The Bittersweet Story of "el Noi de Sucre"

On the corner of Carrer de Sant Rafael with Rambla del Raval, the memory of an assassination is inscribed on a ceramic plaque. The victim, Salvador Seguí, was murdered at this location on March 10th, 1923. Commonly known to his associates as "Noi de Sucre" (‘Sugar Boy’), due to his habit of eating a lump of sugar before drinking coffee, Seguí is commemorated as a "defender of the working class."

A native of Tornabous—a village in the province of Lleida—he moved to Barcelona with his family around the turn of the 20th century, in search of work and stability. At that time, however, the city’s working class was far from stable. Deplorable living and working conditions, together with a lack of regulations and basic rights, meant that Seguí experienced this precarious reality firsthand. He had a strong social conscience and quickly became involved in workers’ movements and protests in his adopted city, as well as the organization of trade unions fighting for better conditions. By 1910, Seguí had become a key figure in the anarcho-syndicalist movement, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT).

Playing a leading role in making the CNT a mass movement, Seguí was opposed to the paramilitary and terrorist actions advocated and carried out by other members of the union, supporting instead a non-violent approach in the politicization of the working class.

A non-violent approach, however, was easier said than done. It was a time of violent tension between workers and employers in Barcelona, and disputes were often settled at gunpoint. By the Twenties, many of the industrial employers of Barcelona, in reaction to the increasing presence and power of the anarchist union, decided to set up their own unions. These so-called "free unions" employed armed gangsters to kill CNT members in an attempt to quell the mobilization of workers—a period that became known as pistolerismo.

Sugar Boy became one of their targets. Walking through the Raval after a meeting about preparations to promote the idea of emancipation as a form of social empowerment among workers, he was shot dead by one of the employed hitmen.

Outrage swept the community, not only because Seguí was a beloved character and a voice of reason among anarcho-syndicalists, but also because his death was yet another example of how unsafe daily life in the old neighborhoods had become. With the death of Sugar Boy, the Catalan anarchist movement lost one of its protagonists and allowed more radical sectors to take over the CNT.

Originally published January 2018, updated March 4, 2023.