Family reconstruction as a method of historical research: The case study of the Durán-Leal family in the context of the Civil War and Exile (1936-1940)

Abstract

This essay formulates the reconstruction of a family´s chronicle recovered by three historians on a project that began in 2008. During the research some events took place by chance, accidentally, even magic-like, which, due to this randomness, end up on the transformation of the story’s initial narrative. Situations that fell on the right hands like serendipity, in order to be contextualized according to its time and place. From one exceptional story during the Civil Spanish War and the Exile emerge characters that threw some light on a tale of great testimonial and documentary value. The researchers, moved by fascination and their deed to History itself, began the harsh duty of documenting, interpreting, and revealing, from texts, letters, and photographs recovered from a wide number of national and international Archives, the impactful voyage of the Duran Leal family during a social and political environment marked by tragedy and an exile by force that caused the flight of thousands of families. From a narrative that links a testimony with documentary methodology, a personal story was depicted and ended up being part of the Spanish History, the War, and Mexican Exile, focused on Josefina Leal and Expédito Durán, and the interaction with the European and American context and the revealing relationships with high profile figures and people from cultural, political and art spheres.
Beyond formal analysis this essay is based on numerous documents, and images whose worth lies on its content where anecdotes become History. This way, everything that was coming from pure instinct and rethoric’s logic, a responsibility was born: to tell this story and exhibit it in order to be dissected and thought about on a space of consideration about memory, time, art an identity.