Series | Library of Rassegna iberistica
Edited book | Rethinking Iberian Studies from the Periphery
Chapter | De Ventas a Ravensbrück
De Ventas a Ravensbrück
Memorias de la represión sexuada en los testimonios de Mercedes Núñez Targa
Abstract
This article discusses the testimonial writings of the Catalan-Galician political activist Mercedes Núñez Targa who was imprisoned in Spain, France and Germany at the end of the Spanish Civil War. In her works, Cárcel de Ventas (1967) and Destinada al crematorio (1980), Núñez Targa details the horrific conditions that Republican prisoners endured and documents the widespread practice of gendered violence inflicted on women in Francoist camps and prisons. This analysis focuses particularly on her description of her experiences in Ventas women’s prison in Madrid. Núñez Targa deploys the testimonial genre to recount both her own experiences and those of her fellow prisoners, highlighting the particularly cruel treatment directed at pregnant women and mothers as part of the regime’s efforts to prevent the transgenerational transmission of left-wing ideologies.
Submitted: Nov. 8, 2018 | Published Feb. 4, 2019 | Language: es
Keywords Gendered repression • Mercedes Núñez Targa • Ventas prison • Sexual violence
Copyright © 2019 Sarah Leggott. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-302-1/002
