The Ballad of Bourg-Madame: Memory, Exile, and the Spanish Republican Refugees of the Retirada of 1939

Abstract

This paper analyses the experience of the Spanish Republican refugees who left Catalonia in the Retirada of January and February 1939. The first section – “the Road to Bourg-Madame” – considers issues of interpretation raised by the refugees' texts: it discusses historiography, the politics of memory, and political culture. In “Bourg-Madame”, the second section, the essay considers the refugees' experiences. It discusses previous patterns of Spanish migration, the decision-making process that preceded the refugees' journey, group identity formation during the Retirada, the gendered dimension of their experiences, the despair felt by many on arrival in France and the reception that the refugees met. The paper ends by discussing the surprising resilience of the refugees.