Publication:

Lucha tras las rejas franquistas: la Prisión Central de Mujeres de Segovia

Edificio de tipo panóptico inaugurado en 1924 como Reformatorio de Mujeres, posteriormente sería Hospital Asilo Penitenciario para ancianos y enfermos de tuberculosis. Con la guerra civil se vio abarrotado de presos políticos, que ya no abandonarían el edificio durante toda la dictadura. En 1946 se transformó en Prisión Central de Mujeres y, durante sus diez años de existencia, albergó al mayor contingente de luchadoras antifranquistas españolas, que convirtieron esta prisión en un centro de formación política y cultural clandestino. El papel que representó la cárcel de Burgos para los presos políticos lo constituyó Segovia para las políticas. Su impulso organizativo desarrolló y mantuvo redes de solidaridad que llevaron a declarar una huelga de hambre en enero de 1949. Aunque fueron castigadas severamente, con este pulso ante las autoridades represivas, las presas defendieron su dignidad y su identidad como reclusas políticas. Desde finales de los sesenta, el edificio encerró de nuevo a militantes antifranquistas de organizaciones políticas y sindicales.

A Panopticon building opened in 1924 as a Women’s Reformatory, it subsequently became the Penitentiary Hospital for the elderly and TB patients. With the Civil War, it was crowded with political prisoners, who would not leave the building throughout the dictatorship. It became the Central Women’s Prison in 1946 and, during its ten years of existence, held the largest contingent of Spanish antiFranco women fighters, who turned the prison into a clandestine political and cultural training centre. The role Burgos prison played for its male political prisoners, Segovia played for their female counterparts. Their organizational momentum grew and they maintained networks of solidarity which led to the calling of a hunger strike in January 1949. Although this showdown with the authorities of repression brought them severe punishment, the female inmates defended their dignity and their identity as political prisoners. From the late sixties, the building again held anti-Franco militants belonging to political and union organizations.