Federico Arcos’ house sat on a quiet Windsor, Ontario, backstreet near the auto plant where he had worked. The house was as unassuming as he was, with a neatly trimmed lawn in front, and a garden around back that neighbors and friends planted when he grew too feeble to till it himself. He was particularly proud of his anarchist tomatoes; small yellow and pear-shaped, he bred them himself. He bragged that someone from a nursery cooperative in the Pacific Northwest had collected the seeds from him and distributed them because the tomatoes were just that good. Mostly, though, his visitors weren’t interested in his garden. Instead they came for his remarkable library and his extraordinary stories. He was one of the last survivors of the anarchist militias who had fought in the Spanish Civil War against the fascist forces of Francisco Franco, and for an anarchist revolution. He was adamant on that last point. His years as a militiaman and later in the underground were not to preserve or resurrect the Spanish Republic. They were in the service of a democratic workers’ revolution that would abolish capitalism.

The revolution in Spain began the same day as the civil war. Fascist military leaders tried to stage a coup and were beaten back as much by anarchist and socialist workers who stormed the armories as they were by soldiers loyal to the Republic. In Federico’s native city of Barcelona, anarchist workers belonging to the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) quickly took control of the city. Already a member of the CNT—he joined the union when he was 14—in the fall of 1936 Federico joined the Juventudes Libertarias of Catolonia (the anarchist youth of Catalonia). Alongside other members of the group he went to the Comité de Defensa where they were given inadequate weapons—an old rifle and six bullets. Indignant, they told the older men, “We want to fight for the revolution as much as you do!” to which the older men responded, “There are people here much older than you who need the newer rifles. When they die you will take their place. That is your responsibility and our trust in you.” Federico spent the long balance of his life proving that he was worthy of that trust.

When the Spanish Republic finally fell in 1939, Federico fled to France, along with hundreds of others. He stayed there first in a refugee camp and then working in a tool and dye shop until 1943. Then he returned to Spain where he joined the military and began organizing with the anarchist underground. The movement was riddled with informants and, despite the heroic efforts of Federico, and his comrades, was largely ineffective. Federico finally decided to immigrate to Canada, where he again found work as a machinist, this time at a Ford factory in Windsor.

Once in Canada, he reunited with his partner Pura—who had been a militant in the famous women’s collective Mujeres Libres—and his daughter. He became active in the Canadian and American anarchist movements, serving as a mentor to several generations of activists and working with Black & Red Books and Fifth Estate Magazine, two anarchist publishing projects based in Detroit. He also began collecting anarchist materials from Spain and around the world, in an effort to ensure that the memories of his dead comrades and the ideals of anarchism would endure. In time the library he collected proved to be one of the largest in the world—containing everything from periodicals, posters and books, so many books, to Emma Goldman’s suitcase.

Federico’s library and life story attracted scholars and militants from throughout Europe and North America. He was delighted to share what he knew and show the thousands of items that he had saved. He was even happier if his visitors brought children. He always had sweets for them: a bar of chocolate, not to be eaten after 4:00 p.m. so that it wouldn’t spoil dinner, and a box of biscuits.

Transcribed by Juan Conatz