by Nieves Castro , a member of the Resistance in Toulouse , published in Spanish in 1981 , gives us an idea of how central these experiences were in her life :
We were in the concentration camps until , for the convenience of the French state , they made us leave (...) In the Argeles camp myself , as I could see no way out of that city of boards and sand , I signed up for the companies that went out to work in the fields or in factories , but in the latter it was not possible : because of the young age of the girl they did not want me ; so I chose to go as a peasant . I didn ’ t understand a leaf about the countryside , what I wanted was to go out and work in the fields .
As part of these trajectories , participation in the Resistance was preceded in France by the development of the first political work , solidarity networks and the reconstruction of structures in internment camps . After the German occupation in June 1940 - extended to the whole of metropolitan France in November 1942 - the first acts of disobedience and resistance to the occupiers also involved the foreign population , including the Spanish migrant and exiled community . According to one of the first researchers on Spanish women in the Resistance , Maria Fernanda Mancebo , Neus Català estimated 400 Spanish women , but it is feared that there were many more . However , especially in the early stages , the definition of what has been called “ Resistance ” poses problems . As has been argued in the history of women and gender , the silences of a history told in masculine terms have erased the number of women from the accounts . As resistance fighter Josefa Ramos recalls : “ There were many women whose names I don ’ t remember . Because I also moved around and wasn ’ t always at home , so I didn ’ t know them all . But they were all the liaisons of the different maquis ”.
In recent years , research on women ’ s participation in the Resistance has highlighted the fact that , for the most part , they were confined to roles considered to be auxiliary tasks and , when describing their activities , spoke of the ‘ feminine skills ’ mobilised . For this reason , one of the avenues of research currently open - such as the 187 records of homologation of Spanish-born women worked on by Marina Hurtado - is also incomplete : activity and recognition do not always go hand in hand . Diego Gaspar Celaya has called this imbalance a “ mutilated recognition ” for women , due to the difficulties in having a large part of their activities recognised as part of the Resistance networks .
Yet , despite the categorisation as auxiliaries in unrecognised tasks , we can distinguish a set of missions that were crucial in the realisation of Resistance activities . Among them , the role of liaison agent or courier was better and more often performed by women , as they were usually checked less frequently . This differentiation of tasks not only explains the sexist character of the Resistance , but also that of the repression . In Catherine Lacour-Astol ’ s study of the Resistance in northern France , accusations of “ aiding the enemy ” and “ concealment ” can be found among the main reasons for the arrest of women . In other words , although they were less visible , they were no less dangerous . Neus Català , in her testimony , echoes the
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Observing Memories Issue 8