Luisa Rodriguez de la Fuente

Luisa Rodríguez de la Fuente (Madrid, 1921 - ibid., August 5, 1939), a tailor by profession, was one of the Thirteen Roses, Spanish women shot on August 5, 1939 on the outer walls of the Almudena cemetery after the end of the civil war, together with 46 men. All were accused of belonging to the Unified Socialist Youth (JSU) or the Communist Party of Spain (PCE).

Trajectory

Luisa Rodríguez was born in Chamartín de la Rosa. She had joined the JSU in 1936. At the end of the war, she met Julián Muñoz Tárrega one day while walking along what had been Avenida de la Libertad, in the neighborhood from Tetuán, together with her friend Antonia Torre Yela. Muñoz Tárrega informed both that the JSU had reorganized. Therefore, she encouraged them to join the group led by Sergio Ortiz in Chamartín de la Rosa. Ana López Gallego, Victoria Muñoz García, Elena Gil Olaya and Martina Barroso García also participated in this sector. She was made responsible for a group and asked to contact five other militants. According to her own statement, she had only managed to contact a cousin of hers. She acknowledged that she had been part of a communist cell on Mateo Inurria street. Two neighbors testified in her favor, saying that they had observed good behavior in her despite being a communist.

A policeman who knew of her communist affiliation denounced her and she was arrested on April 28, 1939, being the first of the Thirteen Roses to enter the women's prison in Ventas. Thus, she entered prison on May 1, 1939. She was not taken to the department for minors created at the initiative of María Sánchez Arbós, a prisoner, although it would have corresponded to her due to her age.

In file number 30426, she was one of those accused of an attempted conspiracy against General Francisco Franco on the day of the parade in the first Year of Victory and of being involved in the murder of Civil Guard lieutenant Isaac Gabaldón, his daughter and the driver José Luis Díez Madrigal.

In another case filed against her, number 9376, she admitted having joined the PCE in 1937, being named organization secretary of a neighborhood cell two months later.

She was sentenced to death because it was proven that she was "head of one of the JSU groups." Her cousin, Isidro Hernández de la Fuente, was also sentenced to death in the same case.

The judgment of the judicial case, dated August 3, was approved that same day by the War Audit Office, but the text stated that the execution of the death sentences would remain suspended until the informed of General Franco, Head of State. The sentence was carried out on the 5th without waiting to receive that notice, which was not signed until the 13th. The pardon requests were not processed by the director Carmen Castro.