Un sendero sobre esta tierra roja. Miedo, censura, retornos. La experiencia vital de los músicos españoles antes y durante su exilio en México: tres estudios de caso

Abstract

The Spanish Civil War saw hundreds of thousands of republicans head into exile, with around 20,000 of them arriving in Mexico as a result of the reception policies adopted by President Lázaro Cárdenas both before and after the conflict. Among the displaced were nearly one hundred musicians, and this paper aims to provide a new chapter in the study of the problems they faced in exile. From the perspective of three notable cases in Rodolfo Halffter, Adolfo Salazar and Jesús Bal y Gay, it analyses the involvement of musicians in the war, the specific circumstances that forced them to leave their country, the labour integration processes they faced and the social tensions that arose in the host country. The study looks at the image of the homecoming as a recurring theme in the life of the exiled musician and the yearning –not necessarily fulfilled– to return to Spain, either for a short period or for good.