Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira

Hildegart Leocadia Georgina Hermenegilda María del Pilar Rodríguez Carballeira (9 December 1914 9 June 1933) was an activist for socialism and sexual revolution who was conceived and raised by her anti-theist, socialist, eugenicist, and feminist mother, Aurora Rodríguez Carballeira, as a prototype for the women of the future. She spoke four languages when she was eight years old, finished law school as a teenager, and was a leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) which she abandoned in favor of extreme Republicanism, joining the Federal Democratic Republican Party (PRDF). Her ideology became more critical of Marxism, and she found more alignment with anarchist thought.

When she was 18 years old and had become internationally renowned while also seeking personal and political independence from her controlling mother, her mother shot Hildegart to death in her sleep.

Early life

Conception

Hildegart was conceived in Ferrol, Spain, by her mother Aurora Rodríguez Carballeira and an unnamed (at the time) biological father. Aurora chose the father with eugenic intentions; she wanted to create the perfect child to further her feminist and socialist ideology. She objectified Hildegart and considered her her own "personal project" and envisioned she would redeem the proletariat and be the "woman of the future". She had previously taken care of her sister's son, Pepito Arriola, giving him musical courses until he became a prodigy, but his mother took him to raise him herself. When Carballeira was certain that she was pregnant, she moved to Madrid, where Hildegart was born. During her pregnancy, Aurora had set a clock to wake herself up every hour, allowing her to change sleep position so blood could flow to the fetus uniformly.

Name Hildegart's birth certificate and baptism act give her name as Hildegart Leocadia Georgina Hermenegilda María del Pilar Rodríguez Carballeira but she only used her first name. In spite of Aurora's atheism and opposition to birth registration, she had her daughter baptized, somewhat late, on 23 March 1915 and then registered on 29 April 1915. Her mother said that Hildegart meant "Garden of Wisdom" in German, but there is no basis for that and the name was either an invention or an alternative spelling of the Nordic/German name Hildegard.

Rodríguez was among the contributors of the Valencia-based Orto magazine.

Like feminist Victoria Kent, Rodríguez did not support female suffrage considering Spanish women were not ready.

Sexual revolution Hildegart was one of the most active people in the Spanish movement for sex reformation, writing on subjects such as contraception, prostitution and eugenics.

She had correspondence with many other European personalities, and accompanied the author H. G. Wells on a visit he made to Madrid, but declined his offer to relocate to London and become his secretary . This offer by Wells, who was reportedly very concerned and wanted Hildegart away from the influence of her mother, furthered the persecution complex already felt by Aurora.

Murder and legacy Murder

On June 9 of 1933, Aurora asked her maid to go out to the street to walk their dog. She then shot her daughter four times while she slept in her bed, shooting her in her chest once and her face three times. There were several hypotheses about the motivations behind Hildegart's murder. Her mother, who had envisioned Hildegart as a feminist of the future and an intellectual leader of the revolution, felt that she had lost control as her daughter who had become more politically militant and with an ideology that differed slightly from her mother's strict parameters. Hildegart had also been invited to travel to England encouraged by H.G. Wells, which Aurora may have also interpreted as a threat for her complete control over her daughter. Hildegart may have fallen in love. She intended to separate from her mother who, out of paranoia, had threatened to commit suicide. Aurora explained her actions thusly: "" ("The sculptor, after discovering the most minimal imperfection in her work, destroys it.") Ultimately, Aurora regarded herself as having full ownership of Hildegart and considered her a "failed project" she had the right to end.

Aftermath Aurora was tried for murder in Madrid. At her trial, she claimed that a Catalan lawyer, Antonio Villena, H. G. Wells, and Havelock Ellis were the agents of an international conspiracy to have her daughter leave Spain and make her serve the Intelligence Services and that, furthermore, Antonio Villena and Hildegart were lovers. She was sentenced to imprisonment for twenty-six years, eight months, ten days, to which she responded that she had won twenty-six years to live, expressing joy she had not been locked away in an asylum.

Until her medical records resurfaced in 1977, Aurora was incorrectly believed to have been secretly removed from prison by the Nationalist faction and subjected to summary execution and secret burial as part of the White Terror during the Spanish Civil War. In reality, Aurora was imprisoned in 1933, expressing her intention to advocate for prison reform while incarcerated. In 1935, she was transferred from prison to the mental institution in Ciempozuelos, Madrid, having been diagnosed with paranoia and schizophrenia. During her stay, she received more privileged treatment than other patients, residing in a larger individual room and keeping a cat as a pet. She reportedly had good relationships with the nuns at times, even agreeing to go to church as an observer, and expressing concern for their not taking vacation time. From 1941, she stopped speaking to her psychiatrists. The following year, she constructed male and female rag dolls with prominent genitalia out of desire to demystify the sexual organs; these were confiscated and destroyed by the hospital orderlies.

In a 1948 letter to the mother superior of the nuns running the mental institution, Aurora argued that she had spent a long time in prison and deserved to be pardoned. and Alba Planas as Hildegart.