On a visit to Spain, Pope Benedict XVI issues surprisingly harsh criticism of the country's political direction, the AP reports:
On his way to Santiago, Benedict told reporters that the anticlericalism seen now in Spain was reminiscent of the 1930s, when the church suffered a wave of violence and persecution...
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Today is the first All Saints Day, the traditional day to visit the graves of loved ones who have passed away, that relatives of the 3,543 Republicans assassinated by Francoists either during or after the Civil War in the cementery near Torrero prison can visit a plaque with their name on it in the...
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In an interview with Matthew Garrahan in the Financial TImes, acclaimed film director Michael Mann tells about the projects he has underway, including the Hollywood version of the Spanish Civil War romance between the legendary war photographers Robert Capa and Gerda Taro:
He has bought the rights to the story...
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Giles Tremlett reports for the Guardian:
In a stark reversal of roles, an Argentine judge has taken a step towards opening the first comprehensive investigation into the human rights abuses of General Franco's dictatorship in Spain. Judge María Servini has asked Spain to declare whether its...
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he seventieth anniversary of the death of Republican President Manuel Azaña, who passed away on November 3rd, 1940, in France, prompts Público's Diego Barcala to reconsider his legacy. The Spaniards' collective memory of Azaña, he writes, remains strangely similar to the image of Azaña engineered by the Franco regime. Meanwhile, the conservative...
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Andrea Thompson loves Manuel de Lope's The Wrong Blood, whose story opens just before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War:
This absorbing novel — the first from the distinguished Spanish author to be translated into English — is full of mild sensations.... While the uncovering of secrets provides the...
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The tour for friends and family of the Lincoln Vets, organized by Alan Warren, started three days ago. Follow their adventures on the blog:
Our last stop was to the Brigade cookhouse below the monument. This was close to where Frank Ryan and Jock Cunningham rallied the demoralised Brigaders on...
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Len Tsou just shared his images with us:
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The Spanish Civil War and the defeat of the Republic, immediately followed by the outbreak of World War II, pushed hundreds of thousands of Republicans into exile. But the diaspora was not limited to people: archives, too, were dispersed (hence the "Mexican Suitcase")--and so were works of art. Picasso's monumental painting Guernica, the...
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In response to the brief presented last week outlining the third case against Judge Baltasar Garzón, this one related to alleged irregularities in Garzón's order for a wiretap of Valencian politicians involved in a corruption scandal (the subject of a recent editorial in El País), Garzón declared through his defense attorney that...
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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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