Mella founded La Propaganda in Vigo, a federalist publication with a focus on labor issues that lasted until 1885. In exile In 1882 he moved to Madrid as part of his imposed exile and there renewed contact with Juan Serrano. He married Serrano's daughter, Esparanza Serrano Rivera, with whom he had 12 children. In 1884 he collaborated with the monthly publication Acracia and the Barcelona Newspaper El Productor to translate Bakunin's God and State into Spanish. On the advice of his father-in-law Mella studied topography and moved to Andalusia to work. In Seville he founded several newspapers, among them La Solidaridad in 1888. He attended the 1st and 2nd Socialist Competitions (Reus 1885, Barcelona 1889), entering 8 essays, all of which won prizes: "El problema de la emigración en Galicia"; "Diferencias entre el comunismo y el colectivismo"; "La anarquía: su pasado, su presente y su porvenir"; "Breves apuntes sobre las pasiones humanas"; "La nueva utopía (novela imaginaria)"; "El colectivismo: sus fundamentos científicos"; "Organización, agitación, revolución y El crimen de Chicago". Return to Galicia In 1895 Mella returned to Vigo. He remained there a short time, going to Pontevedra in 1897 to work on the construction of a railroad. There he was in close contact with the editors of La Unión Republicana and wrote for El Progresso in Madrid and El Corsario in A Coruña. He denounced the execution of anarchists in Montjuic and began his task of spreading anarchism among the Galician peasantry. At the same time he collaborated with the periodicals La Revista Blanca, La Anarquía y La Idea Libre in Madrid, El Despertar in New York, and the magazines Ciencia Social in Barcelona and Buenos Aires, La Questione Sociale in Buenos Aires, and L'Humanite Nouvelle in Paris. In 1896 he published the book Lombroso y los anarquistas (Barcelona, 1896), in which he criticizes the theories of criminologist Cesare Lombroso. Around the same time he published Los sucesos de Jerez (Barcelona, 1893), La barbarie gubernamental en España (Brooklyn, 1897), La ley del número (Vigo, 1899), La cooperación libre y los sistemas de comunidad, Del amor, modo de acción y finalidad social (Barcelona, 1900), Táctica socialista (Madrid, 1900) y La coacción moral (1901). Legacy Mella wrote more than thirty essays throughout his life. Some of his writings received international awards and were translated into Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, English, and French. He collaborated with numerous periodicals in many countries. Key anarcho-syndicalist