Emiliano Hidalgo, former Republican mayor of Dos Torres, was executed on 27 December 1940 after a Francoist court martial condemned him. His 116-page military file details the charges that led to his death by firing squad.
The family background of Geri Halliwell, one of the members of the Spice Girls, is closely linked to Córdoba. Her great-grandfather, Emiliano Hidalgo Fernández, was the Republican mayor of Dos Torres during the Second Republic and was shot by firing squad on 27 December 1940, at the age of 61, in the La Salud cemetery in Córdoba.
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Hidalgo was arrested in May 1939 and brought before a court martial for his socialist activism and his actions during the Civil War. In the 116-page file he is described as the "founder of the Socialist Party" in Dos Torres and as someone whose conduct was considered "disruptive and revolutionary".
The charges also named him as one of the leaders who opposed the 1936 military coup.
The case file states that he was a "Marxist leader" who acted against what the Francoists called the "glorious movement". However, the file itself records that some of the accusations could not prove his direct responsibility for certain events.
The court ultimately sentenced him to death for the crime of "adherence to the military rebellion", a sentence that was carried out on 27 December 1940. The document recording his death notes that he was executed "by firing squad" against the walls of the cemetery.
The family's connection with Córdoba did not end with Emiliano Hidalgo. His son Máximo was also arrested after the Civil War and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In prison he met one of the women working as guards, with whom he would go on to start a family, a story that years later would become intertwined with that of Geri Halliwell.
His story might have been lost among the thousands of Republicans who were repressed in Córdoba after the Civil War. Decades later, however, his name resurfaced, tied to one of the great global pop phenomena: the Spice Girls, through his great-granddaughter Geri Halliwell.
