Outbound ticket (Exile)

Traces and memories of Exile

Outbound ticket

One ship, more than two thousand refugees. One story.

Introduction

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One of the many human consequences of the Spanish Civil War was the forced migration in search of survival. There were also great acts of solidarity like the boats of exile.

1. Why did they flee?
2. What means of transportation did the refugees use to go into exile?
3. Who chartered the Winnipeg?
4. What was Winnipeg's destination?
5. Who could get a ticket to travel on board?
6. ...

Entangled

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We will dive into the deep waters of the Spanish Civil War, sailing on a sea full of people who tried to escape from war, repression and violence in order to find a better life.

Like fishermen, we will cast our hooks in 4 fishing spots to retrieve snippets of these stories. Will you be one of our fishermen or one of our fisherwomen?

Before starting the exercises, we suggest you read these brief explanations :

Exile during and after the Spanish Civil War.

The history of Winnipeg

The route

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Final activity

Further information

Research

Role selection

Pooling

Role selection

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Participants divide into 4 groups. Each group chooses a character.

Lifeboats

Survivor

Historian

Artist

Research

Roles

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You are Antonio Zabaleta : a 16 year old Basque boy from Bermeo (Basque Country). During the Civil War, you get involved in the republican army and you bring your help to Gernika after the bombing. In 1939, you obtain a ticket to travel on the Winnipeg and you arrive as a refugee in Chili. But how was your life between 1936 and 1939 ? Clarify these blanks in your story.

Survivor

Research

Roles

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Sail the seas from 1936 to 1939 and trace the Civil War situation from bow to stern and from starboard to port. Search for information and documentation on Antonio Zabaleta. Let the lifebuoys be your guide.

Survivor

Photographs

Archive documents

Testimonies

Internet links

Pooling

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Roles

Share the results of your research with people who have chosen the same character as you.

Survivor

Final activity

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Roles

With all group members (who have chosen the same character), create a quiz to discover Antonio Zabaleta's life.

Try to play the game with your classmates who have chosen another character.

Survivor

Research

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Roles

Artist

You are a visual artist and your grandfather, Antonio Zabaleta, who was a refugee from the Spanish Civil War who arrived on the ship Winnipeg, tells you his story from that time.

Research

Roles

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Sail the seas from 1936 to 1939 and trace the Civil War situation from bow to stern and from starboard to port. Search for information and documentation on Antonio Zabaleta. Let the lifebuoys be your guide.

Artist

Photographs

Internet limks

Press articles

Collage technics

Pooling

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Roles

Share the results of your research with people who have chosen the same character as you.

Artist

Final activity

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Roles

With all group members (who have chosen the same character), create one or more collages about the life and journey of your grandfather, Antonio Zabaleta.

Artist

Put together an exhibition with your fellow artists and offer a tour to others.

Research

Roles

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You are a historian and you study the exile during the Spanish Civil War, which involved several ships carrying refugees to different parts of the world. The anniversary of the arrival of refugees in Chile on the ship Winnipeg led by the poet Pablo Neruda is approaching and you decide to save the history of this ship for publication in a book.

Historian

Research

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Roles

Sail the seas from 1936 to 1939 and trace the Civil War situation from bow to stern and from starboard to port. Search for information and documentation on Antonio Zabaleta. Let the lifebuoys be your guide.

Historian

Logbook

Photographs

Tools for researches

Internet links

Pooling

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Roles

Share the results of your research with people who have chosen the same character as you.

Historian

Final activity

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Roles

With all the members of the group (who have chosen the same character), create a quiz to teach the history of this ship, the Winnipeg in 1939.

Historian

Play with your classmates who have chosen another role.

Research

Roles

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Many ships carried millions of people to safety. The Winnipeg was one of them in 1939. The same situation still occurs today and there are still ships that rescue people (Aita Mari, Open Arms...).

Lifeboats

Open Arms

Aita Mari

Research

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Roles

Sail on today's seas and write in your logbook about the situation of so many refugees today, who embark in battered boats and dinghies in search of a better future. Find information on current lifeboats. Let the lifebuoys be your guide.

Lifeboats

Internet links

Logbooks from the Winnipeg

Open Arms

Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario

Pooling

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Roles

Share the results of your research with people who have chosen the same character as you.

Lifeboats

Final activity

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Roles

With all group members (who have chosen the same character):

1. create a quiz on the history and status of current lifeboats or
2. make dolls like those used on the "arpilleras" to help with your explanation on the history and status of current lifeboats.

Lifeboats

Quiz

Doll 2

Arpilleras

Doll 1

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Rôles

We hope that in addition to your empathy for war refugees, you were able to learn more about the subject.

