On Sunday, April 16 (details | tickets), the annual ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism will be granted to Proactiva Open Arms (POA), a humanitarian aid organization based in Badalona (Catalonia) dedicated to rescuing refugees who take to the sea in an attempt to flee war, persecution, and poverty, and to reach the...
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Dear Editor, After 25 years of receiving and enjoying The Volunteer I was saddened by the unbalanced and misleading article by Eric R. Smith entitled How to understand the Catalan Independence Movement published in No. 3 of Vol. XXXIII. Though I’m too far removed from my research to properly comment on the simplistic statements...
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This November, ALBA organized three full-day professional development institutes for high school teachers in New York City, New Jersey, and Seattle, Washington, led by Peter N. Carroll, James D. Fernández, Anthony Geist, and Gina Herrmann. The institutes gathered close to 80 teachers to work on lesson plans incorporating the history of the Spanish Civil...
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Berkeley, California, flagship campus of the University of California, knows how to stage a political fight. To mark the 80th Anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the campus featured a spectacular series of events—lectures, panel discussions, archival exhibitions from the Bancroft Library, film screenings, and poetry readings—honoring the volunteers of the...
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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’...
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Eleven panels have been shattered and are now completely gone, while other panels have active cracks and are missing large areas. The parts that were grafittied and cleaned in the past have, over time, become discolored and need treatment. With support from your donations, ALBA, working with the Architectural Resources Group, will replace the Onyx...
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Please join us in September and October for a full slate of Spanish Civil War-related events in the San Francisco Bay Area, closing with ALBA’s annual celebration on October 23 at the Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus. Exhibits Guerra Civil @ 80  Bancroft Library Display of Spanish Civil War Collection Corridor cases...
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During a brief visit to Spain in July, President Obama met with the leaders of Spain’s largest political parties. Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias took advantage of the occasion to give Obama William Katz’s Picture History of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
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On May 7th over 200 family, friends and supporters of the women and men of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade met at Japan Society in Manhattan for an afternoon of poetry, socializing, and song. Together we commemorated the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, the defense of Madrid, and the arrival...
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Our colleague Tony Geist—the longest serving ALBA Board member, professor of Spanish at the University of Washington, author and translator—has been awarded one of Spain’s highest civil honors, membership into the Order of Isabella the Catholic with the first-class title of Caballeros de la Gran Cruz de Oficial, or Knights of the Officer’s Cross....
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