Modernity, culture and feminist avant-garde: Concha Méndez, someone ahead of her time (Madrid, 1898-México, 1986)

Abstract

The investigations about the works and the trajectories pursued by a heterogeneous group of intellectuals, writers and professionals exiled because of the Spanish Civil War, have reported to us the postponed opportunity to know their creations and understand the conditions that their projects developed for the sake of a long-awaited progress and modernity in terms of equity. These emancipatory experiences, individual or collective of feminine and feminist organizations, reflect in turn the political and socio-cultural enthusiasm in Spain in the first third of the twentieth century. However, their aspirations were severed after the contest and relegated in exile in the shadow of their spouses, relatives or colleagues in terms of prominent figures in politics, culture and different branches of knowledge. In this context, we address the personal and, therefore, political trajectory of Concha Méndez: poet, writer, editor and cultural disseminator in Spain and in America, who along with Manuel Altolaguirre devoted his time and dedication to the dissemination of his intellectual group.