Motherhood, labor, and anti-fascism: the construction of refugee identity by Spanish women exiled in France, 1939–1976

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article aims to analyze how Spanish refugee identity emerged in France, the basis on which it was built, and the way the gender gap exerted an influence in its creation. For this purpose, we have examined the correspondence sent by women to three relief bodies offering assistance in exile (the Aid Commission for Spanish Refugee Children in France, the Evacuation Service of Spanish Refugees, and Spanish Democratic Solidarity) and attempted to demonstrate that, despite being an identity imposed in part by vicissitudes, institutions and organizations that assisted refugees, it was also an identity that was built, appropriated and reshaped by women for their own benefit. We argue that gender was a constitutive element of this new identity and that, in light of the analyzed material, it was developed on the basis of at least three factors: motherhood, labor and anti-fascism.