Camila Ambros
Dr. C.M. Clark
ENC 1101 HC
December, 10 2014
Women Writings in Franco’s Regime
Feminism is a movement in which the active participation of women expresses and targets the aspirations and decisions regarding social organization and the life of women. The movement arose in the sixties of the twentieth century in similar way in different countries. On one hand, it connects with that first feminism that focused on the suffragists and the claim of political rights, whose momentum was partly buried as one of many consequences of the two world wars. On the other hand, it is part of a wider movement based on the protest of the young people, who raised the need for a better democracy, comprising and transforming the understanding of the political activities and the way decisions were made. However, in Spain the situation was different. Spain presented specific features because unlike France, Germany, Italy or the United States, which were already starting to evolve the fight for the equalization of women in society, Spain was living under a dictatorship that was established after a military coup and the civil war, which overthrew the form of government of the Republic. The dictatorship limited women from expressing themselves freely and living their desired life. It restricted them from showing society their importance in the world and letting men see how both are equal. The sixties in Spain was a time that excited many women writers to speak about their situations. At the same time, they were brave enough to show their works without being intimidated by what was going to happen to them. Among all the writers and all the works created on that time, the ones that described more clearly the situation were: Las ataduras by Carmen Martin Gaite, Te tratare como una reina by Rosa Montero, Nada by Carmen Laforet. The works by Carmen Martin Gaite, Carmen Laforet and Rosa Montero were greatly affected by the regime of Francisco Franco.
The general and dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled over Spain from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Franco persecuted political opponents, repressed the culture and language of Spain’s Basque and Catalan regions, censured the media and otherwise exerted absolute control over the country. Some of these restrictions gradually eased as Franco got older, and upon his death, the country transitioned to democracy. (Simking)
More in depth, the dictatorship also affected women. In contrast to the legislation that was passed before the Civil War, Franco developed a legislation that excluded women from many activities in an attempt to keep them in very traditional roles. From January 1, 1939, he forced women and men to register in thee government census separately. The women had to indicate the name of their husband, their profession, place of work, their salary and number of children. In fact, at the end of that year, women were banned from working in offices, unless they were household heads and kept the house by themselves with their work, were separated, her husband was incapacitated, or were single and without means of maintaining themselves, or without the possession of evidence to enable them to exercise any profession. The misery of the post- war especially influenced women. For example, it produced a significant increase in prostitution, tolerated until 1956. As a solution to this problem, the regime established institutions for prostitutes in prison called Special Prison for the Fall of Women, created by a decree published in the Official Gazette on November 20, 1941. Also, in that month and year, Patronado de Proteccion a la Mujer was formally constituted in March 1942, chaired by Carmen Franco Polo this institution looked for prostitutes to "Prevent their exploitation, and educate them according to the teachings of the Catholic religion’’ in addition to reporting on the state of morality in Spain and fight by the higher prevalence . The board was also responsible for monitoring and controlling local prostitution and to launch a provincial network to control the moral (Cantabra)
The first important situation to consider is that Francos’s dictatorship was based on the beliefs of the Church, which means it was more judgmental in the way they saw progress and furthermore the role of women in society. Fray Luis de León in 1583 based it in some writings such as La Perfecta Casada. It relates to the marriage of Christian women. Some priests denied communion to girls who wore lipstick and were wearing tight clothes. The young girls at the age of twelve were forced to wear socks, long skirts and buttoned shirts
