Académique Documents
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Culture Documents
4 December 2009
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Dear ALBA Friends, International Brigades. As volun-
It’s been a busy year. My first teer Matti Mattson said, he and his
week with ALBA, in October ber ffellow Brigaders have claimed this
2008, gave me a wonderfull intro- citizenship
c in the name of all those
duction to our community with who
w volunteered and are no longer
the 70th anniversary Despedida
edida with
wi us.
event. Also in October, histo-
to- On behalf of ALBA and its Board
rian Helen Graham gave the he of G
Governors, I thank all of the ALBA
Bill Susman Lecture on what hat community
com for their support. Working
the Brigadistas have taught ht us together,
toget 2010 will see our continued
about crossing borders of all dedication
dedic to the history and legacy of
kinds. the Abraham
Ab Lincoln Brigade.
In 2009, we continued
with the inspirational les- All My Best for the New Year,
sons of crossing borders. Jeanne Houck
Many of our programs Executive Director
and events were made Jhouck@alba-valb.org
possible through won-
derful institutional partnerships,
rships,
including the Puffin Foundation,
dation, Tamiment Library,
y
the King Juan Carlos I Center,
nter the Steinhardt School of
Education, the Catalan Center, the Gotham Center for
NYC History and the Instituto Cervantes New York.
We began the year with a Walter Rosenblum pho-
tographic exhibit on refugees. This theme continued in The Volunteer
the spring with a full-day symposium and with our San founded by the
Francisco and New York 73rd anniversary reunions. Veterans of the
In New York, Pete Seeger’s friends decided to hold his Abraham Lincoln Brigade
birthday party the same day as the ALBA reunion. True an ALBA publication
to what I have learned about the ALBA community, there 799 Broadway, Suite 341
was no competition. Instead, there was a characteristi- New York, NY 10003
cally inclusive effort to do both events. What I have (212) 674-5398
learned about the ALBA community is that we are dedi- Editorial Board
cated, energetic, and really a lot of fun! Peter N. Carroll • Gina Herrmann
There have been many other wonderful events this Fraser Ottanelli
past year, too numerous to list. It has been especially Book Review Editor
uplifting that we have been able to reach out to new gen- Shirley Mangini
erations with our educational programs.
Art Director-Graphic Designer
The year 2009 also has been a time of anniversa- Richard Bermack
ries, celebrations and remembrance. Founded in 1979,
Editorial Assistance
ALBA celebrated its 30th anniversary. And recently, we
Nancy Van Zwalenburg
gathered for a 25th year anniversary screening of the
documentary film, The Good Fight: the Abraham Lincoln Submission of Manuscripts
Please send manuscripts by E-mail or on disk.
Brigade and the Spanish Civil War. ALBA also participated
E-mail: volunteer@rb68.com
in the dedication of a new commemorative plaque at the
cemetery of Fuencarral, Madrid.
We have also seen volunteers take advantage of
the Spanish government’s offer of citizenship for the
New Jersey Teachers Keep the Memory
Alive: A Letter to ALBA
T
he history of the Abraham
Lincoln Brigade has all but been
forgotten in American high
schools, with history textbooks barely
making mention of these “premature
anti-fascists.” But over the last two
years, 33 students from the Bergen
County Academies, a magnet high
school in Hackensack, New Jersey,
have opted to learn more about the
American volunteers of the Spanish
Civil War by enrolling in a new open
project called “Political Activism Then
and Now: Lessons of the Abraham
Lincoln Brigade.”
