Victòria Pujolar

[1][2] She never gave up the political struggle and was the first voice in Catalan on the clandestine Radio España Independiente,[3] popularly known as La Pirenaica, based in Bucharest.

Her father Joan Pujoar Marich was an employee of the Generalidad de Cataluña and her mother Merè Amat Duran worked at the Registro Civil.

[8][9] Taken to the cellars of the Vía Layetana police station, she was interrogated, abused and tortured by the brothers Vicente and Antonio Juan Creix, sinister policemen of the Brigada Político-Social under the orders of Commissioner Eduardo Quintela.

She manipulated letters, files and records, to facilitate the escape of Victoria Pujolar in conjunction with the contacts they maintained with Party members inside and outside the prison.

Later, Federico Melchor was called to Bucharest in Romania to direct Radio España Independiente (REI) and there they coincided with the Catalan collective, including Josep Bonifaci i Mora and later Jordi Solé Tura.

[17] In 1966 the family returned to Paris and Pujolar collaborated with Dolores Ibarruri and Irene Falcón in Mujeres Españolas Antifascistas and worked as a layout artist and illustrator on the editorial staff of Mundo Obrero until 1974.

Federico Melchor continued to manage the Mundo Obrero publication and was a member of the executive committee of the Communist Party of Spain until his death in 1985.

Pujolar devoted herself fully to painting and held three retrospective exhibitions, in Paris in 1992, in the Sala Blanquerna in Madrid in 2002 and in the Francesca Bonnemaison library in Barcelona in 2005.

[18] In 2021 the Catalan Women's Institute promoted the commemoration of the centenary of Pujolar's birth, supported by the Government of the Generalitat de Catalunya, including the publication of a biographical book and various exhibitions.

Heritage interpretation board at Vía Layetana police station in Barcelona.
Victòria Pujolar Amat in a photograph by Francisco Boix in 1947