Women’s franquism prisons in Valencia: punishing, purifying, re-educating

Abstract

This article is one of the first to raise the issue of Women in the Franco regime prisons, specifically in the region of Valencia. Historiography of the Franquoist repression, in particular in Valencia, has paid scarce attention to that topic. This study provides a research about the modus operandi of prisons and others buildings —such as the Santa Clara’s convent—, used in order to jail republican women. Some of them were sentenced to death, and their children taken away in a lot of cases. And all of them suffered subhuman living conditions. On the one hand, the text analyses the prison files as an example of the official repression discourse. On the other hand, it also deals with some of these women’s stories, testimonies and memories as an example of the anti-Franco resistance discourse.

Keywords

• franquismo
• represión
• cárceles valencianas
• mujeres republicanas
• expedientes carcelarios
• testimonios
• memoria femenina
• resistencia antifranquista