Victoria Kent

Victoria Kent Siano (Málaga, March 6, 1892-New York, September 25, 1987) was a Spanish Republican lawyer and politician. She was the second Spanish woman to be registered to practice as a lawyer after Ascensión Chirivella Marín (who was registered in Valencia in 1922) and the first to do so at the Madrid Bar Association, in 1925, during the Primo de Rivera dictatorship. She also became the first woman in the world to practice as a lawyer before a military court and one of the three women representatives of the Congress of Deputies during the Second Republic.

Biography

Training and early years

Born in Málaga, she lived there until 1917, raised by her father, José Kent Román, a cloth merchant, and her mother, María Siano González, a housewife. Her parents, with a liberal disposition and more open-mindedness than usual, allowed her to study Teaching in Malaga and later enroll in Law at the Central University of Madrid.

As for his date of birth, even today there are doubts about its accuracy. The most shuffled is March 6, 1891, although March 6, 1892 has also been indicated, as it appears on her birth certificate, with the name of María Victoria Kent Siano, or even March 3. from 1892. Be that as it may, it cannot be guaranteed, since Kent herself (a variant of the paternal surname that she used in her life) changed that date to 1897 and 1898 in various documents dated from her arrival in Madrid. For example, the Migration Service identification card issued in Mexico City indicates her year of birth as 1897. Among the reasons for these changes are "academic demands" or even "coquetry."

In 1906, she entered the Normal School for Teachers in Malaga, where she was already influenced by two feminist teachers: Suceso Luengo and Teresa Aspiazu (or Azpiazu). She will get the title of teacher in 1911.

In 1917, she went to the capital to study high school at the Cardenal Cisneros Institute, where she was well received thanks to her father's contacts, who knew Alberto Jiménez Fraud and Francisco Bergamín. at that time by María de Maeztu, a woman whose personality had a significant influence on Victoria Kent.

In 1920, she entered the Faculty of Law of the Central University of Madrid, studied as an unofficial student and received classes from professors such as Jiménez de Asúa or Felipe Sánchez-Román. Shortly after her arrival in Madrid, she joined the National Association of Spanish Women and the Female University Youth, directed by María Espinosa de los Monteros, representing said entity at a congress in Prague in 1921. She graduated in June 1924, the year in which she would obtain her doctorate with a thesis on prison reform and enrolled in January 1925, making her first interventions as a defense attorney before the courts.

In 1931 he would already make a name for himself by defending Álvaro de Albornoz, a member of the Republican Revolutionary Committee, who had been arrested and prosecuted —along with many of those who would later form the Government— before the Supreme Court of War and Navy provisional republic - due to the failure of the Jaca uprising, which occurred in December 1930. Thus, she would be the first woman to intervene before a court of war, also achieving the freedom of the detainee. She would be elected in 1931 a member of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation and, in 1933, of the International Association of Criminal Law in Geneva.

In addition to dedicating herself to law, she will open a law firm specialized in labor law —being the first woman in Spain to achieve this—, located at Calle Marqués del Riscal n.º 5 in Madrid. She will also act as legal adviser to the National Railway Union and the National Confederation of Maritime Depositories, coming to preside over the first Congress of Cooperatives in Spain in 1927.

Political life

Affiliated with the Radical Socialist Republican Party (PRRS), she was elected in 1931 deputy of the republican-socialist conjunction of the Constituent Republican Cortes for the province of Madrid with &&&&&&&&&&065254.&&&&&065,254 votes. It would be, along with Clara Campoamor and Margarita Nelken, one of the three women deputies of Congress. After not being elected in the 1933 elections, she dedicated herself to her work as a jurist with the presidency in 1934 of the Legal Section of the National Tribunal pro-Thälmann, a communist leader imprisoned by the Nazis and who would die in Buchenwald, and whom she asked to defend with a request to the Supreme Court of Leipzig, although this was denied. Later, she again obtained the act of deputy for Jaén in the elections of February 16, 1936 on the Republican Left (IR) lists, which formed part of the Popular Front.

