The Question of Feminism" and "The Women Question in our Media," followed by "A Summary on the Woman Question: For Compañero Vázquez," wherein she first developed her rationale for co-creating Mujeres Libres, both the journal and the organization.[9] One of her more scathing essays, "The Marriage Ceremony or Spiritual Cowardice," delineates her critiques of marriage as a contract of sale.[10]

• Anarcha-feminism
• Anarchism and issues related to love and sex § Mujeres Libres
• Anarchism in Spain

• Ackelsberg, Martha A. (2005) [1991]. Free Women of Spain: Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women. Oakland, California: AK Press. ISBN 1-902593-96-0. LCCN 2003113040. OCLC 63382446.
• Linhard, Alexa Tabea (2005). Fearless Women in the Mexican Revolution and the Spanish Civil War. Columbia Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8262-1611-0. LCCN 2005016913.
• Kowal, Donna M. (2019). "Anarcha-Feminism". In Adams, Matthew S.; Levy, Carl (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 265–280. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_15. ISBN 978-3319756196. S2CID 242073896.
• Nash, Mary (1995). Defying Male Civilization: Women in the Spanish Civil War. Denver: Arden Press. ISBN 0-912869-15-1. LCCN 95-18301.
• Nash, Mary (1999). "Un/Contested Identities: Motherhood, Sex Reform and the Modernization of Gender Identity in Early Twentieth-Century Spain". In Enders, Victoria Loree; Radcliff, Pamela Beth (eds.). Constructing Spanish Womanhood: Female Identity in Modern Spain. SUNY Press. pp. 25–50. ISBN 0-7914-4029-X. LCCN 98-6190.

• Casamitjana, Rosa Martín (1992). "Lucía Sánchez Saornil: de la vanguardia al olvido". DUODA: estudis de la diferència sexual (in Spanish) (3): 45–66. ISSN 1132-6751.
• Celma Valero, María del Pilar (2005). "Lucía Sánchez Saornil: una voz "ultra", más allá de su condición femenina". In San Jos Lera, Javier (ed.). Praestans Labore Victor: Homenaje al Profesor Víctor García de la Concha (in Spanish). Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad. pp. 263–278. ISBN 84-7800-490-4.
• Fontanillas Borras, Antonia; Martínez Muñoz, Pau (2014). Lucia Sánchez Saornil: Poeta, periodista y fundadora de mujeres libres (in Spanish). Malatesta. ISBN 978-84-941712-2-2.
• Miguel, Giuliana; Rostichelli, Michelle; Lemos Silva, Thiago (2016). "Lucía Sánchez Saornil: Introducción a la vida y obra de una "Mujer Libre"". In Lemos Silva, Thiago (ed.). La cuestión femenina en nuestros medios (in Spanish). Santiago de Chile: Editorial Eleuterio. pp. 13–28. ISBN 978-956-9261-20-6.
• Nash, Mary (1975). "Dos intelectuales anarquistas frente al problema de la mujer: Federica Montseny y Lucia Sánchez Saornil". Convivium: Revista de Filosofía (in Spanish) (44–45): 71–99. ISSN 0010-8235.
• Soriano Jiménez, Ignacio C. (2022). Lucía Sánchez Saornil, entre mujeres anarquistas (in Spanish). Madrid: La Linterna Sorda. ISBN 9788412254761.

• El Mundo (10 May 1998). "Lucía Sánchez Saornil: La vanguardista". Segunda República (in Spanish). Retrieved 21 April 2023.
• Gimeno, Luz Sanfeliu. Lucía Sánchez Saornil; una vida y una obra alternativas a la sociedad de su tiempo (PDF) (Thesis) (in Spanish). University of Valencia. pp. 1–8.
• Sánchez Saornil, Lucía (2005). "The Question of Feminism". In Graham, Robert (ed.). Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas. Vol. 1. Montreal: Black Rose Books. ISBN 1-55164-251-4.