Shared letters: writing and reading practices in the correspondence of migrant families in northern Spain

Abstract

Letters generated in the emigration context are produced in a family environment and designed to circulate within it. This correspondence had great symbolic value: it represented those who were absent, and it was vital to ensuring family support. To explore these family documents, it is necessary to devote some time to the situations in which the texts were generated and the contexts in which they were received. Approaches to epistolary testimony such as this usually take as reference the sender and recipient of the letter, and consider the exchange as something that took place between two individuals who based their relationship on paper. But behind this sender and this receiver, there was often a whole community of scribes and readers. When we study these writings, we notice the polyphonic nature of these letters. When a family member emigrated, it was not only the nuclear family that was broken up; there was a multiplication of voices interested in getting noticed through paper and pen, and they did so by delegating the act of writing and by including their own notes in the writings of others. In this sense, the letters allow us to glimpse different voices, and follow numerous individuals in their exchange of letters. This shared form of writing is the focus of analysis in this article. Here, I draw my analysis from a series of correspondence exchanged by emigrants and their families from the region of Asturias (in northern Spain) who immigrated to different parts of America from the 1850s to the 1930s. These letters offer rich historical testimonies of immigrants and their loved ones who stayed in touch over large distances.

Keywords:

• Migration
• letter writing
• family ties
• Asturias (Spain)
• Americas
• delegated writing

Funding

This work was supported by the European Research Council under Grant ‘Post Scriptum: A Digital Archive of Ordinary Writings (Early Modern Portugal and Spain)’ [7FP/ERC Advanced Grant – GA295562], directed by Rita Marquilhas; and by the project ‘Cultura Escrita y Memoria Popular: Tipologías, funciones y políticas de conservación (siglos XVI a XX)’ (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad [HAR2011-25944]), directed by Antonio Castillo Gómez.

Notes

1. Some of the letters preserved in this museum were published in Martínez Martín (2010a). All these correspondences, preserved in the ‘Museo del Pueblo de Asturias Archive’, are classified according to the family to which they belong and after depending on their authors chronologically.

2. The deep relationship between correspondence and photography can be seen in Gibelli (2005, pp. 131–147). See also Asturianos en América (1840-1940) Asturians in America (1840-1940) (2000).

3. Braulio Rodríguez (1908, March 22, Havana, Cuba) [Letter to his father (unknown name) (Inclán, Pravia, Asturias)].

4. Dionisio Menéndez Díaz (1909, April 4, Loro, Pravia, Asturias) [Letter to his son Santos Menéndez Selgas (Cuba or Puerto Rico)]; Dionisio Menéndez Díaz (1910, March 8, Loro, Pravia, Asturias) [Letter to his son Santos Menéndez Selgas (Cuba or Puerto Rico)]; Dionisio Menéndez Díaz (1911, October 3, Loro, Pravia, Asturias) [Letter to his son Santos Menéndez Selgas (Cuba or Puerto Rico)]; Dionisio Menéndez Díaz (1911, December 10, Loro, Pravia, Asturias) [Letter to his son Santos Menéndez Selgas (Cuba or Puerto Rico)]; Dionisio Menéndez Díaz (1922, July 24, Loro, Pravia, Asturias) [Letter to his son Santos Menéndez Selgas (Tampa, Florida, USA)]; Dionisio Menéndez Díaz (1922, July 25, Loro, Pravia, Asturias) [Letter to his friend Marcelino Argüelles (Tampa, Florida, USA?)]; Dionisio Menéndez Díaz (1922, October 17, Loro, Pravia, Asturias) [Letter to his son Santos Menéndez Selgas (Tampa, Florida, USA)].

5. Marcelina Menéndez Selgas (1923, June 16, Havana, Cuba) [Letter to her brother Santos Menéndez Selgas (Tampa, Florida, USA?)].

6. González (1921, March 20, Nubledo, Corvera de Asturias, Asturias) [Letter to her cousin Manuel Suárez Roza (Havana, Cuba)].

7. Obdulia González (1921, May 30, Nubledo, Corvera de Asturias, Asturias) [Letter to her cousin Manuel Suárez Roza (Havana, Cuba)].

8. Celestino Fernández (1910, November 2, Havana, Cuba) [Letter to his parents Cosme Fernández and (unknown name) (Naveces, Castrillón, Asturias)].

9. María Luisa Albuerne (1892, November 9, Cuevitas, USA?) [Letter to her grandfather Francisco Albuerne (Cudillero, Asturias)].

10. The familiar character of these correspondences, both positive and negative aspects, is studied in Martínez Martín (2014).

11. Mercedes and Antonia Valdés Bango (1909, November 2, Pravia, Asturias) [Letter to her brother Jesús Valdés Bango (Camagüey, Cuba)].

12. Vicente González, Castora González López and Rita Rodríguez González (1929, November 27, Villalegre, Avilés, Asturias) [Letter to his son, brother and uncle José Ramón González López (Havana, Cuba)].

13. There is, for example, the case documented by David Gerber of Joseph and Rebecca Hartley, who married in 1861, after which they jointly wrote a good number of letters. Joseph had more difficulties writing, but so as not to break his promise, Rebecca took charge of the task for the most part. Joseph’s voice is produced regularly enough for us to know that it is present. On one occasion, we are allowed to witness an argument that they were having as they wrote the letter, as she wanted to describe what she was preparing for supper while he thought that trivial information that was of no interest.

14. The moment when Lucila takes over the writing is marked by bold. José Moldes Barreras and Lucila Gallego (1903, September, Castropol, Asturias) [Letter to his brother and brother-in-law Florentino Moldes Barreras (Iquique, Chile)].

15. ‘extricar’ in the original.

16. ‘brohter’ in the original.

17. Francisco Fernández (1924, January 4, Canton, Ohio, USA) [Letter to his sisters Gertrudis, Josefa and Asunción Fernández (Naveces, Castrillón, Asturias)].

18. Esperanza Menéndez and her husband Gerardo (1924, April 27, Havana, Cuba) [Letter to Esperanza´s grandmother, Carolina Quintero (Inclán, Pravia, Asturias)].

19. Anita García González (1931, December 8, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba) [Letter to her sister Luisa García González (San Cristóbal, Avilés, Asturias)].

20. Anita García González (1935, July 17, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba) [Letter to her parents Aurelia González and Emilio García (San Cristóbal, Avilés, Asturias)].

21. Marcelina Menéndez Selgas (1923, August 6, Havana, Cuba) [Letter to her brother Santos Menéndez Selgas (Tampa, Florida, USA?)].

22. Ana María Cruz (c. 1932, Peñasco, Cuba) [Letter to her boyfriend José Manuel Rodríguez (no place)].

23. Policarpo de Prada (1862, January 4, Havana, Cuba) [Letter to his parents Andrés de Prada and Esperanza Valdés Bango (Pravia, Asturias)].

24. Alonso Solares (1919, September 9, Buenos Aires, Argentina) [Letter to his father Vicente Solares Rivas (La Llera, Colunga, Asturias)].

25. Policarpo de Prada (1866, February 27, Cárdenas, Cuba) [Letter to his father Andrés de Prada (Pravia, Asturias)].