The second aspect to consider in Franco’s laws inclined to women is the perception of them in society. Patriarchy meant for women a late step for independence. In a family, the patriarchal authority dominated traditional values and the structure of the work of that was the ‘’nature’’ of women. Family relationships were based on hierarchy: a woman was dependent of the man, and children to their parents. Was the appearance of women to men, which created a shadow on women. Their role was the good to give life, take care of the house, have children and give pleasure; "It was the rest of the warrior." Marriage was only to be a mother. Parental rights prohibited women under twenty-five to leave their houses without the consent of the parents or if the girl was to be married. In March 26, 1946, La Orden was created. It sanctions all men with a government fee if the woman in their house was the one working. Also, women and dogs were not allowed to enter the Stock Change House. (Cantabra)
The third aspect to consider is, the way sexuality, education on women was seen. Spain, in those days, was a rural country and yet not industrialized, with a high percentage of illiteracy. In 1960, almost 35% of the population lived in rural areas. In the female population the percentage was 28 % and from those percentages the majority of women were illiterate. Girls were allowed to education but under certain parameters. They were taught in different ways and schools than boys. They were taught in a path to ‘‘sowing’’ and boys to ‘’ruling’’. In 1965 all locals and bars that allowed prostitution were closed. But, at that same time, men were allowed to have intimate relationships with their wife and maid, which were paid by their service in the house. Also, they had implemented two types of intimate relationships: one only for procreation and the other one for pleasure, only for men. When a maid was in an intimate relationship with the ‘’ruler’’ of the house, he had to find a ‘’common’’ man to marry her and pay a sum of money for this ‘’trade’’. This was an incentive for women to find a men and a house for financial security. Also, for the single women, the government and the Church demanded to convert them in fertile, because they weren’t able to find a suitable men. At the contrary, men were given the opportunity to be with many women, as he wanted until he finds the right one. (UrbinaVolant)
The first writer is Carmen Martín Gaite (Salamanca, 1925), one of Spain's most respected women writers, has won the "Café Gijón" prize for El balneario (1954), the Nadal for Entre visillos (1957), and the Premio Nacional de Literatura for El cuarto de atrás (1978). Ritmo lento (1962) was the runner-up for the international Biblioteca Breve Prize, won that year by Vargas Llosa. Retahilas (1974) was recognized by the Premio de la Crítica. Her historical works, El proceso de Macanaz (1970) and Usos amorosos del dieciocho en España (1972; an expanded, popularized version of her doctoral dissertation) were praised by critics, and Usos amorosos de la postguerra española received the Premio Anagrama de Ensayo as well as being named "Libro de Oro 1987" by the Spanish Booksellers Guild because of its enormous popular success (seven editions in less than six months). Martín Gaite participated in an international conference at Yale in 1979, spent a semester (Fall 1980) at Barnard College in New York, another at Vassar (Fall 1983), and in 1987, became the first Spanish woman elected as an honorary fellow of the Modern Language Association. (Carrillo)
Las ataduras examines women's limited options in the Franco. The short novel’s title ironically emphasizes the bonds circumscribing women, invisible but real ones, which persist even when the more perceptible ones (such as matrimony and living in the paternal home) are cast off. (Anales)
In this novel, the narrator was Alina. She reflected the life of young girls raised in rural towns in Spain. She presented the cruel reality of girls. She wanted to be more than her mom and to find a partner that was more than her father. She was against men and a misogynist society, although she had a strong bond with her paternal grandfather, who she wanted to be her role model. She wanted to be independent, to have a career and to be able to create her own life. Sadly, because of the situation Alina was never able to accomplish her dreams. The pressure of society drowned her and the laws were all against her imaginings. This novel shows the painful reality of a young girl summited to the rules of her father. She tough she could avoid the way she was raised but she couldn’t, she was not strong enough to show her feminist side to society. Although, through the novel she presented all the characteristics that women were lacking. She had a perseverant personality. This is a major role in society. Without the personality, women were seen as objects of reproduction and pleasure. She presented the opposite. She was interested in science, laws, literature and all the fields women were never seem to understand through the eyes of men. In the novel is presented the situation of women. It is a perfect representation of Martin’s to create this imaginary world of Alina, showing to women how they should react to the situation and how things would change and if they don’t do it they will end up like Alina, with two kids, without any studies, married and unhappy.
