Illustrations : numerous black and white photos in the text.
In early 1939, the Spanish Republic was living its last moments. The victory of the military junta led by General Franco is near. The civil war will throw more than 500,000 republicans on the roads of exile and they flock to France. A procession of "undesirables" is on the march. The department of the Pyrenees-Orientales is in the front line facing these hordes of "reds". Relations with the southern cousins had been distant for a long time, so that in 1939, for a Frenchman, Africa began beyond the Pyrenees. Catalan or Spanish farm workers in Roussillon were perceived as miserable people living on bread and onions. So there was great fear of welcoming all these "metèques", who were also communists. Today we know with certainty that only a quarter of the 500,000 republicans were workers and not all of them were subservient to Moscow! Many were doctors, lawyers, farmers, teachers and musicians who marched among them. With a few exceptions, the condescension of the French was terrible because it only takes a few days without a shower and without rest to have the face of a vagabond.