E-VITA

My father and mother were born in a medium city in Spain, but they lived almost all their life in France.

My maternal grandfather had a communist ideology. Once he went on a strike, for that reason he could not get a job again. When in 1914 began the First World War, he had to emigrate to France. One of the reason why the war began was because the imperialist contradictions, the capitalism crisis and because the great majority of the leaders supported the burgess so the workers were defenseless.My mother went to France to 1918 when the war was ending. They got adapted to France and we keep living there.

My father fought in the Civil Spanish war. He was a republican, those who were loyal to the Secon Repuclic Goberment. Those who later loose. They had to face the consequences during the 40 years dictatorship of Francisco Franco. For that reason, he was captured and kept in Internment in the South of France. He escaped from there and went to find some relatives that had living in the South of France. Those relationships helped him. He meed his cousin. They got married in 1942 during the Second World War

They live in France. She is completely adapted as a French citizen, but he hopes someday to come back to Spain

I was born in 1945 in France, before the Second World War ended. I grow up in a country that need to be reconstructed after two wars. France had a demographical deficiency, had social tensions (workers begin to group again) and an economical reconstruction produce industrial concentration. Even thou, I grow up happy, I was educated in a liberal way and completely integrated.

In 1949, when I was four year old, I went for first time to Spain. I wast able to spean Spanish, but in less that a month, I could speak Valencian (a regional language). My first impression was shocking but nice: I could play games in the streets, which have ground. My family loved me a lot: they were very expressive. The kind of food impressed me. I remember once they gave me a kind of yellow moddles soup. I had never seen yellow food!!.

I remember on time, my family told me off because I was asking things about politics. It was at 1949, only 10 years after the Civil War finished. Spain was still in a dictatorship. I have never talked about politics since then.

Three months after, I went back to France. I wasn’t able to speak French, fortunately, I was able to recover it quick. I never will lose French again.

Each two or three years, I went back to Spain to see my father as I missed him a lot. Once, I went to Spain with an aunt. When we were coming back to France by Train, we had to go through Barcelona. There my aunt leave the train to get a stamp on the visa. But the train moved again without my aunt and my password neither. I felt panic, I had no money, neither the documentation. In that moment, a very elegant man with a hat told me not to worry. He offered me help: “I will tell you where to find the police and you can tell him what have happened”

In the next station, I got off the train and I explained to the police what have happened. I returned to the train. The man was very kind; I felt better. He gave me 100 pesetas.

When I reach the border the “Guardia Civil” (a Spanish military police) ask me to get off. I didn’t know what to do, so I did what they required me. They detained me without any explication. Fortunately my aunt arrived soon in the next train, she very worried. Everything was solved.

At the age of 16, I came back to my parent’s city, in Spain. I knew there my husband. I got integrated in the Spanish society, which have important differences culturally and socially with the French society. I knew that I was extroverted and due my liberal attitude I wold have problems; and so it was. What Spanish society expected from a female younger was to be very reserved and almost be submissive. I never was able to adapt to that moral. I remember they point me out because I was wearing miniskirt or high boots.

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