Children’s literature was initially despised at the beginning of the dictatorships in Spain and Portugal, but then went on to become the object of preferential attention from the 1950s and 1960s onwards. However, both regimes’ degree of acceptance of fairy tales is unknown, because, although they presented identity concepts, such as family, religion, and capacity for sacrifice, the examples were not the most favourable for their socio-political ideology. Therefore, in this article, we are interested in three objectives: 1) to identify what contents were sanctioned in fairy tales; 2) to assess the differences in censorship styles between the two countries; 3) and to explore how censors judged the integration of Catholicism in fairy tales. The results of this exploratory qualitative study stem from the detailed inquiry and analysis of the files consulted in the General Archive of the Administration (Spain) and the Arquivo da Torre do Tombo (Portugal).
Article Details
How to Cite
Tena-Fernández, R., & Reis da Silva, S. (2024). Lessons learned from fairy tales during the censorship of Franco and Salazar. Ocnos. Journal of reading research, 24(1). https://doi.org/10.18239/ocnos_2025.24.1.478
Tena-Fernández and Reis Da Silva: Lessons learned from fairy tales during the censorship of Franco and Salazar
Introduction
In October 2022, the was passed in Spain, aiming at promoting cohesion and the constitutional values of
freedom. The objective of this law is to recognise the persecution that took place
in the country between 1936 and 1978 on the grounds of ideological, political, religious
or sexual identity. More specifically, it identifies the need to recover the memory
of the silenced voices and to repair their moral damage. In this sense, the intention
to dignify the death of some writers has gained strength, among them the famous Federico
García Lorca. The poet was murdered on the orders of the coup leader Queipo de Llano,
who, when asked what should be done with him, said: “Dadle café, mucho café”, the short form for Camaradas: Arriba Falange Española. (Comrades: Long Life Falange
Española). Since then his voice has been silenced and his body is still missing ().
One of the ways in which suppressed voices can be dignified is by rescuing the works,
texts or concepts that the dictatorships vetoed through official censorship. This
path in search of truth, justice and reparation can begin by rescuing from oblivion
the literature that was taken from us and therefore forgotten in our present. In both
Spain and Portugal, censorship was the most powerful and enduring institution of the
dictatorial state, and yet the editor-in-chief of Triunfo acknowledges in El País the mutual ignorance that exists between the two countries. An illogical fact, given
that these are countries that share a peninsula, are twinned in history and admire
each other (Márquez, 1982). In the same vein, historians such as have also expressed the need to carry out comparative studies of the two dictatorships,
given that, despite the fact that they coincide in time, are governed by fascist regimes
and are borderlands, there is a lack of research that shows how they overlap.
The need is all the more pressing when it comes to censorship, where, then as now,
everything seems to be hermetic. Whereas in Spain the evaluators were hired and signed
their reports with a numerical pseudonym, their anonymity is still protected today,
despite the fact that they are public servants of a ministry. In any case, this is
nothing new, as , the pioneer in accessing the censorship files, already discovered that more than
sixty thousand files disappeared when they were transferred from the Ministry of Information
and Tourism (MIT) to today’s General Administration Archives (AGA).
The missing documents were dated between 1964 and 1969. That is, those who belonged
to the last phase of Franco's regime. Therefore, in the event of accountability after
the dictator’s death, it would be possible to identify the signatories. We do not
know if this was intentional, but we do know, thanks to Muñoz’s doctoral thesis (), that on the night of Franco’s death the same ministry that kept these files lit
a bonfire in the courtyard of its facilities.
For , a researcher at the University of Glasgow, the situation is precarious because,
in addition to the weaknesses already mentioned, there are others, such as the fact
that works are currently being reprinted with the changes imposed by the censors.
The situation has not been reversed by the recovery of the original librettos, and
without this material we do not know the intention of those who have manipulated them,
nor the concepts or ideas lost by the author.
The problem is that everything remains paralysed, and while complained that the only criterion used to order the files was the strict order in
which they arrived at the administration, the same is true today. There is no public
database that groups the reports by the censor who reviewed them, by subject, or by
literary genre. Perhaps for this reason, claims that although the censorship apparatus disappeared with the approval of the
democratic Constitution in 1978, its effects continue to live on in Spanish intellectual
life. Faced with this precarious access to documents, explains that there are only two research approaches: to guess the genre of the book
from the title, or to randomly select a group of cards in order to compare the characteristics
of the works.
In order to proceed with such research models, years of archiving are required so
that sufficient records are available for comprehensive examination to establish relationships
or understand the evolution of criteria. Despite this pitfall, we have studies such
as , which looks at the manipulation of translations, and , which focuses on children´s literature. In addition to these, there is the work
of and on early Francoist propaganda, as well as the updated results of for the Boletín de la Real Academia Española (Gazette of the Royal Spanish Academy).
On the same level, but on the other side of the border, we have the results of , and , albeit still in small numbers. The first deals with the censorship of children during
the Estado Novo, the second with the various ways of evading fascist manipulation,
and the last with the repressive development of this regime, focusing in most of its
studies on key authors in the history of Portuguese literature, such as Luísa Ducla
Soares, António Torrado and Manuel António Pina.
