This exhibition presents 140 publications from the Spanish exodus selected by Javier Campillo from the Instituto Cervantes and the curator of the exhibition. This selection covers a period ranging from 1919 to the 1970s while remaining firmly representative of the years 1939-1950.
Two very little-known collections in Spain and France are presented, such as El Mundo al Día, an anarchist series of popularised cultural and scientific texts and La Novela Española, a collection of literary texts edited in Toulouse with the aim of publishing the work of Spanish intellectuals from the repu- blican diaspora.
The following themes are broached:
- The editorial production of the Spanish exodus in France and particularly in Toulouse, which focuses on politics, culture, and literature;
- La Retirada and the concentration camps as vectors of editorial effervescence and development of the writings on the Libera- tion;
- The prolific anarchist publication whose magazines, brochures, and books helped to disseminate free thinking in science, sexual education, pedagogy, political education, and class consciousness.
This installation is completed by a mention of the exodus by president Manuel Azaña, buried in Montauban in 1940, the solidarity of Albert Camus towards the exodus, and the role played by the main Spanish bookshop in Toulouse, the Librairie des Éditions Espagnoles (1946-1973).
Since its creation in 1996, the Instituto Cervantes de Toulouse has set itself the mission of collecting and conserving this wonderful documentary heritage that represents the bibliographic production of 40 years of Spanish exile in France. The collection holds a diverse range of 1 400 documents.
