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Spanish migrant and exiled women in the French Resistance . The construction of a memory between experiences and expectations 1
Luiza Iordache Cârstea Historian , National University of Distance Education ( UNED ) Rocío Negrete Peña Historian , University of Zaragoza
The participation of Spanish women in the French Resistance remains one of the great unresolved issues in the historiography of Republican exile and the Second World War . For decades , researchers and activists on both sides of the Pyrenees have denounced their neglect by both academia and society , an assertion that is now largely untrue . In recent years , the growing concern for gender issues and women ’ s history has led to a greater public presence and their inclusion across the board in the most recent research . However , there are still no specific studies of this particular group of women , largely due to the problem of the limited availability and fragmentation of sources , as well as the way in which they have been constructed in memorials since 1944 .
In addressing the role of Spanish women exiles and migrants in the Resistance , memory intervenes both as confirmation and negation . The memories of / about these women testifies to and militates against their triple-fold exclusion from the most hegemonic period in history . Firstly , because they were women in an environment ( the Resistance ) that is masculinist in its historical construction , and in which French historiography continues to struggle to include women in the narrative and achieve a more pluralistic history . A second axis of exclusion was precisely that of their condition as foreigners ( emigrants or exiles ) on French soil , who are often also absent in the narratives , despite the fact that , as Gaston Laroche pointed out , “ It is impossible to write the history of the dark and glorious years of France ’ s liberation struggle without mentioning the participation of the immigrant combatants (...), who were called foreigners [ but also foreigners ] because they offered France their freedom and their blood .” Finally , these women were absent from the narrative of the Second World War in their country of origin ,
1 This article is part of the REMEMCHILD project , supported by the CERV programme .
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Observing Memories Issue 8