Ninety years have passed since the July 1936 military uprising was defeated in Barcelona, a turning point that shaped the future of the city and Spain. The antifascist victory, led by the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), remains a defining moment in Spanish history. Now, a new documentary, El eco de los pasos, directed by historian Gonzalo Mateos, brings fresh attention to Joan García Oliver, one of the central figures of those turbulent days.
The film premiered at the Bartrina Theatre in Reus, García Oliver's birthplace. Drawing on his autobiography, it traces his journey from childhood poverty to revolutionary leadership. Born in Reus on 20 January 1901, García Oliver grew up in a working-class family connected to the textile industry and received only brief basic schooling. At 16, he moved to Barcelona, where he worked as a waiter. He began working at age seven, as the documentary recounts. García Oliver was part of Los Solidarios, an anarchist action group formed amid sharp conflict between the CNT and employers, with state authorities and employer-backed armed groups also involved. Its members included Buenaventura Durruti and Francisco Ascaso. García Oliver's confrontations with gunmen and his later political role in Catalonia under Lluís Companys illustrate the movement's shifting strategy. In November 1936, he accepted the post of Minister of Justice in Francisco Largo Caballero's Republican government, despite his earlier opposition to CNT participation in the Generalitat.
García Oliver's role in the uprising began on 19 July 1936, when he took part in the assault on the University of Barcelona, where insurgent troops had established defensive positions. The following day, he joined CNT regional secretary Mariano Vázquez, known as Marianet, and Solidaridad Obrera director Jacinto Toryho in taking over the Fomento Nacional building on Via Laietana and turning it into CNT-FAI headquarters. He also helped establish the Comité Basic de Milicias Antifascistas, a basic body in the revolutionary power structure that emerged in Catalonia after the uprising was defeated. Mateos's documentary has drawn local interest, with many attendees reportedly surprised by their city's revolutionary past. The film also examines the social conditions that fueled unrest. Mass unemployment and hunger gripped regions such as Andalusia, a situation Manuel Azaña described in 1931. That desperation drove many to radical action.
Although the revolutionary fervor of 1936 was short-lived, its legacy endures in Spain's social fabric. The anarcho-syndicalist movement, though dominant in Catalonia, struggled to maintain momentum against powerful adversaries and eventually turned toward broader antifascist alliances. García Oliver left the justice portfolio after the May 1937 events in Barcelona, when clashes between revolutionary forces and Republican authorities exposed a decisive rupture in the wartime coalition. During the summer of 1937, he took part in the Catalan regional committee's Comité de Acción Política. The brief vision of a collectivized Barcelona, with its blue overalls and transformed landmarks such as the “Hotel gastronómico colectivizado número 1,” remains a striking image of what was possible for a time.
Spain's social field has changed, but some underlying issues remain. Social inequality and precarious employment persist, while the rise of technofeudalism is seen as a new threat to democracy and economic sovereignty. Rights won through decades of struggle are now under pressure from far-right and hard-right forces openly challenging those gains. Democratic tools and peaceful means of defending those rights mark a impressive difference from the violent confrontations of the past.
The story of García Oliver and the 1936 uprising continues to resonate as Spain faces new social and political challenges. His memoir, El eco de los pasos, is among the best-known and most debated testimonies of his revolutionary generation. It charts a path from working-class hardship and street-level militancy to national office and exile. García Oliver died in Mexico in 1980. His life has also inspired later cultural work: the company Mos Maiorum's theatrical adaptation at Barcelona's Teatre Tantarantana drew on the memoir and revisited the tension between revolutionary aims and institutional compromise. In its coverage of the production, El País described dramaturg Joan Yago's intention as asking whether utopia remains possible. Recent events in Barcelona's political life, including the reappointment of the city's ombudsman, have also highlighted ongoing tensions and divisions, as seen in coverage of David Bondia's second term as Síndic.
Founded in 1910, the CNT became Spain's largest anarcho-syndicalist union and played a decisive role during the Second Republic and the Civil War. Barcelona's 1936 uprising formed part of a broader national conflict that led to three years of civil war, with lasting consequences for Spanish society. García Oliver's path from Los Solidarios to a cabinet post captures a basic contradiction in anarcho-syndicalism: the tension between rejecting state power and joining government during wartime. The legacy of those years continues to shape debates about workers' rights, social justice and the defense of democratic institutions in Spain today.
