Identity, Exile, and bacillus emigraticus in the Literature of Spanish Republican Mariano Viñuales (1900-1955)

This investigation seeks to recover the memory of Mariano Viñuales (1900-1955), who was a Spanish writer forced into exile first to the Dominican Republic (1939-1942) and later to Mexico (1942-1959) due to his involvement in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Never able to return to his family in Spain, Viñuales experienced what Paul Tabori calls bacillus emigraticus, a shared experience by exiles of an intense longing to return to their home country. Delving into the personal history and literary legacy of Viñuales alongside chronological analysis of his works “¡Siembra!” (1940), “El león y la libertad” (1950), and “Mi tía Dominga” (1952) reveals how his literature represents the identity of Spanish Republican exiles, with special attention to familial themes. In doing so, this project contributes towards Spain’s Historical Memory Law (2007) which reverses the Pact of Forgetting (1977) to recover the memory of victims of the Spanish Civil War.