Abstract

On 6 January 1963, the same day as Spanish children were excitedly waking up to discover their presents from the Three Wise Men, the well. known Spanish anarchist and former Minister of Health, Federica Montseny, published an emotionally charged and nostalgic article in the Spanish anarchist exilic periodical L'Espoir. In the article, entitled "The New Year", Montseny reflected a similar sense of expectation as she asked rhetorically for something she had been expecting for twenty-four years: "What is the greatest fortune that us exiles can wish one another? Without any shadow of doubt it is to return to our homeland. Despite the material advantages that some of us have gained in exile-whether in France, America or elsewhere in the world-we know there is not a single person who does not passionately wish to return to Spain." Two years later, on 3 October 1965, she published another article, "Those Who Return. To Die in Spain", in which she presented a brief history of the españoles universales or world-famous Spaniards who had left Spain at the start of the Civil War before returning to die during the Francoist dictatorship in the 1960s.