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Faculty of Humanities (Modern Languages)

An Anatomy of Exile, Return
and De-exile
The Writing and Life Trajectory
of the former Spanish Anarchist Minister
Juan López Sánchez

Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
By

Pedro García-Guirao ©

September 2014
2

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
ABSTRACT
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES (Modern Languages)

Doctor of Philosophy

AN ANATOMY OF EXILE, RETURN AND DE-EXILE. THE WRITING AND LIFE
TRAJECTORY OF THE FORMER SPANISH ANARCHIST MINISTER
JUAN LÓPEZ SÁNCHEZ

By Pedro García-Guirao

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
3
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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Contents
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………......2
Contents …………………………………………………………………………………….....4
Nomenclature ………...…………………………………………………………………….....8
Declaration of Authorship …………………………………………………………………….9
Acknowledgments…………....................................................................................................10
A note on citing Juan López Sánchez’ Archive.......................................................................11

INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................12
0.1. THESIS AIMS AND OBJECTIVES.............................................................................12
0.2. RESEARCH QUESTIONS............................................................................................14
0.3. THESIS OUTLINE........................................................................................................15

CHAPTER 1
JUAN LÓPEZ SÁNCHEZ IN AN ANARCHIST CONTEXT..........................................19
1. PRE-EXILE………………………………………………………………….………………19
A terminological and historical clarification: the conceptual history of ‘anarchism’,
‘anarcho-syndicalism’ and ‘possibilistic anarchism’……………………………………..20
Murcia: The Birth………………………………………………………………………….23
Barcelona: The First Emigration……………………………………………………….…24
The Way to Prison…………………………………………………………………………25
Adopting Syndicalism and Forgetting Anarchism…………………………………………28
5
“Power Tends to Corrupt, and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”……………………30
2. EXILE………………………………………………………………………………………31
3. RETURN AND DE-EXILE……………………………………………………………………..39

CHAPTER 2
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: EXILE, RETURN AND DE-EXILE........................44
1. EXILE…………………………………………………………………………………….…44
1.1. EXILE AND ITS FETISHES...................................................................................................44
1.2. CIVIL REPUBLICAN VIRTUES IN EXILE.............................................................................51
2. RETURN…………………………………………………………………………………….53
2.1. THE TABOO OF RETURNING..............................................................................................53
2.2. RETURN AS A MORALLY INCONVENIENT DECISION...........................................................54
The return from legal perspectives: The Francoist Laws..................................................58
3. DE-EXILE...............................................................................................................................63
Etymological approach.....................................................................................................64
De-exile according to Mario Benedetti.............................................................................64

CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY: ANALYSING JUAN LÓPEZ SÁNCHEZ’ ARCHIVE...................73
3.1 THEORETICAL MODELS TO APPROACH THE PAST FROM THE PRESENT...............................74
Qualitative inductive model..................................................................................................74
Reconstruction of the past....................................................................................................75
Psychohistory.......................................................................................................................76
Issues of self-reflexivity... ....................................................................................................77
3.2 “ARCHIVO DE JUAN LÓPEZ SÁNCHEZ (LÍDER ANARQUISTA Y MINISTRO
REPUBLICANO)”.........................................................................................................................79
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Gatekeeping archives…………...........................................................................................82
Correspondence analysis……………………….....................................................................83

CHAPTER 4
EXILE AS A SYMPTOM OF THE “GERMEN OF WAR”.............................................91
Juan López Sánchez and Republican virtues as demagogy.................................................93

CHAPTER 5
PRAGMATISM AS A WAY OF SURVIVING IN EXILE..............................................100
The impossible reinstatement of the Republic....................................................................101
Facing new realities and circumstances............................................................................104
The Spanish circumstances and the mysticism of the Civil War........................................108

CHAPTER 6
THE PATRIOTIC IMPERATIVE TO RETURN............................................................120
Return to make up for lost time..........................................................................................120
Problems of identity...........................................................................................................123
Juan López Sánchez: a Spanish man who loves his homeland..........................................134

CHAPTER 7
DE-EXILE AND COLLABORATION WITH THE “ENEMY”.....................................141
De-exile: a category for interpreting Juan López Sánchez’ correspondence and
attitude towards exile.........................................................................................................142
Negotiations while in exile..................................................................................................145
Putting returnees into quarantine.......................................................................................153
Integration into the Francoist apparatus............................................................................159
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CHAPTER 8
THE PSYCHOSOMATIC ELEMENTS OF EXILE, RETURN AND DE-
EXILE...................................................................................................................................164
8.1 PSYCHOSIS OF THE BODY...................................................................................................165
The asthma of exiles...........................................................................................................171
Sleep disorders and fatigue................................................................................................177
8.2 RETURN AS A TREATMENT AND SPAIN A AS MEDICINE.......................................................180
The role of the “curative” national food in exile...............................................................181
Family ties in exile as an impediment for returning..........................................................183
8.3 TO DIE IN SPAIN.................................................................................................................187

CONCLUSIONS: HISTORY AS A CEMETERY............................................................198

APPENDIX I: Contents of “Archivo de Juan López Sánchez (Líder anarquista y ministro
republicano)”……………………………………………………………………………...205

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………262
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Nomenclature
BOE Boletín Oficial del Estado
CEDA Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas
CN Comité Nacional
CNT Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
CNS Confederación Nacional de Sindicatos
CGT Confederación General de Trabajadores
ERC Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya
FAI Federación Anarquista Ibérica
FTRE Federación de Trabajadores de la Región Española
FIJL Federación Ibérica de Jóvenes Libertarios
IEE Instituto Español de Emigración
IISH International Institute of Social History of Amsterdam
IWA International Worker’s Association
JARE Junta de Auxilio a los Republicanos Españoles
JLS Juan López Sánchez
IR Izquierda Republica
PCE Partido Comunista Español
POUM Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista
PP Partido Popular
PSOE Partido Socialista Obrero Español
SALTUV Sociedad Anónima Laboral de Transportes Urbanos de Valencia
SERE Servicio de Evacuación de Refugiados Españoles
UGT Unión General de Trabajadores
UNED Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
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DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP

I, Pedro García-Guirao, declare that the thesis entitled ‘An Anatomy of Exile, Return and
De-exile. The Writing and Life Trajectory of the Former Spanish Anarchist Minister
Juan López Sánchez’ and the work presented in the thesis are both my own, and have been
generated by me as the result of my own original research. I confirm that:
●this work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this
University;
●where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other
qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated;
●where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed;
●where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the
exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; I have acknowledged all
main sources of help;
●where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear
exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself;
●parts of this work have been published as:

García-Guirao, P. (2013). ‘The Ground Rots Equally Everywhere’: Federica Montseny and
those who Returned to Die in the Francoist Spain, In: Coming Home? Vol. 1: Conflict and
Return Migration in the Aftermath of Europe’s Twentieth-Century Civil Wars. Newcastle:
Cambridge Scholar Publishing, 70-88.

García-Guirao, P. (2009). Anarchism in Spain. In: International Encyclopedia of Revolution
and Protest: 1500-Present. Ed. Immanuel Ness. Oxford, Blackwell, 144-147.

García-Guirao, P. (2008). Federica Montseny en Francia: la nueva comunidad humana y el
exilio como utopía. Espinosa, Revista de Filosofía, 8, 3-24.

Signed: ___________________________________
Date: _____________________________________