Suze Rotolo, 1943 – 2011 The press is reporting the sad news of the death of Suze Rotolo, the American artist, teacher and political activist who was Bob Dylan’s companion and muse in the early 1960s. Rotolo is frequently credited with Dylan’s awakening to politics. According to one obituary she took the “then fairly...
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Marci Rubin, daughter of the late Lincoln veteran Hank Rubin, suggests that donations in Hank's memory be made to ALBA.
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In 1940, Francisco Franco, using the pseudonym Jaime de Andrade, authored a treatment for a screenplay, titled “Raza : Story lines for a film script.” The following year, the script was made into a feature-length film, produced by the government. The original text and the 1941 film are invaluable documents, as they offer us...
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The Spanish government will be financing Judge Garzón's work as part of a working group put together by the Organization of American States (OAS) to assist in Colombia's peace process, ABC reports. In an interview last week on Spanish national radio, Garzón expressed the hope that he would still be able to return...
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The Wall Street Journal's Richard Woodward writes a belated review of the "Mexican Suitcase" SCW photography exhibit:
What assistant curator Cynthia Young and her team have done with this material in less than three years is valiant. Along with reprinting a select group of photographs from the negatives for an...
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Ed Tracey at the DailyKos pens a long post on his Spanish heroes, Baltasar Garzón and King Juan Carlos:
Garzón's trial is scheduled to begin this summer - and this is an individual we should keep in our thoughts and prayers, hoping that our opponents will not be able to...
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The Guardian's Jonathan Jones reflects on George Orwell and Joan Miró's engagement with the Spanish Civil War:
Miró, like Picasso, reacted with deep emotion to the plight of Spain. His paintings see the violence of civil war in an old shoe, in the prongs of a fork, in a colossal...
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Raul del Pozo has been awared the prestigious Premio Primavera de Novela (200,000 euros) for El reclamo, the story of an former anti-Franco guerrilla who is forced into exile in South America. More here (English) and here (Spanish).
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Spain's national criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, has decided that the case for alleged torture perpetrated at the Guantánamo prison can go ahead. Judge Baltasar Garzón opened it in 2009, despite the resistance of the Attorney General and--as the WikiLeaks cables revealed--strong pressure from the US government and Congress. The case is conducted by...
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Marci Rubin, daughter of Lincoln Veteran Henry Mortimer “Hank” Rubin reports that her father passed away this morning in San Francisco.
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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
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New information about the New Zealand-born Spanish Civil War surgeon Doug Jolly (1904-1983) has emerged following the recent publication of his biography, Frontline Surgeon.
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On September 24, 1945, Dr. Barsky delivered this speech during the Spanish Refugee Appeal rally at Madison Square Garden.
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In 1944, Barsky wrote A Surgeon Goes to War, an 18-chapter memoir of his time in Spain, which was never published but can be consulted at NYU’s Tamiment Library. This is the first chapter.
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Self-effacing and shy though he was, Dr. Edward Barsky’s experience in Spain made him an outspoken activist, tireless organizer, innovative frontline surgeon, and political prisoner. “Eddie is a saint,” Hemingway wrote. “That’s where we put our saints in this country—in jail.”
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The Volunteer is thrilled to honor Dr. Barsky on the fiftieth anniversary of his death.
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For Edward Barsky, political and humanitarian activism were two sides of the same coin. Those who persecuted him begged to differ.
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The time she spent in civil-war Spain loomed large in the life of Martha Gellhorn, the St. Louis-born war journalist. “The truth is that Martha could not stop thinking, feeling, and writing about her Spanish experiences.” “Objectivity bullshit.” That’s what Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998) called the journalism of her day. Her letters to personalities like...
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Among the thousands of Jewish volunteers who joined the International Brigades were many descendants of the Sephardim. What was it like for them to “return” to Spain? Three case studies: Lini de Vries, César Covo, and Samuel Nahman, aka Manny Harriman.
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How the 22-year-old Jewish American dancer Janet Riesenfeld performed flamenco to help raise money for the Second Republic under fascist attack.
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Why did Jawaharlal Nehru, future prime minister of India, visit civil-war Spain in 1938? As it turned out, the triangular relationship between Britain, Spain, and India had deep cultural and geopolitical implications.
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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
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