Political walls and bridges of solidarity in the Spanish-Portuguese border: the refugees of Spanish Civil War in Barrancos (1936)

Abstract

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) the Portuguese-Spanish border was an instrument of protection and resistance, an imaginary line that demarcated the life and death of thousands, surviving Salazar’s reinforcement of control and surveillance. The article analyses the cross-border solidarities that took place during the war, electing as its empirical and historiographical object, the case of republican refugee fluxes, and in particular, the case of Barrancos. Methodologically we seek to intertwine ethnography and history, blending oral and documental sources with the data from our field work in Barrancos (Alentejo), bridging and comparing Barrancos’ local history to that of their neighbours from Encinasola (Andalucía) and Oliva de la Frontera (Extremadura). The analytical approach to historical memory, borders and power relations, explains the strategies of resistance of social actors, defining them as a cultural praxis conformed throughout the historical process.