Madame Pilar Fidalgo (Carasa). Une Jeune Mere dans les Prisons de Franco, published in Paris, Editions des Archives Espagnoles, (1937?) . 210x135mm, 22pp. Original wrappers. Somewhat fragile and brittle, and not the prettiest copy, but it is very uncommon. There is only one copy located in WorldCat/OCLC (Univ Autonoma De Barcelona). Provenance: Library of Congress. $150 Cover art by Pablo Picasso.
Ms. Fidalgo was arrested by the Falangistas (Fascists) in October, 1936 (just a few months after the beginning of Franco's coup in July), her crime being the wife of a Socialist. She and her days' old newborn were sent to prison in Zamora, where things went rapidly downhill. It was already very cold there, and she had basically nothing save a scrap of blanket, and soon fell terribly ill, with her infant also ill and turning blue. She tells of finally asking for medical help in the dirty and crowded prison, and finally was allowed to be seen by the doctor. Unfortunately, the best cure that the physician saw for her condition (and the infant as well), after seeing her suffering and condition, was death—he was contented to allow death to be the cure.
(“Il vint pour la forme et me regardant souffrir, se contenta de me dire que le meilleur moyen de guerrir etait enore de mourir; il ne fit d'ordonnance, ni pour moi, ni pour l'enfant.”)
This was the very beginning of her time in prison. Soon she was writing of the thousands of people who had been assassinated and murdered in the Zamora area, stating at the end of the section that she could name innumerable families that were totally annihilated ("et je pourrais citer ainsi d'innonbrahles families, complement aneanties" (pg 14).
It is a bad story, though Ms. Fidalgo survives and is released in exchange for another prison family in early 1937. Her husband joined her, and they made their escape to France, then to Ecuador, and then to Mexico.
The 22-page pamphlet details much more of her captivity, which was a very hard story. Unfortunately I cannot find a full text version online, and my copy is too brittle to scan.
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