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Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira

Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira (9 December 1914 in Madrid – 9 June 1933 in Madrid) was an activist for socialism and sexual revolution, who was raised by her mother, Aurora Rodríguez Carballeira, as a model for the woman of the future. She spoke four languages when she was eight years old, finished law school as a teenager, and was a leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) which she abandoned in favor of extreme republicanism, joining the Federal Democratic Republican Party (PRDF).[1]

Hildegart Rodríguez.

When she was 18 years old and had become internationally known, her mother shot her to death.[2][3]

Childhood edit

Conception edit

Hildegart was conceived in Ferrol, Spain, by her mother Aurora Rodríguez Carballeira and an undisclosed biological father. Aurora chose the father with eugenic intentions; she wanted to create the perfect child to further her feminist and socialist ideology. She had previously taken care of her sister's son, giving him musical courses until he became a prodigy, but his mother took him to raise him herself.[1]

When Carballeira was certain that she was pregnant, she moved to Madrid, where Hildegart was born. During her pregnancy, Aurora had set a clock to wake herself up every hour, allowing her to change sleep position so blood could flow to the fetus uniformly.

Her father was a brilliant military chaplain, Alberto Pallás.[1][3][4]

Name edit

Hildegart's birth certificate and baptism act give her name as Hildegart Leocadia Georgina Hermenegilda Maria del Pilar Rodriguez Carballeira but she only used her first name.[5] In spite of Aurora's atheism and opposition to birth registration, she had her daughter baptized, somewhat late, on 23 March 1915 and then registered on 29 April 1915. Her mother said that Hildegart meant "Garden of Wisdom" in German, but there is no basis for that and the name was either an invention or an alternative spelling of the Nordic/German name Hildegard.[3]

Education edit

She knew how to read at 2 and typed before 4. At 10, she spoke German, French and English and the following year gave conferences on feminism and sexuality.[3] Her mother had a total control on Hildegart, forbidding her to do anything which could distract her from "her work."[1]

In June 1928, at the age of 13½, Hildegart enrolled in the School of Law of the Complutense University of Madrid. She later gave lessons at its School of Philosophy during the Second Spanish Republic.

Activism edit

Politics edit

At 14, she joined the PSOE, like her mother.[3] She was also a member of the Unión General de Trabajadores.

In 1932, she was expelled from the PSOE after publishing an article in La Libertad criticizing the PSOE for supporting a reactionary candidate; she then joined the Federal Party and started attacking those she termed socialenchufistas.[7][8]

Rodríguez was among the contributors of the Valencia-based Orto magazine between 1932 and 1934.[9]

Sexual revolution edit

Hildegart was one of the most active people in the Spanish movement for sex reformation, writing on subjects such as contraception, prostitution and eugenics.[1]

She was connected to the European vanguard, corresponding with Havelock Ellis, whose work she translated and who nicknamed her "the Red Virgin", and Margaret Sanger. At the foundation of the Spanish League for Sexual Reform on 1932, presided over by Dr Gregorio Marañón, she was chosen as Secretary without opposition.[10][11]

She had correspondence with many other European personalities, and accompanied the author H. G. Wells on a visit he made to Madrid, but rejected his offer to go to London as his secretary. This offer by Wells, who wanted her to develop away from the influence of her mother, may have furthered the persecution ideas held by Aurora.

Death edit

Murder edit

 
Aurora Rodríguez Carballeira being tried for the murder of her daughter

Aurora shot her daughter several times while she slept in her bed.

There were several hypotheses about the motive for the murder. Hildegart may have fallen in love. She intended to separate from her mother who, out of paranoia, threatened suicide.[12] Aurora's explanation was, "El escultor, tras descubrir la más mínima imperfección en su obra, la destruye," "the sculptor, after discovering the most minimal imperfection in his work, destroys it."

Aftermath edit

Aurora was tried in Madrid. At her trial, she claimed that a Catalan lawyer, Antonio Villena, H. G. Wells, and Havelock Ellis were the agents of an international conspiracy to have her daughter leave Spain and make her serve the Intelligence Service and that, furthermore, Antonio Villena and Hildegart were lovers. She was sentenced to imprisonment for 26 years, 8 months and 10 days, to which she said she won 26 years to live, expressing joy she will not be locked away in an asylum.[1]

She was later transferred to a mental institution in Ciempozuelos, Madrid, on grounds of paranoia and schizophrenia. From 1941, she stopped speaking to her psychiatrists, and the following year, she made ragdolls with prominent genitals, which were destroyed by the orderlies. In 1948, in a letter to the superior mother of the nuns working in the mental institution, she said she spent a long time in prison and that she deserved to be pardoned.[1]

After she died in 1955 of cancer, she was subsequently buried in a mass grave.

