Vol. XXVIII, No. 4 December 2011 “…and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” ABRAHAM LINCOLN

FOUNDED BY THE VETERANS OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE

Films of the Lincoln Brigade, page 5

Román Gubern and the Red Decade of Luis Buñuel, page 7

Enterrado/Buried: A Memory, page 9 “Nick” Carter: How a Son of Wealth from Boston Was Radicalized in Spain. See page 14.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE Impugning Impunity, ALBA Human Rights Film Festival, page 3

Watt Awards, page 4 Salaria Kea’s Spanish Memoirs, Book Reviews, page 21 page 17 Dear Readers, Last May the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) presented its first ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism to Judge Baltasar Garzón. As you know, Garzón is a distinguished Spanish jurist admired throughout the world for his tireless pursuit of human rights violators—from ordering the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to investigating the most important criminal cases in Spain or considering prosecution for torture condoned by U.S. officials. In approaching the issues of human rights activism, ALBA is reaching out to other organizations, groups and individuals who have been dedicating their efforts to human rights throughout the world. It is therefore appropriate that this issue of The Volunteer is being sent to other long-time supporters of our cause. We are very pleased to welcome members of the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) to ALBA’s quarterly, The Volunteer, which was founded by the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in 1937. For nearly 45 years, NACLA has shared our commitment to promoting discussion and understanding of the roots of antifascism and continuing the fight for human rights causes. Their bimonthly NACLA Report is one of the most reliable resources for progressive politics in Latin America, offering critical but objective analysis of U.S. policy and the region’s poli- tics, economy, and society. Please don’t forget to visit their website, nacla.org, for daily coverage about Latin America that complements The Volunteer. As Lincoln veteran Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) says to Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains) in the final scene of the classic movieCasablanca , when Louis asks Rick to join the Free French in Brazzaville to continue the fight against Fascism: “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” For more information about ALBA, please visit our websites, www.alba-valb.org and www.albavolunteer.org, and sign up to receive news. To continue receiving The Volunteer, just send us the envelope enclosed in this issue. ¡Salud! Sebastiaan Faber, Chair, ALBA The Volunteer Marina Garde, Managing Director, ALBA founded by the Arturo Conde, Director/Publisher, NACLA Report on the Americas Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade an ALBA publication The Future of ALBA 799 Broadway, Suite 341 New York, NY 10003 Planning for your will and your legacy? The Veterans of the Abraham (212) 674-5398 Lincoln Brigade established their legacy with the Abraham Lincoln www.alba-valb.org Brigade Archives. Now you can continue their “good fight” by estab- Editorial Board lishing a legacy gift to ALBA in your will. As a non-profit educational Peter N. Carroll • Gina Herrmann organization, 501(c)(3), ALBA can accept legacy gifts in any amount, Fraser Ottanelli • Sebastiaan Faber large or small. Please help us continue to expand our horizons, and your beliefs, and help us to teach the Lincoln Brigade’s legacy to the Art Director-Graphic Designer next generation and beyond. Richard Bermack And did you know that when you reach 70½, your mandatory yearly Editorial Assistance Nancy Van Zwalenburg withdrawal from your IRA can be made as a tax-deductible gift directly to ALBA from your IRA, free of tax consequences? Please Submission of Manuscripts consult your tax advisor and estate planner about these wonderful Please send manuscripts by email or on disk. opportunities that will expire after 2011! Email: [email protected] For more information, call us at 212-674-5398 or email info@ www.albavolunteer.org alba-valb.org.

2 THE VOLUNTEER December 2011 Monument Unveiled in Madrid at 75th IB Anniversary

International Brigade veterans at the unveiling of the new monument to the IBs in Madrid: (l-r) David Lomon (UK), Joseph Almudéver (France), Erik Ellman (Estonia), Vincent Almudéver (France). Photo by Sofía Moro.

arking the 75th anniversary of the volunteers saw their first combat action. designed the monument); and representing formation of the International ALBA’s James Fernández, Marina Garde, the few remaining survivors, the British MBrigades in October 1936, Spain’s and Gina Herrmann participated in a veteran David Lomon, 92 years old and in Friends of the IBs (Asociación de Amigos series of seminars and related public pro- excellent shape. “Today,” Lomon remarked, de las Brigadas Internacionales, or AABI) grams. Speakers at the unveiling included “we must still strive for international soli- hosted a commemorative reunion that Jaime Carrillo, President of the darity and social justice. And we must included the unveiling of a new monu- Complutense (and son of Santiago Carrillo, oppose fascist ideology in whatever form ment to the Brigades at University City, who was also in attendance); Ana Pérez, it takes, whether it is racism, anti-semi- the campus of the Complutense President of the AABI (which spearheaded tism, militarism or dictatorship.” University. This was a site of continuous the monument initiative); Josu Larrañaga, skirmishing during the Spanish Civil Dean of the School of Fine Arts at the War—and one where many of the earliest Complutense (whose students and faculty Impugning Impunity By Arturo Conde and Peter N. Carroll

ocusing a wide lens on the human rights agenda, ALBA hosted “Impugning Impunity: A Human Rights Documentary Film Series” at the Museum of the City of New York Fin November. The festival kicked off with Hollman Morris’ Impunity, a film about the victims of state-sponsored terrorism in Colombia and the truth commission that was estab- lished to help them discover the whereabouts of missing relatives. This cause is also familiar to many Spanish families who are currently challenging the government to come to terms with the disappearance of thousands of Spaniards during and after the Spanish Civil War. Trisha Ziff’s The Mexican Suitcase, another of the documentaries presented in the series, not only elaborates on the digging up of mass graves in Spain, but also shows how the legacy of the Second Republic is maintained in Mexico through the photos of Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David Seymour, as well as through the memories of thousands of Spanish exiles who fled to the Americas. “Impugning Impunity” presented a total of five films, including Barry Stevens’Prosecutor , which covers the International Criminal Court and its goal to prosecute human rights violators; Pamela Yates’ Granito, a documentary about the extermination of 200,000 Mayan people by Guatemala’s military; and Patricio Guzman’s Nostalgia of the Light, which focuses on the disappearance of Continued on page 23

December 2011 THE VOLUNTEER 3 Students Win ALBA Awards By Gina Herrmann the repercussions of sexist attitudes and the relationship between male sexuality, LBA’s George Watt Memorial Essay beliefs in 1930s Spain. masculinity and anticlerical violence. It Prizes are awarded annually to a also investigates the ways in which rapid Agraduate student and an under- Masculinity, Sexuality social and political changes during the graduate student who have written an first third of the twentieth century, and the outstanding essay or thesis chapter about and Anticlerical struggle to define the boundaries between any aspect of the Spanish Civil War, the Violence during the domestic space and public space which was global political or cultural struggles against being waged by male anticlerical work- fascism in the 1920s and 1930s, or the life- Spanish Civil War ers, had a crucial impact upon the ways time histories and contributions of the By Maria Thomas in which priests and nuns were treated by Americans who fought in support of the their attackers. Spanish Republic from 1936 to 1938. The n July 1936, a rightwing military rebellion award, first established 15 years ago, pays against the democratically elected Radical Liberation: A homage to the life of Lincoln vet George Igovernment of the Spanish Second Watt (1914-1994), a writer and lifelong Republic plunged the republican state Road to the Spanish activist central to the creation of ALBA. into disarray and divided the country Civil War The jury, consisting of Soledad Fox geographically. On territory which (Williams College), Fraser Ottanelli remained under republican authority, By Zachary Smith (University of South Florida), and Gina armed workers who had collaborated in the Herrmann (University of Oregon), is defeat of the rebellion took advantage of he story of Thane Summers, a stu- pleased to announce the results for this radical changes in political opportunities dent at the University of Washington, year’s contest. We received 15 submissions to stage a spontaneous revolution. As Tprovides a case study of one man’s in total: 10 written by undergraduate stu- they launched physical attacks against the road to the Spanish Civil War. Because he dents and five from MA or PHD students. symbols and representatives of rightwing came from a middle class, white, native Essays came from Spain, England, and the politics and of the oppressive old order, born, Christian family, Thane did not U.S. The research topics included dance they destroyed countless ecclesiastical experience the social discrimination and performances by Republicans in exile, buildings and executed almost 7,000 political disenfranchisement common to anticlericalism in the Civil War and how religious personnel. Priests’ longstanding many other Lincoln volunteers. He did it was perceived by American Catholics, position as ideological and class not adopt political radicalism and anti- children’s drawings, the mobilization of enemies had been cemented for many fascism to address lived injustices. Instead, Northumberland Mining Unions, and the workers during the intense Catholic activism for him was a way to ameliorate depiction of women in illustrated maga- and anticlerical mobilization of the social and personal alienation. It was a way zines during the war. peacetime republican years (1931-1936). for Thane to feel integrated into society. It The recipient of the undergraduate Now, religious personnel became the first was also a way for him to achieve a sense award is Zachary Ramos Smith, whose and most furiously targeted victims of of personal reintegration. Leftist ideology senior thesis in history at the University revolutionary violence. esteemed aspects of Thane’s personality of Washington deals with the life story This essay examines a crucial facet of that had been scorned or stifled by the of Lincoln veteran Thane Summers. violence against the clergy: the processes bourgeois values he had so uncomfortably Ramos Smith explores how leftist poli- by which male identities, and popular ideas internalized in his early youth. tics helped Summers overcome feelings regarding priests’ sexuality and mascu- To establish what these values were, of emotional and social estrangement linity, influenced the forms and intensity I examine how they were expressed by from his bourgeois background. In the of anticlerical violence. During the con- Thane’s father Lane, who, according to graduate category, Maria Thomas, a doc- flict, acts of violent anticlerical collective Thane, endorsed a vision of social and toral student at the London School of action were committed primarily by male personal worth that thoroughly alien- Economics, impressed the jury with her workers. Although women did take part in ated his son. To construct a picture of detailed study of anticlerical violence attacks upon church property—and occa- the values Thane associated with political committed by male workers during the sionally upon religious personnel—they radicalism, I look at how these values were Civil War. Thomas uses this particular were greatly outnumbered by their male articulated by people purportedly influ- case of masculine violence to delve into counterparts. This essay explores anticleri- ential in Thane’s turn left. It was through cal violence as an overwhelmingly male exposure to these influential figures that Gina Herrmann is an associate professor phenomenon whose logic and rhetoric were Thane likely formed his version of ethi- of Spanish literature and culture at the derived from the cultural norms of 1930s cally sound action. University of Oregon. Spanish society. In doing so, it scrutinizes Continued on page 8

