Dr Mónica Jato, School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music, University of Birmingham has researched Spanish exile for the last decade.
Critical editions of works by two female Republican writers edited by Jato were published in 2012 shedding new light on exile, women’s experiences of war and the Francoist regime.
Research objectives
Dr Jato’s research (sponsored by the Institución Alfonso El Magnánimo, Valencia and Tolosa Council) has concentrated on two collections of literary and biographical texts which remained unpublished for over 50 years as a result of Francoist censorship and the ‘Pact of Forgetting’ in the 1970s. The two editions present the testimonies and experiences of two Republican women under Franco’s dictatorship. The first, Cecilia García de Guilarte ('Un barco cargado de…') went into political exile in Mexico and began to be published in La voz de España in 1972, but for political reasons publication was ended after just 16 articles had appeared. The second, María Beneyto (‘Cuentos para días de lluvia’) was one of the ‘inner exiles’ who remained in Spain under Franco’s dictatorship, writing but self-censoring due to the oppression of the regime (8 of the stories in the book have never been published before).
The questions addressed in the two editions relate to key issues at the forefront of current controversies in Spain. The passing of the ‘Law of Historical Memory’ on 31st October 2007 served to re-ignite rather than dampen public anger about the Spanish Civil War and its consequences. Since then debate and national self-examination have become sharply focused on issues of commemoration, memorialisation and reconciliation, as Spaniards of different generations confront the country’s deeply troubling history. These controversies and their historical origins define the social and political contexts with which Jato and her research aim to engage.
Research process and outputs
For both editions, the research involved tracking down, assembling and editing (largely from manuscripts) documents of a suppressed past, and providing the detailed commentaries necessary to explain their historical context to today’s readers. The research also entailed holding interviews and discussions with victims of the Spanish Civil War, with relatives of the victims, with organisations such as the International Brigades, ‘Basque Children of 37’, and with communities of Spanish expatriates in the UK. The research has continued through the processes of public engagement, which will feed into further planned publications.
Impact
In 2012 and 2013, after the publication of the editions, Jato undertook to promote engagement with these little-known, previously censored, works of Beneyto and Guilarte, and also promote public understanding of the Francoist period, exile and memory more generally. Early in the project it was decided to focus the engagement on a number of key groups, identified by Jato as appropriate ‘publics’ for her research and tailor activities accordingly. These included:
- Members of Guilarte’s home community in Tolosa and the Basque region of Spain
- Members of (or those interested in) exiled communities in Spain and the UK
- Students and adult learners in Spain and the UK
Interaction with these target groups was effected by making the results of the research widely available on a range of platforms, including: public talks and debates in cultural centres and museums in Spain (including the Museum of Exile in Cataluña and the Museum of History of Cataluña in Barcelona); activities at Adult Education centres and reading groups; editions of the texts in reader-friendly format for reading groups in Birmingham; a 25 minute film documentary of Guilarte’s life screened at all of Jato’s talks (available in English and Spanish); a blog following the events around Europe and containing additional information for visitors. The ensuing lively (and at times heated) debates and discussions in turn fed back into an evolving dialogue between researcher and the public.
Through the 9 public events held between June 2012 and June 2013, Jato worked with over 360 members of the public in the UK and Spain. All audience feedback indicated that Jato’s events worked to improve understanding of Francoism and exile and as appropriate to aid the sharing of experiences and recovery of memory among those groups for whom Francoism and exile had been a feature of their earlier lives (e.g. Tolosa residents; attendees at the Centro de Mayores Miguel de Cervantes, an association for Spanish retirees in London; the Centro de Personas Adultas de Santander, an adult Education centre).
Learn more
If you are interested in the work that Dr Jato undertook in this area you can learn more by visiting the project website. You can also request the documentary or watch the trailer available on YouTube.
If this has sparked an interest in studying a course in the School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music then you can find a list of the Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Doctoral research opportunities on offer from the School.