Women in exile during Francoist Spain

Women in exile during Francoist Spain were a result of their being on the wrong side during the Spanish Civil War. The repression behind nationalist lines during the war and the immediate years that followed left many politically active women with few choices but to leave or face death. The exact totals of women who were murdered, fled or disappeared is unknown, as it was only possible to make estimates.

For those who had been politically active, a number continued to oppose the regime from exile. This included Republican militants broadly who sometimes coordinated together. It also included Mujeres Libres. Unlike other groups, most militants only became active as a result of the war. Consequently, they were less politically in exile and only saw a resurgence in the mid-1960s. Partido Comunista de España (PCE) was the most active political group both inside Spain and abroad. PCE's Unión de Mujeres Antifascistas Españolas (UMAE) attracted large numbers of politically active female Spanish exiles. They were not about liberating women as part of a broader agenda, but instead imposed strict gender norms.

Women from Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) also went to Mexico, with four of PSOE's five Second Republican female deputies, Veneranda García Manzano, Matilde de la Torre, Julia Álvarez Resano and Margarita Nelken, going into exile in Mexico. Women gained leadership positions in exile, both in groups in Mexico and France. Some returned and were elected to the Cortes. Women who had been involved with POUM also went into exile, with Mika Etchebéhère the most notable of these. The group would reform following World War II but would dissolve again by the mid-1950s with María Teresa Carbonell, wife of POUM's last President Wilebaldo Solano, helping found Fundació Andreu Nin to keep the group's legacy alive. Basques were also subject to repression in Francoist Spain. Women in the Basque Nationalist Party also went into exile, with many helping in charity work, worshiping activities and propaganda efforts. They also worked to preserve Basque culture and language in exile. Some would return from exile following Franco's death in 1975.

Going into exile As a consequence of the Spanish Civil War, over a million Spaniards died, another million were forced into exile and an unknown number disappeared. Franco's regime continued Civil War-based reprisals until the end of World War II, with an estimated 200,000 people being executed by the regime or dying in prison in that period for their alleged Republican links. Adolf Hitler provided support for Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Pregnant women had few facilities to give birth and they were often inadequate. Swiss aid worker Elizabeth Eidenbenz arrived at the camps on the frontier in December 1939, and immediately set about improving maternity services. In the period between December 1939 and February 1944, the facilities she helped to establish saw 597 births of Spanish, Polish and Jewish women. Eidenbenz helped many of the women to get papers and visas for themselves and their children. Despite better facilities, many things could not be done including cesarean sections. As a consequence, infant morality rates remained high, with many newborns dying within weeks of their birth.

Exile groups

Republican militants Most of the resistance in Spain during the early Franco period was a result of guerrillas, who coordinated their activities in the interior both with political militants in exile and with militants in prison. Most of Spain's militant women who remained in the country were in prison or had gone underground where they served as important figures in coordinating activities between all three groups. Prisons in this case proved invaluable for many militant women as they allowed them to rebuild their activist networks or create new networks. They were also one of the biggest sources of female resistance to the Franco regime by exercising daily resistance behind prison walls.

PSOE, UGT, PCE, CNT, Juventudes Socialistas de España (JSE), Movimiento Libertario Español (MLE) and the Moviment Socialista de Catalunya (MSC) continued their struggle in exile. From 1944 to 1960, the French city of Toulouse served as a major publishing hub for many of these organizations' home in exile. The city of Toulouse itself would see around 40,000 exiles from these groups settle permanently in the city.

Mujeres Libres

The CNT aligned women's group, Mujeres Libres, had its leaders generally flee into exile abroad with the notable exception of Lucía Sánchez Saomil who went into internal exile. Mujeres Libres disappeared from the scene during the early Francoist period. This was largely a result of most of the women involved not having been involved in militant activities before the start of the Civil War. In 1964, Spanish exile women began publishing Mujeres Libres again.

Partido Comunista de España

Partido Comunista de España became the dominant clandestine political organization in Spain following the end of the Civil War. It would retain this position until the death of Franco saw PSOE replace it. Women were involved with the party, helping to organize covert armed resistance by serving in leadership roles and assisting in linking up political leaders in exile with those active on the ground in Spain.

