Reception of Exile and Identity in the Spanish Migration of 1939

Abstract

At the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), Spanish intellectuals were forced into exile. Leaving Spain behind, they struggled for decades to survive in foreign lands. Most of the intellectuals of Republican Spain went to Mexico which became in a way the capital of exile accepting the highest number of refugees. The new land of obligatory exile would be a temporary stop; what was essential was to protect Spanish culture and identity. The language used by the Spanish intellectuals in their political and literary activities revealed the pain of the lost country and people and reflected Spanish identity, essence, culture, and traditions which they tried to protect in exile. Children also went into exile with their families and grew up between two cultures. They were seen by their families as a guarantee for the continuity of the national culture. In time, some became scholars like their elders. However, they did not see the concepts of exile and identity as their fathers did; exile was a concept they inherited and their identities were shaped in an intermediate zone where they grew up between two cultures. This study aims to reveal the perception of the concepts of exile and identity by Spanish intellectuals in exile and by their children who later stepped into literary life and the difference between these two generations in the perception of both concepts.

Keywords

• spanish civil war
• generation of ’27
• nepantla generation
• exile
• identity