The idea for this course originated issues—political, social, economic, or this project possible: Principal Danny
in the summer of 2008 during a week- environmental—and drawing up a Jaye and Lee Frissell of NYU for giv-
long workshop at New York plan of political action based on a ing us the opportunity to participate
University. Three teachers from BCA, cause they would like to take up. in the workshop that led to the cre-
Gabriella Calandra and Carlos The two classes learned a lesson ation of this project; NYU Professor
Gonzalez from the World Language in historiography by taking a field trip James Fernandez, Jeanne Houck,
Department and Sergei Alschen from to the Tamiment Library at NYU in Executive Director of the Abraham
History, were among the 16 teachers April and October and conducting Lincoln Brigade Archives, and Gail
that participated. archival research. The students spent Malmgreen, Associate Head for
The project allows students to time reading letters written by and to Archival Collections at the Tamiment
explore not only the confluence of the veterans, which they used to pro- for providing us with access to the
international, Spanish, and American duce a short written account of what archival documents; and Peter Carroll
conditions that led to the Spanish they learned. Having access to the for all of his guidance during our
Civil War, but also to learn about what actual documents written in a trench NYU summer seminar and for his
motivated young people in the 1930s at the front or a hospital behind the wonderful book, The Odyssey of the
to take up the cause of justice and to lines brought the realities of conflict Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which we use
fight against fascism on the other side closer to home for the students. They as one of our textbooks for the project.
of the world, when their own country also browsed the political posters Most of all, thanks to the students that
prohibited them from doing so. The from the Spanish Civil War, learning have enrolled in this project for mak-
project culminates with the students the importance of the messages con- ing it so interesting and so much fun
identifying contemporary veyed in them to mobilize support for to teach.
the Republican cause. Finally, the stu- Sergei Alschen
dents viewed the documentary movie History Department
The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln serals@bergen.org
Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, which Gabriella Calandra
culminated in a spirited class discus- World Language Department
sion about the heroism of the veterans. gabcal@bergen.org
Mrs. Calandra and I would like to Bergen County Academies
thank the following people for making
Book Notes
Norway & the Spanish Civil War War is Beautiful
Tusen Dager: Norge og den Spanske Poet James Neugass's account of
Borgerkrigen 1936-1939 (A Thousand the Spanish Civil, along with other
Days: Norway and the Spanish Civil Spanish Civil War books, is avail-
War 1936-1939), a Norwegian lan- able from Powell's Books through
guage book about the Norwegian the ALBA website, www.alba-valb.
volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, org/books, and the ALBA office,
by Jo Stein Moen and Rolf Sæther, 212-674-5398.
has recently been published. The Hardcover: 26.95
ISBN is 9788205393516. To order the
book, go to www.tusendager.no.
D
rawings of airplanes, bombing
raids, soldiers in combat, and
civilians wounded and dying
made by young Spaniards in
Children’s Colonies saw the light of
day 70 years later in Havana, Cuba.
On September 22, 2009, I had the
honor of speaking at the opening of
“They Still Draw Pictures: Children’s
Drawings from the Spanish Civil
War,” on display in the Pablo de la
Torriente Brau Cultural Center, named
for the Cuban volunteer who died
defending Madrid early in the war. Tony Geist (holding print) with "niños de la guerra" and Victor Casaus (far right).
The exhibit consists of 49 facsimi-
les of drawings held in the archives of guerra” spoke movingly of the war The following day, in a local
the Avery Library of Art and and exile. movie house, I introduced and showed
Architecture at Columbia University. Historian Aurea Matilde La guerra dibujada (The War in
Eight photographs, four by Robert Fernández (recipient of the Cuban Drawings), a documentary on the chil-
Capa, accompany them. The exhibit, in National Prize for Social Science) dren’s drawings produced in 2006 by
various configurations, has traveled related the experience of returning to Spanish filmmakers Amanda Gascó
throughout the U.S. as well as Russia her native Asturias 40 years later. She and Xabier Cortés. It has subsequently
and Spain. This is its first venue in visited the cemetery where her father been screened several times on Cuban
Latin America. The exhibition in Cuba was executed and learned that her TV, with a pre-taped interview with
was made possible by the generosity mother was thrown by the fascists me, as has my documentary on the
of The Puffin Foundation. into the sea. “Nothing can bring back Lincoln Brigade, Almas sin fronteras.
On a sweltering afternoon, the our loved ones, but these homages My experience with the children’s
exhibit was enthusiastically received give a certain sense of peace. Peace, drawings in Havana confirms that the
by some 50 Cubans. Among them yes, but we shall never forget.” memory of that distant war is still
were a number of “niños de la guerra,” Rafael Morante (awarded the alive. Cubans feel the Spanish Civil
adults who went into exile as children Cuban National Prize for Design) said War very personally. I couldn’t avoid
at the end of the war, including Aitana that 1937 started badly for many peo- noting the eerie similarity between the
Alberti, daughter of the great poet of ple. He recalled being shelled by Nazi U.S. embargo on aid to the Spanish
Republican Spain, Rafael Alberti. warships at age five, as he clutched his Republic and the blockade of Cuba
Víctor Casaus, director of el Centro mother’s hand, fleeing up the coast that has lasted nearly half a century.