PCE aligned Unión de Mujeres Antifascistas Españolas (UMAE) attracted large numbers of Spanish exiles in France in the immediate post-war period. It faced more challenges recruiting members in the interior. The group published a magazine in France called Noticias del interior, which discussed the activities of UMAE women working in the interior and manifestos written by these militants.

Socialist women also went into exile during and after the Spanish Civil War. Oran, Algeria, received around 7,000 members of PSOE and UGT who fled into exile as a result of the Spanish Civil War.

The early Francoist period saw both PSOE and UGT largely absent from leadership positions. The only socialist woman in leadership for PSOE was Carmen Maestre Martín, and she was actually on the executive committee of Junta de Liberación Española (JEL), which was not founded until February 1943. On 30 January 1944, she was appointed to the Sección de Trabajo, Previsión, Asistencia y Sanidad del Consejo Técnico of JLE. Matilde de la Torre and Julia Álvarez Resano had both been expelled from PSOE in 1946, and became political non-entities as a result. Carmen García Bloise joined the socialist movement as the daughter of a Spanish PSOE exile in Paris in 1948 when joined Juventudes Socialistas.

Agrupación de Socialistas Asturianos en México member Purificación Tomás played an important role among socialist women in Mexico in the 1940s and 1950s. She was affiliated with the UGT affiliated exile group Círculo Pablo Iglesias.

PSOE, UGT, PCE, Confederación Nacional del trabajo (CNT), Juventudes Socialistas de España (JSE), Movimiento Libertario Español (MLE) and the Moviment Socialista de Catalunya (MSC) continued their struggle in exile. From 1944 to 1960, the French city of Toulouse served as a major publishing hub for many of these organizations' home in exile. The city of Toulouse itself would see around 40,000 exiles from these groups settle permanently in the city. Some managed to escape to exile in France, but thousands were stuck in concentration camps. Later, they were accused of opposing the French government and some were sent to German concentration camps. After the end of World War II, POUM constituted itself legally abroad.

María Teresa Carbonell married the last POUM President Wilebaldo Solano in the 1950s. She assisted him in running POUM's headquarters in Toulouse. She later helped found Fundació Andreu Nin in order to keep the legacy of POUM alive. Following the war, most of its members were forced into exile in France, Belgium, England and Catalonia, where the organization was reconstituted and would never return to Spain. Many Emakume Abertzale Batza women stood out from other Republicans in that they were Catholic and celebrated mass in refugee camps. Their first board in exile included President Concepción de Azaola, Vice President María Teresa Salcedo, Secretary Angeles Zuazagoitia, Deputy Secretary Martina Bernal de Azurmendi, Treasurer Garbiñe de Urresti, Deputy Treasurer María Elosua de Irizar, and members Alava de Miremón, María Olondo de Etxebarria, Miren Irujo, and Miren de Guerricagoitia.

Itziar Mujika Irastorza was Emakume Abertzale Batza member and secretary before the Spanish Civil War. During the war, she went to France where she became involved with the Francophone Basque Resistance Information Service, helping to clandestinely send messages to people in prison. She was given a death sentence in 1941, which was commuted the next year to 30 years and then freed in 1944 if she agreed to go into exile.

Garbiñe Urresti returned from exile in Venezuela after Franco's death and ran a clandestine Basque language radio station. She helped prepare programs and helped prepare information for air. She also was an on air personality. UME published a magazine called Mujeres Antifascistas Españolas. The publication linked Republican women in exile with those in Spain, including some who were in prison. It honored women's roles as front line combatants, and suggested the special role of motherhood made their voices more valuable when it came to speaking out against the problems of the Franco regime. This contrasted with the beliefs of Spanish Communist women in exile, which suggested mothers in this period should fade into the background, serving in roles that supported single women and men who could be more visible in the struggle against Franco. Communists emphasized a traditional view of motherhood espoused by Franco.