Letter from ALBA: A Community of Memory—and Action
Dear Friends,
“Community” is a word that comes up a lot in our work. ALBA’s mission as an educational nonprofit is to keep alive the memory of the close to 3,000 volunteers from the United States who joined the defense of the Spanish Republic when it was attacked by world fascism. An important part of that mission is to remind ourselves that those men and women were part of a much larger antifascist community—diverse, transnational, and internationalist—that was held together by the shared conviction that fascism, in all its guises, was an existential threat to humanity. Over the past ninety years, that community has evolved, as is only natural. Yet it continues to be alive and well—and it’s still held together by the same core commitment to the antifascist struggle.
Ours is a community of memory, to be sure. But it is also one of action. Much of ALBA’s work, in fact, is dedicated to defending and practicing what we could call an activist vision of memory. We don’t believe in remembering just for its own sake. We resist nostalgia when it is tinged with resignation and melancholy. And we know that our way of connecting the past with the present is up for dispute. Keeping the memory of the past alive, for us, means taking it seriously in all its complexity and contradictions. It’s the only way it can serve to guide us in our own complex and contradictory present.
Although none of the stories in this issue are simple, we hope you’ll find them all touching and compelling, from Ana María Díaz-Marcos’ portrait of the two Spaniards who, as members of the Joint Antifascist Refugee Committee, stood up to the US Congress during the Second Red Scare, to David Jorge’s take on Tina Modotti and Vittorio Vidali, or Steve Dinnen’s cover story on International Brigade exhumations in Catalonia. We’re particularly proud to feature two student authors: Max Hiznay, who writes about ALB vets at Arlington, and Jade Doerksen, who reminds us that the Pacific Northwest was a hotbed of antifascist activism. As our centerfold poster we feature a new, high-res print of what’s probably the best-known group shot of Lincoln volunteers. The story of that picture, which is much less well-known, is told on here.
We are a community of memory, yes, but what really binds us together is the ongoing pursuit of that still unrealized future which the Lincolns dreamt of and fought for –a future of peace, equality and justice. We appreciate you and we thank you for your unflagging support of our common work.
¡Salud!
Sebastiaan Faber & James D. Fernández
Editors
PS: If you donate $100 now, you’ll receive one of our custom-made T-shirts.