4 THE VOLUNTEER December 2011 Photo Tamiment Library NYU. Films of the Lincoln Brigade By Anthony L. Geist least—in a number of documentary films. American nurses in Newman’s Into the t was a small war, fought on the fringes The narrative of their participation in the Fire. Rather, it was in the details, and of Europe. Its casualties pale by com- Spanish Civil War as presented in doc- more specifically in the archival foot- Iparison to the savagery of World War umentary films illustrates important age, where I had difficulty distinguishing II that followed it by only five months. historical themes. This essay refers to the them. From Dreams and Nightmares in Yet there is something about the Spanish following documentaries: 1975 to Souls without Borders in 2006, all Civil War that insistently draws us back, »»In Spain with the Abraham Lincoln these documentaries seem to draw on the that compels us to tell and retell the Brigade (1937), by Henri Cartier-Bresson, same pool of images. story. The fall of the Spanish Republic Jacques Lemore, and Herbert Kline; The Spanish Civil War was the in 1939 dashed the hopes and dreams of »»Dreams and Nightmares (1974), by most photographed and filmed mili- millions of people around the globe, as Lincoln vet Abe Osheroff; tary conflict up to that point in history. Spain’s fledgling democracy was crushed »»Europe Between the Wars (1978), by Technological innovations—principal by fascist military might. The Republic’s Scott Garen; among them the compact single lens defeat was the defining moment for an »»The Good Fight (1984), by Sam Sills, reflex 35 mm. camera and lightweight entire generation, for in the words of Mary Dore, and Noel Buckner; movie cameras—revolutionized the Albert Camus, “it was in Spain that we »»Forever Activists (1990), by Judy Montell visual documentation of war. This learned that one can be right and yet be (nominated for an Oscar); allowed photojournalists and cameramen beaten, that force can vanquish spirit, »»Into the Fire (2002), by Julia Newman; to get closer to the action and to record that there are times when courage is not »»Souls without Borders (2006), by Miguel it with unprecedented immediacy. In its own recompense. It is this, doubtless, Ángel Nieto and Anthony Geist. addition, cinema newsreels were a bur- which explains why so many, the world In preparing this piece I had the geoning market for footage from Spain. over, feel the Spanish drama as a per- extraordinary experience of viewing in A great deal of this material has been sonal tragedy.” two days the films listed above, all of preserved in archives around the world. There are fewer than 10 U.S. veterans them for at least the second time, oth- It turns out that much of the foot- left standing, but their legacy lives on in ers many more than that. And a curious age recycled through the subsequent books and scholarly articles, in memoirs, thing happened when I sat down to write: documentaries, in fact, originates in in photographs and exhibitions, and—not I had difficulty telling them apart. Not, Cartier-Bresson’s short silent film, shot of course, in their broad sweep. It would in a very few days and created with Anthony Geist is chair of the Spanish be impossible to confuse Osheroff’s per- the avowed intention of influencing Department at the University of sonal memoir Dreams and Nightmares, American public opinion and policy in Washington. for instance, with the testimony of the defense of the Republic. I should point

December 2011 THE VOLUNTEER 5 out that the material was used without surviving participants in later documen- principle. But is this the only way to tell attribution to Cartier-Bresson not out of taries. Finally, since this is a silent film, the story? Fredric Jameson reminds us malice, but because it wasn’t identified the narrative line is carried by printed that history is not narrative, it is blood as his. These are some of the scenes that texts, often serving as transitions between and struggle, but that our only access to recur time and again: different scenes as well. In its descendents, history is through narrative. »» basic training in Albacete, new volun- this will become voice-over narration, I believe that the story continues teers marching over dusty fields; used in all but Souls without Borders. to be told in this way in response to an »» Commander Robert Merriman address- Cartier-Bresson’s film sets in place the unacknowledged master narrative that ing the troops, one in a long string of main elements and parameters of how the hovers, unspoken, over all these films, speeches for which the Lincolns, as story of the Lincoln Brigade will be told and that is the discourse of the Cold many of them later confessed, had little from that moment until today. War. Even before the defeat of fascism tolerance; With slight variations the story is in Europe, the Soviet Union lurked on »» lining up for a meager meal of soup and told in this way. It begins with condi- the horizon as the next enemy. Lincoln bread; tions in the U.S., masses of unemployed vets suffered persecution and discrimi- »» naked bodies lathering up in a mobile thrown into desperation and poverty by nation after Spain. Labeled “Premature hot shower provided by the French Steelworkers Union; »» wounded Lincolns recovering in the There are a number of ways to understand the story of the hospital in Benicàssim; »» and, most memorably, portraits of the Lincoln Brigade as a counter-Cold War narrative. American volunteers. There is one sequence often repeated that I find very moving, a slow pan across the Great Depression; involvement in Antifascists,” they were kept from active the faces of a group of young men, many the labor movement, organization of the combat duty by the U.S. military until of whom would later die in battle, others unemployed, and radical ideologies that later in World War II. They were con- of whom would survive to tell the story. envision a more just world; while this sidered subversives and “Un-American,” The camera lingers on one soldier’s face is happening on the home front there is and many were imprisoned or lost their before slowly gliding down his body to his a growing awareness of fascism in Italy jobs and passports. waist, traveling across the machine gun he and Germany, and the accompanying There are a number of ways to under- is holding horizontal to the ground, to the sense of impotence; Spain finally takes a stand the story of the Lincoln Brigade comrade on his left, who grips the other stand against fascism and is abandoned as a counter-Cold War narrative. In the end of the weapon, before slowly travel- by her sister democracies, including the 1940s and 50s, members of the American ing up his torso to his face. Their youth U.S.; the formation of the International Communist Party were frequently consid- and determination shine through in shy Brigades finally makes it possible to fight ered foreign agents by the U.S. government. smiles, shrugs of the shoulders, a deep back, and the young Americans hike over In these documentaries, the veterans’ drag on a cigarette. Or do they? Is it per- the Pyrenees into Spain or swim ashore testimonies often stress a nativist perspec- haps the narrative constructed with these after their ship is torpedoed; archival tive. They unanimously express anger images that makes us see commitment in footage of scenes of key battles—Jarama, and dismay as Americans at FDR’s fail- these young faces? Brunete, Belchite; Pasionaria’s moving ure to support the Republican cause. In In Spain with the Abraham Lincoln Despedida when the internationals are The Good Fight, Bill McCarthy tells us Brigade establishes many of the elements withdrawn in 1938—“You are history, that the Spanish people were just fighting that will become part of the paradigm of you are legend”; and then normally a for what we already had: the right to vote, the American volunteers. This includes coda that varies from film to film and equality, and democratic political institu- the concept of steely commitment to the either tells about persecution in the tions. The African-American nurse, Salaria cause; the emphasis on racial and eth- McCarthy witch hunts or follows the Kea, echoes this sentiment in the same nic diversity (we see African Americans ongoing social and political activism of documentary and in Into the Fire. The and Asians shoulder to shoulder with a few veterans. All the documentaries volunteers are presented as independent white Americans) will be elaborated as under consideration follow this para- thinkers rather than as “dupes of Stalin.” one of the proudest distinctions of the digm to a greater or lesser extent. Several of them recount their rejection Brigade, culminating in the promotion of of the CP line and discipline, expressing Oliver Law to commander and his death do not mean to imply that this is not an their scorn for Party functionaries and pie- leading the troops up Mosquito Hill in accurate representation of the events, cards. A repeated emphasis on Popular Brunete; the gallery of portraits of the Ibut I am interested in understanding Front ideology draws attention away from volunteers, many of whom are identi- how it came to be the dominant narrative the prominence of the Communist Party in fied by name, trade, and hometown, will of the Lincoln Brigade. Chronology, of the Spanish struggle. It makes a good story, be transformed into interviews with course, is always a compelling organizing Continued on page 12

6 THE VOLUNTEER December 2011 Román Gubern, author of Luis Buñuel: The Red Years, 1929- 1939. Sebastiaan Faber interviewed Gubern to shed light on the surrealist filmmaker’s years working for the Spanish Republic. Photos of Gubern by Sebastiaan Faber.

