Pilar Muñiz de Solaruce was a Spanish aristocrat who served as a Red Cross nurse in Morocco during the Rif War of the 1920s.
Biography[]
Pilar Muñiz de Solaruce was born in Spain to an aristocratic family, and she was one of many aristocratic women to join the Red Cross under Duchess María del Carmen Angoloti y Mesa during the Rif War of the 1920s; she lost her husband in a tram accident in 1919. In July 1921, Angoloti, Muñiz, Magdalena Medina, Julia Ballester, and several other nurses were suddenly deployed to Melilla following the catastrophic Spanish defeat at the Battle of Annual, taking over a shabby hospital while being instructed by Angoloti to always wear a smile and keep the troops' morale high. However, Muñiz found drama shortly after she arrived, as her former lover Luis Garcés was assigned by Colonel Vicente Ruíz-Márquez to take over the hospital from Doctor Fidel Calderón Santacruz, causing Muñiz great sorrow. However, Muñiz told Medina that she planned to do nothing, as she refused to let Garcés ruin her life again.