Pablo, and Vivian Núñez, responsible road in Almería. “I thought the world The exhibit received extensive
for hanging the show, welcomed the had come to an end and would never coverage by Radio Habana, Cuban
audience, contextualizing the exhibit be the same again.” television, and the print media, with
in the mission of the Center and At the end of the ceremony, four articles appearing in La Jiribilla and
explaining its relevance for today’s more “niños de la guerra” stepped for- Granma.
struggles throughout the world. In my ward and gave me a print done by
remarks, I explained the origin of the their older brother, José Luis Posada, Tony Geist, Chair of the Spanish
drawings, the history of the exhibit, who came to Cuba as a child and Department at the University of
and ALBA’s mission as a living became one of the island’s foremost Washington, is the longest serving ALBA
archive. Finally, two “niños de la graphic artists in the 1960s. board member.
T
his past July, around the 73rd trespass un pecado de juventud, or sin ries— Los héroes nunca mueren (2004)
anniversary of the outbreak of of youth (Capa was 22 at the time). by Jan Arnold and La sombra del Iceberg
the Civil War and 11 days after Others went further. The president (2007) by Hugo Doménech and Raúl
the opening of a large Robert Capa of Journalists without Borders ques- Riebenbahuer—had revealed that the
exhibit at the Catalan National tioned Capa’s professional integrity. soldier could not have been Borrell. To
Museum of Art, the Barcelona news- Some accused him of cheating for the be sure, El Periódico claimed to have
paper El Periódico de Catalunya sake of money and fame. But the pho- found additional evidence confirming
published what was billed as a stun- tographer had defenders, too, some of Susperregui’s findings and to have
ning revelation: Capa’s legendary whom, even while admitting the new located the exact place the photo was
photograph of The Falling Soldier was a evidence of the photo’s location, still taken by analyzing the shape of the
fake. New evidence, the paper refused to accept that the image was mountain range in the background of
claimed, proved beyond the shadow of necessarily false. As others, including one of Capa’s photos taken the same
a doubt that the image was not taken Capa’s biographer Richard Whalen, day. But the landscape case had been
at Cerro Muriano near Córdoba, as had done before, they maintained that made a month before by a photog-
had long been assumed, but some 50 the soldier may have posed for the raphy blogger, José Manuel Serrano
kilometers south, near the town of camera, only to be unexpectedly hit by Esparza (see elrectanguloenlamano.
Espejo, which Capa and Gerda Taro a live bullet, perhaps from a sniper. blogspot.com). The timing of the
had visited previously. This meant As the controversy spread, it was scoop was a bit suspicious. Was El
that the militiaman depicted was hard to avoid the impression that Periódico trying to milk the anniver-
definitively not Federico Borrell there was something fishy about the sary of the war’s outbreak and take
García, an anarchist known to have affair. While El Periódico’s coverage advantage of the opportunity in a
been killed at Cerro Muriano. In fact, was picked up in the international slow summer month?
because there is no record of any battle press—in the English-language media,
action in Espejo when Capa was there, it was featured by the BBC, Time, and ***
the paper concluded that the photo the New York Times—it was ignored by The question is not so much where
must have been staged. El País, Spain’s largest national paper Capa’s photo was actually taken or if
In the following weeks, pundits and leading online news portal for the it’s “real” (whatever that may mean),
and columnists in Spain and else- Spanish-speaking world. Moreover, but why so many people continue
where pondered this revelation. Was most of El Periódico’s revelations to feel so strongly about it. Different
Capa a fraud? Should his whole work were not really new. The data on the explanations suggest themselves.