Luis Buñuel, Chameleon Revelations of the Surrealist’s Elusive “Red Decade” By Sebastiaan Faber public-relations czar Willi Münzenberg. York. Buñuel effectively became the film’s n the first days of January 1937, Joris Buñuel had been working for the Spanish first editor. Ivens passed through Paris on his embassy since September 1936 as coor- The Ivens story is only one of the Iway from New York to Spain to shoot dinator of film propaganda for the many surprising pieces of informa- what would become The Spanish Earth, Republic, which meant that practically tion to be found in Luis Buñuel: The Red the most successful of the many docu- every meter of footage shot in Republican Years, 1929-1939, due to be published mentary films made during the war in Spain passed through his office. At his next month. Other revelations include Spain. At the top of the Dutchman’s to-do meeting with Buñuel—a cinematic sum- definite proof of Buñuel’s Communist list were appointments with Otto Katz mit between the 38-year-old Dutch Party membership, the political inten- and Luis Buñuel—crucial operators both, godfather of political documentary and tions of Land without Bread, the nature although they largely worked behind the the 36-year-old Spanish godfather of sur- of his propaganda work in Paris, and his scenes. Katz, aka André Simone, was a realist cinema—Ivens signed a contract role in the elusive Civil War compilations 41-year-old Czech CP militant who worked that gave the Spaniard not only the right Espagne 1936 and Espagne 1937. A joint as the right-hand man of Comintern to view all the material shot in Spain by Spanish-British effort by film scholars Ivens and John Fernhout, his camera- Román Gubern and Paul Hammond, The Sebastiaan Faber is chair of ALBA’s Board man, but also to decide what sequences Red Years (a revised English version of of Governors. should be developed and sent to New their 2009 Los años rojos) covers a crucial

December 2011 THE VOLUNTEER 7 decade not only in the filmmaker’s life, moral and political rebellion—a rebellion the United States, Gubern met a number but also in the history of film and photog- against the conservative culture of 1920s of Lincoln veterans. In 1969, together with raphy—as well as in the history of Spain Spain, ruled by a reactionary monarchy Jaime Camino and Alvah Bessie (Lincoln and the world. As they follow Buñuel from and an immensely powerful, retrograde vet and one of the Hollywood Ten), he Madrid to Paris to the United States, the Catholic Church. At first, surrealism pro- made España otra vez, which tells the story authors painstakingly connect the dots of an vides Buñuel with the tools to rebel, and of an American doctor who volunteered in intricate, transnational network of friend- surrealism leads him to the Communist the Spanish Civil War and returns years ships, alliances, conflicts, and projects. It’s Party. But our book also shows that later to search for his Spanish lover. The hard to imagine any future biography of Buñuel was a man of flesh and blood, a film was a commercial flop but marked Buñuel surpassing Gubern and Hammond human being with weaknesses who tried a milestone: “It was the first film pro- in exhaustiveness and virtuosity. duced in Franco´s Spain in which the Buñuel, who spent the postwar Republican does not end up convert- years as an exile in Mexico, was the ing to the Nationalist cause.” groundbreaking creator, with his Gubern (1934) was born into friend Salvador Dalí, of the surreal- the Catalan bourgeoisie. He became ist masterpieces Chien andalou (1929) involved in the anti-Francoist resis- and L’Âge d’or (1930) and directed tance in the 1950s as a college more than 30 feature films, includ- student; he joined the Communist ing Los olvidados (1950) and Belle de Party, leaving it in 1968. As direc- Jour (1967). He was also an obsessive tor of the Barcelona student film practical joker and poseur, notori- club, Gubern was the first in Franco´s ously difficult to pin down; he enjoyed Spain to screen Buñuel’s controver- nothing more than to goad his audi- sial 1933 documentary Land without ence and hoodwink his interviewers, Bread. “I have to confess that the leaving a trail of scandal and confu- film threw me off,” he remembers. sion. Armed with decades’ of archival “At that point I hadn’t even seen research on both sides of the Atlantic, Chien andalou. I knew of course that The author of some 50 books, Gubern is Gubern and Hammond manage to cut Buñuel was a cinematic giant, so I had high Spain’s most prolific scholar of visual and through the layers of legend and anec- expectations—but in fact I was a bit disap- mass media (film, television, comics), a dote, revealing Buñuel as a key figure in pointed, the film seemed strangely bland.” kind of Catalan Marshall McLuhan. the Republican public-relations effort dur- Still, with the help of Basilio Martín ing the Spanish Civil War and as a canny Patino, the print that Gubern had secured operator and propagandist whose deci- to survive in difficult times. I would not was shown at film clubs throughout the sions were driven as much by artistic and say he was an exemplary human being in country—“It was screened to shreds.” political convictions as by fear and, occa- moral or ethical terms. He was a physical “Buñuel is one of the greatest film- sionally, opportunism. coward—this is no criticism, I myself am makers in the history of cinema, that’s one, too—and his first instinct was often beyond discussion. He was the first to sys- uñuel was a consummate to save his skin.” tematically introduce the subconscious as a chameleon,” Gubern said The author of some 50 books, Gubern dramatic element in movies. Without “Bwhen I met with him in is Spain’s most prolific scholar of visual Buñuel, Hitchcock could not have made Portland, Oregon, last February, “in aes- and mass media (film, television, comics). Psycho. Nothing in what we found denies thetic as much as political terms. In the A kind of Catalan Marshall McLuhan, Buñuel´s importance—but our book does 1920s, he was a surrealist; in the 1930s, he taught at the Autonomous University invite the audience to re-read his work, and a Communist and propagandist; dur- of Barcelona and has written films and to reconsider his place in the 20th century ing his postwar exile in Mexico he filmed documentaries. During several stays in history of ideas.” commercial melodramas to make a liv- ing, while he also worked closely with American blacklisted filmmakers such as Watt Awards Hugo Butler. And in the 1960s and ’70s, Continued from page 4 in France, he gave surrealism a new lease These two sets of values gave rise to he had with people who held to mores and on life with films like The Discreet Charm two distinct emotional styles. Transitioning methods of expression Thane came to of the Bourgeoisie and The Phantom of from one to the other allowed Thane to reject. Finally, I examine Thane’s claim Liberty. express aspects of himself he had previ- that activism and social consciousness “Right below that chameleonic sur- ously repressed. The transition was not “solved” his personal problems, such as face, however, lurked a deep unity of entirely a comfortable one, however, as it put listlessness and self-loathing. purpose. Buñuel’s life is the story of a great strain on long standing relationships

8 THE VOLUNTEER December 2011 Photo courtisy of Anne P. McCready

Enterrado/Buried: A Memory By Frank B. Pirie necessary to cook the hard, old-crop gar- Now the sound is louder and more banzos. I hope I shall be able to trade insistent: a pulsating, low pitched hum. Editor’s Note: Frank B. Pirie was a them to a paisano for a handful of olives My heart skips a beat as I recognize the Kentucky-born volunteer living in New or hazelnuts. And if I can find a bottle sound. I look between the leaves of the York’s Greenwich Village when he sailed somewhere, I can probably get it filled poplars on the west side of the path— for Spain in 1937. He wrote this story for with that good red ordinary wine of very toward Caspe, barely two kilometers a creative writing class in the 1970s. Photo little roughness for which this part of the away. I see the heaps of tile roofed houses courtesy of Anne P. McCready. Aragon is noted. shimmering in the bright spring sun. As I continue to trudge along the I see above them, in groups of threes, t is early afternoon of a spring day as path, between two tall rows of Lombardy a dozen bird-like specks in the sky. I I step onto the gravel of the long, gen- poplars,—said to have been sent by the know, without seeing more, that they are Itly winding gravel path leading to the Pope himself to the former Fascist owner heavy German planes: black as the death Estado Mayor. Here, if my information is of this estate—I recall the way my head they bring, with, incongruously, white correct, I shall be able to draw my daily buzzed the last time I had drunk a bottle crosses painted on their wings. I know, food ration. I shall receive, probably: 2 of this wine. But why is my head buzzing too, that their profane bellies are preg- handfuls of dried garbanzos, a loaf of now—before I have even had a swallow? nant with two-hundred-pound bombs bread, a three inch square of Membrillo, No, it is not my head; it is not my head: it which they will soon drop indiscrimi- a two inch square of dark chocolate, and is external. Bees, perhaps, or hornets? No, natingly upon the unlucky town below. either a handful of raisins or an orange. no, they have fled easterly with the birds, For Caspe has not yet been bombed, But since I must get to the front at Belchite to escape the dogs of war which are now and the first attack—in accordance with as soon as possible, I will have neither the snapping at the fringes of this country. German policy—is not to seek out mili- facilities nor the time (three or four hours) tary targets, but to instill terror by an

