The Francisco Fernández del Riego - Luis Seoane correspondence: dialogue between internal exile and external exile (with the "ghost of communism" in the background)

Abstract

The analysis of the correspondence between Luis Seoane and Francisco Fernández del Riego enables relevant facts to be addressed in order to clarify the relations between Galicians at home and abroad. This study focuses on two subjects that were highly prominent in the letters written between 1955 and 1960: the First Galician Emigration Conference (July 1956) and the journeys undertaken by Antonio Baltar to Galicia at the end of 1956 and beginning of 1957. In this series, Seoane’s letters addressed to Del Riego are highly critical of the conference organised by the Galicianist group in Buenos Aires with which the Galaxia phratry enjoyed good relations. Galaxia supported the idea and organisation of this conference from the beginning, in spite of its links with the members of the Council of Galicia due to its “anti-communism”.

The second series of letters were sent at the end of 1956, when Antonio Baltar travelled to Galicia with the key objective of talking to the people who had expressed concern, on non-Francoist premises, about the country’s culture. On that first visit, Antonio Baltar discussed the matter with Del Riego. Five months later, he returned with the intention of meeting the members of Galaxia. Seoane refers in his letters to the discontent caused by the lack of attention received by Antonio Baltar, criticisms which were met with a harsh response from Ramón Piñeiro.

In a third part of this study, this correspondence is analysed in order to glean information about the six “American” books of Francisco Fernández del Riego, one of which remains unpublished.