Essays

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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Marjorie Cohn: Focus on torture

June 16, 2011
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Marjorie Cohn: Focus on torture

A Spanish court has initiated criminal proceedings against six former officials of the Bush administration. John Yoo, Jay Bybee, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, William Haynes and Douglas Feith may face charges in Spain for authorizing torture at Guantánamo Bay. If arrest warrants are issued, Spain and any of the other 24 countries that are...
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Shouts of the Hostage’s Hostage: ¡Democracia Real Ya!

June 3, 2011
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Shouts of the Hostage’s Hostage: ¡Democracia Real Ya!

Today I’d like to share with you my honest understanding of what has been going on in Spain over the last few weeks.  It’s not easy to make sense of what’s going on; the mainstream Spanish press, in my opinion, has been getting things quite wrong, or else ignoring the situation, except in its...
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Picasso and Delaprée: new discoveries

April 20, 2011
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Picasso and Delaprée: new discoveries

I would like to add a note on Picasso's sketch on a copy of Paris-Soir of April 19th, 1937. Since my piece was published in The Volunteer I have come across some new information that links the evidence on Picasso's initial engagement with the Spanish Civil War at the end of 1936 and...
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The Last German Volunteer

March 4, 2011
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The Last German Volunteer

Fritz Teppich, no longer so agile physically at 92, is still mentally active and as cantankerous as ever, especially on three issues, to be mentioned later. But first it must be recorded that Fritz is the last survivor of some 3000 German volunteers who fought against fascism in Spain. He was one of the...
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