Evelio Boal

{{Short description|Spanish anarchist (1884–1921)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Evelio Boal López | native_name =  | native_name_lang =  | image = Evelio Boal.jpg | image_upright = | alt = Portrait photograph of Evelio Boal | caption = Boal ({{circa|1921}}) | order = | office = General Secretary of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo | status =  | term_start = January 1919 | term_end = March 1921 | predecessor = Manuel Buenacasa | successor = Andreu Nin | prior_term = | pronunciation = | birth_name = Evelio Boal López | birth_date = {{Birth date|1884|05|11|df=y}} | birth_place = Valladolid, Old Castile, Spain | death_date = {{Death date and age|1921|06|18|1884|05|11|df=y}} | death_place = Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain | death_cause = Assassination | citizenship = Spanish | party = | other_party =  | height =  | partner =  | relations = | children = | parents =  | mother =  | father =  | relatives = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = Graphic designer | known_for = | salary = | net_worth =  | cabinet = | committees = | portfolio = | awards =  | blank1 = | data1 = | blank2 = | data2 = | blank3 = | data3 = | blank4 = | data4 = | blank5 = | data5 = | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size =  | module = | module2 = | module3 = | module4 = | module5 = | footnotes = }} '''Evelio Boal López''' (Valladolid, 11 May 1884 – Barcelona, 18 June 1921) was a Spanish graphic designer, trade unionist and anarchist. He was one of the organizers of the Congress of Sants of the National Confederation of Labour, forming part of the commission that wrote the report.<ref name="dbe">{{cite web|url=http://dbe.rah.es/biografias/27172/evelio-boal-lopez|title=Evelio Boal López|first=Pelai|last=Pagès Blanch|website=Real Academia de la Historia|access-date=5 January 2021}}</ref><ref name="VO">{{cite web|url=http://www.veuobrera.org/index01.htm|title=Notes biogràfiques: Boal López, Evelio.|website=Veu Obrera|language=ca|access-date=19 October 2021}}</ref>

==Biography== Evelio Boal was born in Valladolid on 11 May 1884. At a very young age he went to live in Barcelona, where he worked as a typographer. By 1908 he was already a member of the board of the Union of the Art of Printing and launched the strike against ''El Progreso'', an organ of Alejandro Lerroux's Radical Republican Party.<ref name="dbe"/> He later joined the National Confederation of Labor ({{langx|es|Confederación Nacional del Trabajo}}, CNT) and collaborated in the weekly ''Tierra y Libertad'' under the pseudonym ''Chispazos''.<ref name="dbe"/> He was also an amateur actor, with which he directed the Grupo Artístico Teatral del Centro Obrero.<ref name="dbe"/> He took part in the organization of the 1917 general strike and was the one who drafted the minutes of the joint meetings with the General Union of Workers ({{langx|es|Unión General de Trabajadores}}, UGT).<ref name="dbe"/>

In August 1918 he was elected a member of the CNT Committee and in February 1919 he provisionally replaced Manuel Buenacasa Tomeo as the CNT's General Secretary.<ref name="VO"/> In January 1919 he was arrested during the La Canadenca strike, being released shortly thereafter by popular request.<ref name="dbe"/> In the December of that same year, he was confirmed in office at the CNT congress that was held at the Madrid Comedy Theatre.<ref name="dbe"/><ref name="VO"/> There he was one of the 24 signatories of the opinion on the ideological definition of the CNT, which declared its purpose to be the pursuit of libertarian communism.<ref name="dbe"/><ref name="VO"/> He was also delegated to meet with union leaders in Portugal.<ref name="VO"/> In August 1920, together with Salvador Seguí and Salvador Quemades, he traveled to Madrid to rebuild the alliance between the CNT and the UGT for future mobilizations.<ref name="dbe"/><ref name="VO"/>

He was secretary of the CNT Committee until March 1921, when he was arrested and imprisoned in the Barcelona Model Prison, where he was beaten and tortured.<ref name="dbe"/><ref name="VO"/> When he was released on the morning of 17 June 1921, he was assassinated at the prison gate, along with {{ill|Antoni Feliu i Codina|ca}}, then treasurer of the CNT, in application of the escape law.<ref name="dbe"/><ref name="VO"/>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{S-start}} {{S-bef | rows=1 | before= Francisco Miranda Concha }} {{S-ttl | rows=1 | title= General Secretary of the CNT<br/>20px|CNT-FAI| years=1918–1921}} {{S-aft | rows=1 | after=Andreu Nin Pérez }} {{S-end}} {{Portal bar|Anarchism|Organized labor|Spain}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boal López, Evelio}} Category:1884 births Category:1921 deaths Category:People from Valladolid Category:General secretaries of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo Category:Assassinated anarchists