Antonio Soto, "the Galician", was born in Ferrol, Spain, in 1897. He was the anarchist who led the great strikes of farm workers in Argentine Santa Cruz in 1920 and 1921. In late 1921 he was moving across the southern estancias with some 600 strikers, based at La Anita, an estancia of the Menéndez family.
Argentine troops under Lieutenant Colonel Héctor Varela crushed the strike. At La Anita the strikers voted to surrender, against Soto's advice, and many who gave themselves up were shot. Estimates of the dead in Santa Cruz run from about 300 to 1,500. Soto escaped on horseback to Chile with twelve companions on 9 December 1921 and was never caught. In Punta Arenas he was sheltered by the Federación Obrera de Magallanes, whose own hall had been attacked and burned in July 1920, with more than 30 dead. From here he was smuggled by ship to Valparaíso.
Years later he came back to Punta Arenas for good. He ran a small hotel and restaurant, remembered as the Oquendo, where Spanish Republicans, journalists and artists met, and he helped found the Centro Republicano Español and the Centro Gallego. He died here on 11 May 1963 and is buried in the municipal cemetery. In 2025 a new neighbourhood of the city was named after him.
