The vintage photograph here presented was taken during Robert Capa's coverage of the fall of the revolutionary areas around Barcelona, depicting refugees around Tarragona, Spain on 15 January 1939. In Capa's own reportage acompanying the photographs he wrote: “There were people on foot, neighbors in groups, and small families. Some had hand carts, many had only market bags and baskets, which women often carried on their heads [...] Many had overladen farm carts, with two huge wheels, pulled by one ore two straining mules. When the animals got tired, even the women had to help push the carts slowly forward [...] What remains is the gamble shared by all the refugees. Above them are the enemy's planes and on the open road there is no protection from them. Everyone on the road is in the hands of Fate, with life-and-death stakes. Sometimes the planes swoop down and fire their machine guns at the procession, killing people and animals.” Whelan:“This is War, Robert Capa at work”, 2008, p. 191–193.

The photograph was published in Picture Post, 4 February 1939 with following caption: “A Village Takes the Road Together. Half a dozen women and two or three men were all the war had left in their small hamlet. They take the road together, loading the belongings of them all on to a small cart drawn by their two remaining mules”. The page spread of the reportage in Picture Post is depicted and described in Whelan, 2008, p. 188–198.

The photograph is also depicted in Whelan: Robert Capa, the definitive collection. 2004, p. 226.