You can send us your quizzes, collages or "arpilleras" to this address

hezkuntza.museoa@gernika-lumo.net

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Bilbliography Winnipeg

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MARTEL, Laura: Winnipeg, el barco de Neruda, Editorial Grupo5, 2014.

Winnipeg 1939 - 2009, Doc. Conmemorativo (en consulta)

ROJO, Rodrigo: Océano azul no me olvides. Winnipeg, el barco de la esperanza, Ciervo Editores, Chile, 2019.

ALLENDE, Isabel: Largo pétalo de mar, Ed. Plaza & James, 2019.

SAIZ VIADERO, J.R.: Darío Carmona, el pasajero fantasma del Winnipeg, Ed. Renacimiento, 2022.

CARCEDO, Diego: Neruda y el barco de la esperanza, Temas de hoy, 2006.

Pablo Neruda

CHUECA, Josu: 2.000 del "Winnipeg" Diario de a bordo, ed. Intxorta 1937 kultur elkartea, Oñati, 2021.

• Biografía de Pablo Neruda

• Pablo Neruda y el Winnipeg, Fundación Pablo Neruda, 2019.

FERRER MIR, Jaime: Los españoles del Winnipeg: el barco de la esperanza, Ed. Salesianos, 1989.

• GÁLVEZ BARRAZA, Julio: Neruda y España

GÁLVEZ BARRAZA, Julio: Winnipeg: testimonios de un exilio, Ed. Renacimiento, 2014.

• Neruda y el apoyo de Chile

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Videos

Webography

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• Desembarco del Winnipeg 1939

• Corporación Amigos del “Winnipeg”

• Chile para niños: El Winnipeg

• Los últimos del Winnipeg

• ¿Quiénes venían en el Winnipeg?: A 80 años de su llegada a Chile

• Barcos del exilio republicano español

• SS Winnipeg

• 80 años del Winnipeg en Chile, el barco de la esperanza para 2.200 republicanos españoles

• Viaje del Winnipeg de 1939

• "2.000 del "Winnipeg". Diario de abordo" , J. Chueca, J. Monge, J.R. Garai

• El Winnipeg. El barco de la esperanza

• La llegada del Winnipeg a Chile (articulo)

• 80 años de Winnipeg, el barco de la esperanza

• El ‘Winnipeg’ llega al puerto de Valparaíso 80 años después

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Exile

Arpilleras

Roles

• Museo Memorial del Exilio (MUME)

• Arpilleras

• Los refugiados españoles en Chile (1939)

• Conflict textiles (colección de arpilleras)

• Cómo realizar un muñeco 1

• Exiliad@s. Cuéntanos tu historia...

• Cómo realizar un muñeco 2

• Exilio republicano español en Chile

• Archivo del exilio español republicano 2019

• Seminario sobre la exposición temporal "Cosiendo paz"

• CEMLA Base de datos sobre arribos de inmigrantes a la Argentina.

• Taller de arpilleras en el Museo de la Paz de Gernika

• Basque Children of '37 Association

• Arpilleras en Fundaciò Ateneu Sant Roc (Cataluña)

• Video: Maletas: Contando Viajes Textiles

Lifeboats

• Video: Seguint les petjades de les persones desaparegudes

• Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario (Aita Mari)

• Forum arpilleres de Catalunya

• Open Arms

• Mediterráneo (película)

Exile during and after the Spanish Civil War 1/3

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This war, which began in 1936, reached its climax with the Republican defeat in April 1939. As a result, and as Franco's troops took Catalonia on January 15, 1939, a mass exile began, with a harrowing march along the Catalan roads leading to France. Women, old people, children, soldiers and disabled persons were composing this desperate escape. The massive escape involved a series of heartbreaking elements, especially the continuous bombing of population at the rearguard, the bad weather of a cold winter, the abandonment of personal belongings along the way, and what it meant for many people. Hunger, the separation of families by French authorities after the border crossing, and an uncertain future after the crossing are the elements that permeated the experience of the exiles, marking a before and after for many of them. (...) 465,000 persons crossed the French border during this exhausting winter; an exodus that had previously passed from Madrid to Valencia, then to Barcelona, Girona, Figueres and, finally, to the border with the neighboring country. They found a France in the grip of a severe economic crisis since 1930, and a reactionary right dominated by fascists and xenophobes.

https://www.exiliadosrepublicanos.info/es/historia-exilio (Translation of the description in English by Lisa Canillas)

Exile during and after the Spanish Civil War 2/3

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Exile was therefore an economic and political problem for the French government, which was quick to encourage repatriation to Spain or re-emigration to third countries such as Mexico, Chile and the Dominican Republic, the only three American republics to officially accept Spanish Republicans. The latter option was subject to a series of selection criteria for their admission and to the condition that official aid agencies pay for their travel and contribute financially to their settlement in the host country.