The second writer, Rosa Montero (1951 ~) belongs to the generation of Spanish writers who came to maturity in the years of Franco and the beginning of democracy. She worked as a journalist for the newspaper El País, where her columns represented certain similitude from actuality. Winner of the Spring Award and the National Journalism published several novels with great success, children's stories, plays and collection of interviews. In fact, she is a creative writer with various facets and became one of the most commonly read authors that went beyond her limits and spread her name on both sides of the Atlantic. Her works always follows the perception of that good literature that gives voice to the characters and their surrounding reality, which is parallel to the actual reality. Many of Rosa Montero’s novels offered a distinctly feminist message and they are raised with critical issues related to the situation of women in today's society, such as marginalization, sexual repression, physical and psychological violence, the speech male or impossibility of communication between men and women. (Balena)
In one of Montero’s most famous work, Te tratare como una reina it show to the reader a grotesque and parodic tone, were an anonymous narrator tells the love stories of two ordinary women who grew up in the era of Franco: Isabel López, the attractive one, a bolero singer in a nightclub and then her failed relationship with the owner of mysterious and decrepit nightclub the Desire; and Antonia, a naive maid, with a minor mental retardation, and her sexual relationship with the young Damien. The novel begins with a story from an excerpt of a tabloid of El Criminal magazine written by Paco Mancebo, which informs a "strange case of a women that smokes and kills “. According to the reporter, the police arrested a nightclub singer, Isabel Lopez, known as La Bella, for her unusual attack on a respected officer, Antonio Ortiz, who the killer leaves in the street after trout him from the fourth floor for unknown reasons. This not only shows the main characters of the novel, but also arises the curiosity of the reader with intrigue. The narrator makes an own investigation of the circumstances, narrating the lives, frustrations, hopes and failures of each of the characters involved in the incident. Over the 28 chapters, it’s also, three transcripts of the interviews of the male characters on crime, a letter of Antonia and lyrical letters of the boleros. The contrast of the various forms of narrative creates a postmodern combination that breaks the rigid division between high culture and popular culture.
In the book are three female characters with different backgrounds and expectations in life. Montero shows these three women as the stereotype of women who are trapped in phallocentric misjudgment, emphasizing the fantasy that man is omnipotent and that its simple presence can solve all problems. All these women, with delusions of love and understanding among men, are pushed to the absolute destruction. The author also seeks to develop that female independence as the only path to true fulfillment of women today. (Davies)
In this novel it’s really great to see the perspective of men. At the beginning the readers will encounter the two main characters as irrational women. The speaker creates this world were the female characters were seen only as an object of pleasure, mostly prostitution. This is a story that contradicts the real and ironic laws created by Franco. In the novel the female characters were seeing as prostitutes, which they weren’t allowed in Spain. When the story gets to the middle a shift occurs. Suddenly it is seeing with the women perspective. Technically the characters were not prostitutes. They were obligated to act that way because they didn’t have a husband. This situation was really common in Spain. The perspective of men was allowed to be seeing as the right one. Unfortunately, the perspective of women was ‘’illiterate’’ to their ears. The situation with prostitutes or women that were ‘’dirty’’ goes back to the fact that the country was based on the beliefs of the Church. It creates in men an air of superiority towards women. Men were allowed to sleep with women as much as they wanted, but if women were sleeping with more than one men, they were sanctioned and were forced to find a husband that ‘’guarantees’’ they were ‘’clean’’.
The third writer is Carmen Laforet. She was born in Barcelona in 1921, in 1923 she moves with her family to the Canary Islands, where she spent her childhood and adolescence. In 1939 she returned to Barcelona and in 1942 settles in Madrid. "Nada" is a masterful reflection of her experiences during a post-war Spain of privation and misery. This work became a major event within the post-war literary scene and was the object of praise by authors of such prestige as Juan Ramón Jiménez or Azorín. It has been recipient of the renowned Nadal Award. Later, she would publish a few novels and short stories, but would soon retire from public life. Her novel "La mujer nueva" wins the Menorca Novel Award and the National Literature Award. She died in Madrid in 2004. (Nolasco) Andrea, the storyteller and hero of the story, is an orphan. She is plain and hostile. To her, Barcelona is a beautiful city and she’s come there for all the cliché reasons that young people leave their homes to travel to big cities. On her first morning she tells us, “I was in Barcelona. I had heaped too many dreams onto this concrete fact for that first sound of the city not to seem a miracle” (Laforet). Her plan was to go to a university and live with her dead mother’s family. Illusions are quickly brushed aside, though, and the realities of her new life exposed – filth, irrelevant melodrama and hunger.
