Transtierro

« Transtierro », to transport oneself from one land to another.

TRANSTIERRO *

* "Transtierro" is a neologism created by the Spanish philosopher José Gaos, combining the words "transport" and "land" litteraly meaning : to transport oneself from one land to another.

"Transtierro" is a photographic investigation into the emigration of Spanish Republican refugees from France to Mexico at the end of the Spanish Civil War. An emigration which starts with a collective crossing of the Atlantic by boat. A voyage that ironically echoes the one led by Cortés in 1519, a journey that marked the inception of Spanish colonization with the establishment of the first colonial city in Mesoamerica: Villa Rica de Veracruz, precisely where the Spanish refugees disembarked three centuries later. Focused on a lesser-known chapter of History, for often overshadowed by World War II, this photographic work addresses the essential questions of our time: identity and the history of immigration. It is also a project that resonates with my personal story, as I am the daughter of a Mexican immigrant with a Castilian family name, living daily with a dual sense of belonging to two places and two cultures.

On April 2, 1939, a day after the victory of the nationalist armies, the Mexican president Lázaro Cárdenas, publicly declared his policy of welcoming all Spanish citizens fleeing Franco's repression. This marked the beginning of an important re-emigration operation from the French soil, which lasted until 1942. Over four years, 25,000 Spaniards found refuge in Mexico through the chartering of several European ships. The "Sinaia", "Ipanema", "Mexico", and "Nyassa", made multiple round trips between various ports in the southwest and southeast of France (Sète, Marseille, Bordeaux) to the Mexican city of Veracruz, carrying onboard hundreds of refugees.

"Transtierro" aims to be a poetic body of work weaving together contemporary creation, sociological study, and historical research. It questions the construction of memory and oblivion by creating echoes across time and space: between Spain, France, and Mexico, between land and sea, Europe and America. Mixing documentary and fiction, this project blurs perspectives in order to give rise to a moving body of work built upon various creative approaches: reappropriation of archives, analog photography and sound recordings.

In April 2023, I crossed the Atlantic on a ship heading to Mexico where I initiated my research. During this first stay, I followed the trails of Spanish exiles, capturing images, collecting testimonies, and documents from their descendants. Now, I must return to meet more families, both in France, Spain, and Mexico, in order to intersect their destinies and translate their stories into images. I must continue this work to go against the "the forgetting pact" established in Spain after Franco's death, a deliberate amnesia of the story of the defeated, which has lasted for more than 30 years.