She would come to preside over the committee of the Central district of Madrid and found the female branch of the organization: the Radical-Socialist Feminine Ateneo.

She would also be vice-president since 1926 of the recently founded Lyceum Women's Club, and promoter together with Clara Campoamor and Matilde Huici, women who shared her feminist ideals, of the International Institute of Intellectual Unions.

General Director of Prisons

Victoria Kent at the time as Director General of Prisons.

During the Second Republic, she was appointed General Director of Prisons by the Provisional Government presided over by Alcalá-Zamora, in April 1931. She would occupy this position for just over a year in which she verified the misery and abandonment of prisons Spanish. From this position, he introduced reforms with the intention of humanizing the prison system, especially with regard to the reinsertion and rehabilitation of prisoners, with the aim of making the prison also become a school, following the work already undertaken by Concepción Arenal in the XIX century.

He resigned on June 4, 1932 (becoming effective with its publication in the Gaceta de Madrid on June 8) after a press campaign against him as a result of the hunger strikes he carried out. in Pamplona and Vitoria for political detainees and the succession of prisoner escapes due to "negligence by prison staff", among which the one that occurred in the El Puerto de Santa María prison stands out, in which a few dozen prisoners participated. However, he managed to carry out some reforms, such as: improving the nutrition of inmates, freedom of worship in prisons, the extension of permits for family reasons, the creation of a female body of prison officers and the removal of shackles and chains (with whose metal he had a statue modeled in honor of Concepción Arenal). Among other things, he closed 114 prisons, ordered the construction of the Ventas Women's Prison in Madrid -without punishment cells-, and the Institute of Penal Studies, directed by Jiménez de Asúa, who had been one of his professors at the Faculty of Law.

His actions at the head of the General Directorate of Prisons gave him great popularity, his name appearing in a well-known chotis, "El Pichi", part of the frivolous magazine Las Leandras, of the composer Francisco Alonso, premiered in Madrid in 1931 and sung by the popular Celia Gámez.

Participation in the Constituent Parliament of 1931 and controversy over its refusal to grant women the vote

One of the most distinguished and controversial moments in Victoria's life and work will be her opposition to women's suffrage before the Spanish Cortes in 1931, when she would face another feminist, Clara Campoamor, in a dialectical and transcendental battle over an issue that would have a huge impact on women's rights. His opinion was that Spanish women lacked sufficient social and political preparation at that time and that, due to the influence of the Church, their vote would be conservative, would benefit the Catholic right and, therefore, would harm the Republic. The opinion of her opponent was, instead, that regardless of the result of the polls, every woman should have the right to vote, since she defended the equality of all human beings. The debate was followed by the media, which spurred mockery and comments such as: "only two women in the House, and they dont even agree", or "what will happen when they are 50? those who act?". In fact, the press ironically nicknamed them La Clara y la Yoma. After Victoria's intervention, she would lose her popularity, not being elected as a deputy in the 1933 elections.

Finally, the debate would be won by Campoamor, achieving that in the following elections, in 1933, women voted by universal suffrage. The right presented itself united to said elections, contrary to the left, and won. Subsequently, the most radical part of the left blamed women and, especially, Clara Campoamor, for that victory. Despite this, there is no unanimity regarding the incidence of the female vote in the election results of 1933 and recent investigations tend to point to different causes to explain the defeat of the left, such as the wear and tear of the groups of the previous government, their rivalries and the abstention of the anarchists. However, Kent maintained her position on the matter until the eighties.

