My great great grandfather- El Chorin

So,

My aunt in Spain sent me that picture of my great great grandfather. It got me thinking about what I knew about him and went off into internet land to see if now I would be able to learn more. I think I discovered a new bit to his story that my grandparents tried to hide from us.LOL

A sort of family conspiracy!

So my GG grandfather was an interesting guy. He never trusted the government and refused to register on any official census. To the law and the curch he did not exist.

He was an original conspiracy theorist. Well, not so much but his distrust and skepticism of all things governmental and religious made him a weird guy. He was VERY vocal when confronted and did not take crap from any drones or drone masters. LOL

He was smart beyond his time. He invested in the stock market and did well at a time when people barely read. He owned businesses both legal and not and was a general antihero to people around him. He would eat his lunch in front of the main bank everyday just to piss people off when it was seen as wrong to eat in public (un mannerly).

He would chastise priests and expose them when they went to bars and whore houses or when they enjoyed great wealth. (BIG NO NO at his time) He was generally a voice in opposition to societal norms founded in the state or church or the upper class. He wasnt an agitator, but cherished the opportunity to call people on their BS. A man after my own heart.

He was vocal and gave NO F-s. LOL

He always carried a loaded gun and rifle with him everywhere he went and would carry it because he used it. Think old world Italian mafioso with a shotgun on his back like its nothing, that was my great grand dad.

One such occasion that we in my family knew happened was where he shot a civil guard policeman. (military police)

It was before the war and well when torture and worse were the norm.

Well, we were told that the Civil guard was bothering a woman, trying to get fresh, so my granddad went up to him, argued and when the guardsmen tried to get rough, they fought. When the guard lost and was going to shoot him, my grandfather shot him point blank and in cold blood.

He was on the run for a while, BUT since he was highly charismatic and always did and said what people thought and wanted to but were too afraid to because of societal backlash, the entire city where this happened protected him and kept the authorities guessing. They practically threw him a parade we are told. LOL

Since he wasnt registered anywhere and shortly after the Spanish civil war broke out, he returned home and that was that.

NOW,

What I have learned is that he may have been visiting a girlfriend he had at a whore house. This did happen as we were told by every old person in town who remembered, but not where we were told and not as innocently as we were told. LOL.

The madam of the house called the police, but may have been asked to by the guardsman a little jealous of my grand father. That was always thrown around but it never made sense. He was loved and had MANY girlfriends we are told. I doubt the maddam wanted to call the cops on someone like that.

In these times it was ILLEGAL to commit adultery in Spain. Torture was a norm and that was a huge possibility. Again, my grand father didnt care for rules that were unjust, and regularly defied them.

So he shot the guardsman after spending the night drinking cider at his favorite pub.

Here is the blog that makes mention of the event and a couple journals that covered it.

blog.elcomercio.es...

Its funny though, from what is shown the article reads like its begging the public to give him up, saying that the nature of the crime demands responsible people come forward.....that because he was highly charismatic and loved that the public was defending him and that is wrong.

LOL

Now our city (Oviedo) is where opus dei was formed. REALLY hard line sticklers for the church and all the dogma taken at face value. HARD CORE Catholics from the turn of the century. This was also a fascist wonderland even after the war. The entire region supported the republic (reds) during the war, except Oviedo, and our family after Chorin who fought tooth and nail to support Franco. We got the crap bombed out of us, but anyways.

This is said to have happened in our sister city (Gijon) that is a little more liberal, but still at this time in Spain was really the same crap (pre war). It is amazing that he was not caught. He went native and ventured into the mountains for a while. No one knows exactly where he went or what he did for nearly a year. It is rumored he kept going to his pub to drink and sing after long days as a traveling merchant on the road. A practice my grandfather, his son took up.

Thats it.

I am still sleuthing trying to find articles from the day that survived the war that might mention him some more. My aunt was laughing her ass off. She loves all this stuff. We knew he shot a guardsman for being an authoritarian jerk....but we didnt know it was AT A WHORE HOUSE over his girlfriend he kept on the side!

If anyone feels so inclined to link a resource to old timey journals and articles from that part of the world and day please do. Thanks in advance if you do!

Hey Great story... We recently found a paper article in our family dated 15 match 1880 and it was my great grandads , Grandad so my great great great Grandad...

He died after an all day drinking session where the landlady ( his sister in law ) refused to serve him at around 6pm then a local policeman next seen him around 1am looking for his house directed him but he never made it home he fell over a wall an died but i just thought well thats where i get my drinking from

Love these old stories

a reply to: tadaman

In chile people who are tough, outspoken or generally wont take any crap are called choro, im wondering if maybe he was the one that gave rise to the term...

a reply to: tadaman

Another awesome story! I like his Moustache!

a reply to: Cloro

I would be damned proud.

One can only hope....

Dbl

a reply to: Quantum12

Yes, It is powerful...beautiful. I want one now.

LoL

I would be busting at the seems knowing I came down from that history. Hope I find that as I search for my father.

Maternal side has a couple of bad guys but still makes for interesting history.

All ive learned about family history is ask the women...they keep the unwritten history among themselves....