Durruti was born in León, Spain, son of Anastasia Dumange and Santiago Durruti, a railway worker in the yard at León who described himself as a libertarian socialist. Buenaventura was the second of eight brothers (one was killed in the October 1934 uprising in the Asturias, another died fighting the Fascists on the Madrid front). He started primary school when he was five and moved to the Calle Misericordia school four years later.