These were some of the ideas that she would present in the debate with Clara Campoamor on October 1, 1931 on the right to vote for women:

"[...] I think the female vote should be postponed. (All right.-Applause.) I don't think it's time to give the vote to the Spanish woman. (All right). A woman says that, at the critical moment of saying it, she renounces an ideal. [...] I want to mean to the House that the fact that two women are gathered here assume differently does not mean absolutely anything, because within the same parties and the same ideologies, there are different opinions [...]. At this time we will give or deny the vote to more than half of the Spanish individuals and it is necessary that the people who feel the republican fervor, the republican democratic and liberal fervor, rise here to say: it is necessary, to postpone the female vote. And it's necessary, sirs. Deputies, postpone the female vote, because I would need to see, for varying criteria, mothers on the street asking for schools for their children; I would need to have seen mothers on the street forbidding their children to go to Morocco; I would need to see Spanish women united all asking for what is indispensable to the health and culture of their children. For this, sirs. Deputies, for believing that with this I serve the Republic, as I think I have served it in the modesty of my reach, as I have committed to serving it as long as I live, for this state of consciousness is why I get up this afternoon to ask the House to awaken the republican consciousness, to advent the liberal and democratic faith and to postpone the vote for women. I'm asking because it's not that I put the capacity of women in the slightest; no, sirs. Deputies, it is not a matter of capacity; it is a matter of opportunity for the Republic. This is why I ask for the postponement of the female vote or its conditionality; but if we condition the woman's vote, we may be able to commit some injustice. If we postpone the female vote, no injustice is committed, in my opinion. I understand that the woman, to face an ideal, needs some time to live together with the same ideal. [...]. When a few years have passed and the woman sees the fruits of the Republic and collects the woman in the education and in the life of her children the fruits of the Republic, the fruit of this Republic in which she is working with this ardor and with this detachment, when the Spanish woman realizes that only in the Republic the rights of citizenship of her children are guaranteed, that only then the Republic has left her bread, Deputies, the woman will be the most fervent, the most ardent defender of the Republic [...]. If the Spanish women were all workers, if the Spanish women had already gone through a university period and were liberated in their conscience, I would rise up today in front of the entire House to ask for the female vote. (All right.-Applause.) But in these hours I get up just to say the opposite and say it with all the courage of my spirit, facing the judgment that women who do not have that fervor and these republican sentiments I think have can form from me. This is why I clearly urge myself to say to the House: or the conditionality of the vote or its postponement; I think that its postponement would be more beneficial, because I judge it more just, as well as, after a few years of being with the Republic, of living with the Republic, of fighting for the Republic and of appreciating the benefits of the Republic, you would have in the woman the most enthusiastic defender of the Republic. For today, sirs. Deputies, it is dangerous to grant the vote to women. I cannot sit without my thought and my feeling being clear and without saving my conscience absolutely for the future. That's what I wanted to expose to the House. (Great applause.)

It can be verified that he actively intervened in the deliberations of the Chamber that discussed the draft Constitution of the Republic. And it is that, in addition to the issue of women's suffrage, decisive amendments stand out:

• Article 1 “Spain is a Republic of workers, liberal in the beginning, democratic in the foundation and social in the orientation. The only civil power that exists comes from the people. Every authority and social hierarchy is subordinated to him”, from which everything was admitted except to accept civil power as the only existing one.
• He opted for the elimination, in article 25 (before 23) of the expression "in principle", which conditioned the recognition of gender equality, something that was accepted.
• Amendment related to the secular State. Article 25.3 said that no one could be compelled to testify about her religious confession, to which she added, "nor these beliefs will influence any kind of civil relations."
• With regard to the rights of the family, the equalization of legitimate and illegitimate children, the protection of children and maternity, equal pay for men and women and the right to open air.
• Finally, articles 39 and 40 of the Project, which concerned social issues, deportation and exile.

His controversial intervention on the vote for women and his consequent confrontation with Clara Campoamor have diluted his contributions on prison issues and, especially, as María Luisa Balaguer Callejón affirms, regarding the fight for women's rights. According to this author, Clara Campoamor herself tries to justify Victoria Kent's contradictions, because in her words there seems to be more understanding than irony:

Gentlemen. Deputies, far from censoring or attacking the demonstrations of my colleague, Miss. Kent; I understand, on the contrary, the torture of her spirit by seeing herself today in the process of denying the initial capacity of women (Rumores); by being in the process of denying, as she has denied, the initial capacity of women. (Rumours continue.) I believe that, by his thought, the bitter phrase of Anatole France must pass, in some way, when he tells us of those socialists who, forced by necessity, went to Parliament to legislate against theirs. (New rumors.) With regard to the series of statements that have been made this afternoon against the vote of the woman, I must say, with all the necessary cordiality, with all the necessary consideration, that are not supported in reality [... ]

