Isabel Mesa Delgado

Isabel Mesa Delgado (Ronda, 30 December 1913 - Huerta, 25 February 2002) was a Spanish trade unionist, anarchist and Spanish anarcha-feminist worker. While in hiding, she used the pseudonym Carmen Delgado Palomares.

Biography Mesa was born on 30 December 1913 in Ronda, Spain into a working-class family of anarchist tradition.

Mesa participated in the creation of the Gremio de la Aguja of CNET, obtaining the card number 1. Her trade union activity was mainly directed to the organization of working women. During a strike at Almadraba de Ceuta, where the company hired Maghrebi women for half the salary of the Spanish women, she assisted them in joining the union in order to get better conditions for all. According to Mesa, "they joined us and in 24 hours we won the fight". In 1934, during a season and until his expulsion, she played in of the Tetuán that operated while being disguised as an Esperantist society. In 1936, again in Ceuta, she came into contact with the founding group of Mujeres Libres magazine.

In Ceuta and Tetuán the Francoist coup of 16 July 1936 was successful. The repression was very strong and there were many executions by firing squad. Mesa helped many comrades to flee and managed to escape to the peninsula, arriving in Málaga in a fishing boat along with twelve men. In 1937, Mesa reached Valencia where she started a nursing course and then worked in the city and in Gandía. She participated in the constitution congress of the Federación Nacional de Mujeres Libres and became the general secretary of the local group of Valencia, assisting Lucía Sánchez Saornil, Pura Pérez Benavent, Amelia Torres Maeso and other compatriots in sharing their message. He was his representative in the National Committee of the CNT and in the Plenary of Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista (SIA) which was held in August 1938 in Valencia.

The last days of the war, in March 1939, Mesa fled to the port of Alicante. When ships did not arrive with aid in support of Republicans, Mesa fled to Almería on foot. With a false name, she became involved with the anti-Franco struggle. She was later recognized by Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) for her work.

Her idea of what anarchism is defined his whole life:

Mesa died in Valencia on 25 February 2002. At her funeral, A las barricadas was played and she was interred wrapped in the confederal flag.