Letter from ALBA: A Busy Fall
Dear Friends and Comrades:
We hope you had a wonderful summer. ALBA and its Board members, braving the summer heat, with your encouragement and support have been involved in a range of initiatives—including planning for the fall celebrations in the Bay Area (see page 3), the Watt essay contest (winners will be announced shortly), updates in the volunteers’ online biographical database (www.alba-valb.org/volunteers), and securing new acquisitions for the archives.
During the coming fall, ALBA continues its work with high school educators around the country. We currently have programs planned at Balboa High School in San Francisco and with teachers in western Massachusetts, New York City, New Jersey, and Seattle, Washington. We are making plans for the spring term as well.
We want to take this opportunity to bring you up to speed with our efforts to preserve our revered Abraham Lincoln Brigade monument in San Francisco. The process has been time consuming but we feel confident that most of the bureaucratic and technical hurdles are behind us. We’re working with a local architectural preservation company to develop new panels that are more suitable to withstand both vandalism and the harsh weather conditions of the San Francisco waterfront.
Members of the original Bay Area committee, as well as architectural experts, have approved the use of new materials. The total cost of the renovation will run approximately $65,000. With our fundraising campaign underway, we estimate the work will be completed in spring 2017.
We are working actively to ensure that the restored monument will continue to honor our volunteers and serve as an inspiration for future generations. As always, we need you on our side. Please consider making an additional contribution this year to bring our monument—and our memories—back to life!
Mil gracias and ¡Salud!
Fraser Ottanelli, Chair of the Board of Governors
Marina Garde
Executive Director
P.S. Looking forward to seeing you at our special Bay Area 80th celebration weekend October 22-24. For more details see the facing page.
Hi, Ottanelli. I just came across The Volunteer on line, and before leaving a comment on Chris Brook´s great work on Jarama, started to look into it´s general general information, editors, etc. and I refound you after all these years!! I am sure you don´t remember me at all, but I still keep in a distinctive place in my library the copy of your book on the history of the Communist Party of the USA, you kindly gave me quite over 20 years ago, I believe, al Marel´s house in Nuevo Vedado, in Havana. Of course we were so young then !! It´s great to see you again behind this also great project. And it makes me very happy also to see that my article on the Centuria Guiteras, one of Brooks sources, was in some way useful. Also Denise Urcelay´s great book. It´s fascinating seeing such great collective effort in one great piece. All the best for you and your collegues! The best of luck!
Dra. Ana Suare Diaz
La Habana, Cuba