Qué pasa a bordo? ¿Qué que pasa en el mundo? The Crossing of Spanish Republican Refugees on the SS Sinaia to Mexico (1939)

• Published in: Getty research journal 2023-02, Vol.17 (17), p.81-106
• Main Author: Schieder, Martin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 20th century; Artistic representation (Imitation); Boundaries; Exile; Interwar period; National identity; Photography; Refugees; Seymour, David; Transnationalism
• ISSN: 1944-8740; 2329-1249
• DOI: 10.1086/724139

On 25 May 1939, the SS Sinaia left the French port of Sète, bound for Veracruz in Mexico. On board were 1,599 Republicans looking for a new home in Mexico after the end of the Spanish Civil War. During the crossing, the onboard newspaper, Sinaia: Diario de la primera expedición de republicanos españoles a México was published, providing reports of daily life on the ship and preparing the asilados (asylees) for society, culture, and politics in Mexico. ¿Lo que pasa a bordo? ¿Lo que pasa en el mundo? (What’s happening on board? What’s happening in the world?) Taking these questions as a starting point, this article adopts a transnational and transcultural perspective to show how the exiles’ experience of the crossing constituted a temporal and spatial dislocation between the self and that which is foreign, between the “Spanish” and the “Mexican.” Analyzing previously unpublished photographs by David Seymour (“Chim”) in terms of their symbolic imagery and political intent, this discussion demonstrates how the Spanish Republicans used the crossing to mediate their exile. Finally, it examines how artists translated the journey to Mexico, a cross-cultural event, into their specific artistic practices.