Basilisa Blazquez Tabernero

Basilisa Blazquez Tabernero was born in Funes , she was a woman of socialist ideas and in 1934 she started going to the prison in Ezkaba to help the socialist prisoners. She helped 3-4 prisoners from Madrid, and after their liberation, they continued having contact through the years.

In 1934, in Casa del Pueblo of Pamplona (the local branch office of the PSOE and UGT in Pamplona), they discussed what to do with the fellow socialists that were imprisoned in the Fort of Ezkaba. They decided that whoever wanted and could help the prisoners could sign up in a list and the name of a prisoner would be raffled so  each woman would be assigned some prisoners to visit and help them. So, in this way, once a week  the women would visit them and  clean their clothes and bring them tobacco and food. 

In 1936, Basilisa was arrested by the Requeté (carlist militias). In a horrible way,  they shaved her hair at home and gave her castor oil. This was a popular way of punishing and humiliating republican women during the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s regime. Maria Luisa, the daughter of Basilisa, remembers that night with a lot of pain, she saw her mother crying for hours on a chair.

After that, Basilisa spent more than a year in the prison of Pamplona because she helped the socialist and communist prisoners and that was a sign against Franco’s block and his supporters. After one year, when she got out of prison, ​​and she was banished. The family moved to Barcelona, but after a short period they returned to Pamplona. They ended up moving to Azagra, because some friends that were with her in the prison, invited her to live there with them. 

In 1938, Basilisa was doomed again to two months in prison, because through the “International Red Aid”  she had helped passing republican people through the border to the exile in France. 

SOURCES:

Kowasch Velasco, A.: “Tejiendo redes / Sareak Ehotzen. Mujeres solidarias con los presos del Fuerte de San Cristóbal (1934-1945) / San Kristobal Fuerteko presoekin elkartasuna izan zuten emakumeak (1934-1945)” .  Publicaciones Gobierno de Navarra. Navarra 2017.