Enrique Curiel (15 April 1947 - 2 March 2011) was a Spanish politician and member of the

Communist Party of Spain The Communist Party of Spain ( es, Partido Comunista de España; PCE) is a Marxist-Leninist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is part of Unidas Podemos. It currently has two of its politicians serving a ...

and the United Left, who was a Member of the

Senate of Spain The Senate ( es, Senado) is the upper house of the Cortes Generales, which along with the Congress of Deputies – the lower chamber – comprises the Parliament of the Kingdom of Spain. The Senate meets in the Palace of the Senate in Madrid. ...

Early life and education

Curiel was born in

Vigo Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, it sits on the southern shore of an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, the ...

to Luis Curiel, an intellectual and French Language professor at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university lo ...

, and Pilar Curiel (née Alonso) on 15 April 1947. He was privately educated before attending the

University of Santiago de Compostela The University of Santiago de Compostela - USC ( gl, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela - USC, es, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela - USC) is a public university located in the city of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. A second ...

and the

Political activity

In 1968, he joined the Communist Party of Spain and was a close friend of

Santiago Carrillo Santiago José Carrillo Solares (18 January 1915 – 18 September 2012) was a Spanish politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) from 1960 to 1982. His role in the Paracuellos massacres during the Civil ...

. He was arrested on several occasions and viciously persecuted by the Political-Social Brigade, the political secret police of the

Franco regime Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

. He left the CPS in 1988 and joined the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in go ...

(PSOE) two years later. In the 1980s, Curiel was a regular contributor to the Spanish daily newspaper ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El ...

''.

Death and legacy

He died on 2 March 2011 in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

. In his obituary in ''

'', Rafael Fraguas described Curiel as "Handsome, cordial and affable, more pragmatic than doctrinaire, subtle agitator, endowed with a convincing logic and endowed with an evident charisma, his image was in open contrast with the stereotype of the Stalinist communist - bitter, sectarian and dogmatic - spread by Francoism."

References

External links

Enrique Curiel obituary
in ''

''
News and commentary on Enrique Curiel
in ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Curiel, Enrique 1947 births 2011 deaths Spanish Marxists Spanish Jews Complutense University of Madrid alumni University of Santiago de Compostela alumni Spanish political people Spanish Communist Party politicians