In a recent post in the Spanish-language blog FronteraD, filmmaker and novelist Alfonso Domingo reviews these two new books: Spanish translations of the memoirs of the Lincoln volunteer, James Yates (From Mississippi to Madrid: Memoirs of an African-American in the Lincoln Brigade) and of the complete writings of Langston Hughes about the war in Spain....
Read more »
Several months ago, President Zapatero appointed a committee of experts to put together a report with recommendations on the future of the Valle de los Caídos, the pharaonic monument and burial place of José Antonio Primo de Rivera (founder of Spain’s fascist party, Falange) and the Generalísimo himself, Francisco Franco. The committee issued its...
Read more »
The Spanish daily Público reports: Spain’s Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts has uploaded to the Ministry of Culture’s youtube channel a selection of 93 film documents from its historical archive and from the Spanish Civil War holdings of Spain’s Filmoteca. Many of the Civil War documentaries were included on a wonderful DVD collection...
Read more »
It was in 2006 that I first saw this phrase, on a button worn by a young man on the uptown 6 train. I was on the subway heading up to the Museum of the City of New York for a meeting related to the exhibition “Facing Fascism: New York and the Spanish Civil...
Read more »
From News of Spain, November 9, 1938 New Pellagra Cure to Madrid Thirty-nine of America’s leading scientists, incuding three Nobel Laureates and thirteen members of the National Academy of Sciences, joined last week in sending to pellagra victims in Madrid a special gift of twenty-five pounds of nicotinic acid, the newly discovered cure for...
Read more »
I’m feeling a bit guilty for having subjected the students in my graduate seminar this week to the viewing of all 77 minutes of Defenders of the Faith, a pro-Franco documentary filmed between 1936 and 1938 by the American journalist Russell Palmer. The film is narrated by Palmer himself. To assuage my conscience, I’ve...
Read more »
While poking around ancestry.com, I somehow ended up in a cache of documents from the National Archives and Records Administration –“Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835 – 1974- Spain, 1930-1939.” As you can imagine, each document there is the germ of a novel or film, and, not surpisingly, there are a significant...
Read more »
Two-thirds of the way into Trisha Ziff’s brilliant documentary about the re-discovery in Mexico of 4,500 Spanish Civil War photographic negatives of Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David Seymour, two Mexican intellectuals comment on the donation of that vast archive to the International Center of Photography in New York. Photographer Pedro Meyer openly says...
Read more »
A beautiful album, courtesy of the AABI (Asociación de Amigos de las Brigadas Internacionales) with images from: Inauguration of the monument to the International Brigades at Madrid’s Ciudad Universitaria. Concert/homage to the IB Visit to the Fuencarral Cemetery Visit to the Jarama battlefield Luncheon at Rivas Vaciamadrid in honor of the IB. See album...
Read more »
Translation of remarks made by the President of the Asociación de Amigos de las Brigadas Internacionales (AABI), Ana Pérez, at the inauguration of the monument to the International Brigades at Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid, Spain. October 22, 2011. A monument to the International Brigades is, above all, a monument to international solidarity. And in this...
Read more »
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) is an educational non-profit dedicated to promoting social activism and the defense of human rights. ALBA’s work is inspired by the American volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Learn more at our website or
sign up to receive email updates from ALBA. Support ALBA through a tax-deductible gift! To inquire about a donation, please contact the ALBA office at info@alba-valb.org or 212-674-5398.
Today, the ALBA Board of Governors issued the following statement: During this time of renewed labor action and organizing, ALBA reaffirms its support for the struggle for workers’ rights happening across the country. The headlines may announce victories, but they can also serve as a reminder that we must continue to be vigilant in...
Read more »
Inspirational and courageous; that was the IWW. Click here then the forward arrow to listen as author Ahmed White talks with former ALBA board member Burt Cohen about White’s new book Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers on the podcast keepingdemocracyalive.com.
Read more »
Nobody remembers Lloyd Mallan. I came across his name while writing a book on poet- playwright Federico García Lorca’s iconic afterlife. Mallan’s piece on the poet’s assassination, published in 1939, was instrumental in spreading to the U.S. and Canada a highly embellished narrative of poetic martyrdom that helped shape the public image of Lorca....
Read more »
ALBA is proud to partner with the Spanish government in the publication of a 60-page curricular guide for high-school students and teachers in Spain as part of a government-sponsored series. Highlighting the experiences of U.S. volunteers in the International Brigades, the guide invites readers to use these stories as an inspiration to set...
Read more »
For an English translation of this article, see here.
Read more »
On May 30, 1937, the Republican freighter Ciudad de Barcelona was hit by a torpedo fired by a lurking Nationalist submarine. The torpedo tore a gaping hole in the ship and it rapidly sank. A Republican seaplane drove the submarine away with a depth charge attack, then landed and began rescuing men in the...
Read more »
Dr. Irving Busch (1896-1960), a graduate of Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, volunteered to serve in Spain with the American Medical Bureau. In Spain, he served with the Republican Medical Services. Both before and after Spain Busch was an amateur photographer and he carried his camera along with him. After his death...
Read more »
The picture of a young man in a jaunty hat and a big smile stared out of the 1978 issue of The Volunteer. The photo was accompanied by a request for information about Sidney Lorraine who died in Spain during the course of The Retreats. There is no evidence of any replies. Sidney Hotchkiss...
Read more »
Many American veterans went on to serve in WWII and Korea. This list is a work in progress. Those marked with an “*” were killed during the war. Office of Strategic Services Aalto, William Oliver WWII US Army, joined December 1941 served as 1st SGT transfer to OSS April 12, 1942; Dismissed after he...
Read more »
Eddie O’Neill was born in the same County Tyrone neighborhood as the poet Charlie Donnelly (1914-1937), who was killed in action at Jarama while serving as a platoon leader with the James Connolly Section of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. Inspired by the sacrifice of his fellow countryman and fellow Irish Socialist Republican, Eddie set...
Read more »
ALBA's project to provide a complete list of the more than 2,800 individuals who left from U.S. territory to fight with the Spanish Republic
Search the Database