Geri Halliwell's family background, one of the members of the Spice Girls, is rooted in 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 Cemetery of La Salud.
Hidalgo was arrested in May 1939 and brought before a court martial because of 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 considered "subversive and revolutionary".
The charges also identified him as one of the leaders who opposed the 1936 military coup.
The indictment 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 accusations could not prove his direct responsibility for certain events.
The court ultimately sentenced him to death for the crime of "adhering to the military rebellion", a sentence that was 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 did 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 working as prison officers, 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. However, decades later his name resurfaced in connection with one of the biggest pop phenomena in the world: the Spice Girls, thanks to his great-granddaughter Geri Halliwell.
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