La construcción del mito de 'La Libertaria' en la obra de Lucía Sánchez Saornil, Federica Montseny y Teresa Gracia

Abstract

María Silva Cruz (1915– 1936), better known as ‘la Libertaria’ [Libertarian], was a young anarchist peasant who survived the massacre of Casas Viejas (11– 12 January 1933). The press depicted her as either a dangerous revolutionary, an innocent peasant or an anarchist heroine. At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, María Silva was executed by the Rebel faction, which turned her into a heroine. One of the most appealing representations of her tragic fate lies in the “Ballad of The Libertarian” (1936), a call for revolution written by anarchist poet Lucía Sánchez Saornil. After Franco’s victory, la Libertaria disappeared from the literature produced in Spain. Her memory, however, lived on in two works written by authors from different generations who went into exile in 1939: "María Silva the Libertarian" (Toulouse, 1951), a short novel by Federica Montseny; and "Casas Viejas (Gothic and Peasant Tragedy)" (Roma, 1973), a play by Teresa Gracia. In this article, I examine the myth of la Libertaria and her journey from the Second Republic to the Republican exile. What elements define the myth of la Libertaria? How is the figure of the anarchist heroine recreated at each moment? The literary construction of the myth of la Libertaria gets stronger from the initial exaltation of the female icon of revolution to the recognition of female agency and empowerment.