Although each focuses their research on a different area, all three agree on the particular
vulnerability of children’s publications and the denigration they have received in
their evaluations. In Spain, Cisquella et al. (2002) come to the same conclusion,
noting that repression in children’s literature was even more phantasmagorical than
in adult books.
For all these reasons, , a researcher at the Cervantes Virtual Centre, wonders how it is possible that, with
so many similarities, there is a lack of comparative studies offering an exegesis
of the two models of literary censorship. This is the testimony that we are taking
up today, respecting the methodology recommended by , but dealing with children´s literature because of its particular interest for the
dictators, who implicitly recognised censorship as a powerful means of disseminating
and validating worlds and ideologies, and therefore as an objective of necessary vigilance.
The Spanish and Portuguese models of censorship
, one of the leading experts in the study of Iberian fascism, argues that Franco and
Salazar behaved like Siamese twins. Portugal sought international recognition for
Spain, and Spain reciprocated by guaranteeing the stability of fascism on the peninsula.
For this reason, Portugal saw the Spanish war as its own and put its diplomatic and
censorship services at the service of its dictator. To this end, a strong campaign
was waged between the National Propaganda Secretariat and the Portuguese Serviços de Censura, with the aim of controlling all freedom of expression and establishing a homogeneous
discourse in both countries.
Salazar, author of the mythical sentences “O que parece é” (What seems to be is) or
“Só existe aquilo que o público sabe que existe” (Only what the public knows exists”),
was well aware that to consolidate his power he needed to dominate all the media,
culture and publishing, and he realised this:
“A opinião pública é indispensável à vida de qualquer regime. Os governos, por mais
apoio que tenham, não se mantem usando a força, mas tendo-a” (Public opinion is indispensable
to the life of any regime. Governments, no matter how much support they have, don't
stay in power by using force, but by having it) ().
Censorship, which hid things that did not 'fit' the nationalist 'mould', was clearly
an instrument of the Salazar dictatorship.
In the same vein, explains that these two countries, along with Germany and Italy, fostered censorship
structures to protect each other. However, there are differences that need to be studied,
as each nation has transferred these competences to different institutions, which
have modified their objectives according to the sector managed by the leadership.
It was not the same for these powers to be in the hands of the Falange (1941-1945)
as it was for them to be in the hands of technocrats or Opus Dei. Each country also
had its own model, with Italy and Germany applying post-sale censorship, Spain imposing
a pre-publication assessment model and Portugal opting for a combination of the two,
depending on the target audience and the subject of the book ().
Immediately after the end of the civil war, Salazar celebrated the victory as his
own, because of his media work and because it “justified” the deaths of his six thousand
soldiers in Spain. He delivered this message to the National Assembly, treating the
issue as a matter of satisfaction for his country and also as official proof of Spain’s
debt:
“Orgulha-me que tenham morrido bem e todos –vivos e mortos– tenham escrito pela sua
valentia mais uma página heroica da nossa História. Não temos nada a pedir, nem contas
a apresentar. Vencemos, eis tudo!” (I'm proud that they died well and that all of
them, living and dead, have written another heroic page in our history with their
bravery. We have nothing to ask for and we are not to be held accountable. We won,
that’s all!) ().
As far as the children´s literature is concerned, the comparative analysis of Spanish
and Portuguese censorship legislation reveals a twin development with strong links
(). Both countries set up special commissions to monitor children’s books, in the same
decade (the ), and entrusted their composition to members of very similar professions and ideologies.
The trigger that sparked this interest and turned an undervalued literature into one
of primary attention was the impact of periodical productions (comics and magazines)
on the children’s population, especially those of foreign origin.
There are three common factors in their official regulations: first, the prominence
of moral issues; second, the effort of each regulation to achieve greater officialdom;
and third, the continued reaffirmation of the mandate for mandatory pre-publication
censorship. This obligation is maintained even in the years when works for adults
were exempted from control. The regulations to which we refer are, in Spain, the Orden acordada en Consejo de Ministros de 24 de junio de 1955 por la que se desarrolla
el Decreto sobre ordenación de las publicaciones infantiles y juveniles, and, in Portugal, the Instruções sobre Literatura Infantil published by the Direcção dos Serviços de Censura, in 1950.
Both documents, with their national specificities, have five main focuses for revision.
The five points of assessment that the censors had to check particularly carefully
before granting permission for publication were
1) morale,
2) literary quality
3) educational aspects
4) political affairs
5) religious issues.
Depending on the issues that the evaluators found on these topics, they could resolve
the dossier in the following way:
1) full authorisation of the work
2) deletions
3) refusal of publication
4) prosecution of the perpetrator.
Sources and methodology
A review of the legislation shows that Spain focused on banning content, while Portugal
prioritised the formal and aesthetic component of publications. However, we do not
know how they acted in practice, and this is what we want to analyse in this paper,
in order to find out how the censorship of the children´s literature of each country
actually worked, and what the similarities and differences were between Spain and
Portugal.
