Pepita Laguarda Batetlived was brought up in the industrial district of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, just south-west of Barcelona. She joined the anarchists when still young and against the opinion of her family. Thus, she had to escape from her home in order to take up arms. In July 1936, she joined the militants in the fight against the military uprising in Barcelona. On 19 August, together with her boyfriend Juan Lopez Carvajal, she enlisted in the Ascaso Column and left for the Aragon front.