December 2011 THE VOLUNTEER 9 indiscriminate attack on the town in comes a close one: the ground around are even now rescuing my Spanish neigh- general. me heaves and writhes. One side of the bor, for he has stopped his screaming. I continue to watch the approaching trench presses against me, and shifts me. But now comes a warning whistle planes as I slowly walk toward the ornate I feel the pressure on my back and legs. blast, the cessation of shovel sounds, and stone steps leading to the palace. Much Now someone has jumped into the trench the quick shuffle of retreating feet. My neglected now, the building was originally on top of me. I feel him groveling in the heart sinks as the first bombs of the new designed as a miniature Versailles for a dirt which covers me. So, thank God, sortie begin to crash. local prince of Church and State. The once the trench cannot be completely filled— My Spanish comrade begins again beautiful gardens, at one time groomed there seems not more than a foot of dirt his screaming supplications; but now he by scores of serf-like peasants, now lie between me and the other person. I try to sounds weaker—his words are interrupted unkempt and weed covered. Only here and move. A slight movement of my legs and by sobs and chokes. Poor guy! I wonder there small plots have been taken over by torso only packs the earth more tightly what kind of life he is so reluctant to leave. neighboring peasants and planted to veg- around me—my upper arms as well. I Now he is quiet, only mumbling and softly etables. Nearing the building itself, I pass can move my lower arms and head a few sobbing a desperate prayer. I wonder if he a large area which has been deeply scarred inches—that is all! But the light is gone! has almost exhausted his air supply; and I by a geometrical complex of long, narrow Now I begin to wonder about the air: how wonder how much longer mine will last. trenches to serve as air raid shelters. long will it last? I feel my heart racing, my I begin to wonder if the rescuers will As I raise my eyes once more to the face burning—I panic. I scream: “Help, reach me before my air is gone: if more air approaching planes, I am moved to stop help, help, help.” attacks will prevent it. I have heard that in horrible fascination: for it is now time Close to me, there is a muffled once the Germans decide on a target, they for the series of bomb drops to begin. answering scream. It must be coming methodically pound it and pound it until Something compels me to watch for the from the same trench, a few feet farther there is nothing and nobody left. If so, descent of the bombs streaking down; the along. It pleads in Spanish for help from they will work over this place until sunset, burst of orange flame speckled with dark Mother, the Holy Virgin, Christ, and stopping then only because their Spanish shapes slashing upward in all directions God. It repeats, over and over, the same airfields are not equipped for night landings. with unbelievable speed; and the huge heart-rending plea. I stop my shouting to I try again to work myself free, but I cloud of yellow dust slowly climbing sky- listen: and my panic is gone. What good is am tightly held by dirt and rocks—up to ward, obliterating the town from view. shouting, with bombs bursting all around, my neck. I can turn my head, right, left, There will come the shock of the obliterating all other sound? and up, as far as neck muscles will allow. explosions, and the rumbling like thun- Suddenly the bomb bursts stop. My My head and forearms must be in some der—and for a swift moment, I shall be Spanish friend shouts with renewed vigor. sort of void: possibly formed by a large happy. Then my conscience will assert I shout to him to save his precious air, but rock lodged in the top part of the trench itself: how dare I be happy—even for a he continues his non-stop supplications. which is then covered with dirt. But I can moment—when suffering and death will I feel the person above me moving; feel see no glimmer of light, and I cannot tell be occurring over there? And I shall be him stand up and jump out of the trench. the size of the void. Consequently, I have ashamed; I shall deplore the suffering. But I am glad the load on top of me has some- no idea how long the air will last within I will be happy—for just a bit—that I am what lessened. I try again to move my legs the pocket. Now I am breathing faster; not there; that I am not suffering. and body. I strain and strain but it is use- and the air seems less fresh! Which will less. I feel again the panic rise to the top come first: sunset or suffocation? s I am watching the planes I of my head. The skin on my head tightens; God! This cannot be! To die, held become aware that Caspe is not my eyes burn; and my throat becomes dry fast—unable to resist; unable to move—it Atheir target: they are coming and tight. I feel the urge to scream, again; is unfair! A firing squad would be more directly toward us. I hear repeated sharp but I cannot. My throat is too tight, as in a humane! Let me out—to face the enemy, blasts of police-type whistles and unin- nightmare. on my feet, my arms free—his life against telligible shouted commands. Then, quite Suddenly, I am aware of a new sound mine! But not this! Unfair! Unfair! close I hear a shout: “Aviones, Camaradas; coming from that other world—that world a las trincheras!” above ground. There are sounds of many hall I pray to God? It is what people I see many men jump out of doors footsteps—and another sound, a heart- do in these circumstances. But will and windows and dive into trenches: I fol- ening one—the “cheg”-“cheg”-“cheg” of a SHe hear me? Is He that kind of god, low quickly. I land on my hands and knees shovel cutting into the gravelly dirt of our a personal one who watches over me every in the bottom of a four or five foot deep soon-to-be foiled grave. moment of my life? Can He hear me? Will trench. I straighten out my legs and lie I shiver with joyous anticipation of He hear me? I do not know. For half of down with my face on my crossed wrists. being disinterred, of seeing the blessed my thirty-two years I believed so; the sec- And then, as though on cue, the first sunlight, of once again feeling sweet fresh ond half, I progressed (or regressed) from bombs strike, shaking and rumbling the air swelling my lungs. The rescuers are uncertainty to doubt, and then to uncon- ground. Now comes another, and another, not yet working directly over me, but they cern. Now it does not seem to matter. I and more come in rapid succession. Now seem to be not too far away. Perhaps they have become my own master, accountable

10 THE VOLUNTEER December 2011 to myself for the consequences of my foreign to me; and something I have down myths of WASP superiority infused actions. here—a different life, half-life—whatever deeply into her thinking. She was taught I think again of the personal God it is—seems about to have great meaning social grace, gentleness, and kindness: idea: are there any rules governing those to me. There is an air of expectancy, down to be bestowed on those of her own He helps? Must they not believe in Him here, as though some great mystery is going kind. Others, of course, did not count! unreservedly; and must they not keep in to be revealed to me, and at last I shall know Certainly she was good to her close touch with Him in frequent prayers? As a the meaning of life. friends and family, sacrificing the balance child, I was taught this was so. But if this of her life for the latter. And she will love is so, I have not earned the right to pray o far, I have been able to find no me, and mourn me if I die; and she will for His divine deliverance. Therefore, I great meaning to my life. Perhaps fiercely defend everything I do—without shall not do so. I shall live or die with my Sit is because I never really thought understanding why I do it. personal ethos intact! much about it, just went along with the I recall how many times I felt I had to I feel myself becoming calmer and calmer as I drift into a philosophical mood. It will hurt my mother the most, if I die. She has never My breathing becomes light, my heartbeat slow—like a hibernating animal, I think. understood why I found it necessary to come here. I was not Not so stupid—those grizzly bears just brave enough to tell her before. crawl in a hole and relax—let someone else fight all that snow and cold weather. I feel the skin of my face relaxing, as good and bad of it as it came. Here I am at lie to my mother, too discouraged or too well as the muscles of my legs and body. I age thirty-two, with nothing I can point impatient to try to make her understand feel myself slipping into a state of eupho- to with pride. Too bad! I think of Christ: her very modern son. There was the time ria, half asleep and half awake. My mind he died at about that age—but what he I took Marian to visit her. Marian and I seems to be working freely and clearly. accomplished! I think my accomplish- were enjoying an extremely satisfying four I think of God, again. Suppose I were to ments were mostly negative ones: that is, I year, common-law marriage. We were liv- pray, and then to be rescued: would that did not do much harm. I had always tried ing in Greenwich Village at the time, and prove the existence of a personal God? to avoid hurting people, especially their I had the chance to take an expense-paid On the other hand, would a great, loving, feelings. But the good things I have done trip to Chicago. I decided to take Marian all-forgiving God perhaps find something for people have been so small. How much along to meet my parents, but I had to rent in me to save—without my having main- could they count? her a wedding ring to perpetuate the lie. tained my faith in Him? It will hurt my mother the most, if I Each time I think of Marian, my There seems no proof, one way die. She has never understood why I found heart skips a few beats. It did the first or another. I realize it is all a matter of it necessary to come here. I was not brave time I saw her—hers did too! I met her, believing; and I am willing to concede enough to tell her before I came: told her I eyes to eyes, in the Automat—and it all that faith can be the mightiest of the was going to France to do some mapping started. We both had to work, of course motivations. I think I do not believe in a work. Well, I did go to France but did not (it was the Depression), but outside of personal God; but I do believe strongly stop there: sneaked over the Pyrenees into work, nearly every waking moment was in some things—people, for instance. Spain one moonless night. one of excitement and delight. We went Otherwise, why am I here: for five dol- I am the youngest of her four chil- to Shakespearean plays for fifty cents a lars a month and a handful of beans each dren: I think she would mourn me most. ticket; ballet and modern dance recitals day? Here there are no fancy uniforms, Since the turn of the century, when her for which we had passes from our friend no medals, no bands. There will be no child-bearing began, she has lived only Margie who wrote for The Observer; honor rolls on the hometown monument; for her children, I think. The world out- Carnegie concerts with passes we got no fawning bid from the fat-paunched side her home has passed her by, and she from a friend who worked in the drug- Legion; no pensions or low-cost home has done nothing to try to keep up. There store. Art museums, historical spots, loans to ease our rehabilitation. Still, has been only her family, and the mem- picturesque parks and squares; we vis- I am content with my choice, for I, like ories of an idyllic girlhood and young ited them all. And the sheer sensuous many others, could not have done other- womanhood. Her body moved North and delight of doing these things together— wise. If we win, peoples’ rights will be a bit ahead in time; but her heart and spirit walking hand in hand, or sitting thigh to advanced, and Fascist power will be a bit remained back South in a world of no throbbing thigh—suffused us with a great diminished. If we lose, God help the world! return. warmth of feeling I could not have imag- More bombers come, drop bombs, and One of four beautiful daughters of a ined before I met Marian. leave. After an interval, they repeat. Between moderately well-to-do industrialist, she Marian, on the strength of her college attacks, there is the scurry of rescuers above. had topped off her education in an exclu- degree (she was a music major), had got- But they never reach my portion of trench, sive finishing school for young ladies in ten a job as a salesgirl in the house wares and they concern me less and less. For that Tennessee. There—and in the society in department of Macy’s. I worked as a cashier life above ground is becoming somehow which she moved—she had had all the in a cafeteria—the best job I could find in