Selected works edit

 
Educación Sexual by Hildegart. 1931.
  • ———— (1931). La rebeldía sexual de la juventud [The sexual rebellion of youth] (in Spanish). Madrid: Javier Morata. OCLC 796327706.
  • ———— (1931). Profilaxis anticoncepcional: paternidad voluntaria [Contraceptive prophylaxis: voluntary parenthood] (in Spanish). Valencia: Pascual Quiles. OCLC 433153722.
  • ———— (1931). El problema sexual tratado por una mujer española [The sexual problem treated by a Spanish woman]. Temas de nuestro tiempo (in Spanish). Madrid: Javier Morata. OCLC 796327706.
  • ———— (1932). Malthusimo y neomalthusismo: control de la natilidad [Malthusianism and neo-Malthusianism: birth control]. Temas de nuestro tiempo (in Spanish). Madrid: Javier Morata. OCLC 1120227605.
  • ———— (1932). ¿Se equivocó Marx? [Was Marx wrong?] (in Spanish). Madrid: Ediciónes Boro. OCLC 45772419.
  • ———— (1932). ¿Quo vadis, burguesía? [Where are you going, bourgeoisie?]. La Novela Proletaria (in Spanish). Vol. 1. Madrid: Libertad. OCLC 828269832.
  • ———— (1937). Métodos para evitar el embarazo (Paternidad voluntaria) [Methods to avoid pregnancy (Voluntary parenthood)]. Ediciones Julio Pi-Mataró. OCLC 1004300994.

Further reading edit

  • Cal Martínez, Rosa (1991). A mi no me doblega nadie: Aurora Rodríguez, su vida y su obra (Hildegart) [No one bends me: Aurora Rodríguez, her life and her work (Hildegart)]. Documentos para a historia contemporánea de Galicia (in Spanish). Vol. 85. Sada, Galicia: Edicións do Castro. ISBN 9788474925425. LCCN 94195239. OCLC 27738749. OL 1201615M.
  • Llarch, Joan (1979). La virgen roja [The red virgin] (in Spanish). Barcelona: Producciones editoriales. ISBN 9788436513837. OCLC 1139503015.
  • Rendueles Olmedo, Guillermo (1989). El manuscrito encontrado en Ciempozuelos: análisis de la historia clínica de Aurora Rodríguez [The manuscript found in Ciempozuelos: analysis of the clinical history of Aurora Rodríguez]. Genealogía del poder (in Spanish). Vol. 16. Madrid: Endymion. ISBN 9788477310235. LCCN 89176046. OCLC 805688777. OL 1782619M.
  • Martinez López, Francisco; Ferrero Delso, Ventura (2006). De Pepito Arriola a Hildegart [From Pepito Arriola to Hildegart] (in Spanish). Ferrol, Spain: Sociedad de Cultura Valle-Inclán. ISBN 9788495289773. OCLC 434207627.

Works inspired by her life edit

Novels edit

Films edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Campos, Ricardo; Huertas, Rafael (2007-01-01). "'Délire eugénique' et meurtre. Le cas d'Aurora Rodríguez et sa représentation dans le film Mi hija Hildegart" ['Eugenic delirium' and murder. The case of Aurora Rodríguez and her representation in the film My Daughter Hildegart]. Criminocorpus. Revue d'Histoire de la justice, des crimes et des peines (in French). doi:10.4000/criminocorpus.250. hdl:10261/160044. ISSN 2108-6907. S2CID 191177436.
  2. ^ "Hildegart Rodríguez". Government of Spain (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2021-10-08. Retrieved 2022-03-29.
  3. ^ a b c d e Urzaiz, Begoña Gómez (2020-12-07). "El caso Hildegart: por qué nos obsesionan las madres asesinas" [The Hildegart case: why we are obsessed with murderous mothers]. El País (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2021-11-02. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
  4. ^ Ramírez de Arellano, Irene (2018-02-07). "La mujer española 'creada' y asesinada por su madre por no ser perfecta" [The Spanish woman 'created' and killed by her mother for not being perfect]. Vice.com (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2021-10-15. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
  5. ^ Benito, Carlos (2010-12-03). "Sangre de su sangre" [Blood of her blood]. El Correo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2018-06-16. Retrieved 2018-04-13.
  6. ^ García Santos, Juan Felipe (1980). Léxico y política de la Segunda República (in Spanish). University of Salamanca. p. 56. ISBN 9788474811131. LCCN 86188952. OCLC 630325050. OL 2310681M.)
  7. ^ Socialenchufista was a term roughly equivalent to Champagne socialist, pejoratively used to describe left-wingers with high relations[6]
  8. ^ Colomer, Eduardo Comín (2009) [1957]. La República en el exilio: 1939–1957 [The Republic in exile: 1939–1957]. Akrón Historia (in Spanish). Editorial Akrón. p. 193. ISBN 9788493650520. LCCN 2010476333. OL 24498938M.
  9. ^ Richard Cleminson (2003). ""Science and Sympathy" or "Sexual Subversion on a Human Basis"? Anarchists in Spain and the World League for Sexual Reform". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 12 (1): 120. doi:10.1353/sex.2003.0053. JSTOR 3704513.
  10. ^ Coleman, E. (2013-10-07). "Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira: a Prodigy, a Champion & the Tragedy". Margaret Sanger Papers Project. Archived from the original on 2021-10-12. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
  11. ^ Sinclair, Alison (2003). "The World League for Sexual Reform in Spain: Founding, Infighting, and the Role of Hildegart Rodriguez". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 12 (1): 98–109. doi:10.1353/sex.2003.0070. ISSN 1535-3605. S2CID 142427428.
  12. ^ Jiménez de Asúa, Luis (1945). Crónica del crimen [Chronicle of crime] (in Spanish). Editora inter-americana. p. 138. OL 15338626M.

External links edit

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