La Vida Alcalaína

Now and again you come across people who spend their lives fighting for magnificent but futile causes, and their names fade from the pages of history. Salvochea was one of those. He was committed to social justice for the labouring classes at a time when they had few rights and no political voice. The 19th century in Spain was marked by conflict between conservatives who supported the status quo, where the monarchy and the Catholic Church had absolute power, and liberals who wanted reform and a voice for the emerging middle class. Those at the bottom of the pile were largely ignored by both parties. Salvochea began by believing that social change could come through the existing political system, but towards the end of the century when the poor were still dying of hunger he changed tack and supported the anarchist idea that workers must take matters into their own hands and bring about change by whatever means were available to them. He died a frustrated and disillusioned man, his