Refugees of the Spanish Civil War and those they left behind: personal testimonies of departure, separation and return since 1936 A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2014 Rosy Rickett School of Arts, Languages and Cultures 2 Table of Contents List of Figures 4 List of Abbreviations and Key Terms 5-7 Abstract 8 Declaration 9 Copyright Statement 10 Acknowledgements 11 Introduction 12 The vocabulary of Spanish exile 17-21 The individual and the Spanish Civil War 21-25 The historiography of Spanish exile 26-29 Sources and methods 29-31 Oral history archives 31-35 Generating personal testimonies 35-37 Interpreting personal testimonies 37-40 The production of historical memory 40-45 Chapter plan 45-48 Chapter One: An uncertain future: leaving Spain and becoming a refugee 49 Displacement during and after the Civil War 52-56 Refugees in French territories 56-59 Mexican policy towards Spanish refugees 59-61 Motivations for leaving Spain 61-65 Gender, family ties and politics 65-72 Social capital and becoming a refugee 73-80 Expressions of agency in testimonies 81-84 Conclusion 84-86 Chapter Two: Conceptualising the spaces in between, refugees and those 87 in Spain The spaces in between 89-91 Sources and society 91-93 Historiography 93-98 Barriers to epistolary contact 99-100 Postal censorship 100-102 Righteous defeat 102-109 Unmitigated loss 109-113 Release 113-116 Conclusion 116-119 Chapter Three: Returning Spanish refugees from France and Mexico, 1939- 120 1975 Historiography 124-127 Repatriation of Spanish refugees 127-129 Return as a psychological state 129-130 Francoist legislation concerning return 130-133 Negotiating being ‘red’ and a ‘criminal’ 134-138 Repentance, pride and betrayal 138-142 Finding home 142-147 3 Conclusion 147-149 Chapter Four: Postmemory, collective memory and the history of Spanish 150 exile in Mexico Personal and collective memory 154-155 Postmemory 155-159 A note on methodology 160-161 Personal histories 162-173 Generational memories 174-181 Conclusion 181-184 Conclusion to the thesis 185-190 Bibliography 191 Archival sources 191-195 Published primary sources 195 Secondary literature 195-209 Unpublished conference papers 209 Audio sources 209 Websites 210 Appendix 1: List of Spanish Quotations 211 Introduction 211 Chapter one 211-213 Chapter two 214-217 Chapter three 217-220 Chapter four 220-223 Appendix 2: Biographical information 224 Interviews conducted by the author 224-230 Interviews conducted by INAH and Spanish Ministry of Culture. 230-241 Interviews conducted by researchers for the University of San Diego 241-245 Appendix 3: Consent and information forms given to author’s informants 246 English 246-247 Spanish 248-249 Word Count: 78,874. 4 List of Figures and Tables 1.1 Table to show numbers of refugees arriving in p. 53 different destinations. 4:1 Photograph of Calle de López, Mexico DF. p.161 4.2 Photograph of Josefina Tome’s father’s wallet. p.167 4.3 Photograph of the contents of Josefina Tome’s p.167 father’s wallet. 4.4 Carmen Rayo de Romero’s collage. p.168 4.5 Detail from Carmen Romero de Rayo’s collage, p.168 which shows the family hiding from the Gestapo. 4.6 Photograph of Guernica as presented in its current p.172 home in the Reina Sofia gallery in Madrid. 5 List of Abbreviations and Key Terms The following is a list of abbreviations which will be used throughout the text and footnotes. Please also note that Mexico City will be referred to throughout the text by its Mexican name, which is Mexico DF or just DF (Distrito Federal, or Federal District). Spanish political parties or groups referred to in the thesis and brief description BOC Bloc Obrer i Camperol or The Workers and Peasants' Bloc, Leninist/Catalan nationalist (later merged into POUM). CNT Confederación Nacional de Trabajo, anarcho-syndicalist labour union founded in 1910. FET y de las Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva JONS Nacional Sindicalista, or Spanish Traditionalist Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive. Referred to as the Falange and equivalent to a Spanish fascist party. JSU Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas or United Youth Movement POUM Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, dissident (anti-Stalinist) Communist Party formed in September 1935 by the merger of BOC and other Leninist groups. PCE Partido Comunista de España or Spanish Communist Party, affiliated to the communist international (Comintern). PSOE Partido Socialista Obrero Española or Spanish Socialist Party, founded 1879. PSUC Partido Socialista Unificado De Cataluña or United Socialist Party of Catalonia (Catalan Communist party), formed in July 1936. UGT Unión General de Trabajadores, socialist-led trade unión, founded in 1888. Izquierda Left Republican party, led by Manuel Azaña. Republicana Unión Republican Union, a centrist republican party formed in 1934. Republicana Aid agencies and organisations which supported Spanish refugees CTARE* El Comité Técnico de Ayuda a los Republicanos Españoles or Technical Committee to Aid Spanish Republicans, 