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Constancia de la Mora in War and Exile
International Voice for the Spanish Republic

In the Series:
Studies in Spanish History

Soledad Fox
Soledad Fox is professor of Spanish and comparative literature at Williams College. She has published articles and lectured on Spanish and French literature, and on exile and autobiographical writing. She spent 2004 as a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar researching the life of Constancia de la Mora. This study combines personal documents (unpublished letters, memoirs, and photos) and official government files (from the FBI and the Comintern), and brings together previously unavailable archival materials.

“Through her groundbreaking research, Soledad Fox reveals many previously unknown facts and contradictions about de la Mora’s life in New York and later in Mexico, most importantly, that she did not actually write In Place of Splendor… De la Mora was well connected with wealthy and powerful sympathizers in New York. However, Fox describes her fall from grace in the United States when, after the signing of the Hitler–Stalin Pact in August 1939 and in the midst of the anti-Soviet sentiment that followed, her key supporter, Eleanor Roosevelt, apparently began to suspect her Communist ties…

This is a highly provocative book. Just as it brings to light myriad mysteries surrounding de la Mora’s peripatetic life, it raised many other intriguing questions. For instance, why did de la Mora avoid giving credit to her ghostwriter, and why didn’t McKenney insist that she reveal the truth about authorship of In Place of Splendor? What motivated de la Mora to go on a trip with a conservative American woman whom, from Fox’s descriptions, de la Mora appears to have loathed?… Fox suggests that de la Mora became intransigent and capricious in her last years. No doubt, like many of her fellow exiles, she suffered from the psychological trauma that those who had lost their homeland and loved ones experienced, and her anguish was complicated by her feeling of impotence. One can only imagine how deeply confounded and miserable she must have been when she realized that she could not help the Spaniards suffering in Spain and France and when, after World War II, all hope that Franco would be overthrown disappeared.” The Volunteer

“By addressing the political and sociological meanings of Constancia de la Mora’s communism, the author opens up further audiences among historians of twentieth-century Spain while her exploration of how, why and with what consequences de la Mora then concealed this allegiance embeds her story in the domestic political history of twentieth-century America with its central mobilising narrative of anticommunism.” Professor Helen Graham, Dept. of History, Royal Holloway, University of London

“De la Mora is clearly one of the most exciting female figures from the Spanish Civil War. Many issues about De la Mora's life and work have remained a mystery. Dr Fox sets out to unravel those mysteries and to elucidate, through her meticulous and brilliant research, the intricate political intrigues that affected De la Mora’s life. Of special interest is the provenance of her excellent autobiography on the war, In Place of Splendor, one of the most compelling memory texts about the war. Fox’s surprising findings about the authorship of the book and other mysteries about De la Mora’s political activities should provoke much discussion.” Shirley Mangini, Professor Emeritus, California State University

Her fame seemed guaranteed by the compelling story of her life. She had been an aristocrat turned Communist, a celebrated author, and an international political figure whose acquaintances and collaborators included Stalin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway, Tina Modotti, Vittorio Vidali, and Anna Seghers among many others. Yet, surprisingly, instead of remaining a heroine of the Republic, Constancia de la Mora’s memory somehow faded from Republican history. This books sets out to explore the life of this privileged woman who unexpectedly cast in her lot with that of the Spanish people.

Published in association with the Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies

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