December 2011 THE VOLUNTEER 11 New York. Between the two of us, we saved to sunbathe in a flower-sprinkled meadow dust is burning my lungs and air passages. I enough to take a trip every year or so. where there were no witnesses except a sloe- feel giddy and weak—I seem to be drifting The first hegira was a two-week eyed black and white cow. And then we away… hike through the breathtakingly beau- would be overwhelmed with a rush of feeling I am awakened by a violent earth-shock. tiful Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts akin to great reverence, and we would give It is followed by several more—close and and Connecticut. We started off from ardent sacrament to love, beauty, and joy. strong. I am slow to realize where I am—and North Adams. Marian carrying a Oof! Someone has jumped into the what is happening. I scream at my erstwhile light knapsack, and I, a light bedroll. trench, onto the dirt covering my back. I rescuer: “You stupid son-of-a-bitch, do my I can still remember the joy we felt as remember that another bombing run has body first!” we passed the last habitations of the just ended. Now, at last, the rescuers are I realize he is not here now, and I under- town and met the thrilling beauty of the going to dig me out. I should not have given stand he was doing what he thought was freshly groomed hills as they gloried in up hope so soon. best—to give me air. I shall have to think of their early June foliage. We followed the Now someone is digging around my the Spanish way of telling him to uncover slightest wagon roads or trails, as long shoulders and neck. He asks some questions, my body first so the dirt will run down from as they kept to the hills. We detoured but I cannot understand what he is saying. I my face area. As soon as this bomb run is to the little towns only to buy a day or answer back, in Spanish and in English, that over, he will be back, and then I can tell him. two’s meager food supply. I am all right—but to please hurry. I spread out the dirt under my chin so I well recall our first night out. We Now suddenly there is a great fall of my head will be held in a more comfortable watched the glorious sunset from the top loosed dirt around my neck and the lower position. I wipe off the fingers of one hand of a hill. We sat watching, arm in arm, part of my head. I sputter and blow as it and use them to dig more of the dirt out of until the huge orange sphere had dipped runs into my mouth and nose. I raise my my mouth. Finding I have more saliva now, I itself below the fringe of distant pines. We head an inch or two and dig some of the dirt spit out more dirt and swallow some. Now it felt bursting with the beauty of it—too out of my mouth with my fingers. I gag and is the extreme grittiness of my teeth that filled to eat the supper we had planned. cough; I sneeze—and raise more dust. The bothers my mouth. The dust has settled, and Instead, we crawled into our bed upon the dry, metallic-tasting dirt grits against my my lungs are burning less than they were. I ground, made love, and slept awhile. teeth. I try to spit it out, but I have no saliva. settle down to await further rescue Our first night out, we slept rather fit- I dig more out with my fingers. Now the attempts—more hopefully now. fully, listening to the strange new sounds and missing the familiar city sounds. We recognized the distant cries of babies, the Lincoln Brigade Films lonely howls of dogs, and the occasional Continued from page 6 hoot of an owl, but there were many strange cries and rustlings whose significance and it has not gone uncontested by neo- of objectivity. Juan Salas found the diary of was unknown to us. We tingled and shiv- cons such as Ronald Radosh. a Spanish miliciano who trained with the ered—and snuggled to stop it—and finally, Yet it raises other questions about the Lincolns at the time Cartier-Bresson shot toward morning, slept deeply. We were well nature of memory and how it is constructed, the footage. The Spaniard complains about refreshed when the rising sun and the myr- about the role of visual documents in the staged battle scenes. Controversy rages iad awakening birds saluted us with their memory formation. Photographs and film today over Capa and Taro staging scenes and grand spectacle of sight and sound. Marian footage are in one sense frozen moments in posing soldiers, not the least of which is the drew a musical scale on a scrap of paper time. At the same time, they have an ongo- ongoing polemic over Capa’s Fallen Soldier. and began writing the notes for a bird song ing afterlife and become woven into the very As these images, both moving and still, she heard. “That’s a ‘B’, and a ‘G’, and then a fabric of memory. This afterlife changes with migrate to the documentary narratives of series of quick ‘E-flats’, isn’t it? It’s lovely; I’ve the passage of time and the different con- the Lincoln Brigade and are recontextual- never heard it before!” texts into which they are inscribed. Our ized, the distinction between reality and I remember the days after that—days memory of a war waged over 70 years ago simulation, to the extent that it existed origi- when scene after lovely scene—each more and of the Americans who fought in it is, in nally, becomes flattened and blurred. Staged beautiful than the one before—unfolded fact, built in large part on these images, their scenes as well as newsreel footage of real bat- before us. And between the days came sequencing and contextualization not in life tle acquire the status of truth and become the luminous nights, charming us to but in narrative structures. the foundation for our memory of the sleep with their ever-wondrous stellar And this, in turn, brings up another Spanish Civil War and the American volun- spectacles. And I remember some par- issue, that of truth value and authen- teers. Does this make the story less real or ticular times when we stopped to rest, or ticity. The source of much of the footage, our memory less authentic? Abe Osheroff, to investigate some wild bird or animal. Cartier-Bresson’s film, was self-acknowl- when asked if his tales of Spain were true, Or sometimes it was to take a nude dip edged propaganda, created to persuade and often replied, “Look at it this way: either it’s into some clear pool of the little stream convince, to sway public opinion and influ- true or I’m a genius….” Translation: we were generally following; or perhaps ence foreign policy. It makes little pretense truth is in the telling.

12 THE VOLUNTEER December 2011 Dear Friends of ALBA, Much has changed since the International Brigades were founded 75 years ago—but their fight is far from over. That is why it is imperative that ALBA continue to connect the volunteers’ inspiring legacy of progressive activism with the progressive struggles of today. We did that in May, when we awarded the First ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism to Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón. In his stirring acceptance speech, Judge Garzón denounced the injustices still being leveled on the victims of the Franco regime and their families. But he also pointed to the ways in which the United States and other countries fail to live up their ideals of democracy, human rights, and social justice. “For me,” the judge said, “the volunteers of the Lincoln Brigade are an example of courage and solidarity; they are heroes [who] stood up against the worst cancer of humanity: indifference.” Garzón’s award was widely covered by the U.S. and international media. ALBA once again captured national attention in June, when PBS’s History Detectives featured the late Matti Mattson and several ALBA board members to tell the story of a remarkable friendship between a white and a black volunteer in Spain. In October, we co-sponsored a stunning New York exhibit of Spanish Civil War photography by Agustí Centelles, while several ALBA staff and board members traveled to Spain to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the International Brigades. In November, we organized a three-day Human Rights Film series in New York, honoring Judge Garzón’s work with five outstanding new documentary films focusing on historical memory and transitional justice in Spain, Latin America, and Africa. Our series was co-sponsored by other prominent human rights organizations, including the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Justice and Accountability, the North American Congress for Latin America, and the International Center for Transitional Justice. A highlight of the festival was Trisha Ziff’s The Mexican Suitcase, which takes the retrieval of 4,500 Spanish Civil War photographs by Capa, Taro, and Chim as an opportunity to reflect on history, memory, and justice. The film is dedicated to ALBA. To continue telling the Brigade’s story to this country’s younger generations, translating its legacy into the present, is also the driving force behind ALBA’s ongoing high school teacher education programs in New York, New Jersey, California, Ohio, Florida, and Illinois. The interest in these programs is overwhelming, and we are expanding them as quickly as our resources allow. Which is where you come in. We need your help to keep the Abraham Lincoln Brigade’s legacy alive. Without your generosity, there will be only silence. Mil gracias in advance for your generous support. ¡Salud!

Sebastiaan Faber Chair of the Board of Governors Barton Carter during his early life as a stockbroker, 1936, and “Nick” Carter (right) with Esme, taking care of Spanish children at Puigcerda, fall 1937. Photos courtesy of Nancy Carter Clough. “Nick” Carter: How a Son of Wealth from Boston Was Radicalized in Spain By Nicholas H. Wright Before he enrolled at Williams, Times clipping reporting some critical oung men volunteered to fight in Barton “Nick” Carter attended St.Paul’s remarks directed publicly against Tyler the Spanish Civil War for many rea- School in Concord, N.H. His father, Dennett, then president of Williams, by Ysons, but few American volunteers Winthrop L. Carter, was CEO of the Harry Hopkins, advisor to FDR. Dennett, came from privileged backgrounds. When Nashua Gummed Paper Corporation and a good Republican, had refused, and in I saw 1938 and Calaceite, Spain, on a list of was, for a period in the 1930’s, president of colorful language, to use federal funds to Williams College men who died in World the New England Council. provide more scholarships for Williams War II, I was introduced to Barton Carter. At the time, Williams was a tradi- students. This, despite the fact that lack The full story of Carter’s radicalization and tional, conservative college. An October of scholarship funds was holding back untimely death led me to archives in the 1936 poll found that over 75 percent of Dennett’s often stated determination to U.S., Britain, and, finally, Spain. students favored Alfred Landon over make Williams “look more like America,” Franklin D. Roosevelt in the presidential primarily by accepting more public high election. Carter’s scrapbook, 1933-1935, school boys. Nicholas H. Wright is a retired is mostly a collection of theater tick- Perhaps important in understand- medical epidemiologist who lives in ets and pictures of debutantes. The only ing how Carter’s interests would evolve Williamstown, MA. item of a political nature is a New York was another clipping, “The Right Kind

