Hero ('48)

Agustin Zoroa Sanchez was handsome in the Latin way, with flashing black eyes, a hairline mustache and amorous lips. Perhaps he loved women, but three things filled his heart: devotion to Communism, resistance to Franco, and a longing for glory.

He was born 30-odd years ago in the Spanish town of Albacete. He married young, went to Madrid and studied to be a schoolteacher. Too poor to finish his courses, he became a construction worker, unionist, extreme leftist. In the Civil War, he fought on the Ebro, had a big chunk shot out of his back. He went to Mexico, worked for the Spanish Republican exiles. After World War II, he slipped back into Spain, became a key Communist organizer.

Then Franco's police caught up with him. In prison at Alcala de Henares, he and the other "politicals" were forced to go to Mass. One Sunday the priest delivered a sermon on the commandment No mataras (Thou shalt not kill). The prisoners murmured and the murmur rose to a roar: "No mataras! No mataras! No mataras!" The jailers decided that Sanchez had started it and gave him four months in solitary.

Last month, when 23 Communists were brought to trial, the prosecution identified Agustin Sanchez as the No. 1 Communist in Spain. Said he calmly: "I came ... to help end the tragic situation in which Spain finds herself. I was honored by this mission."

Last week, before a firing squad, Sanchez finally had the sweet taste of glory, along with the bitter taste of death. It was typical of the world's spiritual dilemma that to many he would be a hero for fighting tyranny. His admirers would ignore the vast tyrannic cause which Sanchez served.

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