About 30 years ago, I spent a long day driving from Long Island to Brandeis and back with two Lincoln vets—Bill Susman and George Watt—when the conversation turned to whether they had gone to Spain in 1937 as Communists or Jews. There was no question what had motivated them, it seemed, as the topic...
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The Susman lecture this year was delivered by Marc Fasanella, son of ALB veteran and artist Ralph Fasanella, who discussed his father’s life and work, including his experience during the Spanish Civil War. Luisais Taveras, a Hunter College undergraduate student, introduced the speaker and led the Q&A session. Luisais had previously interviewed Ralph for...
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The Foreign Language Department’s Spanish program at El Camino Community College (Torrance, California) is commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War with a series of activities and lectures from November 8 to 12. The five-day program includes talks on mass graves, pictorial art, military fortifications, news coverage in the US of the conflict,...
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Please join us in September and October for a full slate of Spanish Civil War-related events in the San Francisco Bay Area, closing with ALBA’s annual celebration on October 23 at the Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus. Exhibits Guerra Civil @ 80 Bancroft Library Display of Spanish Civil War Collection Corridor cases...
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In the spring of 1937 some twenty students from Brooklyn College volunteered to fight in Spain. This unique exhibit, curated by Prof. Alejandro Alonso, in partnership with ALBA, will cover three aspects: political life on campus in the 30s; the impact of the Spanish Civil War and the debates and confrontations that took place there; and the presence of Spanish Exiles...
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Impugning Impunity: ALBA’s 5th Human Rights Film Festival October 26-28, 2015 Instituto Cervantes New York 211 E. 49th Street New York, NY 10017 79TH Annual Celebration honoring the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Bay Area 1 pm to 3 pm Sunday, November 8, 2015 Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse 2020 Addison Street Berkeley, California 94704 For...
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On behalf of NYU’s Department of Spanish Literature and Portuguese, the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade...
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Join us for ALBA’s Bay Area Reunion!
Sunday, October 5, 2014 2:00 PM (doors open at 1:00 PM)
Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse
2020 Addison Street Berkeley, California
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Harry Belafonte, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, and Martin Sheen are among the members of the Honorary Committee inviting you to join us at the annual event in New York City honoring the volunteers of the Lincoln Brigade, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Guernica bombing, and supporting the fight for human rights. Tickets for the event...
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Trisha Ziff’s Mexican Suitcase, a gripping documentary on the photography and historical memory of the Spanish Civil War, has been selected for the New York and Los Angeles DocuWeeks, the San Sebastián Film Festival, the DocMiami International Film Festival, and as opening feature for the AFI Latin American Film Festival in Silver Spring, MD....
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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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Today, the ALBA Board of Governors issued the following statement: During this time of renewed labor action and organizing, ALBA reaffirms its support for the struggle for workers’ rights happening across the country. The headlines may announce victories, but they can also serve as a reminder that we must continue to be vigilant in...
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Inspirational and courageous; that was the IWW. Click here then the forward arrow to listen as author Ahmed White talks with former ALBA board member Burt Cohen about White’s new book Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers on the podcast keepingdemocracyalive.com.
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Nobody remembers Lloyd Mallan. I came across his name while writing a book on poet- playwright Federico García Lorca’s iconic afterlife. Mallan’s piece on the poet’s assassination, published in 1939, was instrumental in spreading to the U.S. and Canada a highly embellished narrative of poetic martyrdom that helped shape the public image of Lorca....
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ALBA is proud to partner with the Spanish government in the publication of a 60-page curricular guide for high-school students and teachers in Spain as part of a government-sponsored series. Highlighting the experiences of U.S. volunteers in the International Brigades, the guide invites readers to use these stories as an inspiration to set...
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For an English translation of this article, see here.
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On May 30, 1937, the Republican freighter Ciudad de Barcelona was hit by a torpedo fired by a lurking Nationalist submarine. The torpedo tore a gaping hole in the ship and it rapidly sank. A Republican seaplane drove the submarine away with a depth charge attack, then landed and began rescuing men in the...
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Dr. Irving Busch (1896-1960), a graduate of Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, volunteered to serve in Spain with the American Medical Bureau. In Spain, he served with the Republican Medical Services. Both before and after Spain Busch was an amateur photographer and he carried his camera along with him. After his death...
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The picture of a young man in a jaunty hat and a big smile stared out of the 1978 issue of The Volunteer. The photo was accompanied by a request for information about Sidney Lorraine who died in Spain during the course of The Retreats. There is no evidence of any replies. Sidney Hotchkiss...
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Many American veterans went on to serve in WWII and Korea. This list is a work in progress. Those marked with an “*” were killed during the war. Office of Strategic Services Aalto, William Oliver WWII US Army, joined December 1941 served as 1st SGT transfer to OSS April 12, 1942; Dismissed after he...
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Eddie O’Neill was born in the same County Tyrone neighborhood as the poet Charlie Donnelly (1914-1937), who was killed in action at Jarama while serving as a platoon leader with the James Connolly Section of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. Inspired by the sacrifice of his fellow countryman and fellow Irish Socialist Republican, Eddie set...
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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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