The only descendant of the anarchist revolutionary José Buenaventura Durruti has died in France at the age of 93.
~ Rob Latchford ~
Colette Durruti, daughter of the anarchist revolutionary José Buenaventura Durruti and the French libertarian activist Émilienne Morin, has died in France where she spent most of her life. Also known as Diana, Colette was the only daughter of the historic anarchist fighter, a key figure during the Spanish Civil War.
Born in Barcelona on December 4, 1931, she was born while her father was in prison, during the Second Republic. They barely knew each other. She was only 5 years old when her father died on the Madrid front during the early days of the Spanish Civil War. However, she has always remembered him, “with affection,” as she acknowledged in a French magazine a few years ago.
Daughter of the Revolution
Colette’s childhood was marked by economic hardship and constant moving, but also by a family relationship based on equality and mutual support.
During the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936, her mother joined the Durruti Column on the Aragon front, leaving Colette in the care of an anarchist companion. A few months later, her father died on the Madrid front when she was only five years old. That event would mark her life and that of her mother, who was determined to raise her faithful to libertarian ideals.
After the war, mother and daughter went into exile in France, where Colette lived for the rest of her life. In the 1950s, she acquired French nationality when she married Roger Mariot, with whom she had two daughters, Yvon and Rémi — the latter of whom died in an accident in 1989. Settled in Brittany, she managed a dairy company before retiring to the French Pyrenees.
Libertarian Commitment to the End
Throughout her life, Colette Durruti never abandoned her anarchist ideology. She actively participated in memorial events and tributes to historical figures of the anarchist movement, keeping alive the memory of her father and an entire revolutionary generation. She said she knew little about her father, despite having read books and seen photographs depicting the adventures he experienced. In 2009, she participated in the documentary Celuloide colectivo, dedicated to films produced during the Civil War, and in 2019, she participated in a commemorative event at the Montjuïc Cemetery.
Despite having spent little time with her father, Colette spoke of him with admiration and tenderness.
Colette Durruti 4th December 1931 to 19th April 2025