1939-1940. It was the incarnation of SERE on Mexican soil. 6 JARE Junta de Auxilio a los Republicanos Españoles or Aid Committee for Spanish Republicans, created by Indalecio Prieto in July 1939 as a result of disagreements between Prieto and Juan Negrín over the aims and purpose of the aid effort and the republican government in exile. SERE* Servicio de Evacuación de Refugiados Españoles or Evacuation Service for Spanish Refugees, created by Juan Negrín in early 1939. SERE is also referred to as Servicio de Evacuación de Republicanos Españoles. SRA Spanish Refugee Aid, based in the US, created in 1953 by a group of Left-wing intellectuals. It provided financial support to refugees living in France until 2006. Spanish Archives and Institutions AGA Archivo General de la Administración or General State Archive. Based in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid province. CDMH Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica or Document Centre for Historical Memory. Formerly the Archivo de la Guerra Civil or Archive of the Civil War. Based in Salamanca. FLC Fundación Largo Caballero or Largo Caballero Foundation. Based in Madrid. An archive supported by the UGT, storing personal archives of Spanish socialists, members of the co-operative movement and union leaders. FPI Fundación Pablo Iglesias or Pablo Iglesias Foundation. Based in Madrid. An archive and publisher, supported by the PSOE containing the personal archives of Spanish socialists. Residencia Residencia de Estudiantes or Students’ Residence. Based in Madrid. The Residencia still hosts visiting students, exhibitions and events. It also houses a library and several personal archives of celebrated former students, many of whom left Spain as a result of the Civil War. It has also produced a number of published volumes of correspondence. UNED Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia or National University of Long-distance Learning. A university with a history of supporting research into republican exile. Mexican Archives and Institutions AEM Ateneo Español de México or Spanish Athenaeum in Mexico, founded in Mexico DF by Spanish refugees in 1942, contains a 7 substantial archive and library pertaining to Spanish exile in Mexico. Based in Colonia Juárez, Mexico DF. AEMF Archivo de la Embajada Mexicana en Francia or Archive of the Mexican Embassy in France, section of the Archivo de Relaciones Exteriores or Foreign Office Archive. Based in Tlátelolco, Mexico DF. AGN Archivo General de la Nación or National Archive. Based in Mexico DF. Colegio Madrid School founded in Mexico DF by JARE in 1941. Two other schools were founded including Luis Vives, which was funded by SERE. El Colegio de A University founded by the Mexican state in October 1940 (under México President Cárdenas) to host Spanish exiled intellectuals. INAH Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia or National Institute of Anthropology and History. UNAM Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico or National Autonomous University of Mexico. 8 Abstract During and after the Spanish civil war, over 500,000 people left Spain; at least 200,000 would remain outside Spain for many years, some for the rest of their lives. They went to France, Mexico, Argentina, the USSR, and across the globe. These Spanish ‘republican’ refugees were also connected to those who had stayed within Spain, by familial and political ties or the bonds of friendship. In order to investigate this reality – a group of people from all kinds of political, social and economic backgrounds based in so many different geographic locations – this thesis foregrounds the role of the individual in both experiencing and constructing history, being defined and resisting definition from different entities. Consequently, it seeks to intervene in the historiography of the Spanish Civil War and republican exile by highlighting the ways in which individual experiences and narratives both strengthen and weaken categories such as: political, a-political, refugee and exile. This PhD brings together underused source materials stored in Spain and Mexico, as well as digital archives stored online; it is based on archived oral history interviews with refugees, additional oral history interviews undertaken by the author, several collections of letters, unpublished and published memoirs, and official documents. Each chapter considers a different aspect of the refugees’ experiences and how these experiences are represented in the source material: departure, separation and communication, return and home, and the memory of exile within families. How and why did people leave? How did they change their behaviour in order to adapt to or survive particular circumstances? How have the children and grandchildren of Spanish refugees reacted to family narratives and memories? Central to this analysis is the role played by factors such as gender, age, class, status, personality and political views in shaping peoples’ experiences, as well as an emphasis on ‘non-elite’ alongside ‘elite’ refugees’ experiences of displacement.