14 THE VOLUNTEER December 2011 of ‘Snob’ Speech,” of an earlier talk by Although Carter had been the benefi- Langdon-Davies and Eric Muggeridge. Dennett at the Harvard Club in Boston. ciary of a trust fund since his 21st birthday Donors, then mostly from England, would Speaking of political and social changes on March 19, 1936, and so could fund his adopt an orphaned and/or refugee child in the nation, Dennett said, “I do know exploratory travels, he found breaking and in monthly installments fund a com- that all special social privileges will be into freelance reporting difficult. Instead, prehensive, home-like environment for decreased.” He added, “Neither labels, he contracted to drive a truck between their child, including food, shelter, educa- nor the comfortable accession to father’s Madrid and Valencia for the National tion, protection, etc. It was a much more money, would suffice a man’s need any- Joint Committee (NJC), an independent expensive proposition than the mass soup thing like so readily in the future as they organization set up to raise money and kitchens run by other groups and met have in the recent past.” In 1935, Carter fell in love. His inamorata was Joan Kent, an English He tried repeatedly to shake his mother’s faith in woman visiting neighbors of the Carters capitalism and the private sector. in Brookline. Family opposition was unavailing. They decided to marry in July 1936 in England and then return channel non-military assistance to the criticism as unrealistic, given the mag- together to Williamstown so that Carter Spanish Republic. Heading the NJC were nitude of the refugee problem. The FPP could graduate. They left together in the Duchess of Athol, a Conservative MP children were housed in three colonies, June, but, unaccountably, Joan backed from Scotland; John Langdon-Davies, a actually former ski chalets. FPP had out a week before the wedding. Carter, science reporter for the London Chronicle; also hired Esme Odgers, an Australian devastated and embarrassed, decided not and Edwin Roberts, a Liberal MP. woman, to work with Carter. to return to Williams. Instead, he found The main function of the trucks was To keep the connection between the a position with an American brokerage to take food into besieged Madrid. On child and the donor positive, much effort house in London. the return trip, children were taken to was made in letter writing. Carter also Within months, he had left his job to safety from the terror bombing. In his let- started a monthly newsletter to share with seek freelance work as a correspondent. ters home, “Nick” was confident he could sponsors in England. Because of increas- Seeking advice, he went to Paris to meet minimize the risk of being strafed on the ing difficulties in finding food in Spain Peter and Ione Rhodes. Rhodes, a gradu- back roads to Valencia. for the children, Carter visited England ate of the Columbia School of Journalism Completing his contract, Nick joined in August 1937 to propose changes in the and a friend of Carter’s aunt and uncle, his father in London to witness the May supply line, all of which were accepted was working for the Paris Tribune. Both 1937 coronation of George VI. Although by the NJC. It is likely that Carter subsi- Peter and Ione, but especially Ione, were the family wanted him home, Nick dized these changes with his own funds, seriously involved with French groups in returned to Spain. Shortly thereafter, from received in a French bank just across the “Nick” Carter: providing assistance to refugees in Spain. Madrid, he wrote a passionate letter to border in Bourg-Madame. In any case, How a Son of Wealth from Boston Was Radicalized in Spain

About this time, Carter adopted the the editor of the Williams College Record Carter was successful in scrounging up name “Nick,” possibly because of the Nick about a recent model League of Nations food supplies in France and driving them Carter detective novels that were then exercise for Williams students. The safely back to Puigcerda. popular in Europe. The name change may heading was “Carter, ex-’37, Condemns During the autumn of 1937, Carter have given him some separation from the Absurdity of Model League in Letter from wrote to his mother of his political discus- protected life from which he was already Madrid.” Didn’t they understand what sions with, and increasing attachment to, edging away. was really happening in Spain? That non- Esme. At some point, Esme must have told intervention was a farce? That the fascists him she was a member of the Communist arter reached Barcelona by January were terror bombing the civilian popu- party of Australia and, before embarking 1937. A Spanish Civil War pro- lation? Carter’s political education was for Spain in March 1937, had been a secre- Cpaganda poster entitled “Smash well-advanced. tary in the CPA office in Sydney. He tried Fascism” in Catalonian, first printed in By the middle of 1937, Carter repeatedly to shake his mother’s faith in the autumn of 1936, was found in his had accepted a position with a group capitalism and the private sector. We do papers. A pencilled note in the poster called Foster Parents Plan for Spanish not have his mother’s letters to him, but it margin says “Sunday, January 3,” which Children in Puigcerda, on the French is clear that he wasn’t making much head- translates as 1937. border. The FPP was the brainchild of way with his argument.

December 2011 THE VOLUNTEER 15 Toward the end of 1937, FPP decided the Luftwaffe, and German artillery units, encampments next to the limited water to open an office in North America led had launched an attack to follow the Ebro sources. Men kept drifting off to save by Eric Muggeridge. Carter was asked to River to the sea and split the Republic. Their themselves as discipline waned and their return to America in late November 1937 first surge, a massive Blitzkrieg-like opera- desperation increased. By about April 9, to introduce Muggeridge to his friends tion starting from around Belchite to the they knew they were within a day or two and other aid groups and to do fund- east of Sarragosa, had almost total control of reaching the Ebro. However, the fascist raising with classmates at St.Paul’s and of the skies. The republican forces had fallen advance greatly reduced their chances of Williams. Carter also gave a talk at his back to positions around Gandesa. Carter reaching the river. father’s Exchange Club on December probably arrived at the front after the fas- 5. Altogether, $3,100 was raised for cists started moving northeast after a week’s n the morning of April 9, Carter FPP. Without lingering even to spend pause. By then, Republican communications and several others inched up Christmas with his family, Carter were virtually non-existent, spotter planes Oa hill to scout for fascist patrols. returned to Spain by mid-December. insufficient, and officers had little idea where Logan reported hearing cries and bursts of Within weeks, the Italian air force the fascist columns were. In this confused machine gun fire. Carter and the men with bombed Puigcerda, damaging the rail- situation, Carter’s unit marched headlong him were never seen alive again. Logan road station and killing a tradesman into an advancing Italian column early on pushed on down the valley alone and was known to Carter, but not hitting the the morning of March 31. captured by an Italian patrol two days later. Colonies or the children. After this attack, Thinking the Italians were Republicans, Using a sketch map that Logan drew in his officials dug precautionary trenches to the commander of the battalion stepped letter, and after some local reconnaissance, shelter the children. Since the town was forward and was shot dead. Despite the it seems likely that Carter was shot, or cap- not a military target, Carter was incensed. inequality of fire power, there was stiff resis- tured and then shot, in the foothills about Additionally, his relationship with Esme tance as the Republican column moved off a mile or two above the town of Xerta. We had changed suddenly and working with the road behind rocks and brush. When are unlikely ever to know for sure; interna- her had become difficult. the active fighting ceased, however, an esti- tional brigadiers did not wear dog tags, and mated 150 of 600 British battalion members there is no evidence that the fascist forces y late January 1938, Carter decided were dead. Others were captured, many to kept records of their work. he ought to do more for Spain and be taken away and shot out-of-hand by a spe- Carter’s story is especially tragic Bdecided to enlist in the British cial Spanish unit that followed the advancing because of what he might have become. He Battalion. A letter announcing his inten- front for this purpose. grew enormously during his work in Spain, tion was received by his parents after he Carter was marching with his smaller displaying understanding, compassion, signed on in Figueras on February 22. unit at the rear of the column, which discipline, and leadership in organizing to His enlistment form has not been found, saved him from injury. A group of about feed the orphaned children under FPP’s but some of the particulars appear in 20 men hid until nightfall and then began care. His political understanding also grew, the Moscow Files. In these documents, moving with stealth, hoping to cross the and without any evidence of Communist Carter had declared himself a member, Ebro River to the Republican lines on the Party dogma. The children wept openly CPGB. Swayed by months of discussions north bank. Because Carter’s unit leader, when he left Puigcerda to enlist—clearly with Esme, he must have joined the Party Sergeant Alan Logan, was captured and the worst decision of his young life. in England just before embarking on his wrote two letters to Winthrop Carter after The Spanish Civil War inspired popu- fundraising tour. This decision was never his release from a POW camp in early lar support within democratic countries revealed to his family. 1939, we know of the tribulations of this in reaction to the craven non-interference After enlisting, Carter received military brave, hunted group of men. policies of their governments. Many NGOs training at Albacete. At the time, there were The countryside through which they were born at this time. Carter’s FPP is now severe shortages of weapons for training. In moved was penetrated by fascist units called Plan. In 2009, the New York Times the field, Republican forces increasingly were moving toward the Mediterranean columnist, Nicholas Kristof, revealed that, arming themselves with captured weapons coast. At night they dodged their way through Plan, he supported a child in or weapons taken from fellow soldiers who through fascist encampments, some- the Dominican Republic. Kristof looked had been invalided or killed. By March 17, times stumbling on sleeping men. They forward to season tickets, should this when he wrote his last letter from Valencia, rested during the day. Food and water youngster become a Yankee! Nick Carter he was training as a medical orderly, but were scarce, although Carter’s excellent probably rooted for the Boston Red Sox, expected to be called to the front soon. The Spanish helped enormously with scattered but I think he would have smiled. letter was received in the U.S. on April 2, farmers who gave them assistance. three days after his unit was ambushed while When they entered the Sierra A longer version of this article can be marching north from Calaceite. Pandols, a mountain range just south of found in the Williams College Archives: A month earlier, Franco’s Spanish the Ebro, they had to move on the steep http://archives.williams.edu/files/barton- forces, augmented by several Italian divi- sides of narrow valleys. Above them were carter-wright.pdf. sions, Moorish units from North Africa, machine gun nests and below were fascist

16 THE VOLUNTEER December 2011 Photo Tamiment Library NYU Salaria Kea’s Spanish Memoirs By Emily Robins Sharpe one of few African-American women, to published a version of her early memoir, any motivations led Salaria Kea volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. The While Passing Through, as the 1938 pam- to volunteer as a nurse with the holdings of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade phlet A Negro Nurse in Republican Spain MAmerican Medical Bureau in Archives at the Tamiment Library at New (available on the ALBA website). However, Spain, from her concern over fascist Italy’s York University, as well as other archives Kea’s more extensive accounts of her time invasion of Ethiopia, to her Catholic in England and the United States, show in Spain, and of the rest of her life, remain beliefs, to her internationalist attitude to that she composed at least four memoirs mostly unknown. support freedom and democracy around between the time she returned from Spain Part of the difficulty in studying Kea’s the world. Over her lifetime, Kea repeat- in 1938 and her death in 1991. Kea also life—and what makes her story so intrigu- edly tried to publicize her experiences as lectured across the United States to raise ing—is that subtle details change from the only African-American nurse, and funds for the Spanish Republic during memoir to memoir. Over the last three the 1930s and 1940s and participated in years, I have travelled to archives in the Emily Robins Sharpe is a doctoral multiple Spanish Civil War documen- United States and England tracking down candidate in the English department at tary projects into the 1980s. The Negro information about Kea, and yet I am still Penn State University. Her dissertation Committee to Aid Spain, with the piecing together her story. The process of examines Jewish literature about the Medical Bureau and North American mapping Kea’s life, from her childhood in Spanish Civil War. Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy, the American south to the trip to Spain