be re-examined? Did he intend to new location were largely based on The debates about the “recovery of
deceive the public or did the editors a book by José Manuel Susperregui historical memory” have made clear
of Vu and Life, who first published the Etxebeste, a Professor of Audiovisual that the war still matters to present-
image and wrote the initial captions— Communications at the University of day Spaniards. There is a widespread
with Life claiming Capa had captured Basque Country. This book, Sombras sense that unpleasant truths remain
“the moment of death”? An editorial de la fotografía. Los enigmas desvelados to be revealed or, similarly, that some
de Nicolasa Ugartemendia, Muerte de un long-held certainties will be exposed
Sebastiaan Faber is Chair of Hispanic miliciano, La aldea española y El Lute, for the lies they really are. Andalucía
Studies at Oberlin College. His latest had come out months earlier and is currently in uproar over the grave
books are Anglo-American Hispanists and had been covered by Giles Tremlett of the poet Federico Garcia Lorca: It is
the Spanish Civil War (Palgrave, 2008) and
in The Guardian (June 14), as well as clear that there are several bodies at
Contra el olvido. El exilio español en Estados
Unidos (Universidad de Alcalá, 2009). by El País (July 6 and 7). Some years Continued on page 8
After the war, Hilda married Kris Theodore Kirk, his half brothers, Neil
Kirk in California. The couple became and Keith Kirk, and their families,
active in politics in the Bay Area, but stepdaughter Elizabeth Karan, and
they left the Communist Party over dis- various nieces and nephews, espe-
illusionment with Stalin. Nevertheless, cially Joan Paul, who took care of her
they lost their family’s passports during with Jane during the last years.
the red scare of the 1950s. For more information, see http://
Hilda attended San Francisco State www.alba-valb.org/volunteers/
University, where she took advanced hilda-roberts.
nursing classes, and the Langley —Ethel Kirk
Porter school as well. She received her
Hilda Bell Roberts degree from the University of
(1915-2009) California San Francisco.
After her husband died, Hilda
Hilda Bell Roberts, the last surviv- married family friend Bob Roberts in
ing U.S. woman volunteer in the 1965. She was hired by Napa
Spanish Civil War, died September 23 Community College to teach in the
in northern California, where she had nursing program, and they moved to
lived for many years. St. Helena. When she retired, she
Hilda was born in Philadelphia in worked at Napa State Hospital and
1915 of Jewish Russian immigrant par- convalescent hospitals in the area.
ents. Unlike most of the women in her After Bob’s death, Hilda became
family, who were employed in the gar- even more active in local politics. She
ment industries, she wanted to went to Nicaragua to pick coffee. She
become a nurse. Soon after she gradu- traveled with Pastors for Peace on yel-
Clarence Kailin
ated from the Jewish Hospital for low school buses trying to bring (1914-2009)
Nursing in 1937, she volunteered to go computer and medical supplies to
to Spain, arriving there in May 1937. Cuba. She was on that famous trip Clarence Kailin, Lincoln vet and a
In Spain Hilda worked as a staff when the convoy was stopped at the fixture in the activist community of his
nurse in the operating room at the border and the passengers protested hometown, Madison, Wisconsin, died of
Universidad Hospital and at the Cruz by fasting in Laredo in the hot sun a stroke on October 25 at the age of 95.
Roja Hospital in Murcia before trans- and refusing to leave the bus. She Just two months earlier, hundreds
ferring to the Aragon front. She also became active in various groups of family members and friends had
traveled with the autochir, a mobile opposed to U.S. policies in Central joined Clarence in a birthday celebra-
hospital that set up surgical units in a America and the Middle East. tion that included a personal song by
variety of temporary locations. She Hilda continued her political folksinger Si Kahn, a rap performance
was evacuated from Spain in enterprises when she moved to by Clarence’s grandson, a political
December 1938 along with other Berkeley, where she met Jane Wilford, encomium by Nation columnist John
International Brigade volunteers. who became a close friend and later Nicolls, and the old fighter’s parting
During World War II, Hilda served her caretaker. “Hilda was always will- words. (See http://www.youtube.
as a U.S. Army nurse and was stationed ing to protest with me,” Jane says, and com/watch?v=b6752gP2TvY.)
in the Pacific theater in the New they were with Women in Black every “We’ve got a lot of work to do,”
Guinea campaign from 1942 to 1944. week until Hilda lost her understand- Clarence said. “Nobody’s going to do