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INPRIMATU
Antonia Manot dies, mother of 'Txiki' shot by Franco
  • Antonia Manot died at age 95, according to his son Diego Paredes on social media.
Lander Arbelaitz Mitxelena @larbelaitz 2024ko uztailaren 22a

Born in the Spanish province of Badajoz, in the village of Zalamea de la serena. He was the oldest of five brothers, two boys and three girls. Several of his family and parents moved to Zarautz, where he settled in 1962 and had seven children.

"I lost my son, as he said to me, but I gained a lot in the Basque Country! After Jone's, I wandered down the street and, in front of me, three or four excellent young people, who I didn't know at all: "Goodbye, Mom! Goodbye!” Zalamea's coming was a heaven for me, even before my son's, because people helped me so much. I fell down from the sky in Zarautz, they all helped me," Miel A said ten years ago. Interview with Elustondo ARGIA.

Mother and family, in Txiki's grave. (Photo: Dani Blanco - ARGIA)

His son Jon entered ETA. This is his brother Mikel Paredes Miel A. In another interview with Elustondo. "Injustice was justice back then. Jon discovered that there were people in his crew and decided to go down that road. In the village they formed several groups that acted separately, without ties. When a group of people fell, they caught three or four people, not anybody else. So Jon started. One day he hid and a year later he was captured. When the civil guard came to search for us at home. “Where is your son?” they asked our mother. And my mother, petrified. “He’s gone camping.” Let's not talk! In 1974, ETA recalled the kidnapping of [Luis] Gómez Acebo [the husband of Pilar de Borbón] to release prisoners from Spanish prisons in return. The commands didn't stop grinding. Three or four commands went to Barcelona, each by their side, and suddenly they found Jon."

He was arrested in Barcelona on charges of killing a guard in a shooting resulting from the theft of a bank and shot on 27 September 1975, together with Anjel Otaegi and three FRAP members. Since then, the Abertzale Left has celebrated the Gudari Eguna in memory of the recent shooting of the Franco dictatorship in the Basque Parliament.

In the book The greeting and honor of Jokin Urain reported his son's funeral as follows: “The day of the funeral was terrible. The little ones in the house wore a crown each. We were leaving the house and passing through the train that took us to church. Some forty or fifty police officers came and arrested us. People cried, crowns, that silence -- you only heard the noise of heels. I’m still listening.”

The family also suffered persecution of the extreme right after his son was shot. These are your own words: “One night after Jon’s death, some men came here. Here were my kids, a monk and I. They attacked us questioning and pasting. I, with a bloody head, yelling at Mikel from the bottom up, ‘Mikele, Mikele, they want to kill me the children.’ And there was Mikele standing up, yelling at his neighbors. Everyone wants to kill Antonia! When those men heard the fuss, they came out of my house, they got into the car, all in the dark, and they left. We bleed, the children cried... Mikele was also there. I've always had that woman by my side."

Sortu Secretary General Arkaitz Rodríguez has been one of the first to express his condolences to the family. On the eve of death, as Jon predicted, you lost a son, yes, but you have won thousands in Euskal Herria"– Next to Haimar Altuna: "Antonia, always firm, has always carried the wounds of this harsh conflict with complete dignity and has been an example for us. We love you.