We will do this by selecting only those reports that focus on fairy tales, whose dossiers
contain the complete work and whose evaluator's verdict is explicit. There are three
reasons for this choice:
1) there was a particular rejection of imported works, most of which were of foreign
origin;
2) these works were common to both dictatorships;
3) the re-editing assessments have been repeated, so it is possible to assess the
trend.
Moreover, these literary texts are particularly valued by nationalist regimes, such
as those of Portugal and Spain, because of their matrix and their recognised affiliation
to popular culture. Access to the information sources was granted both in the Arquivo
da Torre do Tombo in Lisbon and in the General Archive of the Administration in Alcalá
de Henares, and as a result of a decade of work in these repositories, more than 700
censorship files have been consulted.
The objectives of this work are the following:
1) to identify the elements that are often criticised in fairy tales;
2) to assess whether the incidence was the same in both dictatorships;
3) to analyse if there were any slogans that incorporated elements of Catholicism.
In order to achieve these objectives, a qualitative methodology has been chosen, based
on two research approaches: the interpretation of the files, the revision of the original
texts, and the analysis of the excerpts, in order to assess how the political polysystem
conditioned the literary polysystem of the Iberian peninsula.
Themes revisited in fairy tales tried in Spain
Tricks, deceptions and cunning of the characters
Lying, cunning and hypocrisy were listed in the Spanish regulations as reprehensible
moral issues that would be sanctioned. However, it is a factor that has been little
studied, as the focus has tended to be on content vetoed for patriotic or religious
reasons (). However, in the genre in question, it was an issue that was frequently raised and
that stood out above other issues. Cuentos de hadas franceses (Ex. 6436-54) is an example, a compilation that includes many crossovers of all kinds, but where
the focus is on La princesita avispada (The clever little princess). The censor considers it unethical that “un príncipe
se introduzca en el castillo gracias a la frivolidad de las dos princesas mayores
y luego las engañe” (a prince gets into the castle thanks to the frivolity of the
two older princesses and then deceives them). Such quibbling leads to “aceptación
con reparos” (qualified acceptance), but only because it considers fantasy to be greater
than realism and therefore deplorable actions would not be taken seriously.
This work serves as an example of how censorship hardened as the regime’s demise approached,
finding incidents where it had not found them before. In April 1970, the publisher
ordered the reprint, stating that “los realismos desagradables son improcedentes para
niños” (unpleasant realism is unsuitable for children). Therefore, the specialist
reader now makes corrections (Ex. 4513-70), But it is not carried out because his
boss rejects the order and approves the authorisation without telling the publisher.
There are many examples of this. Grimms’ Fairy Tales were also registered in 1970 (Ex. 4515-70). Of these, the assessor notes that they
were approved in the 1950s, but now objects to the inclusion of The Little Peasant. He warns that it is an adaptation of Nicolasín y Nicolasón in which “triunfa la mentira y el engaño, se incluyen alusiones a infidelidades conyugales
y aparece la muerte por ahogamiento de un ambicioso” (lies and deceit triumph, allusions
to marital infidelity are included, and the death by drowning of an ambitious man
appears) (Ex. 4515-70). In view of this balance, it considers that the only way to
achieve it is to adapt or delete the pages it has marked. This time, the Superior
does not save the proposal because, although it is passed on to a second reviewer,
he also signs the rejection.
The location of the 1950s report referred to by the first reviewer leads us to file
3797-57. In fact, it was registered under the title The little peasant and the Evaluator 30 also acknowledges that it is a version of the Nicolasín y Nicolasón, but he decides that since it is well adapted and a folk tale, it is accepted without
any changes. In any case, we are not dealing with disparate criteria, the argument
had a long history of reticence, and it did not matter who the censor, publisher or
adaptor was. This work from the 1970s was part of a selection from the Grimms, but
this title also appears in HC Andersen Fairy Tales (Ex. 116-55) and the verdict is even worse.
The compilation contains fourteen stories, but the one that receives the harshest
judgement is Nicolasín y Nicolasón. It is said to be “cruel, de mal gusto y nada ejemplar, aunque las escenas escabrosas
están soslayadas con ingenio” (cruel, tasteless and by no means exemplary, although
the lurid scenes are skilfully avoided). However, considering the words of Reviriego
(2023), who acknowledged that the MIT censorship was accustomed to sanctioning by
stating causes that had nothing to do with the real reason, we sought out the original
libretto to verify the content. The story is full of tricks, deceptions and lies,
but there are also references that are inconvenient for the Church, and this content
is not denounced, nor is it revealed to the publisher. On page 32 the narrator describes
how a sexton visited a farmer’s wife when her husband was away.
This is important for three reasons: the story was judged by Isabel Niño, a censor
of exaggerated religious fervour (), respect for Catholicism was an important point in the rubrics, and the Bishops
Conference of Spain had urged priests not to share space alone with women. In this
story, the clergy does not inspire admiration; on the contrary, it is clearly stated
that the husband “no podía soportar la presencia de un sacristán. Y si, por azar,
se le ponía uno por delante, era víctima de un verdadero ataque de rabia” (could not
bear the presence of a sacristan. And should he come across one, he was the victim
of a real fit of rage) (p. 32).
