How many Spaniards went into exile during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the Franco dictatorship that followed (1939-1975)? We know that nearly 470,000 refugees crossed the French border in 1939, during the “Retirada”, the retreat of the Republicans. That tens of thousands piled onto ocean liners bound for Latin America during the same period. That in France in 1969, the 600,000 Spaniards constituted the first foreign community. That in Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, tens of thousands of others have definitively rebuilt their lives after having also fled the dictatorship.
But historians’ estimates remain imprecise given the scale of this exodus, which, over four decades, may have affected between 1.5 million and 2 million people. It is to honor their memory that the Spanish government has included, in the new democratic memory law voted on October 5, the recognition of Spanish nationality for the children and grandchildren of exiles.
“They lost everything: their jobs, their property, their friendships, their family. But time passed and they prevailed: the Spain of today is very similar to the one they defended”, said the Spanish Minister of Democratic Remembrance, Félix Bolaños, visiting Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne), on November 4, to pay tribute to the President of the Spanish Republic Manuel Azaña (1936-1939), who died in exile in France in 1940. “The law of democratic memory settles this debt”he added.
Since the decree of application of the recognition of nationality of October 27, “people born outside Spain, of father or mother, grandmother or grandfather who have lost or had to renounce Spanish nationality, after having had to go into exile for political, ideological, religious reasons or because of their sexual orientation and gender identity,” have two years to apply for Spanish nationality at the Spanish consulates in their country of residence. The descendants of the international brigadists, these contingents of foreign volunteers engaged alongside the Republicans during the war in Spain, will also be able to claim it, provided that they certify a “continuous work of spreading the memory of their descendants and defending democracy in Spain”.
The “generosity” of the law
In 2007, the law of historical memory of the socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero had already opened the possibility, until 2011, for exiles and their children to obtain Spanish nationality. Nearly 490,000 applications were then filed – mostly from Latin America – but only 376,000 favorable responses were made.
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