Théo Francos, who died a couple of days ago (obit in El País here), may have been a French communist, but he was also a war hero, fighting in the international brigades and risking his life in the Spanish Civil War. Six years after an article about Francos was published in El...
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Democracy Now! presents a full-hour tribute to Woody Guthrie who, along with Pete Seeger, was a good friend of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (listen to his version of Jarama Valley here):

Commemorations are being held across the country this year to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of...
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A plaque honouring the volunteers from the British Isles who fought in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 will be unveiled this Saturday (7 July) by one the last surviving British veterans of the war. David Lomon, 93, will unveil the new plaque in Jubilee Gardens in London’s South Bank (access from Belvedere Road,...
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With over 21.3 million registered voters, it is clear that the United States' Latino population will have a significant impact in the upcoming presidential elections this November. At the same time, both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have faltered in their respective advertising campaigns when it comes to marketing themselves to Latino voters. While...
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Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) has won the Mexican presidential election, beating out Andres Lopez Manuel Obrador of the Leftist Party with a plurality of 38 percent of the vote. The election of Peña Nieto signifies Mexico's frustration with the weak agenda of current president Felipe Calderrón of the PAN...
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It wasn’t until I began scanning the old crumbling panoramic photograph that I started to become suspicious.  The image is spectacular: a large crowd of Spanish immigrants poses for a picture at some kind of picnic.  The owner of the photo and several of the Spaniards I’ve been interviewing in Monterey told me that...
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This coming July 7, at 12:30pm, the International Brigade Memorial in London's Jubilee Gardens will serve as the gathering point for a commemorative event featuring speakers, poetry, and music. More information on the flier (pdf).
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I’m back in Monterey, California, following up on the story of the Spanish immigrants who settled in this area in the early decades of the 20th century.  I’m constantly surprised both by the ubiquity of photographs, stories, and objects related to the Republic and the Spanish Civil War, and by the relative oblivion into...
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This past Tuesday, Jorge Rafael Videla, the ex Argentine dictator who ruled from 1976 to 1983, gave his final words in his court case regarding the theft of babies from pregnant women during the country's Dirty War. According to elpais.com, the 86 year-old Videla used this platform as a means for insulting the...
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This coming fall, many renowned Spanish liberals and intellectuals will be promoting and celebrating a so-called Conference of Writers, Intellectuals, and Artists for the Compromise. The conference is set to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the "legendary Second International Writers' Conference for the Defense of Culture, which in the summer of 1937 met...
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