The farmer even went one step further and challenged one of the main characters to
summon the devil. This is also relevant when we consider that the provisions of the
Decreto sobre ordenación de las publicaciones infantiles y juveniles (1956), in its first block of vetoed issues, that “invocaciones al diablo” (invoking
the devil) (Art. 14.c) and ridiculing church ministers (Art. 14.B) would be sanctioned.
The line goes beyond all this and goes one step further by mentioning that it was
the sacristan himself who had the face of the devil, and he was so ugly that the farmer
who saw him cried out, “¡Qué cosa tan espantosa!” (What a terrible thing!) (p. 34).
References to deception were also constant in more popular works such as Puss in boots, where we find criticism both in the 1950s (Ex. 624-54) and the 1960s (Ex. 3644-67).
The first report concludes that it is a story in which “triunfa la astucia y el engaño,
pero por ser el protagonista un gato puede aceptarse” (unning and deceit triumph,
but because the protagonist is a cat, it can be accepted), and in the second report
the censor also sanctions “las crueldades inadmisibles” (unacceptable cruelty).
The interpretation of Catholicism as magic
With the above stories, we could foresee that the censorship would try to include
religious content in children’s books, as if it were Catholic propaganda. Indeed,
some publishers interpreted it in this way, and in the early years of the Franco regime
we find works with direct references to God, praises of the Virgin and appeals to
Christian resignation (). Nevertheless, the evaluators thought otherwise, especially in fairy tales, where
they feared that miracles might be equated with magic, God with a magician and the
Virgin with a fairy. If these figures were treated as namesakes, they would think
that religion was an invented tale, and The Bible another fairy tale. This is reflected in the evaluation of Cinderella (Ex. 4236-55) which states that “debería quitarse el nombre de la virgen en boca
de las hadas que obran fantásticamente, porque dará lugar a confusiones” (the name
of the Virgin should not be pronounced by the fairies who work fantastically, because
it leads to confusion).
In the same five-year period, the Norbert publishing house presented New German Fairy Tales (Ex. 6438-54) and the censor argues that the image of an angel must be changed and
replaced by that of a genie or a magician. Something similar happens with the Molino
publishing house, which is trying to republish Chinese Fairy Tales (Ex. 6437-54), because of a favourable verdict ten years earlier. In addition to
approving the book, the censor praised its good background of moral-philosophical
teachings, its interest and literary value (Ex. 865). However, the 1954 proposal argues
that there is a story that should not be read by children because it seems that a
man, with the consent of his wife, cheats on her with another man and is then reincarnated
as a girl who, when she grows up, remarries her first husband. They are all exotic
in atmosphere and speak of reincarnation and immortality.
The same accusation is made in The Girl Who Trod on the Loaf integrado en los HC Andersen Fairy Tales (Ex. 116-55), where he complains that: “mezcla lo religioso y lo fantástico, con
un alma condenada que se convierte en pájaro” (mixes the religious and the fantastic,
with a damned soul transformed into a bird). The erasure conceals the fact that during
the little girl’s metamorphosis, “brilló un rayo de luz en aquel abismo de destrucción”
(aray of light shone into this abyss of destruction), she disappeared and a little
bird appeared. Probably to prevent children from understanding that the little bird
was the dove of the Holy Spirit, the publisher changed the girl to be “dissolved”
in the light, to become a bird, to “melt” into a cone of light.
Proof that these views were maintained until the end of the Franco regime is the 1970
version of the Sleeping Beauty (Ex. 1885-70), where reader 22 report that
“aunque no es aconsejable para niños por la presentación fatalista de poderes mágicos,
puede autorizarse, si bien mezcla religión y fantasía de forma inconveniente” (although
not recommended for children because of its fatalistic portrayal of magical powers,
it can be allowed, although it mixes religion and fantasy in an uncomfortable way).
Although the permission to edit suggests that this content should be removed:
“Tan fervientes fueron las súplicas de los regios esposos que el cielo les concedió
al final el don de una preciosa niñita, bella y menuda como un delicado capullo de
rosa” (the royal couple’s pleas were so fervent that heaven finally granted them the
gift of a precious baby girl, as beautiful and delicate as a delicate rosebud).
The location of what was banned clearly shows that there was no hint of criticism
of the Church; the censors simply did not want to associate its most representative
concepts with fairy tales. This obsession with dissociating Christianity from magic
was so great that the censorious Superiority had to admit it to its readers:
“no hallo inconveniente en que se diga que el cielo concedió una preciosa niña a los
regios esposos. Puede autorizarse sin tachaduras” (I have no objection to saying that
heaven has given the royal couple a beautiful baby girl. Can be authorised plainly)
(Ex. 1885-70).
The concept of family
In fairy tales, gender roles were always clearly differentiated, and this pleased
the regime because it served as a model for imitation, especially for young female
readers (). However, there were three titles that were repeated because they broke with their
archetypes. The first was Sleeping Beauty, and as suggested in the previous section, the motif was the sterility of the parents.
