Ignacio Hidalgo de Cisneros

Ignacio Pío Juan Hidalgo de Cisneros y López-Montenegro (11 July 1896 – 9 February 1966) was a Spanish military aviator. He is known as commander of the Republican Air Force during the Spanish Civil War. He is also noted as one of the few aristocrats to join the Spanish Communist Party and author of war memoirs, published in the 1960s. Carlist Ignacio Hidalgo de Cisneros was descendant to an aristocratic family, many times noted in the history of Spain. The Hidalgos, originating from Léon, and the Cisneros, originating from Palencia, intermarried a number of times across the centuries. Ignacio's great-great-grandfather, Francisco Hidalgo de Cisneros y Seija (1730–1794), as a younger son did not inherit the family wealth; he left his native Gipuzkoa and rising to teniente general settled in Cartagena. His son and great-grandfather of Ignacio, Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros y de la Torre (1756–1829), became the next to last Viceroy of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. His son and Ignacio's grandfather, Francisco Hidalgo de Cisneros y Gaztambide (1803–1864), became also a military who sided with the legitimists during the First Carlist War; he returned from Murcia to the North, settling in Álava. His son and Ignacio's father, Ignacio Hidalgo de Cisneros y Unceta (1852-1903), abandoned school to join the Carlists during the Third Carlist War and became head of the personal guard of the claimant. He accompanied Carlos VII into exile and returned to Álava following the amnesty. He married Pilar Manso de Zúñiga y Echeverría; the couple had 4 children. Following early death of his wife, in 1881 he married María López de Montenegro y González de Castejón, a widow who had earlied married the brother of his first wife and already had two children. The couple had only one son, Ignacio. As a child Ignacio was brought up in a religious and traditionalist ambience, with the family house in Vitoria often visited by Carlist combatants. He was indeed captivated by Carlism: