After his release, he joined the construction union of the CNT and began writing for its newspaper Solidaridad Obrera, where he debated anarchist feminism with Lucía Sánchez Saornil.

Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Vázquez was elected the CNT's general secretary, becoming a leading advocate for anarchist collaboration with the Republican government.

After the May Days, his support for collaboration and military discipline drew criticism from parts of the anarchist movement, which condemned his continued loyalty to the government of Juan Negrín.

After the victory of the Nationalist forces, Vázquez fled to France, where he organised aid for Spanish refugees and the transfer of the CNT's archives to the International Institute of Social History.

He also had a heated exchange with Emma Goldman, who, after supporting him during the war, questioned whether he had been "duped" by Negrín and the Communist Party of Spain, whom anarchists blamed for the Republican defeat.

[17] Vázquez, with Buenaventura Durruti and Joan Garcia i Oliver, met the Catalan president Lluis Companys, who appeared to have accepted the anarchist control over Barcelona.

[18] Vázquez then oversaw the formation of an anti-fascist alliance with the government of Catalonia, arguing for the necessity of anarcho-syndicalists fighting alongside the Popular Front against the Nationalists.

To appease the anarchists and avoid armed confrontation, the Catalan prime minister Joan Casanovas [ca] excluded the PSUC from his administration, first seeking the approval of Vázquez before publicly announcing the move.

[23] By September 1936, Vázquez had overseen the integration of several members of the CNT into the Catalan government, taking three ministries and other posts associated with defence and public order.

[32] When Toryho was criticised by Callejas and Jaume Balius [ca], who accused him of expelling "true anarchists" from the paper and replacing them with "suspect journalists", Vázquez publicly defended him as having worked in service of the CNT's political line.

[33] Throughout the war, Vázquez concerned himself with the activities of the Durruti Column, engaged in diplomacy with Mexico and international volunteers, and publicised the deaths of anarchists fighting on the frontlines.

[39] Vázquez believed that organisational discipline within the anarchist movement was the best way that they could counter the "tidal wave of confusion" caused by the rise of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE).

[40] He also announced military recruitment drives, holding particular contempt for the "señoritos" (young bourgeois men) that spent their time relaxing in cafés rather than fighting on the frontline.

[46] Diego Abad de Santillán expressed regret to Vázquez over their response to the provocation, saying that the CNT leadership had made an error "in bringing an end to the firing without having resolved the pending problems.

[53] Juan Manuel Molina Mateo reported that, during this period, Vázquez spent his meetings with Negrín "discussing trivialities" and appeared ignorant to the "gigantic operation under way to end once and for all the influence of the CNT.

"[54] After the fall of Euskadi in June 1937, Vázquez wrote to President Manuel Azaña, demanding the re-entry of the CNT into government and a reform of the Republican war effort.

[65] In August, when anarchists protested against the establishment of the Servicio de Información Militar (SIM), the Republic's secret police service, the CNT's leadership supported it, with Vázquez recommending that Negrín appoint Garcia i Oliver as its leader.

Although a vocal minority still opposed it, Vázquez retorted that he was "indifferent" to them and praised UGT secretary José Rodríguez Vega as "a symbol of the unity of the Spanish working class.

[73] This move was met with a furious response from the workers of Barcelona, where Vázquez backed a communist-led demonstration that demanded the Republicans not surrender and called for the removal of Defence Minister Indalecio Prieto.

Vázquez argued for the necessity of "all-out resistance", while the FAI's central committee called for opposition to the Republican "counterrevolution" and considered the possibility of an armistice with the Nationalists.

[79] Vázquez and Horacio Prieto put together a list of three CNT members for their prospective ministry,[80] from which Negrín chose Segundo Blanco as his minister of education and health.

[86] This move came amidst heightening discontent from the radical elements of the anarchist movement, including from Jacinto Toryho, who Vázquez swiftly ousted as editor of Solidaridad Obrera, bringing the paper in line with his policy of "unqualified governmental collaboration".

[96] When Emma Goldman appealed to Vázquez for aid, he responded defensively, rejecting that the CNT hadn't done enough for the women's organisation, while pointing out that the anarchist movement did not have the resources that the communists had.

[3] From this position, Vázquez organised the provision of aid to other refugees that had fled Spain, encouraging Spanish anarchists to emigrate to Mexico, where they were hosted by the sympathetic government of Lázaro Cárdenas.

[39] He blamed both the CNT's attempts at socialisation and the Marxists' intentions to Bolshevise the country, which the Spanish government had been unable to hide in its propaganda directed towards the Western democracies.

He hoped to be remembered as a principled anti-fascist, who treated fascism as the "number-one enemy" of the time period, contrasting himself with "purists" who preferred idealistic sacrifices to necessary compromise.

[111] Anarchist historian Josep Peirats attacked Vázquez for having "clung like a leech to Negrín's gang";[112] and Juan Gómez Casas [es] wrote that collaboration "had a devastating effect upon him" and described how much he had changed since his time as secretary of the CNT's construction union.

[114] Vázquez was posthumously accused by critics, including Joan Garcia i Oliver, of various personal, moral and political infractions, most of which were unsubstantiated rumours and some of which were driven by anti-Romani sentiment.

[116] In his book El eco de los pasos, Garcia i Oliver depicted Vázquez as having "intellectual limitations" and accused him of being either a puppet of the Soviets or other members of the anarchist leadership.

[120] Although she expressed her admiration for him, describing him as very friendly and attractive, her description also contained anti-Romani sentiments, depicting him as an unintelligent, infantile and inexperienced man of "insufficient culture".