December 2011 THE VOLUNTEER 17 that remained one of her most important had stopped accepting foreign volun- and refused to dine with her, and that and memorable life experiences, to her teers. Around the same time, she seems once in Spain, she was captured by fas- adulthood in New York City and Akron, to have joined the Communist Party, cist soldiers and imprisoned for days or in many ways parallels the process of although she almost never admitted to even weeks before International Brigades mapping Spanish Civil War history. As it in subsequent years. When asked by soldiers rescued her. Small details (the governments release more information an interviewer about the International length of her imprisonment, for instance) about their involvement in the conflict, Brigades’ politics, she responded (per- change from memoir to memoir, and the new stories are told, and we continue haps playfully) that she was not a documents’ truth is ultimately uncer- to deepen our understanding of this communist, nor did she even know of any tain: International Brigades archives hold momentous conflict. communists in Spain, adding, “I thought extensive correspondence between histo- Some of the alterations and omissions [Communism] was for white people only, rians and former volunteers attempting to in Kea’s accounts are more easily expli- just like the mafia.” verify the truth of Kea’s account, as well as cable than others. For instance, although As for many former International documentation that confirms her claims. she was born in Milledgeville, Georgia, Brigades volunteers, Kea’s possible ties While we may never know exactly what on July 13, 1913, she occasionally cited to Communism and to the Spanish happened to Kea while she was in Spain, Akron, Ohio, as her birthplace. Republicans likely hurt her job prospects in the hopes of broadening our collective Kea also told at least two versions of upon her return to the United States. An knowledge about American volunteers in her early childhood. As one journalist archived 1974 letter to another volunteer the Spanish Civil War—and the integral commented, “[i]t was a childhood she pre- nurse, Fredericka Martin, exemplifies roles played by African American and ferred to forget and even tried to change.” these fears. Kea worries, “Do you think I female volunteers—it seems fundamental The account Kea most often gave was might be on Nixon’s Enemies list?” to examine Kea’s many accounts. Whether that her father, a gardener at a sanato- Kea’s communist affiliations not- the changing details were the result of for- rium, was killed by a patient when she withstanding, she was keen to help getting or remembering, or else motivated was a baby. Forced to work to support the family, Kea’s mother moved her four children to Akron to live with family As a nursing student, Kea successfully lobbied Harlem friends. In contrast, in a later interview Hospital’s management to desegregate the staff dining room Kea explained that her father was killed at and ensure better working conditions for the black nurses. sea during World War I, and her mother died soon after. Rather than emphasize the traumatic aspects of her younger out where she could. Unable to travel by fear of reprisals, a desire to connect years, Kea’s accounts of her childhood to Ethiopia, in 1936 she applied to the with her audience (Kea lectured exten- and adolescence more frequently focus Red Cross to assist Midwest flood vic- sively, after all), or something else entirely, upon the support and love of her broth- tims, but she was rejected because of her her various memoirs are useful depictions ers and family friends, who raised her race. Around the same time, Kea’s col- of another side of the Spanish Civil War. and encouraged her to pursue a nursing league Arnold Donawa, the former dean Kea adjusted easily to life in Spain degree. Kea had to move to Harlem to do of Howard University’s dental school, and to communicating with Spanish and so, because the institutions nearer by were decided to volunteer with the Spanish international volunteers, explaining to segregated and refused to admit her. As a Republicans and convinced her to join one interviewer, “In New York [it was] just nursing student, Kea successfully lobbied him. In pointed contrast to the Red like you were in a foreign country, if you Harlem Hospital’s management to deseg- Cross, the International Brigades and the came from Akron, because everybody had regate the staff dining room and ensure American Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish their own language.” Kea quickly noticed better working conditions for the black Democracy were happy to have her help. the parallels between American racism, nurses. She remained in New York after She once commented, “It seemed so European anti-Semitism, and Spanish fas- graduation, becoming head nurse of Sea funny, me being turned down in a demo- cism. In New York, she had worked with View Hospital’s tuberculosis ward. cratic country and then allowed to go to many Jewish doctors and nurses, some a fascist one.” Kea sailed for Port Bou on of them European immigrants who had ea’s passion for nursing and her March 27, 1937. come to the United States fleeing anti- ability to effect real social change Two aspects of Kea’s memoirs that Semitism. But in Spain, she first witnessed Kled her to a life of activism. After have proven particularly controversial, xenophobia based not on race, religion, or Italy’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, she and doubted or discounted by some historians ethnicity. In While Passing Through she her fellow nurses raised money to send and fellow volunteers but corroborated by commented, “The [Spanish] peasants had hospital supplies to Ethiopian troops. others, are Kea’s claims that an American been psychologically just as imprisoned, She was anxious to volunteer her skills volunteer doctor called her a “nig- had accepted the belief that nothing could as well, but Haile Selassie, the emperor, ger wench” while on the ship to Europe be done about their situation as had the

18 THE VOLUNTEER December 2011 Harlem nurses earlier accepted racial dis- eventually won her over by writing her marry the one he loved and believed loved crimination in their dining room. Like poems and involving her in lengthy dis- him?” Kea recounts that she swooned the Harlem nurses, too, the peasants were cussions. In a draft of While Passing and “in her bathing suit plopped to the now learning that something could be Through, she writes, “We discussed North ground, she did not know she had sat on done about it….There was nothing invio- America, Ireland, and all groups and races a cactus plant until she reached her quar- lable about the old prejudices…they could who were victims of fascism and other ters and sat on the bed.” Once she healed, be changed and justice established.” injustices and how we two could help to they celebrated their wedding at the pal- ace. Afterwards, she was transferred to different units in Aragon, Lerida, and Barcelona, among other places, until she was injured in a bombing. She recuperated in France before returning to the United States in May 1938. Back in the United States, Kea lec- tured across the country to raise funds and recruit volunteers for the Spanish cause. Kea also lobbied the government to allow O’Reilly to immigrate—an espe- cially complicated process, since they were an interracial couple. O’Reilly finally moved to the United States in 1940, but was soon drafted for World War II. Kea served too, beginning in 1944 when African-American women were first recruited. The couple returned to New York after the war, and Kea went on to coordinate staff desegregation in sev- eral hospitals. They eventually retired to Akron in 1973, where Kea died on May 18, 1990. Kea frequently referred to her time in Spain as some of the best days of her life. Once back in the United States—and especially in Akron—she and O’Reilly experienced extensive racism in the form of personal threats and property damage: according to various interviews, at certain points they were afraid to leave the house together. In this light, Kea’s discussions of her freedom from discrimination in Spain are especially poignant. Her alignment of different types of oppression, such as American racism, European anti-Semi- tism, and Spanish and Italian fascism, is an illuminating way to approach her rea- sons for getting involved in the Spanish Kea frequently referred to her time in Spain as some of the best days of her life. Photo Republican cause. However, there is also a Tamiment Library NYU, ALBA PHOTO 13, Box 2, Folder 9. risk of erasing important differences in emphasizing oppression’s universality, Working in Villa Paz, Kea was soon abolish the enemies of the human race.” and not its specific manifestations. In for- to have the opportunity to challenge these When he proposed after a swimming getting or omitting Kea’s claimed prejudices. An injured Irish International excursion, she at first refused. He asked experiences with racism amongst the Brigades soldier, John Patrick O’Reilly, if she were going to “let the reactionar- American volunteers, we also run the risk fell in love with her. Although she tried ies take away the only thing a poor man of homogenizing the American experi- to keep their relationship platonic, he deserved, and that thing is his right to ence of the Spanish Civil War.

