Collaboration between SERE and Mexican Authorities during the Transfer of Spanish Republicans to Mexico, 1939

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of Republican refugees after the Spanish Civil war and the organization of their mass emigration to Mexico in 1939. Based largely on hitherto unknown or little used Spanish archives, the text explores the decisive role played by the organization of government-funded aid to refugees throughout the exile of Juan Negrín, the Spanish Refugee Evacuation Service (SERE) during the Republican emigration to Mexico. Based on the chaotic flight of hundreds of thousands of refugees after the fall of Barcelona into the hands of Franco's supporters and their internment in inhospitable camps in France, the article describes the fraught negotiations with the French authorities, the complicated process of founding SERE, its collaboration with Mexican diplomas in France in the organization of mass transport by sea and the delicate matter of the selection of a limited number of refugees to be taken in by Mexico. The article also includes the controversial issue of the exiles’ finances and the polemic concerning those eligible for emigration to Mexico, while trying to undertake an impartial evaluation of the work of SERE, and ignoring the acrimonious atmosphere between opposing groups among the Spanish exiles.