Geri Halliwell's family history is 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 Córdoba's Cementerio de la Salud. The information was uncovered after months of research by journalist David Moreno Sáez.
Hidalgo was arrested in May 1939 and court-martialled for his socialist activism and his role during the Civil War. In the 116-page case file, he is described as the "founder of the Socialist Party" in Dos Torres and as someone whose actions were "disruptive and revolutionary".
The charges also named him as one of the leaders who opposed the 1936 military coup.
The summary states that he was a "Marxist leader" who acted against what the Francoists called the "glorious movement". However, the file itself notes that some of the charges could not prove his direct responsibility for certain acts.
The court ultimately sentenced him to death for the crime of "adhering to the military rebellion", a sentence carried out on 27 December 1940. The official record of his death states that he was executed "by firing squad" against the cemetery walls.
The family's connection with Córdoba does 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 who worked there as guards, with whom he would go on to start a family – a story that, years later, would become linked to Geri Halliwell.
His story could easily have been lost among the thousands of Republicans persecuted in Córdoba after the Civil War. Decades later, however, his name resurfaced in connection with one of the great global pop phenomena, the Spice Girls, through his great-granddaughter Geri Halliwell.
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