Alexandre Sierra Oliva presents his PhD thesis on nursing during the Spanish Civil War and the Republican exile

"The voice of a nurse in exile: Santiago Viñas Espín (1920–2004)" [Original title: La veu d'un infermer a l'exili. Santiago Viñas Espín (1920-2004)]

PhD directed by Jon Arrizabalaga (Milà and Fontanals Institution for Research in the Humanities - CSIC) and Àlvar Martínez Vidal (López Piñero Interuniversity Institute - University of Valencia), and supervised by Mònica Balltondre (iHC-UAB).

Alexandre Sierra Oliva, PhD student in the History of Science program, a qualified nurse holding a Master’s degree in Oncological Nursing (University of Barcelona) and a Master’s degree in the History of Science (Autonomous University of Barcelona), and a clinical and translational research nurse at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO).

Abstract

The Vinyes Espín Personal Collection (located in the archive of the Pavilion of the Republic at the University of Barcelona) of the Catalan physician Joaquim Viñas Espín (1909-1997) contains La Veu de l’Exili Català i Republicà (1981-1997) (“The Voice of the Catalan and Republican Exile”), a quarterly journal written and edited by Viñas himself from his protracted exile in Décines, France. Within this publication, we can also find Memòries d’un català parisenc (“Memoirs of a Parisian Catalan”), by his brother, eleven years his junior, Santiago Viñas Espín (1920-2004). The work narrates in the first person the experiences of Santiago during his training at the Clinical Hospital of Barcelona to become a "practitioner" (in the terminology of the time), his mobilization on the Republican front with the famous lleva del Biberó ("Baby Bottle levy"), his professional practice as a practitioner, his experience in the Battle of the Ebro and in the concentration camps on the beaches of Roussillon, and his time in different Foreign Workers Groups until the end of the Second World War.

The results of this research, which include an annotated edition of the Memòries d’un català parisenc, show that the young Santiago's work occupied a space shared between the world of nursing and that of medical practitioners, a space little explored until now. This allows us to rethink the dichotomous construction of these two professions, defined by gender and power dynamics. Furthermore, the thesis presents an image of the Catalan medical practitioner of the period that goes beyond the hegemonic image perpetuated by the traditional androcentrism that still persists in current historiography.