The Nationalist Faction

The Women’s Section and Y Magazine

Ángeles Torner Cervera (a.t.c.), cover of Y: The National Female Unionist Magazine, No. 18, July 1939. Madrid: Women’s Section of Falange Española and the Women Traditionalists of the JONS (Councils of the Nationalist Syndicalist Offensive, 1938–(1945?). Holdings from the MNCARS Documentation Centre

“Comrades, we now have our magazine, the magazine for nationalist-unionist women. It contains everything we need: our codes of conduct, based on the spirit of the new Spain, guidance for us to adhere to, examples to follow, and, mixed with spiritual inspiration, our magazine also features a children’s corner, pages of chores, fashion and cooking. In short, everything we women need”.

These words defined Y magazine, the first journal for women from the Women’s Section and directed by Marichu de la Mora and published from 1938 to 1946. Y was the vehicle through which the new fascist regime set out its model of women and society, extolling the role of mother and wife that was attuned to the interests of the regime. The magazine was printed in San Sebastián due to its proximity to the French border and the ease of access to high-quality raw materials for its publication. The signed texts were predominantly written by men, although a number of women did appear as illustrators, for instance María Claret, María de los Ángeles López Roberts y Muguiro, also known as Neneta, Marisa Roësset, a.t.c., Ángeles Torner Cervera’s pseudonym, and Rosario de Velasco, to mention but a few.

Concha Espina, Princesses of Martyrdom. Barcelona: Ediciones Armiño / Gustavo Gili, (1940), (illustrations by Rosario de Velasco). Holdings from the MNCARS Documentation Centre

One of the biggest artistic events from this period was the International Exhibition of Sacred Art, held in Vitoria in the summer of 1939 and overseen by Eugeni d’Ors, the incumbent head of the National Service of Fine Arts. The exhibition sought to bring a modern style into religious art so as to provide guidelines for reconstructing the vast number of churches destroyed during the Civil War. The exhibition featured a strong representation of women artists: Rosario de Velasco, Julia Minguillón and Marisa Roësset, and lesser-known artists such as María de Cardona, Mercedes Llimona and Margarita Sans Jordi.

Rosario de Velasco, Homage to the Army Stamp, 1939, (etching by Sánchez Toda). Courtesy of the Rosario de Velasco Heirs

At that juncture, many of the foremost women artists from the 1930s had been forced into exile on account of their allegiance to the Republic. Manuela Ballester, Victorina Durán, Maruja Mallo and Remedios Varo were among the artists compelled to continue their careers overseas and they would not return to Spain for decades. Unlike many other female artists, Francis Bartolozzi (“Pitti”) and Delhy Tejero had to submit to the country’s new political situation and adapt their work to a new artistic reality, centring their practice on regional or religious themes. In their oeuvres, both combined illustration with mural painting, in particular Delhy Tejero, who would also make incursions into abstract painting during the 1950s and participate in the Santander International Exhibition of Abstract Art in 1953 and in a number of Hispano-American biennials. Women artists more closely affiliated with the new regime, such as Teresa Condeminas, Rosario de Velasco and Marisa Roësset, carried on with their careers without much ado, staying true to figurative painting proliferated by portraits, religious painting and genre painting, and in line with the official tastes that prevailed at different national events and exhibitions held in the 1940s. Julia Minguillón would become one of the biggest names from that time, ultimately earning first prize in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1941 with the work Escuela de Doloriñas (Doloriñas School). She also participated in an array of exhibitions, most notably the 1942 Venice Biennale and the Círculo de Bellas Artes Biennial in 1947 in Madrid.