An anatomy of exile, return and de-exile. The writing and life trajectory of the former Spanish anarchist minister Juan López Sánchez

Abstract

This thesis explores the scantly studied Spanish anarchist exile that followed the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and lasted until Francisco Franco’s death and, arguably, beyond. So far, Spanish anarchist exile has occupied a marginal research space under the wider label of “Republican exile”. Within this marginalized exile, I have chosen to address a specific issue: the voluntary return of former anarchist exiles to a dictatorship. The research is built around the controversial case study of a former anarchist Minister, Juan López Sánchez. The thesis tries to discover how, after a period of exile consisting of a short stay in Toulouse, followed by almost 15 years in England and 14 in Mexico, this former Minister constructed a discourse that justified his return to Spain at the age of 66, and the reasons why he collaborated with the Francoist Sindicato Vertical [Vertical Union].

The research attempts to extrapolate from the problems affecting a specific person (Juan López Sánchez) in a particular historical moment (1939-1975) to gain a broader understanding of the experience of returning Spanish exiles and refugees. The theorizing thus goes to a certain extent from the general to the particular. Methodologically, the study is developed based on an interdisciplinary vision. It draws on qualitative methodology to analyse the intellectual output of Juan López Sánchez and his contribution to newspaper publications in exile, which will help us understand the experience of exile and broader human dimension of the former Minister. At the heart of this data lies a corpus of 630 letters that the Minister sent and received between 1939 and 1971. Through the study of this correspondence, which has hitherto remained unexamined, Juan López Sánchez held a rich and insightful dialogue with 73 leading republican figures inside and outside of Spain, providing invaluable insights into the exile and return from both a personal and political perspective.

The findings of the thesis hope to contribute to the historiographical, theoretical, cultural and humanistic gaps surrounding the work and memory not only of Juan López Sánchez, but also of many other intellectuals who attempted to reintegrate into Spanish society during the Franco regime, a subject which has so far been generally rejected as a field of study by the academic establishment.

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