Francoist forces in the Civil War period (1936 - 1939) Repression against women by Nationalist forces has been difficult to understand as historians have traditionally been obsessed with quantifying the number dead, imprisoned and wounded. As much more detailed records were kept about men than women, the history of Francoist repression specifically targeting women has historically underrepresented women or devalued the specific repression women faced in this period. Much of the violence in this period was gendered, and there were efforts to dismiss, hide or downplay violence against women as part of further efforts to repress women. Quantification has largely resulted in the erasure of women's history. Sexual violence was a commonly used tactic by Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War, aimed exclusively at women. It was coupled with other violence aimed at women, including forcing women to drink castor oil so they would uncontrollably soil themselves, taking children away from women in prison, taking children away from mothers and placing them in Nationalist homes before the mother was executed. The purpose was to force women into subordination or to use women's trauma to control male family members. As a form of punishment, women sometimes were paraded through the streets wearing very little clothing. They were made to sing "
Face to the sun". Their heads were often shaved in an attempt to humiliate them by stripping them of one of their outward signs of femininity. The total numbers of women who were victims of sexual violence and abuse during the Civil War will never be known. Falangist troops acted as rearguard troops, serving in places captured by troops or where there had never really been any nationalist opposition. Five female nurses from Barcelona were captured in Majorca after the Republican retreat. Falangists gave all intrusive virginity tests, and then engaged in group rape in
Manacor. The next day, all five women were murdered in the Son Coletes cemetery. Following their deaths, Falangists tried to depict these Republican nurses as prostitutes to justify their actions. The reputations of these Republican nurses would not be rehabilitated until 2005. In late 1938, a 17-year-old girl in Unarre was forced to watch her mother being executed, and then she was brutally gang raped and executed. As a way of creating additional humiliation for women and their families, Nationalist troops would sometimes direct groups of Moroccan soldiers under their command to rape specific women and groups of women in villages. This practice of using Moroccan
Foreign Legion members to rape local women was a carryover from Spanish military actions in their colonial possessions.
Francoist period (1939 - 1975) When men returned home from the front lines of the Civil War, culture dictated they had a certain sexual freedom that women were denied. This included the ability to go out at night, have sex with prostitutes and otherwise be promiscuous. At the same time, the return of traditional Catholicism demanded the woman return to traditional roles such as the wife and mother. Women were taught in the Francoist period that their purpose was to submit to their husbands, and this included in areas of sex where they were to humbly accede. Domestic violence, committed by men towards their spouses, was a rampant problem in Francoist Spain. This sort of violence against women was perfectly legal, and women had no recourse for dealing with it as they were considered legal property of their husbands. For many married women in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, sexual abuse was the norm in marriage. A woman from Córdoba named Theodora described her experiences with her husband in this period as, "I did not want, I did not want to [have sex]. Because if he came (...) Because he has always came late (...) Frozen from drinking and smoking, to me what I would like, if I came to a tart wine and I did not feel like it. But he, whether I wanted to or not, would take me and put me face up and go up and I gave him a speech and he did not care about me, that I had no pleasure." Some women would pretend to be menstruating to avoid having sex with their husbands. A law enacted by Franco in December 1941 said that pregnant women given death sentences would have their executions stayed until they gave birth. At that point, the baby would be given to the father if he was alive and in Spain. Otherwise, many of these women had their newborns taken from them where, had the last names of their baby changed, and then were given to loyal Nationalist families. The 1944 Penal Code also made it so that in almost all cases, only married women and men they had affairs with could be guilty of adultery; married men were only guilty if they brought their mistresses to live in the marital home. The 1945 Law of Political Responsibilities punished anyone who showed any active or passive affinity towards the Second Republic or towards the "reds". Women in prison during the Francoist period continued to have their heads shaved as a way of denying their womanhood. Lidia Falcón O'Neill, arrested seven times, was abused so badly in Madrid's Yeseria prison and in Barcelona's Trinidad prison between 1960 and 1974 that she was left permanently damaged. While beating her, one guard shouted, "¡Now you will not give birth anymore, bitch witch!" Julia Ferrer, who lived at the Casa de la Caridad in Barcelona, said of her own personal experience, "They took me to
Sant Boi. Sometimes I would answer the nun and they would punish me with electric shock, but not because she was crazy, but as punishment."
Anita Sirgo and
Tina Pérez were both raped while in prison as a result of their involvement in the 1962 Asturian mining strikes. The rapes took place as part of broader torture they were forced to submit to.
Consultorio de Elena Francis Consultorio de Elena Francis was a radio program that aired in Spain between 1947 and 1984, where women were able to ask for advice on problems they had. Issues of marital gender violence often came up. The show was created by
Angela Castells, a member of
Sección Femenina, the
Patronato de Protección de la Mujer and the
Spanish League against Public Immorality, Spain's immorality police. None of the letters that have been preserved from the show use the word rape, but women writers described being raped using euphemisms, such as "He did what he wanted from me" and "I fall asleep and my brother does what he wants ... " One woman wrote asking what to do when she saw her husband out with his mistress, with Elena's response being, "If you see them together again, do not get upset; pretend that and offer the sacrifice to the Lord." They could be admitted to these centers starting at age 16 through police raids, for "immoral behavior," arbitrary reports from family members and individuals ("guardians of morals"), requests from civil and religious authorities, or at the request of the women themselves or their parents. In practice, however, girls as young as 11 were forcibly interned. Young women and girls were routinely trafficked to men and forced to bear children, only to have their
babies stolen immediately afterwards.
Antonio González Pacheco (Billy the Kid) Antonio González Pacheco, also known as Billy the Kid, was a
Social Political Brigade policeman. Decorated for a medal for police merit, he was known for his enjoyment of imposing terror, particularly on women, that he professionally came into contact with while investigating or arresting them. One of his victims was Lidia Falcón. In February 1975, Communist Youth member María Rumín was a 17-year-old when she became another one of his victims while she was defending free and quality publish schools at
Plaza del Parterre in
Carabanchel. She said of this, "Just to hear the name of Billy the Kid , my hair stood on end. I was detained for three days in the Puerta del Sol police station. No one warned my family and no one gave information about my whereabouts during those three days. My hair is still standing on end when I remember those days. Just to hear the name Billy the Kid makes my hair stand on end." González Pacheco broke her face by hitting it with his fists. González Pacheco also stole some of the money Rumín had on her when she entered detention.
Democratic transition period (1975 - 1986) Franco died in November 1975. The first protest condemning violence against women was held in Barcelona in 1976. Women marched, chanting phrases like "Against rape, castration" (), "We want to walk calmly" (), "Let's make our night" (), "Alone, drunk, I want to go home" () and "Enough of violations!" (). At the time, rape was not treated as a serious institutional problem inside Spain, and rape victims had few rights. The issue of age of consent was before the Congress in April 1978. It was changed from eighteen, to between twelve and sixteen. Between those ages, consent was allowed only if the other person did not have authority over the younger person.
Post Francoist Spain (1985 - present) In the modern era, it is understood that the type of violence women experienced in the Spanish Civil War is common, having occurred throughout history in places like
Troy and into the modern day in places like
Darfur. The abuse and murder of women in Spain was a form of sexist terrorism and claimed more victims than that of ETA. González Pacheco was finally investigated in 2018 as a result of seven complaints filed in Madrid that alleged crimes against humanity. Only one of the seven cases was investigated for torture related offenses. The government argued against the cases being accepted as his actions and those of other men in the Spanish police were not part of a systemic pattern designed to repress a specific part of the population. González Pacheco was never stripped of any of his honors by the Spanish state, despite the allegations later made against him. == See also ==