Nada is set after the Spanish Civil War in Franco’s Spain. A gap that divides the rich from the poor and Andrea’s family falls between the ends. They live in filth and are slowly starving to death. But the reader get’s the feeling that their poverty is of their own making. The inhabitants of the small apartment on the Calle de Aribau are actors in a macabre, co-dependent drama. Sadistic and manipulative Uncle Roman is the planet around which the others orbit like an astroid belt, colliding and crashing at his amusement. There is crazed Uncle Juan, Gloria his battered wife, and their baby (always on the verge of dying); pious and hypocritical Aunt Augustias; the grotesque maid, Antonia, slavishly devoted to Roman; Andrea’s vague, sweet grandmother. (Nolasco)
In this novel it is appreciated the macabre situation of Spain. In that time, girls were not allowed to go to school with the same parameters as boys did. This law restricted women to fully develop their career. Because of this, then they were seen as illiterate because they didn’t finish their career properly. This situation is contradictory. The government created a problem, then created a solution that only benefit them the way they wanted. This is seen in the novel, a young girl full of aspirations for the future. Someone who couldn’t achieve her goals because of the different obstacles she had with family, economy and the lack of education.

In conclusion, these three female writers are a simple representation of the situation of women under Franco’s regime. The three novels represent exactly how women were seeing in society, which in that time was to be declared a men society. The characters of the novels perfectly showed how vulnerable women were on that time. The speakers showed how Franco wanted society to see and treat women. And the characters reacted how women were supposed to act. After analyzing the laws and the works of the three writers, I can be conclude that the situation had a effect on the stories and they are a reflection of the actual situation and the obstacles women had on that specific time. It is sad to see that women were stuck on that step, while the entire world was already changing and feminism was rising. It brings out the question: is it our fault that we women are treated that way? Why have we always been treated like that? Why can women in history never realized their situation and tried to changed it? These three novels showed the situation and how the women felt, but they were never brave enough to stand for themselves and demand to be treated with respect. This brings out more how vulnerable women were and how even women writers realized that and wrote about it using stories with irrational scenes to show how irrational it actually the situation is. Rosa Montero, Carmen Martin Gaite and Carmen Laforet expressed perfectly the situation of women during Franco’s regime.

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Works Cited
" Anales De La Narrativa Española Contemporánea’’. 1979 ed. Vol. 4. Spain: Society of Spanish & Spanish-American Studies pag: 193-195. Nd. JSTOR. Book. 2014
Balena, Ashlee Smith. ’’Loss, Death, Procreation and Writing in the Metafictive Narrative of Rosa Montero’’. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Carolina Digital Repository.19.Oct.2010.Web.Oct.2014
Carrillo, Maria.’’ Realidad y Ficción en la obra de Carmen Martín Gaite’’. Universidad de Extremadura, Departamento De Filología Hispánica Y LingüísticaGeneral. 2008. Web. Nov.2014
Davies, Catherine. Contemporary Feminist Fiction in Spain: The Work of Montserrat Roig and Rosa Montero. The Modern Language Review. Vol. 91.4, Oct 1996), pp. 1025-1027. Book. Oct.2014
‘’La Novela Española a Partir De 1939’’. UrbinaVolant. WordPress.nd.Web.Dec.2014
Laforet, Carmen. ‘’Nada’’. Oxford Press. 1958. Print. (Primary Source)
Nolasco, Rosario.’’Carmen Laforet's Nada: From Bildrungsroman to Wilder(w)oman’’. Inquiry Volume 8. Pag:8-12. 2001. Journal Article. Dec. 2014
Simking, John,‘’Francisco Franco’’, Spartacus-Educational, Spartacus Educational Publisher.Aug,2014.Web.Oct, 2014.
Soto, Adela. ‘’La mujer Bajo el Franquismo’’,Universitat Jaume I, Creative Commons- Reconocimiento- NoComercial-Compartir Igualdad.nd.Web.Oct.2014
’’Spanish Women in the 19th Century’’, Estela Cantabra, Estela Cantabra. n.d. Web. Oct.2014