It should be noted that the purpose of marriage was procreation, and that intercourse
beyond this purpose was libidinous.
Therefore, to show that there were marriages that did not produce children was considered
a failure and a reality to be hidden. Evidence of this can be found in file 3644-67,
in which the censorship office states that: “no es adecuada la prolija explicación
sobre un caso de esterilidad conyugal” (the long explanation of a case of marital
sterility is inappropriate). The galley proofs show that this supposedly long and
serious explanation was reduced to a few lines:
“había una vez un rey y una reina que estaban muy apenados por no tener hijos. Fueron
a todos los balnearios del mundo, hacían promesas, peregrinaciones y frecuentes devociones,
emplearon todos los medios y nada se lograba” (once upon a time there was a king and
a queen who were very sad because they had no children. They went to all the spas
in the world, they made promises, pilgrimages and frequent devotions, they used every
means and nothing came of it).
explains that the crossed-out fragment is important for censorship because fascism
considered women to be superior beings, the “templo de la raza” (temple of the race).
In other words, they were valued solely for their ability to give birth, and in this
account, by not having children, the sexuality of marriage would have been in vain,
since this act was considered a necessary evil for procreation.
The second example is the work of Grisélidis, where the prototype of women complementing men and making them better versions of
themselves is broken. The story shows that there are men who do not crave the love
of a woman and that for some it was the beginning of a desolate life. So much so that
there are even hints of machismo and misogyny, a break with the “angel of the home”
model promoted by the regime. For example, in the 1967 evaluation, the administration
considered the text inappropriate because “se expone en él una idea detractora de
la mujer y del matrimonio” (it contains an idea harmful to women and marriage) (Ex.
3644-67). In fact, the author expressed this idea very clearly:
“El príncipe veía en la mujer solamente infelicidad y mentira. En la que más brillase
por el mérito más raro, él le reconocía un alma hipócrita, un espíritu lleno de orgullo,
un implacable enemigo que aspiraba constantemente a imponer su imperio soberano en
el desdichado varón que se entregara a ella”. (The prince saw only unhappiness and
lies in the woman. In the one who shone the brightest with the rarest merit, he recognised
a hypocritical soul, a spirit full of pride, an implacable enemy who constantly sought
to impose his sovereign kingdom on the wretched man who would surrender to it) (p.
2).
The prince admitted to his vassals that the effects of women on men were very harmful,
as he had noticed that husbands ended up being “dominados o traicionados” (dominated
or betrayed). As a result, a deep hatred grew in him, which increased day by day,
and kept him away from the idea of marriage, putting his personal happiness before
that of obtaining a future queen for the country.
Marriage education through fairy tales was fundamental, and this is what Franco advocated
when he inaugurated the first school of the Women’s Section of Falange in Castillo
de la Mota. In his inaugural address, he set out what he considered to be the three
eternal truths: the principles of God's law, the need to serve the fatherland, and
the common good of Spaniards (). The adolescent girl educated in these schools found in marriage the symbiosis of
the “three truths”.
Finally, the third title with the highest number of penalties is Donkeyskin. The reason is that it violates what is most sacred to the regime, “la santidad de
la familia” (the holly nature of the family”, i.e., the most solid foundation of Christian
society. Many dossiers accuse a father of wanting to marry off his daughter. For example,
in the 1953 recording of Perrault’s version, the censor reports that:
“se ha soslayado el grave inconveniente de la versión original haciendo que el pretendiente
de la joven rechazada no sea su propio padre, sino un príncipe poco atractivo de todos
modos, como puede producir confusión con el auténtico debe rechazarse” (the serious
drawback of the original version has been avoided by making the suitor of the rejected
girl not her own father, but an unattractive prince anyway, as this might lead to
confusion with the real suitor) (Ex. 3485-53).
It is rare for a story to be censored when the censor acknowledges that incest has
been removed, so it could be that the real motive was the description of the prince.
If the intention was to encourage the reader’s desire to find a husband who would
provide happiness, financial stability and security, in this case it had the opposite
effect. The proposal was made with
“un príncipe segundón, que, sin ser imbécil, lo parecía, pues estaba dominado por
una holgazanería tan grande que jamás aspiraría a cargar con la pesada responsabilidad
del gobierno (p. 10).
It is also acknowledged that the prince “no resaltaba por su belleza, pero como, en
aquella época, no abundaban los príncipes hermosos y los feos llevan casi siempre
las de perder” (he was not specially handsome, but as beautiful princes were rare
in those days and ugly princes were almost always the losers), he was the best candidate
(p. 10). The king believed that, being ugly and lazy, he would be manipulable at his
father’s command and would probably not demand much in the way of dowry as he would
have no other marriage alternatives.
There is also another file from 1953, rescued by , in which the censors again reject the story without any explanation. However, at
the insistence of the editors, the regime declared that it was the
“nocivo cuento clásico de Andersen, que bien podría sustituirse por otro del mismo
autor, con lo que la Colección ganaría mucho; pues hay padres que se retraerán de
comprarla al ver este título incluido” (harmful classic Andersen tale, which could
well be replaced by another by the same author, which would make the collection much
more attractive, as there are parents who will be reluctant to buy it if they see
this title included) (Ex. 4018-53).
