The Government of Mexico City and the Madrid City Council promoted this binational museum exhibition with the aim of recognizing the Spanish-Mexican relations that gave rise to the reception of the Republican exile in Mexico.
It was an exhibition oriented to the integral knowledge of the role played by the Republican exile in the cultural life of Mexico, presenting it as one of the historical factors that influenced the development of the capital and the country. From this perspective, the presence of exile was made visible in an extensive cultural horizon that encompasses not only academic aspects, but also other orders (testimonies of concrete lives, letters, statistical information, trade union aspects, etc.) which broaden the very meaning of the cultural concept and accentuate its human dimension.
In this sense, Spanish Exile in Mexico City. Cultural Legacy offered keys to understanding what was one of the greatest human experiences in terms of openness towards those persecuted because of their political ideas and how this fact became a factor of transformation, development and imagination, especially in Mexico City. The exhibition focused on demonstrating how Mexican generosity was reciprocated with an enormous amount of work in practically all areas of the country’s life that, even today, is a mirror in which Mexican culture saw itself and found new referents.
The exhibition was divided into five thematic clusters – Mexico before the Spanish Civil War, Reception of Refugees, The City of Refugees, Legacy of Exile and Endless Exile – in which more than 700 objects, mostly from the private collections of exiles’ families, were placed. The museographic proposal sought to exhibit these materials from a contemporary perspective, so it devised an installation that functioned as a cartography of Mexico City with the emblematic sites of the exile, which were incorporated into the exhibition walls and furniture. With these elements, the viewer was geographically located, while the cultural exchange between the capital and the people who came to inhabit it was made evident.
The exhibition was part of a series of activities with which the Federal Government, the Government of Mexico City and various institutions commemorated the 75th Anniversary of the Spanish Exile in Mexico.
