Enriqueta Gallinat i Roman

Enriqueta Gallinat was a member of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) from its foundation in 1931. In 1934, she married Enric Tubau, director of El Noticiero Universal. The wedding sponsors were Lluís Companys and Joan Casanovas i Maristany, President of the Parliament of Catalonia. They had one son, Josep Maria.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, she collaborated in founding the Unió de Dones de Catalunya (Union of Women of Catalonia), where she served as Secretary of Agitation and Propaganda. She was also secretary to Hilari Salvadó, who became the last Republican mayor of Barcelona.

In 1939, she went into exile in France, where she worked with refugee escape networks assisting those fleeing the Nazi occupation. Upon returning to Spain in 1943, she was arrested and imprisoned at Les Corts prison for over a year. After her release, she continued her clandestine activism. She became a member of the Executive Council and the National Council of ERC and served as Secretary of the Women’s Organisation. She was also appointed Municipal Councillor for the Eixample District and a member of the Executive Council of the Catalan Women’s Institute.

In 1996, she received the Cross of Saint George. The following year, she co-founded Les Dones del 36 (The Women of ’36), an association that received the Maria Aurèlia Capmany Award from the Barcelona City Council the same year. Recordings of her testimonies are available in a video produced by the Official School of Cinema of Barcelona, with guidance from Mercè Vilanova and Mercedes Fernández-Martorell (1998), as well as in Mujeres de 1936 by Ana Martínez and Llum Quiñonero (1999).

In 2002, she was awarded the Barcelona Medal of Honour. Enriqueta passed away at the age of 97 in Barcelona. Since 2014, a square in the Eixample District has been named after her.