Damned Cartoons! Workers’ Identity and Resistance

Abstract

Varied visual strategies were showcased in España Libre. Some authors ridiculed fascists in gendered terms while others sought compassion for refugees. Comic art grew awareness of the threat of fascism and exposed the state of terror perpetrated by Hitler and Franco. When Sergio Aragonés translated the Spanish underground resistance reports into visual language on the front page of España Libre, he perceptively counteracted the Franco regime’s propaganda. Similarly, Josep Bartolí i Guiu’s illustrations humanized political prisoners for readers. As visual discursive spaces, cartoons endorsed emotions brought forth by belonging to a transnational, antifascist, and proletarian community and asked readers to think collectively about the need for solidarity and protection of the working-class culture both in exile and under fascism. Cartoons delivered España Libre’s message powerfully until the last issue of the periodical, even after many founders had passed away.