Victoria Zárate Zurita

Victoria Zárate Zurita (Madrid, October 7, 1893 - Lisbon, December 6, 1964) was a Spanish republican teacher and trade unionist, of socialist and communist ideology, who was tortured and imprisoned by Franco's regime.

Biography Victoria Zárate Zurita was born in Madrid, Spain.

She studied teaching at the from 1912 to 1915. From April 1916, she worked at the Escuela Graduada de Niñas No. 4, in the Bailén School Group in Madrid, where she stayed until 1922, the year in which she exchanged her position with the teacher in Cadalso de los Vidrios (Madrid).

She joined the General Association of Teachers of the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) in 1918. She participated as a delegate of the (FETE) in the XIV Congress of the UGT held in 1920 together with the pedagogue Lorenzo Luzuriaga, among others. At this congress, the educational program of the UGT was created, which was one of the germs of what later became the educational program of the Second Spanish Republic.

She belonged to the Radical Socialist Republican Party, although later, at the beginning of the Civil War, she joined the Communist Party. In 1931, she distributed to the deputies who were drafting the constitution a manifesto calling for the Republic to be totally secular. She distributed it together with Victoriana Herrero, Enriqueta Echevarría, and Concepción Martín de Antonio, all representatives of left-wing political forces.

She participated in the founding of the New Education Movement in Spain; affiliated to the International of the same name. She was part of its first executive board as treasurer on April 5, 1931, together with Luzuriaga as president, Manuel Bartolomé Cossío and Américo Castro, among others.

On February 11, 1933, Zárate Zurita signed the manifesto of the founding of the International Association of Friends of the Soviet Union with the aim of disseminating the progress made in that country. Along with her, renowned people from both the political and intellectual spheres signed: the writers Antonio Machado, Federico García Lorca, Concha Espina. and the politicians Clara Campoamor and Victoria Kent, among others.

In July 1939, she returned to Madrid where she was arrested and, after being tortured, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. She was imprisoned in Bilbao for two years, after which she returned to Madrid on parole and devoted herself to private teaching. In March 1953, her depuration file was reviewed and she was reinstated to the service with the sanction of "postponement in the ranks for two years, transfer out of the province for five years and disqualification to hold positions of leadership and trust".