Essays

Siguiendo los pasos del Batallón Lincoln-Washington

July 2, 2012
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Siguiendo los pasos del Batallón Lincoln-Washington

(English version here.) A finales del año 2004 un buen amigo encontró, por casualidad, un grafiti en una pared de la ermita de San Gregorio en el municipio de Aguaviva (Teruel) hecho el día de Navidad de 1937 por el brigadista americano Edward Muscala. Aguaviva es el pueblo donde nació mi padre; aunque mi...
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In the footsteps of the Lincoln-Washington Battalion

July 1, 2012
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In the footsteps of the Lincoln-Washington Battalion

(Versión en castellano aquí.) At the end of 2004 a good friend  of mine found, by chance, a piece of graffiti on a wall in the chapel of San Gregorio in the town of Aguaviva (Teruel). It had been written on Christmas Day 1937 by Edward Muscala, an American member of the International...
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Los juicios de Garzón: Un editorial

January 18, 2012
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Los juicios de Garzón: Un editorial

(En inglés.) Si existieran agencias de calificación crediticia que se dedicaran a evaluar el estado moral de las instituciones de un país, ayer “España”, sin duda, habría sido devaluado al status de “bonos basura”. Su Tribunal Supremo abrió el primer juicio de tres contra el Juez Baltasar Garzón, iniciando así su ataque tri-partito...
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The radicalization of a Boston son

December 4, 2011
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The radicalization of a Boston son

Young men volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War for many reasons, but few American volunteers came from privileged backgrounds. When I saw 1938 and Calaceite, Spain, on a list of Williams College men who died in World War II, I was introduced to Barton Carter. The full story of Carter’s radicalization and...
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Salaria Kea’s Spanish memoirs

December 4, 2011
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Salaria Kea’s Spanish memoirs

Part of the difficulty in studying Kea’s life—and what makes her story so intriguing—is that subtle details change from memoir to memoir. Over the last three years, I have travelled to archives in the United States and England tracking down information about Kea, and yet I am still piecing together her story. The process...
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Documentaries of the Lincoln Brigade

December 4, 2011
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Documentaries of the Lincoln Brigade

Viewing seven documentaries about the Lincoln Brigade in two days, a curious thing happened: I had difficulty telling them apart. Not, of course, in their broad sweep. Rather, it was in the details, and more specifically in the archival footage, where I had difficulty distinguishing them.
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Buñuel and the outbreak of the war

December 4, 2011
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Buñuel and the outbreak of the war

Among the sources of information about Buñuel's activities during the first few weeks of the war: is a receipt signed dated 25 August 1936, for a loan of £490 granted by Leo Fleischman, an engineer from New York who enlisted in the Fifth Regiment and died in combat in October 1936.
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Masculinity, sexuality & anti-clerical violence

December 4, 2011
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Masculinity, sexuality & anti-clerical violence

This essay examines a crucial facet of violence against the clergy: the processes by which male identities, and popular ideas regarding priests’ sexuality and masculinity, influenced the forms and intensity of anticlerical violence. During the conflict, acts of violent anticlerical collective action were committed primarily by male workers. Although women did take part in...
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No man is a prophet in his own country: On Garzón’s legacy

November 6, 2011
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No man is a prophet in his own country: On Garzón’s legacy

(Texto en castellano.) The astoundingly profound and widespread contributions of Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón to the promotion of justice and human rights have been everywhere on display these last two weeks of October (October 16-30, 2011).  Though not always acknowledged in the headlines and soundbytes that are streaming in these days from...
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Frank and Ajax: A Beautiful Friendship

June 17, 2011
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Frank and Ajax: A Beautiful Friendship

Two Americans stand out as among the most effective and least typical of their generation to aid Spain in its fight against Fascism. Unlike most of the other U.S. volunteers who participated in the Spanish Civil War, the flyers Frank Tinker and Albert J. “Ajax” Baumler were not politically motivated men who learned to...
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