Petition letters from women in the Spanish diaspora in Latin America (late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century). An emotion-based analysis

Abstract

This text analyses the strategies initiated by Spanish emigrant women or women with emigrant families in the face of serious obstacles in their migratory contexts between the end of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century. Faced with critical situations, the support of the migratory social network was often insufficient, so many of them opted to send letters to Spanish diplomatic offices to request intercession, economic aid, or protection. Through the gesture of writing, the women demonstrated an active role in which they set themselves up as agents of their own history, using the instruments and strategies available to them. Their essential aim was to convince those who could protect them of the seriousness of what was happening to them. We take emotions as a theoretical starting point to show how the emotional expressions in these letters of petition form part of a discursive strategy whose frame of reference was their social consideration as women, Spanish migrant women, or women involved in migratory projects. We first set out the theoretical and methodological points of view behind the present analysis, before contextualizing the correspondence and analysing its nature and essential characteristics. Finally, we trace the role of emotions through a selection of situations of great female vulnerability, and the strategies they developed in order to obtain help.