Los seguidores españoles de Celestín Freinet, aún cuando parezca inverosímil, estuvieron presentes en las entonces paupérrimas tierras de Las Hurdes de los primeros años treinta, coincidiendo la incipiente II República española e impulsados,en parte,por el marco general de renovación que la política educativa del nuevo régimen alentaba. Los niños de aquella comarca, que las viejas fotografías nos muestran descalzos y con síntomas de la necesidad que atenazaba a aquellas tierras, gozaron de la técnica de la imprenta, del texto libre, de la correspondencia interescolar y de otras innovaciones, entonces vanguardistas. Hubo maestros, jóvenes preocupados e inquietos, que se lanzaron a esta experiencia muy lejos de los grandes centros españoles de influencia freinetiana, en especial, del catalano-aragonés, y, aparentemente, por iniciativa propia: fueron escuelas-islas perdidas en la meseta central, remotísimas en Las Hurdes. Los maestros que hicieron esto no son conocidos con precisión. Las fuentes publicadas se refieren a muchos de ellos,algunas veces se cita la escuela,pero se deja al maestro en la sombra y otras al revés,e,incluso, se incluye en la influencia freinetiana a escuelas y maestros que nada tuvieron que ver con este asunto. Este trabajo quiere establecer documentalmente quiénes fueron los maestros freinetianos de Las Hurdes durante el período citado
Freinetian teachers in Las Hurdes during the Second Spanish Republic. Documented news As improbable as it seems, the Spanish followers of Celestin Freinet,were present in the very poor territories of Las Hurdes in the early 30s.They coincided with other followers of the incipient Second Spanish Republic and were partly motivated by the general framework of renewal encouraged by the education policy of the new regime.The children of that region, that the old photographs show us barefoot and with several symptoms of the necessity that afflicted that area,enjoyed the technique of the press,the free text,the inter-school correspondence and other innovations most modern for those days. There were teachers, worried and anxious young people that undertook this experience very far from the main Spanish centres of Freinetian influence, in particular from the Catalan-Aragonese area.These teachers, who apparently did it on their own initiative, were remote school-islands lost in the central plateau, far away in Las Hurdes.They are not known with accuracy, although the published sources refer to many of them. Sometimes the school is mentioned, but the teacher is left aside and some other times the opposite happens, and even schools and teachers that had nothing to do with this subject are included in the Freinetian influence. The aim of this work is to establish, with documentary evidence, who were the Freinetian teachers of Las Hurdes during the period mentioned.