LAS ASESINAS DE LA SOLEDAD
SCRIPT: ENRIC PUJADAS
ARTWORK: TOMEU RIERA
ARTWORK: TOMEU RIERA
This story is inspired by real events.
Between December 1939 and October 1940, in the Palma neighborhood of La Soledad, Magdalena Pons helped four women commit as many murders.
Unfortunately, the known facts don’t tell us why they did it.
That’s why we had to create this comic.
That’s why we had to create this comic.
Las asesinas de la Soledad follows the lives of six women shortly after the end of the Spanish Civil War, in the working-class neighborhood of La Soledad, Palma.
What we know about them is scant, as all the information comes from the trial records in which they were convicted. Sources from the time, and even a book as recent as 2004, blithely conclude that these women belong to a long tradition of women who poison their husbands—because, supposedly, that’s just how women are.
Without a hint of shame, they claim that Margalida murdered her husband because she wanted to become a prostitute, assuming that women turn to prostitution simply because they want to, with no consideration of the context of poverty and repression.
The sources also fail to question whether Antonia or Magdalena had any motivation beyond earning money when supplying poison to these women.
The truth is, we cannot know what drove these women to murder, but it’s hard to understand why no one considered that the dramatic circumstances of the society they lived in might have played a role. Women had lost all the rights they had gained under the Republic. Divorce was no longer an option. The Women’s Section of the Falange emphasized their absolute obedience to their husbands. All this in a Spain mired in poverty, subjected to rationing, and crushed by brutal reprisals.
Without intending to justify these murders, a minimal effort at empathy would reveal that these women were largely pushed by their circumstances. One crucial question must be asked: Why did they do it?
This is the question this comic seeks to answer through fiction, while remaining faithful to the few facts we do know. We know the dates of the murders, the methods used, the payments made, and some of the context surrounding their lives.
With that, we’ve had to make do.
Enric Pujadas, scriptwriter.
Las Asesinas de la Soledad will be available in bookstores across Spain starting in December 2024, as well as on the website of Editorial Dolmen, in both Spanish and Catalan.
Thank you very much!
