Transatlantic Solidarities: Uruguayan Students and Anti-Franco Activism, 1936–65

During Uruguay’s dictatorship in the 1930’s, the Federation of Uruguayan University
Students (FEUU) developed a staunch anti-dictatorship platform that critiqued recent
politics at home, but also extended beyond its national borders. Throughout the 1940s
and 50s, the FEUU became increasingly outspoken about student struggles under
dictatorship around the world and the repression in General Francisco Franco’s Spain
became an important part of FEUU activism. The organization regularly publicized
student struggles in Spain, published their peers’ manifestos, and offered safe-haven in
Montevideo to students fleeing in exile. Over the years, various cohorts of students in
both Spain and Uruguay sustained this partnership, building a robust transatlantic student
network during the Early Cold War. This partnership greatly influenced the FEUU
leadership and solidified the organization’s commitment to building student solidarities
around the world and to inserting themselves into public discourse on international
affairs. In many ways, these student networks preceded (and helped lay the groundwork
for) the global surges of student activism in 1968. Drawing on FEUU documents,
publications, conference proceedings, and oral histories, this paper explores the growth
and legacies of Uruguayan-Spanish student solidarities during the Early Cold War.