Els Xiquets No Volen la Guerra (Children don’t want War)

This article takes its title from a project and documentary funded by the Jávea City Council, which aims to raise awareness of the troubles faced by child refugees from the Spanish Civil War. The Valencian title translates as ‘Children don’t want war.’ Despite the magnitude of the effects war has on children, children appear in many studies as secondary characters and only in very few as protagonists. This article describes the experiences of children during the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939 who were sent from their hometowns and villages to other parts of Spain. The article tells the story of the late Carmen Rodríguez Pascual, who left Madrid as a refugee at the age of five, based on an interview conducted with her daughter, Rosario Pérez Rodríguez. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Carmen and her brother were taken to Alicante where she was adopted by a young couple. When the war came to an end, she decided to stay in Alicante. This could be due to what Pamela Ballinger terms as ‘displacement,’ which also affects many of the children who survive war. The article also addresses the topic of ‘culture shock’ in relation to children’s evacuation and transfer to new homes in different parts of Spain. The article concludes by highlighting the challenges these children had to overcome and the impact of these experiences on their lives.