Antonio Robles' La Cenicienta: A 'Cinderella' Retelling Censored in Franco's Spain

This essay analyses La Cenicienta (1936), the version of 'Cinderella' by Antoniorrobles, pioneer of children's literature in Spain, written towards the beginning of the Civil War (1936-9). Following the triumph of the Nationalists, censorship under Franco prohibited Antoniorrobles' work. Antoniorrobles' 'Cinderella' contradicts the fundamental premises of the new regime concerning class, gender, religion and race within Spanish society. In a comparative analysis, this essay examines the symbols (dress, king, and cook) and the omissions (religion, race) that appear in the story and that represent resistance to Franco's ideology on a textual level. It also studies how the story deconstructs these elements, taking into account for the basis of comparison the canonical versions of Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, among others.