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Writing to Exist: Transformation and Translation into Exile

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Date Issued:
2017
Summary:
Silenced for almost half a century, testimonies of those who lost the Spanish Civil War are now surfacing and being published. The origin of this dissertation was the chance discovery that Martín Herrera de Mendoza, a Spanish Civil War exile living in the United States, was truly a Catalonian anarchist named Antonio Vidal Arabí. This double identity was a cover for the political activist dedicated to the fight for change in the anarchist workers’ union CNT (National Confederation of Workers) and the FAI (Federation of Iberian Anarchists). He founded the FAI chapter in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and planned a failed assassination attempt on General Franco’s life in an effort to avoid the military takeover in 1936. This dissertation is the reconstruction of Antonio Vidal Arabí’s life narrative. It is based on the texts written during his seventeen-month stay as a refugee in Great Britain. Copies of his writings were left in a suitcase with a fellow anarchist who he instructed to have sent to his family upon his death. In 1989, “The English Suitcase” was delivered to his children in Barcelona. Based on his own account, this study follows his service as an intelligence agent for the Spanish Republic during the War. When it was over, he attempted to evacuate his family from France, to save them from the threat of the Nazi invasion and reunite with them in England or America. The analysis of the letters he wrote to his wife and children in France documents how he hid from Franco’s spies using his dual identity. In his letters, always signed as Martín Herrera de Mendoza, he invents a persona in order to help his family. The present study narrates his transformation into the persona he created and the events that brought about his translation into his “other.” Antonio Vidal Arabí’s bilinguism and biculturality is underlined as the main factors in his change into Martín Herrera de Mendoza. His was a voyage into exile documented by his own words; a story of survival and reinvention.
Title: Writing to Exist: Transformation and Translation into Exile.
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Name(s): Martin, Angela F., author
Erro-Peralta, Nora, Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 2017
Date Issued: 2017
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 351 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Silenced for almost half a century, testimonies of those who lost the Spanish Civil War are now surfacing and being published. The origin of this dissertation was the chance discovery that Martín Herrera de Mendoza, a Spanish Civil War exile living in the United States, was truly a Catalonian anarchist named Antonio Vidal Arabí. This double identity was a cover for the political activist dedicated to the fight for change in the anarchist workers’ union CNT (National Confederation of Workers) and the FAI (Federation of Iberian Anarchists). He founded the FAI chapter in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and planned a failed assassination attempt on General Franco’s life in an effort to avoid the military takeover in 1936. This dissertation is the reconstruction of Antonio Vidal Arabí’s life narrative. It is based on the texts written during his seventeen-month stay as a refugee in Great Britain. Copies of his writings were left in a suitcase with a fellow anarchist who he instructed to have sent to his family upon his death. In 1989, “The English Suitcase” was delivered to his children in Barcelona. Based on his own account, this study follows his service as an intelligence agent for the Spanish Republic during the War. When it was over, he attempted to evacuate his family from France, to save them from the threat of the Nazi invasion and reunite with them in England or America. The analysis of the letters he wrote to his wife and children in France documents how he hid from Franco’s spies using his dual identity. In his letters, always signed as Martín Herrera de Mendoza, he invents a persona in order to help his family. The present study narrates his transformation into the persona he created and the events that brought about his translation into his “other.” Antonio Vidal Arabí’s bilinguism and biculturality is underlined as the main factors in his change into Martín Herrera de Mendoza. His was a voyage into exile documented by his own words; a story of survival and reinvention.
Identifier: FA00004803 (IID)
Degree granted: Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Includes bibliography.
Subject(s): Herrera de Mendoza, Martín--Correspondence.
Spain.--Ejército Popular de la República.
Spain--History--República, 1931-1939.
Spain--History--Civil War, 1936-1939--Personal narratives.
Spain--History--Civil War, 1936-1939--Refugees--Great Britain--Personal narratives.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands : Province)--Personal narraatives.
Anarchists--Spain--History--20th century.
Exiles' writings, Spanish--20th century.
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: Digital Library
Links: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004803
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004803
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.