Dear Comrades: Analyzing Letters to La Pirenaica as Migrant Narrative
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Date
2021
Authors
Barton, Brenna
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
This thesis evaluates a collection of 25 letters written in the 1960s by Spanish emigrants to France for Radio España Independiente (La Pirenaica) developing the writers’ firsthand accounts of their experiences as Migrant Narrative. Fleeing General Francisco Franco’s military-fascist regime, hundreds of thousands of Spaniards left their country to seek protection and work in France. Once across the border, these men and women looked to a clandestine, communist-run radio station known as La Pirenaica for comfort and community to combat their feelings of isolation in their new place of residence. The radio station offered programs dedicated to reading mail from its listeners, and through these programs the letters to La Pirenaica were born. In these letters, migrants detail the hardships they experienced as foreign workers in France, offer counsel to the station’s audience, and air their political grievances against Franco. The forthcoming pages investigate the migrants’ narratives surrounding community and work to develop the history of this decade as the letter-writers experienced it.
Description
70 pages
Keywords
Global migrations, Spain, France, Migrant narrative