The story of María la Jabalina, the last woman killed by the Franco regime, becomes a comic

The Sagunto City Council has commissioned a comic to tell the story of María Pérez Lacruz, better known as Mary the Javelin, a young anarchist who was the last woman assassinated by the Franco regime. A work that wants to recover its historical figure and make a tribute to retaliated women during the dictatorship.

By the author, Cristina Duran, explains that “Maria was very young” when “she decided to go to the front to fight against the rebels” with only 18 years old. “She was extremely unlucky enough to be injured as soon as she arrived,” she says. Maria never returned to the front, but at the end of the war she was arrested.

“They shaved her hair and the first thing they did was take her for a walk through the streets of Sagunto,” says comic book writer Miguel Ángel Gines. She then entered jail, accused of committing various alleged crimes. Manuel Girona, historian, specifies that they accused her “of a lot of murders and none of them are trueThey accused her “of having killed people who did not even exist, of having tortured people” or even of “eating the ears of a priest,” according to Durán and Gines.

Crimes that occurred when she was hospitalized, but it was of no use in her trial. “The last sentence is the last straw. They say they called her Jabalina because she was very aggressive and very bloody, when they called her Jabalina because her town was Jabaloyas,” says Girona.

Maria she spent two years in jail until a military court sentenced her to death. The comic illustrates the moment when her mother finds out that she is going to be shot and goes to the Paterna cemetery to “be able to pick up the body, clean it, wash it and be able to bury it with dignity”, in the words of its author. In fact, he wanted to take a photo with his grave so that his story would not be forgotten, which has been narrated in books, theater and now taken to the comic format.

The objective, according to Guillermo Sampedro, councilor for Historical Memory of the Sagunto City Council, is “that repression be remembered that society in general suffered, but especially women. “The author points out that they wanted to” contribute to what the mother of Mary said “: that the story of such a great injustice is never forgotten.