Towards the reconstruction of a network of Spanish intellectuals in Argentine exile (1936-1950): autobiographies, agendas and epistolaries

Abstract

Personal documents, notebooks, telephone diaries, annual diaries, correspondence and diaries reveal details of the intimate lives of exiled Spanish women writers and intellectuals that allow us to discover the relationships they established when they arrived in their new country. This article will collate various primary sources in order to reconstruct a female network that was forged in Buenos Aires during the early years of the war and the 1940s, which included writers such as Elena Fortún and Victorina Durán. This analysis will make it possible to establish the intellectual and personal complicities produced between Spaniards and Argentinians. It will also bring to light the almost unknown names of Argentinean artists who helped the exiles to find work, make contact with publishers, newspapers and art galleries, move around the city and, in short, to feel welcome and at home during a period of profound uprooting. The aim is to fill a gap in studies of exile, as to date this circle has not been researched in depth. This female network allows us to understand the experiences of these intellectuals during their exile, to perceive influences among their works and also opens up a possible line of research into the life and work of the virtually unknown Argentinean artists who established alliances with this small group of exiles.