Furthermore, as in previous cases, it is pointed out that the reissue is also untimely
because it will arouse curiosity about the original version.
Themes revisited in fairy tales tried in Portugal
In Portugal, fairy tales, especially those of Charles Perrault, were regularly published
during the Estado Novo period, probably because they represented an appreciation of popular culture and
traditions that was a hallmark of the political ideas of the time. In this sense,
Bárbara’s doctoral thesis () invites us to focus on three specific titles, the result of their numerous reprints
in Portugal, such as 1) Puss in boots, 2) Sleeping Beauty and 3) Cinderella.
The first, originally entitled Le Maître Chat or Le Chat Botté, was included in the collection Contes de Ma Mère L’Oye (1697) and went through 12 editions with the companies Majora, Civilização, Romano
Torres, Editorial Globo and Figueirinhas. The second released 6 editions under the
Romano Torres and Majora labels, to which Livrolândia was added. Finally, there is
the story of Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre, known as Cinderella or A Gata Borralheira, with 8 editions supported by Minerva, Romano Torres, Majora and Barateira.
Reading these three texts will allow us to see the tolerance of the censorship towards
their most representative contents, their adaptation to the Salazarist precepts and
the strict rules imposed by the censorship services.
Religiosity and divine salvation
The text of Um conto de fadas (1931), based on Charles Perrault’s play Sleeping Beauty, to be performed with words and music by Elmana Trigo de Brito, bears the seal of
the Inspección General de Espectáculos and its registration reads: “Contem 13 páginas
devidamente censuradas e carimbadas sem cortes” (it contains 13 pages, duly censored
and stamped without cuts). It is worth noting that there are no erasures in this text,
which testifies to its conformity with the ideological norms and rules of the time.
Its authorship is relevant, although there is little biobibliographical information:
Elmana Trigo de Brito was a music teacher and partner in the League and Association
for Feminist Propaganda of Ana de Castro Osório, an important Portuguese writer of
children’s books. These specific data allow us to understand the author’s link with
the world of children’s cultural production.
Picture 1First page of the book by Elmana Trigo de Brito
The appropriateness of the argument may be supported by the prevalence of the theme
of religiosity, based on the angels of heaven and testifying to the praise of good
overcoming and punishing evil (os “espíritos malfajezos”). The dichotomy between good
(which is always rewarded) and evil (which is always punished) is one of the story’s
structural strands.
In addition, the figuration of the fairies, representatives of good (“da Estrela Branca”),
emphasises the fairy-tale nature of the story, which is deliberately distanced from
any credible connection with reality and from socio-political connotations, which
favours its positive evaluation. This is the opposite of the situation in Spain, where
the presence of fairies has been interpreted as a counterpart to the Virgin Mary,
causing confusion among children.
As for the second work, dated 1942, the Inspección de Espectáculos (PT-TT-SNI-DGE-1-2604)
states that it refers to O Homem das Botas and that its content is inspired by Perrault’s fairy tale. It is a typewritten text
of 93 pages in which the issues raised by his argument are easily identifiable and
which the institution has authorised to be presented.
However, there is no indication of the cuts made, although the stamp indicates that
the work was indeed censored and therefore in compliance. The final text is imbued
with positive content for the Salazarist ideology, and one of the most clear examples
is the undeniable religiosity of the characters, established in their lives as a means
of salvation and expressed in expressions such as “dar a sua alma ao Creador” (give
your soul to the Creator). This is interesting because it differs from Spain, where
in the 1950s and 1960s the same title was sanctioned for showing children the triumph
of cunning and deception, rather than accepting life's adversities with Christian
resignation (the greater the sacrifice, the greater the honour).
Picture 2First page of the book “O homem das botas”
Finally, in 1959, we find a children's comedy with the play Cinderela - A Gata Borralheira by Tomás Ribas (PT-TT- SIN-DGE-1-5960). Like the previous books, this is a story
of condemnation of evil and praise of good (“bondoso coração”), even suggesting the
idea of retributive justice. In this particular case, the main character acts as a
model of goodness, living in loneliness or helplessness, without any gesture of revolt.
It is also an example of how the good and the righteous are rewarded.
If we delve deeper into this question, we see that the protagonist fulfils the canon
of the perfect woman for the dictatorship: self-sacrificing, complacent and long-suffering.
Cinderella was a good example of the feminism of the time, as she was concerned with
the care of the home, respect for the family and physical beauty as an element of
public display (she does not dare go to the ball until she has fancy clothes and an
exuberant carriage). But even on this aspect, which could have been insignificant,
Salazar was meticulous, as evidenced by the censorship report of 1960, which corrected
the character’s neckline, considering it too generous and questioning its suitability
for a child audience.
