Here is the keynote address that Jeff Chang gave at ALBA's 2022 Bay Area Gala. Click here to see the videorecording.
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Drawing close to 1,000 viewers, ALBA’s Bay Area gala on October 15 offered an inspiring mix of history, music, and activism. Richard Bermack moderated the online event.
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Michael Ugarte, Mercedes Light and Dark. Columbia, MO: Compass Flower Press, 2022. 200pp.
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Carole Naggar. David ‘Chim’ Seymour: Searching for the Light, 1911-1956. De Gruyter, 2022. 294 + x pp.
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Sister Benedicta (aka Andrea Sender), daughter of the celebrated Spanish novelist Ramón J. Sender, who lived in exile in the United States from Franco’s fascist regime, died on June 11. Her parents—Ramón, the prize-winning novelist, and his wife, Amparo Barayón—were strong opponents of the uprising in 1936. At the outbreak of the war, her...
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The Last Cause is an outstanding documentary in three parts on the Lincoln Brigade and International Brigades. Directed in 1976 by Stephen K. Franklin and Alex Cramer and shown briefly on CBC TV, it has now been made publicly available by Harvard University. The Last Cause, part I Part I, of The Last Cause,...
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After a move and renovation that were slowed down by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Tamiment Library has reopened for research appointments. Please note that Reading Rroom seats are limited and appointment slots are currently booking at least several weeks in advance. External researchers are advised that all visitors to NYU Campus buildings, including the...
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“Books join us together as a global reading community, but more important, a global human community striving to learn from the past.” In the spirit of these words by New York Times bestselling author Ruta Sepetys, I invite you to join us as we examine fiction and nonfiction about Spain and its historical legacy...
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Sixty people died when the Ciudad de Barcelona was torpedoed by the Italians off the Catalan coast. Rob MacDonald’s interactive Solidarity Park turns their memory into an invitation for activism.
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When 93-year-old Rosa Ruivenkamp died in 2019, in her nightstand her son found a blue notebook that had belonged to her brother Evert, who had been active in the resistance and was murdered by the Nazis in 1943. The notebook—which, fortunately was not thrown out—turned out to contain the diary notes Evert had written...
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Around the turn of the millennium, the association of British veterans of the Spanish Civil War merged with the Friends of the International Brigades to form the International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT), ALBA’s sister organization in the UK. Like ALBA, the IBMT is dedicated to keeping alive the memory of the antifascist volunteers who...
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For more than 80 years, historians have ignored the important role played by thousands of women soldiers in the People’s Army of the Spanish Republic. A new dissertation takes a crucial first step to correct the record.
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Eighty-six years after the last soldiers in the Lincoln Brigade left Spain, their legacy continues. As veterans shared their stories with friends and family, they shaped the lives of their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. The family of Lincoln veteran Oiva Halonen, a Finnish-American volunteer, is one example.
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Dear Friends, Putting together a quarterly magazine is a surefire way to make time fly. As this issue goes to print, your editors are already thinking about the next one, approaching authors, agreeing on word counts, setting deadlines—before we know it, another three months have passed. Since we last wrote, the US Supreme Court...
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More than 90 percent of the teachers who participate in ALBA’s teaching institutes report that they use ALBA’s materials in their work. Two testimonials from participants in our most recent five-week workshop.
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On October 20 at 3 PM EDT / 12 PM PDT, the Perry Rosenstein Cultural Series will resume with a roundtable presentation on Spain, World War II, and the Holocaust, with ALBA board members Gina Herrmann and Robert Coale, who will be accompanied by Sara Brenneis and Joshua Goode. For updates, check the online...
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The Susman Lecture is back! Join us on Sunday, December 4, at 3PM EST/12PM PST, for a live Zoom presentation with Nora Guthrie, daughter of singer and activist Woody Guthrie (1912-67), whose recording of Jarama Valley is legendary, and who in 1952 wrote a series of songs against Franco. Ms. Guthrie began her career...
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Please join us on October 15 at 1pm PST (4pm EST) for the annual online gala organized by ALBA’s Bay Area Committee. This online event will feature a keynote by Jeff Chang; a presentation on Asian veterans of the International Brigades by experts Nancy and Len Tsou; Patrick Riccards of Life After Hate, the...
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Mark your calendars. ALBA is proud and excited to present a full slate of events for the next three months, with the Bay Area Gala, a Susman Lecture, a workshop, and other gatherings--both online and in-person.
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On April 9, Vero Maynez and Nathan Payne, two Berkeley-trained actors, movingly interpreted excerpts from the Spanish Civil War correspondence between Lincoln volunteer George Watt and his wife Ruth. Stage-directed by ALBA’s Peter Glazer and presented by María Hernández-Ojeda, the event brought the online audience to tears. The performance was based on a script...
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Peter Rutkoff, Before Che: M-26-7. Gambier, OH: XOXOX Press, 2019. 284pp.
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Jim Higgins (with Janette Higgins), Fighting for Democracy: The True Story of Jim Higgins (1907-1982). Victoria, B.C.: Friesen Press, 2020. 196pp.
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Red Tarancón: Spaniards and Internationals in a Tarancón at War. Cuenca: Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica, 2022.
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Dorian L. (Dusty) Nicol. “Miss Spain in Exile”: Isa Reyes’ Escape from the Spanish Civil War. Eastbourne and Chicago: Sussex Academic Press, 2021. 240pp.
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The Catalan government officially inaugurated its plans to exhume, identify, and repatriate the remains of International Brigade volunteers who died in Catalonia.
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At ALBA’s 2022 online gala, I spoke with the Spanish filmmaker Almudena Carracedo, who together with Robert Bahar created The Silence of Others (2018), an award-winning documentary about memory, truth, and justice. Here is the entire conversation.
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Like many participants in the 1936 Popular Olympics in Barcelona, Alfred Chakin was a talented athlete. He was also a committed antifascist.
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The Spanish Civil War is often viewed as the first in which radio was used as a political and military weapon and an important instrument of propaganda. The radio provided a welcome means of entertainment and distraction amid the devastation and hardship. But what role did radio music play in the conflict and what...
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The Russian invasion of Ukraine—which ALBA forcefully condemned—has unleashed a fascinating debate about historical parallels with the Spanish Civil War. A sampling.
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"His Knee" and "The Spectrum"
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Tributes by Daniel Czitrom, Gladys and Neal Rosenstein, Helen Graham, Paul Preston, James D. Fernández, Ellyn Polshek, and Anthony Geist.
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Peter N. Carroll—renowned historian, poet, and (co-)editor of this magazine for more than twenty years—has been involved with ALBA for four decades. Time for a tribute.
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Dear friends, As this issue goes to press, ALBA is wrapping up a busy, program-filled spring. A highlight, no doubt, was our online gala on April 30, which included the ALBA/Puffin Award for Life After Hate, along with stirring music and thought-provoking conversations about the relevance today of the legacy embodied by the International...
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In March and April, ALBA offered a five-week online workshop to close to 30 teachers from the United States and elsewhere, working with the Collaborative for Educational Services of Massachusetts.
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A new educational law in Massachusetts encourages teachers to teach about genocide—including cases in US history—the in the context of human rights. The connection with ALBA’s teaching institutes is clear.
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