In conclusion, Balaguer Callejón intuits that Victoria Kent suffered a dialectical tirade that was also felt by more women at the time: the reconciliation of Marxism and feminism. For Victoria Kent, they were irreconcilable, because she dedicated her life to the Republic, while she believed that the vote for women constituted a danger to it. Thus, the author indicates that for the woman from Malaga, the debate was the contrast between theory and practice, between the ideal and what she considered as reality. On the other hand, curiously, neither of them considered themselves as "feminist", in such a way that Clara Campoamor recognized herself more as a humanist and Victoria Kent defended being feminine and aware of her work and not a sour feminist and described herself as a republican, liberal, democrat and federalist. However, as Balaguer Callejón argues, it is exclusively a linguistic nuance, because each one in their own way fought for the rights of women and the improvement of their conditions (something that proves their membership in the National Association of Spanish Women and to the Lyceum Women's Club) issues that, in essence, feminism pursues.

Spanish Civil War and exile

With the outbreak of the Civil War, he participated in the Guadarrama front, in which he was in charge of procuring clothing and food for the Republican army. However, he went into exile, like many other Republicans. As she headed towards the border, she accompanied many of the children of the soldiers who were fighting on the front lines to achieve their evacuation, after having made appeals for them not to be abandoned. She ended up in Paris and in June 1937 she was appointed first secretary of the Spanish embassy in the French capital so that it could continue to take care of the exiles, especially children, by seeking asylum. She had also been responsible for the creation of shelters and nurseries for this purpose.

Until the end of the Civil War, he remained in Paris, devoting all his efforts to helping the Spanish exiles in the capital and on their way out to America. However, when Paris was occupied on June 14, 1940 by the Nazi invasion in the context of World War II, Victoria Kent had to take refuge in the Mexican embassy for a year. In addition, her name was on the black list (she belonged to the organization & # 34; Antifascist Women & # 34;) that the Francoist police had delivered to the collaborationist Vichy government. She was tried by Franco's courts and, in October 1943, when she was still in Paris, the Special Court for the Repression of Freemasonry and Communism (TERMC) sentenced her in absentia to 30 years in prison, with the accessories of disqualification. absolute and expulsion from the national territory. Fortunately, she was a friend of Adèle Blonay, a Red Cross leader, who gave her a flat in the Bois de Bologna (or Bois de Boulogne) neighborhood, where she would stay until 1944, protected by a false identity. During that time, being “Madame Duval”, she would write Four Years in Paris , a novel with marked autobiographical overtones reflected in the protagonist, Plácido, alter ego of the author. After the war was over, she presided over the Union of Spanish Women in exile in Toulouse. In addition, she received the Cross of Lorraine, which was given to women who participated in the Resistance, she founded the Union of Spanish Intellectuals together with a group of exiles between where his friend and countryman Pablo Ruiz Picasso was and he worked in a publishing house.

She went into exile in Mexico in 1948. There she worked for two years creating the Training School for Prison Staff, of which she was director for two years, and giving classes on Criminal Law and lectures in the University of the Mexican capital, as well as conferences at the Mexican Academy of Criminal Sciences. At the request of the UN, in 1950 she went to New York, where she collaborated in the Social Defense Section and carried out a study on the terrible state of Latin American prisons. Between 1951 and 1957, once she abandoned her previous position because she found it excessively bureaucratic, she was a minister without portfolio of the Government of the Second Spanish Republic from exile, being the second woman to hold this position since Federica Montseny. Likewise, she founded and directed the magazine Ibérica , financed by Louise Crane for twenty years (1954-1974), aimed at all exiles far from her homeland, like her. In 1977, forty years after going into exile in France, Victoria returned to Spain, received with affection and admiration by her followers. However, she returned to New York, where she spent her last days, dying on September 26, 1987. In 1986 she was awarded the medal of the Order of Saint Raymond of Peñafort, but due to her advanced age she could not go pick it up.