Picture 3Relatório da censura
Glorification of work and poverty as a symptom of honesty
Other themes that the Portuguese dictatorship particularly valued in children’s books
were the premise that “work dignifies the individual”, though not in a balanced sense,
on the contrary: the greater the dedication to work and the worse the conditions,
the greater the sacrifice and the greater the reward. Leaving aside the case of Cinderella,
which is the most obvious, we find another example with Puss in Boots.
This story is a praise of hard work and the spirit of sacrifice, as well as a call
for honourable poverty - a common expression in Portugal, the origin of which has
been lost in time: “pobrezinhos, mas honrados” (poor but honourable). These lines
emerge from the dialogue between the three brothers, the miller’s sons, whose indirect
characterisation allows us to foresee a certain stupidity, a trait that does not fail
to configure a certain humorous tone that characterises a considerable part of the
text, especially in the scenes concerning the monarch D. Comilão, his gluttony and
his obesity.
In short, the text of Puss in Boots also seems to avoid any link to the empirical or historical-factual world by opting
for anthroponyms far removed from the usual ones. This avoids the identification of
certain characters and their features with real referents or figures, which would
have meant their being condemned for ridiculing authority figures. Doubt is therefore
justified: did the author of this book practice self-censorship?
As we have already mentioned, in the book starring Gata Borralheira, there is also
an implicit praise for work, based on the imposed activities carried out by this character,
without denying or opposing them. This submissive/obedient attitude is seen as a virtue
that is ultimately rewarded with the greatest prize for a woman in those years: a
good husband.
In short, what the reading of these three revised histories offers us is a kind of
“axiological framework” of clear Salazarist affiliation. Firstly, because they are
imbued with Catholicism and Christian symbolism; secondly, because there is no criticism
of the nation; and thirdly, because the family is always present and, even if their
attitudes are deplorable, respect prevails. In short, it all boils down to God, nation
and family, and submissive morality.
Conclusions
Although the study we have presented is exploratory in nature and the sample is very
small, it helps to outline some conclusions that could guide future research. As far
as Spain is concerned, we found that although each story had its own reticence, there
were three common incidents.
Firstly, it is a rejection of the deceptions devised by some characters, however laudable
their purpose. The censors were worried that readers would take these actions as an
example to imitate. However, if the tricks were played by animals or fantastic creatures,
there was more tolerance.
Secondly, Catholicism had a great influence on fairy tales. The Government feared
that Christianity would be devalued as a result of children confusing religion with
fantasy, drawing similarities between virgins and fairies, or equating God with a
magician, for both were capable of producing supernatural events.
The third sanctioned area concerns the manifestation of family problems. In particular,
it is not allowed to reveal that there are marriages that cannot produce biological
children, that there are fathers with deplorable attitudes and that there are men
who see marriage as the beginning of their unhappiness.
On the other hand, a comparison of the dossiers has shown that the reviewers were
harsher than the censorship chiefs, and that the judgments were more severe as the
end of the Franco regime approached. Sometimes some themes were sanctioned when in
fact the disturbing content was something else, and there were problems in dealing
with the re-editions of fairy tales that were approved in the 1940s and 1950s.
In the Portuguese case, the promulgation of the evaluation instructions in 1950 increased
surveillance and led to a more precise attention or concentration, as in Spain, but
from 1951 (with the creation of the Ministry of Information and Tourism). However,
there are some differences:
– far less deletions were made;
– corrections focused on the aesthetics of the characters;
– use of comedy to confront sensitive issues;
– the bulk of the evaluations focused on plays.
Finally, it is striking how in Spain the fake religiosity of the characters becomes
an element of revision, while in Portugal the constant allusion to religiosity is
praised, or at least not criticised.
In short, censorship in both regimes functioned as a powerful tool for homogenising
mentalities. Both dictators justified their creation as a guarantor of state stability,
when what they were trying to do was to forge a single way of thinking that would
guarantee the survival of their ideology after their death.
Funding
This work is part of the research project “Análisis de las censuras de Franco y Salazar
en la Literatura Infantil y Juvenil” (Analysis of the censorship of Franco and Salazar
in children´s literature), financed by the Ibercaja-CAI programme (CH 28/21). Additionally,
the research was financed by the “Fundos Nacionais de Portugal da FCT – Fundação para
a Ciência e a Tecnologia no âmbito dos projetos do CIEC (Centro de Investigação em
Estudos da Criança da Universidade do Minho)” with references UIDB/00317/2020 and
UIDP/00317/2020.
Sara Reis Da Silva: Formal Analysis; Data curation; Writing – review & editing; Investigation; Resources;
Supervision; Validation; Visualization.
Notes
[1] The sole legal party of the Francoist regime
[2] Franco’s censors catalogued the reports using the File (Ex.), the registration number
(the first digits before the script) and finally the year in which the work was submitted
for evaluation.
References
1
Abellán, M. (1980). Censura y creación literaria en España (1939-1976). Ediciones Península.
2
Andrade, J. (2008). La Revolución de los claveles y la Transición: la izquierda ante
el cambio político en Portugal y España. En M. E. Nicolás Marín, & C. González Martínez
(Eds.), Ayeres en discusión: temas clave de Historia Contemporánea hoy (pp. 178-180). Universidad de Murcia.
