about y smotyn du / the black spot

y smotyn du is the homepage of Buenaventura Durruti.

The links on the left lead to pages on this site devoted to his various eclectic interests; the links on the right lead to relevant external websites.

Buenaventura Durruti

why y smotyn du

Buenaventura Durruti – despite the name – is Welsh and a Unitarian: he likes the cussedness implicit in the phrase.

The Black Spot, y Smotyn Du, is a corner of Ceredigion (the old county of Cardiganshire) in Wales which was, and is, a stronghold of Unitarianism. It was given the name, as an insult, by the Methodists when the Unitarians resolutely held to their Unitarianism and refused to be swept up in the tide of the Methodist Revival. We adopted it with pride: Dal dy Dir!

Buenaventura Durruti

Buenaventura Durruti is a Welsh, eclectically left-of-centre postmodernist radical with nostalgic memories of youthful Trotskism. He admits to carrying a Plaid Cymru membership card.

Although he is atheistically religious, or maybe religiously atheistic, he is happy to call himself a Unitarian because the Unitarians respect my right to seek – or create – truth and meaning for myself, and because the Unitarians have never burnt anyone for heresy or blasphemy.

When he is not caring for his kids, working on websites or reading, he may occasionally be seen riding his garish and very old Klein in the Staffordshire Moorlands.

the real Buenaventura Durruti

Buenaventura Durruti (1896—1936) was a central figure of Spanish anarchism during the period leading up to, and at the beginning of, the Spanish Civil War. He played a key role in the initial resistance to the military rising of Francisco Franco, and was largely responsible for securing Barcelona for the Republicans.

On 24 July 1936 Durruti led over 3000 armed anarchists from Barcelona to Zaragoza. In November 1936, Durruti led the militia column — which became known as Los Amigos de Durruti, literally the Friends of Durruti but perhaps better known internationally as the Durruti Column — to Madrid to aid the besieged Republican defenders of that city; he was killed by ‘friendly fire’, aged forty, while leading a counter attack in the Casa de Campo of the city.

His body was returned to Barcelona, where over a quarter of a million people accompanied the cortege during its route to the cemetery on Montjuich.

We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that ... We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing this minute.

website design

Buenaventura wanted a simple, clean CSS-based website design, so he borrowed this one from the Layout Reservoir at BlueRobot.