Private life

In 2016 the book Victoria Kent and Louise Crane in New York was published. A shared exile, from which Professor Carmen de la Guardia analyzes for the first time in depth the intellectual and sentimental relationship between Kent and the philanthropist Louise Crane based on private documentation. According to the book, Kent and Crane (New York, 1913-1997) were sentimental partners from the early 1950s until her death and although they did not live together for most of the many years they shared, their relationship was known to people around them. around. Victoria Kent did not consider moving into Louise Crane's family's millionaire apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York until the death of Crane's mother in 1972. Meetings were organized from her living room whose guest list was drawn up by the State Department as It is explained in the book. In that world, says de la Guardia, Kent, although he did not speak English perfectly, fit in well and put him in favor of her cause: the fight against Francoism and the foundation of a new republican political culture in Spain.

Literary work

She does not have a voluminous work, but different literary genres can be distinguished that are in line with the vicissitudes in which life places her.

• First, a group of writings composed of essay works or conferences. The first publication is the text of the conference Prague Congress which pronounces in the Ateneo de Madrid on April 17, 1921. It is the commentary to his participation in the International Congress of Students of Prague representing the National Union of Spanish Students and Feminist University Youth. Their trials, on the other hand, dealt with the lack of women ' s rights and harsh living conditions in prisons, and were also concerned about the lack of education of the people. He wrote these texts as the influence of the French author George Sand.
• In another group we find lectures of her activity as director of Prisons, published later. In this regard, the writings "A Prison Experience" were published in Time of History in 1976 and "The Reforms of the Prison System in the Second Republic" History 16 in 1978.
• On December 29, 1980 he sent a letter telling his relationship with Picasso in the years of exile, the circumstances of the creation of the GuernicaPicasso's visits to the Spanish embassy to report on the evolution of the Civil War, and the debt that Spain had with the Malaguian painter.
• On the other hand, a small publication called Picasso: a steel destination held in the Ateneo de Malaga in 1991. It corresponds to a letter sent by Kent on 18 May 1981 at the request of his president, from New York, on the occasion of the homage to the centenary of Picasso's birth.
• Next, two prologues. The first of them to work Proletarian feminism (1935) of Vicente Ribas, and the second to My answer (set of articles published in the journal Iberica, selected by Victoria Kent himself and edited as a book in 1982) by Salvador de Madariaga.

His most important contribution corresponds to the edition of the magazine Ibérica. In 1952, a project was outlined in New York that gave rise to a news bulletin in 1953 and then to the magazine from 1954 to 1974. It was closed in 1975. Its purpose was to maintain opposition to dictatorial regimes, for which reason The collaborators, such as R. Modoro, Tierno Galván, Ramón J. Sender, Albert Camus or the aforementioned Salvador de Madariaga, signed with pseudonyms until 1966. Until that year it was published in English and Spanish and from that year only in Spanish. The founding of the magazine Ibérica must have been the most effective means he found to overthrow the Franco dictatorship and restore the Republic in Spain. The magazine was born "in order to inform the American people about the situation in Spain under the Franco dictatorship. (...) We had been verifying daily that the American press was silent about Spain".

It's also important to highlight the only book he wrote. It is about Four years in Paris, 1940-44, which she wrote hidden under the nickname "Madame Duval"; in Paris, a city at that time occupied by the Nazis. It is a testimony in the form of a diary and novel narrative about the years she spent in that city fleeing Francoism and the Gestapo, through her own identification with the protagonist, Plácido. It was first published in 1974 and in Spain in 1978, under the title Four years of my life, 1940-44.

Acknowledgments

In July 2018 the Association "Herstóricas. History, Women and Gender" and the Collective "Comic Authors" created a project of a cultural and educational nature to make visible the historical contribution of women in society and reflect on their absence consisting of a card game. One of these letters is dedicated to Victoria Kent.