ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the Spanish exile in 1939, a family exile that cast thousands of men and women out of the country after the republican defeat. It focuses in the transgenerational transmission of political ideals and family values to the following generations, using the oral narratives of two second-generation Spanish women exiled to Mexico. The life stories, as expressions of subjectivity, are key to understand these processes.
For its analysis, we have used the concept of postmemory coined by Hirsch. The political activity of the interviewees and the construction of their postmemory are clearly shaped by the memory of parental experiences. Specifically, we asked which type of transfer was there between the activism experiences of their parents and the political ideals they show. Family photographs are an important instrument for the transmission of exile memories and the construction of postmemory, as shown in the account of one of the interviewees.
Family memory is examined from a gender point of view, considering the patriarchal nature of that institution. Clear contradictions have emerged between the republican values, egalitarian in theory – defended by the exiled – and the traditional femininity models, in effect in their homes. 1