3
Balça, A. (2022). Iluding and eluding censorship before the Carnation revolution.
En R. Tena-Fernández, & J. Soto-Vázquez (Coord.). La censura de la literatura infantil y juvenil (pp. 37-52). Dykinson. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2gz3v28.5
4
Bárbara, M. E. (2014). Os contos de Perrault em Portugal no Estado Novo. Tese de Doutoramento em Letras, área de Estudos de Tradução, Especialidade de Teoria,
História e Práticas da Tradução, Universidade de Coimbra.
5
Cerrillo, P., & Sotomayor, M.V. (2016). Censuras y literatura infantil y juvenil en el siglo XX. Universidad de Castilla la Mancha.
6
Cisquella, G, Erviti, J. L., & Sorolla, J. A. (2022). Diez años de represión cultural. La censura de libros durante la ley de prensa (1966-1976). Anagrama.
7
Cornellá, J. (2014). La persistencia de la censura franquista durante el periodo democrático.
Quimera: revista de literatura, 374, 47-49.
8
Da-Silva, S. R. (2023). La censura de la Literatura Infantil y Juvenil durante la
dictadura de Salazar. En R. Tena-Fernández, & J. Soto-Vázquez (Coord.). La censura de la literatura infantil y juvenil en las dictaduras del siglo XX (pp. 47-62). Dykinson. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.1866776.12
9
Direcção dos Serviços de Censura (1950). Instruções sobre Literatura Infantil. Empresa Nacional de Publicidade.
10
Franco, F. (1943). Palabras del Caudillo: 19 abril 1937-7 diciembre 1942. Editora Nacional.
Julio, M. T. (2019). María Luz Morales y la colección “Las obras maestras al alcance
de los niños” de la editorial Araluce ante la censura franquista. Boletín de la Real Academia Española, 99, 665-701
13
Lemus, E., & Peña, M. (2018). Alianzas y propagandas durante el primer franquismo. Ariel.
14
Márquez, V. (14 de enero de 1982). A Espanha é vizinha. El País, 14 de enero.
15
Márquez, V. (2021). Censura previa y posterior al franquismo. En R. Tena-Fernández,
& J. Soto-Vázquez (Eds.), La censura cultural en el franquismo (pp. 249-266). Tirant lo Blanch.
16
Martens, H. (2016). Tradición y censura en las traducciones de literatura infantil y juvenil en la cultura
franquista: Los cuentos de Perrault en español hasta 1975[Tesis Doctoral, Universidad de Extremadura]. Dehesa, repositorio institucional. http://hdl.handle.net/10662/3766
17
Muñoz, B. (2004). El teatro crítico español durante el franquismo, visto por sus censores [Tesis doctoral, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares]. Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de
Cervantes. https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/nd/ark:/59851/bmctb306
18
Orden acordada en Consejo de ministros de 24 de junio de 1955 por la que se desarrolla
el Decreto sobre ordenación de las publicaciones infantiles y juveniles (2 de febrero
de 1956). Boletín Oficial del Estado, 33, 841-845. https://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1956/033/A00841-00845.pdf
19
Pascua, I. (2011). La literatura traducida y censurada para niños y jóvenes en la época franquista: Guillermo
Brown. Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
20
Pena, A. (2017). Salazar y Franco. La alianza del fascismo ibérico contra la España republicana. Trea.
21
Peña, M. (2019). Censuras y censores en el primer franquismo. En E. Lemus, & M. Peña
(Coord.), Alianzas y propagandas en el primer franquismo (pp. 147-175). Alianza.
22
Ramos, A.M. (2021). Contornar a censura durante o Estado Novo: O caso da literatura
infantil portuguesa. En R. Tena-Fernández, & J. Soto-Vázquez (Eds.). La censura cultural en el franquismo (pp. 119-140). Tirant lo Blanch.
23
Saiz, E. (2022). La hora de las víctimas de Queipo de Llano. El País, 16543, 26-27.
24
Suárez, C. (2022). Censura literaria en España y en Portugal en el siglo XX. Breves apuntes para un estudio
comparativo. Instituto Virtual Cervantes.
25
Tena-Fernández, R. (2023). Incidencia de la censura franquista en la literatura juvenil: diferencias respecto
a las publicaciones para adultos. Dikynson.
26
Tena-Fernández, R., & Soto-Vázquez, J. (2021). A field open to women: censorship of
children’s and youth literature under Franco through women readers. En Cultura y ciencia nacionales en el primer franquismo [National culture and science
in early Francoism] (1939-1959). Palgrave.
27
Tena-Fernández, R., Ramos, A. M., & Soto-Vázquez, J. (2020). Análisis comparativo
de la censura de la LIJ en España y Portugal a través de la legislación promulgada
durante las dictaduras de Franco y Salazar. Bulletin of Spanish Studies, XCVI, 1657-1679. https://doi.org/10.1080/14753820.2019.1729590
28
Valls, F., & Mainer, J.C. (1983). La enseñanza de la literatura en el franquismo (1936-1951). Antoni Bosch Editor.