Most of these exiles who have crossed the French border were people from Catalan provinces, even if it is also true that this exodus had previously been fed by people from the most diverse regions of the peninsula. This is due to the fact that Catalonia was fed by refugees from the areas occupied by Franco's armies. (...) Once they crossed the French border, they were sorted and placed in temporary camps. Soon, new factors would befall the refugees in the concentration camps, such as poor nutrition, overcrowding, lack of hygiene, and water contamination from the exiles' own detritus on the beaches. These factors led to numerous diseases and, in turn, the death of many of them from cholera and starvation.

Map of the Spanish republican exile

https://www.exiliadosrepublicanos.info/es/historia-exilio (Translation of the description in English by Lisa Canillas)

Exile during and after the Spanish Civil War 3/3

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The mass exodus to the northern part of the African continent began with the flight of the Republican fleet from Cartagena (Murcia) on March 5, 1939. The destination of this exodus was Oran and its region: western Algeria bordering Morocco. Women and children were taken to shelters, although most of the veterans and men of fighting age were interned in labor camps. Many other factors were responsible for the exile at the end of the war. Those who were not able to come back have been forgotten by the Francoist Spain, beginning a new life in different places with different cultures and sometimes languages. Many lived with the permanent desire of an immediate return, diminished with time. Uprootedness was part of their lives and the memories, beyond those collected in a suitcase, as well as the experience of exile, gave birth to a collective memory and a group identity.

https://www.exiliadosrepublicanos.info/es/historia-exilio (Translation of the description in English by Lisa Canillas)

The story of the Winnipeg 1/3

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The "France Navigation" Company, of the maritime company founded by the French Communist Party, had different ships, one of them being the Winnipeg, to carry out the transport of arms to Republican Spain during the Spanish Civil War. The Winnipeg was a mixed ship, designed to carry both cargo and people. It was originally designed for 97 people, plus a crew of 60. Dimensions: 150 meters long and 18 meters wide, 3 engines reaching 14 knots (13 km/hour). The new setting for the preparation of expeditions to the American continent was designed to make it a transatlantic hub for thousands of people. Thus, 4 sets of beths were built, located in the ship's holds, capable of accommodating at least 2000 people.

CHUECA, Josu: 2.000 del "Winnipeg" Diario de a bordo, ed. Intxorta 1937 kultur elkartea, Oñati, 2021. (Translation of the description in English by Lisa Canillas)

The story of the Winnipeg 2/3

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The fitting out of the ship was planned as a necessary investment for this first voyage and would be paid for by the others that were to follow in the months to come. The French authorities did everything they could to get rid of these embarrassing refugees. Costly because they had to be kept in concentration camps, embarrassing because of their predominantly left-wing political orientation, they fell squarely into the category of "undesirables". A Chilean Committee for Aid to the Spanish Republic (Comité Chileno de Ayuda a la República Española, CChARE) was operating in Santiago, Chile since 1937. In 1939, Pablo Neruda was sent to France with a status as particular as it was expressive, that of "Consul Delegate for Spanish Immigration." There, as well as participating to solidarity and propaganda acts in favor of the Spanish population, he receives good economic aid from the active and widespread FOARE (Federación de Organizaciones de Ayuda a la República Española / Federation of Organisations in Support of the Spanish Republic). This organization, whose epicenter is in Buenos Aires, collected and sent money, food, clothes, etc. for the Republican Spain. (...)

CHUECA, Josu: 2.000 del "Winnipeg" Diario de a bordo, ed. Intxorta 1937 kultur elkartea, Oñati, 2021. (Translation of the description in English by Lisa Canillas)

The story of the Winnipeg 3/3

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The most urgent group to be released from internment in concentration camps numbered 167,932. In addition, 62,600 refugees were held in municipal shelters, private homes and other facilities. All of these people were potential candidates to board the Winnipeg for its first and only voyage. L'Humanité (06/08/1939) reports that 1,100 men, 550 women and 350 boys and girls were taken on board, although it is known that this figure is underestimated (2,500 people estimated).

CHUECA, Josu: 2.000 del "Winnipeg" Diario de a bordo, ed. Intxorta 1937 kultur elkartea, Oñati, 2021. (Translation of the description in English by Lisa Canillas)

The Winnipeg set sail on August 4, 1939 from the French port of Poullac and arrived in Valparaíso, Chile on September 3, 1939.

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Credits

This educational material has been designed by the Educational Department of the Gernika Peace Museum in collaboration with many people, among them:

• The artist Cecilia Zabaleta and her exhibition "Outbound ticket"

• Roberto Fuertes, the curator of the exhibition "Outbound ticket"

• The team of the Gernika Peace Museum

• Iosu Chueca for his book: 2.000 del "Winnipeg" Diario de a bordo

• Roberta Bacic: Arpilleras

• Izaskun Arriaran: Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario