Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives vol06 (Page 17)

THE VOLUNTEER, WINTER 1997-98 17

by Shirley Mangini

n 1939, 500,000 Spaniards fled
their country, most across the

Pyrenees into France. But the
approaching Nazism in France moti-
vated an international campaign to
help the Spaniards relocate in
America. Mexico's post-revolutionary
president, Lázaro Cárdenas, took the
most proactive stance by inviting the
refugees to begin new lives in Mexico.
Some 25,000 to 50,000 (historians do
not agree on the figures) emigrated
there after 1939, including the largest
group of Spanish intellectuals and
political elite to have fled Spain. Like
many of the Spanish laborers who
had been assigned to work the land in
various parts of Mexico but quickly
located in the capital, the intellectu-
als also fled to Mexico City, preferring
urban life where they could find other
Spaniards to mitigate their nostalgia
and grief. They were embraced not
only by the government, but also by
Mexican writers and artists, some of
whom had joined the International
Brigades to fight for the Republican
cause during the war. The pro-
Cárdenas Mexicans felt that the
ideals of the Spanish Republicans
were very similar to their own revolu-
tion-inspired politics and displayed
great sympathy for the exiles, who
had lost both their homeland and
their beloved Republic.

The Spaniards made a mark in

pedagogy, philosophical thought, pub-
lishing, the sciences, and the arts.
Some, including Mexican writer
Octavio Paz, viewed their efforts as
the turning point for the emergence of
Mexico City as one of the most impor-
tant cultural centers in the Americas,
rivaled only by Buenos Aires. The
Colegio de Mexico was established
along with a number of other intellec-
tual centers in which the Spaniards
played a key role. The Colegio became
a major forum for collaboration
between Mexican and spanish profes-
sors and researchers.

Nevertheless, myriad controver-

sies surrounded the Spaniards in
their first years in Mexico. For some,
they were a reminder of Spain's grim

role during the conquest. In addition,
they were associated with the
gachupines, the entrepreneurial
Spaniards who had settled in Mexico
decades before to seek their fortunes,
and who were openly disliked. Also,
World War II had begun and conserv-

ative Mexicans who were influenced
by pro-Nazi propaganda saw the
refugees as dangerous "reds." Some
Mexicans resented the Spaniards for
being clannish because they sent
their children to Spanish schools and
established their own cultural and
social centers.

The Spaniards had diverse reac-

tions to the "new world." Many knew
little of Hispano-Mexican history and
the key role Spain had played in the
shaping of modern Mexico; others
were keenly aware of the resentment
they provoked as the descendants of
the conquistadores. Nevertheless,
countless exiles envisioned Mexico as
the "promised land" in their flight
from war and devastation.

While discovering Mexico, the

Spanish intellectuals were discover-
ing their own heritage from a new
perspective. Spanish thinkers,
anthropologists, and other social sci-

entists became so fascinated by the
indigenous cultures that they dedicat-
ed their lives to studying Mexican cul-
ture and society. This was also true of
writers and artists who attempted to
show the historical and cultural ties
between Mexico and spain as a way to
understand and, therefore, to assimi-
late. The Spaniards were particularly
fascinated by the fact that this magi-
cal and colorful land had the same
language and similar customs and
architecture, and yet the differences
between Spain and indigenous
Mexican were vast.

After World War II, the exiles

were offered Mexican citizenship and
many accepted it gracefully. Though
assimilation was difficult most his-
torians agree that the first genera-
tion of Spaniards maintained their
"Spanishness" throughout their lives
they realized their dream for
democracy in Spain had been
destroyed. Franco had not perished
along with Hitler and Mussolini; by
the late 1940s, his dictatorship had
been legitimatized internationally.
The exiles who had kept their belong-
ings packed for the return to Spain
began settling in; many married
nationals and started families.
Though the Spaniards had developed
their own peculiar exile culture, they
contributed to the progress of Mexico
in a significant way, thereby making
what Lázaro Cárdenas had hoped to
achieve a reality.

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Spanish Republican exiles in Mexico

Shirley Mangini is Professor

of Spanish Literature at California
State University, Long Beach. Her
book, Memoirs of Resistance:
Women's Voices from the Spanish
Civil War (1995), was reviewed in
the Fall 1996 Volunteer. Professor
Mangini would be grateful if read-
ers of The Volunteer who have
access to any unpublished letters,
documents or autobiographical
materials by or about Spanish
exiles in Mexico that they are will-
ing to share, would contact her at
2240 Stanley, #9, Signal Hill CA
90806 (FAX: 526/985-2406; E-mail:
samg@csulb.edu )

INDUSTRY, AGRICULTURE -- ALL FOR
THE FRONT, Carles Fontseré (circa 1936)

Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives/Brandeis University Library

Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives - vol06 (Page 17)