Contemporary records from the Archivo Histórico Provincial de Las Palmas document the use of disciplinary punishments in homes run by Franco’s Patronato de Protección a la Mujer. According to research by elDiario.es, published on 11 October 2026, one document explicitly records “30 días de arresto” for a guard’s lover. The surviving records date mainly from 1945 to 1953 and paint a picture of an institution that controlled and punished women and girls without a court trial.
The documents from Las Palmas also show how local officials described the institution’s financial position to the central administration in Madrid . In one letter, the secretary of the Junta de Las Palmas threatens to expel inmates unless new funds are provided. These finds support the historical assessment that the homes of the Patronato de Protección a la Mujer gave religious congregations considerable influence and wealth – including through the labour of inmates.
The Patronato de Protección a la Mujer was a pillar of moral and social control under the Franco dictatorship from 1941. It continued until the 1980s and was used to discipline young women, often minors, who were deemed “rebellious” or did not conform to the regime’s Catholic norms. The term “patriarchal justice”, coined by eyewitnesses and researchers to describe the system, finds concrete parallels in the case files from Las Palmas that have now come to light.
The publication comes amid recent steps by the Spanish authorities on the politics of remembrance: in March 2026, the Boletín Oficial del Estado documented the decision to initiate the process of designating the Patronato as a “Lugar de Memoria Democrática”. This preliminary administrative step recognises the institution’s national significance in the history of repression and lays the groundwork for further archival research, including in the Canary Islands.
What is clear is that the newly published records from Las Palmas document the use of detention and other coercive measures. Attribution of a structural logic to the repression rests on historical interpretation and wording documented in the files. It remains unclear to what extent individual cases can still be reconstructed precisely in legal or biographical terms; further archival discoveries and identification of the people involved would be needed. The publication is nevertheless likely to fuel further debate in Spain about recognition, coming to terms with the past and possible support for those affected.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).