The republican exile that followed the end of the 1936-1939 civil war has a very extensive bibliography. To this comes the suitably expanded discourse of the entry to the Real Academia de la Historia de Juan Francisco Fuentes on the vision of Spain in republican exile. The author, who addressed the topic of exile in his studies on the political path of Don Juan de Borbón and Luis Arraquistin, now cultivates the study of the prevailing vision in the same way as the Spanish nation and the appropriate path towards the restoration of democracy after the Franco dictatorship.
The starting point for both questions is an admission of guilt and responsibility for the mistakes committed throughout the life of the Second Republic. Polling tends to arise primarily from reflections of an intellectual nature, but that is also reflected in an unambiguous way in the actions of political leaders. This would be the view articulated early on by Manuel Azaña and later by, among others, Indalecio Brito, Juan Negrín, Luis Arraquistin, Juan Simeon Vidarte, and Fernando Valera. During the journey into the political climate in recent years, the need to provide “common consensus” opens up, a formula that precedes the idea of the consensus that will preside over the transitional process.
In the national debate, the exiled member will remain loyal to the vision of Spanish nationalism with a liberal democratic brand. A style of nationalism that dominated the republican tradition and dominated Spanish socialism, in accordance with the dominant positions on the subject within the framework of the Second International. This loyalty to the idea of Spain contrasted with the tendency towards extremism, with few exceptions, of the peripheral nationalists in exile, which was expressed in the Galewska formula and in the demand for the right of secession that was only tempered by confederal commitments to the future of Spain. The clearly dominant position in Republican exile would also contradict the visions of the mayors in the internal government, in the Spanish Communist Party, the Socialist Workers Party and the radical parties and groups of the moment, which are driven by an irresponsible opposition partly understood to the repressive policy of the dictatorship and the influence of peripheral nationalisms. In the defense of liberal democratic Spanish nationalism on the part of republican exiles, according to the author, the influence of the “menendezpelayismo” of the izquierdas will sometimes be included, suggesting an attempt to bring together the two great families in Spanish nationalist discourse.
One of the conclusions of Fuentes’s brilliant essay is that he was unable to condemn the supposed betrayal that implied the transition to the intellectual and political worldview that underpinned the vast majority of republicanism in exile. Forgiveness, forgetting and reconciliation will broadly correspond to aspirations among the political insiders who have led the process of restoring democracy in Spain.
Homeland hat. The idea of Spain in Republican exile
Juan Francisco Fuentes
Edisonis Arzalia, 2025
252 pages, €19.90