Vila was born in 1908 in a small village called Peguera in the comarca (roughly translated as "shire") of Berguedà, Catalonia.

In the period between his release and the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Vila moved around constantly for fear of harassment by the "Special Branch".

Vila fled the scene, and later turned himself into the Guardia Civil, hoping for better treatment than he would receive from the "Special Branch".

[4] Following the Nationalist victory over the Second Spanish Republic in 1939, Vila crossed the French border, to be interned at the concentration camp in Argelès-sur-Mer.

[5] The battalion that Vila was a member of was incorporated into the Free French 2nd Armored Division, led by General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque.

Militant of the CNT and the last of the Catalan anarchist maquis, he was involved in the proclamation of libertarian communism (1932), the civil war (1936-39), and the French Resistance (1939-45) and, for a further 18 years, the fight against Francoism.