José Martinez Guerricabeitia was born on June 18, 1921 to a family of anarcho-syndicalists near Valencia (Spain). After having studied law and sociology, he founded a publishing house in exile in Paris 1961: Ruedo Ibérico.
A Spanish edition of Hugh Thomas' The Spanish Civil War was one of Ruedo Ibérico's first projects. Later it published books forbidden in Spain, including historical and contemporary studies on the political and social situation in Spain as well as poems. These publications circulated clandestinely in Spain in the 1960s and 1970s and were very influential among students and intellectuals and in circles of the opposition.
In 1982 the IISH received the archive of Martinez Guerricabeitia (1921-1986) as well as of Ruedo Iberico, all the publications and a collection of photographs.