Writing and illustrating from exile: The magazine Mujeres Españolas (Mexico 1950s) and its contributors

Abstract

We analyze the content of Mujeres Españolas as part of the culture and memory of the Spanish Marxist left in exile. It was a women’s magazine, anti-francoist and pacifist. A publication of the women’s exile, which aimed to attract the largest number of Spanish refugees who were against dictatorship and in favor of democracy in Mexico. Being totally focused on Spanish themes and exalting the values of the homeland embodied by the supporters of the Republic during the war, it can be considered nationalist. From a gender perspective, it has a maternalist discourse that exalts the traditional values of domesticity. From this point of view, we highlight the work of three of its closest collaborators: Luisa Carnés (director of the magazine), the writer Felisa Gil and the painter Manuela Ballester, highlighting the exemplary intention of their historical-literary articles and the transmission of a collective memory through them. A heroic memory despite the defeats of the Spanish Civil War and the unfavorable international context.