The foreign service and the feminine section of fet and the jons. Approaches to latin America (1938-1950)

Abstract

The following article seeks to analyze two moments of joint work between the Foreign Service and the Feminine Section of the Traditionalist Spanish Falange and the JONS. The first experience is the establishment of the Feminine Sections Abroad during the Spanish Civil War and the immediate postwar; the latter is the attempt to establish a scholarship and visit system funded by FET and the JONS. The main goal was to attract and prepare young people, politicians and intellectuals to the ideological guidelines of the Movement during the first years of the post-World War II. The analysis allows us to present the main characteristics of the international projection of the feminine arm of FET and of the JONS, as well as the several attempts to attract attention and generate support for national syndicalism. We observe how the Feminine Section drew its own path to international projection, maintaining independency vis-a-vis the strategies of cultural diplomacy while using the support of both the Movement and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.