December 2011 THE VOLUNTEER 19 Book Reviews

with ideological, political, and class con- War On the Diplomatic Front notations, and skewed by mistaken or prejudiced analyses of Spanish reality.” Al servicio de la República. Diplomáticos United Kingdom (Enrique Moradiellos), y guerra civil. Edited by Ángel Viñas. France (Ricardo Miralles), the United f special interest to American Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2010. States (Soledad Fox), Switzerland (Elena readers is Soledad Fox’s chapter on Rodríguez Ballano), Mexico (Abdón OSpanish Ambassador Fernando de By Sebastiaan Faber Mateos), and Czechoslovakia (Matilde los Ríos, the affable and sophisticated law Eiroa). The collection is edited by Viñas, a professor who spent all three years of the prolific Spanish historian of the Republic war in Washington, DC. Fox describes in iplomats are funny creatures. On and the Civil War, whose combativeness fascinating detail why De los Ríos’ job was the one hand, they embody an and rigor honor the legacy of the legend- a “mission impossible.” While De los Ríos Danachronistic kind of superfici- ary Herbert Southworth, his friend and was successful in moving American pub- ality—all form, protocol, and etiquette. mentor. lic opinion to the side of the Republic and On the other, they are influential actors Julio Aróstegui’s opening chap- requesting that Congress lift the embargo behind the scenes, no less devious or pow- ter shows that notions of loyalty and that made it impossible for the Republic erful than spies and secret agents. As betrayal were absolutely central to the to purchase American arms—and while the Wikileaks affair reminds us, diplo- justification of individual actions, as he had many friendly and less-than- mats function as their nations’ eyes and well as to the Republic’s attempt to shore friendly meetings with high-ups in the ears, helping governments read the situ- up its legitimacy within and outside of White House—in the end it didn’t mat- ation on the ground, but they also work Spain. In the second chapter, Viñas gives ter: Roosevelt was simply too concerned as lobbyists, striking deals and applying a thorough overview of the Republic’s with losing the Catholic vote to change pressure. It was in this proactive capac- foreign policy efforts, taking advantage his official stance of neutrality. In hind- ity that the Spanish Republic desperately of the opportunity to debunk the host sight it is difficult not to see De los Ríos needed its full diplomatic corps when, of myths, exaggerations, and untruths steadfast optimism that the U.S. would in the summer of 1936, the democrati- that continue to mar much of the exist- come to its moral and political senses as a cally elected Popular Front government ing work on the topic. Viñas insists on form of self-delusion. Among De los Ríos’ was confronted with a coup that quickly the need for rigorous research based on few successes is the permission he secured developed into a full-blown Civil War. primary evidence from the time period, in 1937 for Dr. Edward Barsky’s medical Foreign governments, particularly fellow the increasing availability of which is mission to travel to Spain. democracies, needed to be convinced that allowing for a much more nuanced and The main conclusion to be drawn it was in their best interest—not to men- complete picture of “what actually hap- from this book is that the Republican tion their moral duty—to stand by the pened and, especially, why it happened.” diplomats did what they could, but the beleaguered Spanish people. But there was Contrary to what right-wing historians odds were against them. Their difficult a problem: the majority of Spanish diplo- claim, for instance, we can safely say that job was further complicated by mixed mats almost immediately sided with the the Civil War did not safeguard Spain signals from the divided Republican rebels. from a descent into social revolution or home front, some of whose foreign-pol- How and why this happened, and from falling prey to Stalin. It is by now icy initiatives were conducted without precisely how the Republican leader- also clear that, given the support the the diplomats’ knowledge. In the end, the ship reacted to this massive defection, is military rebellion received from Hitler Republican diplomats were as impotent the subject of this compelling new col- and Mussolini, it should be considered as their leaders. If recent research has lection. Its nine chapters and extensive part and parcel of interwar European made anything clear, it is that the gov- appendices provide a general overview power politics. More important, Viñas ernments of the countries that of the Republic’s diplomatic efforts dur- states that it is appropriate to see the mattered—Britain, the United States, ing the Civil War, while dealing in events in Spain as the result of a betrayal. France, and the Soviet Union—were, detail with the embassies and consulates “[T]he Spain that struggled to break the from the outset, unwilling to let any in the Soviet Union (Ángel Viñas), the shackles of social and cultural underde- moral or long-term strategic consider- velopment,” he states, was betrayed by ations impinge on the short-term, selfish Sebastiaan Faber, chair of the ALBA fellow states (France, Britain, the United interests that spelled the Republic’s Board, is professor of Spanish literature at States) pursuing “a savage policy of pro- doom, paving the way for the destruction Oberlin College. tection of national self-interest, seasoned of World War II.

20 THE VOLUNTEER December 2011 Book Reviews

not guarantee the impartial distribution Quakers & the Spanish Civil War of aid. Adding to their resentment was the fact that the Nationalist authorities violated Quaker Relief Work in the Spanish Civil War. clothing for themselves. While the FSC was their agreements by reportedly exchang- By Farah Mendlesohn. Lewiston, NY: The not allowed to operate in Nationalist Spain, ing wheat provided by the AFSC and other Edwin Mellen Press, 2002. the AFSC set up a mission in Burgos. agencies for German munitions. The situa- The Nationalist area, which had most of tion further deteriorated after the insurgents By Isabelle Rohr the agricultural land and very few of the conquered Republican-held territory. In refugees, did not need additional food sup- Murcia, the military confiscated relief sup- plies—at least in the first months of the plies and closed the children’s hospital, and uring the Spanish Civil War, in war. The primary aim of the AFSC pres- in Valencia, the police arrested the AFSC the face of the enormous civil- ence there was to ensure neutrality. representative, Emmet Gulley. The main Dian suffering, a number of One of the most interesting aspects accusations leveled at the Quakers were that non-governmental international orga- of the book lies in the difference in the they were “Reds” and of lax morality. With nizations stepped in to perform relief Quakers’ experiences in the two zones. the outbreak of World War II, the position work. Many of these supported one side In the Nationalist area, the rebel authori- of Friends workers became increasingly pre- of the conflict or the other; the North ties were opposed to the establishment carious and they began leaving Spain. The American Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish of non-Falangist and non-Catholic can- AFSC stopped relief work in Spain, using Democracy, for instance, sided with the teens, obliging the AFSC to channel relief its funds instead to administer colonies of Republicans, while the English Bishops’ through the Falangist Welfare Service, Spanish children in France and to assist Committee for the Relief of Spanish Auxilio Social. The arrangement caused Spanish refugees in Mexico and North Distress helped the insurgents. In con- tensions within the Quaker relief unit. Africa. trast, two Quaker organizations, the While Howard Kershner, the AFSC repre- Mendlesohn’s account demonstrates British-based Friends Service Council sentative who coordinated the work of all how difficult it was for any individual or (FSC) and the American Friends Service relief agencies in Spain, believed that the organization to remain impartial during the Committee (AFSC) were committed to Nationalists were civil and doing a great Spanish Civil War. It also adds valuable giving assistance to victims of the war on job, many of his colleagues resented being information to our knowledge of the refugee both sides. It is their history that Farah excluded from direct relief, as they could crisis that accompanied the conflict. Mendlesohn tells in this interesting study. In the past, their commitment to the Quaker “Peace Testimony” had led American and British Friends to assist both the victors and the vanquished in the after- math of a war. This was the first time that they served both sides in an ongoing war. In the cities of Barcelona, Valencia, and Murcia, located in the Republican zone, the FSC and the AFSC distributed milk and dried food to refugee children, preg- nant and nursing women, and the elderly. In addition, in Murcia, under the energetic leadership of Francesca Wilson, the British Friends also set up a children’s hospital and workshops where the refugees could make

Isabelle Rohr is the author of The Spanish Right and the Jews (1898-1945): Antisemitism and Opportunism. She is a visiting lecturer at King’s College, University of London, and at St. Mary’s College, University of Surrey.

December 2011 THE VOLUNTEER 21 Book Reviews Hemingway’s Pal

Grace Under Pressure, The Life of Evan Shipman. By Sean O’Rourke. Harwood before his repatriation. After his return Publishing and Unlimited Publishing, to the United States, Shipman joined 2011. the Veterans of the Lincoln Brigade and maintained a cordial relationship with them throughout his life, despite being By Chris Brooks essentially apolitical. Evan Shipman might be forgotten I owe Spain a great deal,” Evan were it not for his friendship with Ernest Shipman wrote to his good friend Hemingway. As Sean O’Rourke notes, “Ernest Hemingway on his return most of what is written about Shipman from Spain in June 1938. Shipman’s in “literary histories and books about road to war followed a unique path that his better known friends is often incom- was influenced by the novelist. He trav- plete, inaccurate, or just plain wrong.” eled to Europe in February 1937 when O’Rourke’s well researched biography pro- Hemingway donated ambulances to vides an engrossing narrative history of the Republican government and asked Shipman and his milieu that draws a more Shipman to deliver them. Shipman turned accurate picture of a complex character. over the ambulances to the American Shipman aspired to be a poet and Medical Bureau in France and attempted author and published numerous poems to travel on to Spain. Shipman, whose and a novel; however, his indifference to passport was stamped “Not Valid financial matters, poor health, and a dif- delved into the archives of ALBA, For Travel to Spain,” was arrested by ficult marriage led him to make a living Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the the French border patrol and jailed for as a journalist. His intimate knowledge Sorbonne. In each chapter O’Rourke his attempt to enter Spain with volun- and love of horse racing, both in Europe frames Shipman’s life through the people teers for the International Brigades. and the U.S., led him to be memorialized with whom he interacted. A website with During his eight-week incarceration, as the “dean of American turf journalists” additional photographs, corrections, and Shipman formed a close bond with other upon his death in 1957. amplifications can be found at volunteers. O’Rourke’s considerable research is EvanShipman.com. When he was released from jail, evident. Over the course of five years, he Shipman completed his journey and enrolled in the International Brigades. After recovering from wounds sustained in action at Brunete, while serving with the Washington Battalion, Shipman remained at Murcia as hospital commis- sar. In January 1938, he transferred to Did you know The Volunteer now has a full-fledged online Madrid, where he worked for the Ministry edition? Visit www.albavolunteer.org for longer articles, videos, of Propaganda on Voice of Madrid. In the late spring of that year, Shipman slide shows, and the ALBA blog featuring daily updates on returned to the Brigades. He moved to movies, books, politics, human-rights issues, and all the latest Barcelona, where he served briefly developments in the Garzón case. as the editor of Volunteer for Liberty Chris Brooks maintains ALBA’s WWW.ALBAVOLUNTEER.ORG biographical dictionary of the U.S. volunteers in the Spanish Civil War.

22 THE VOLUNTEER December 2011 Contributions

Benefactor ($5,000-$14,999) Melvyn Kaufman

Sponsor ($1,000-$4,999) A simple way to make a huge impact… Paul Blanc Monthly Donations Make a Difference! Supporter ($250-$999) Katherine Hendrickson, our wedding $10 covers an admission to an ALBA cultural event. gift for Kate and Jason Jacobus in honor $20 covers one DVD for a teacher. and memory of my grandfather George Hendrickson and the lifelong efforts of $25 covers one student ticket to ALBA’s annual event. my grandmother Rosalind Hendrickson, given with adoration, appreciation and $50 covers a new overseas subscription to The Volunteer. dedication • Howard Lurie • Patricia Tanttila $100 covers one month of website maintenance.

Contributor ($100-$249) MONTHLY PLEDGE PROGRAM! Aris Anagnos • Pearl Baley • Wendy Chavkin • Benedict Ellis • Linda Ellman in Yes, I want to join the Monthly Pledge Program and memory of Amirio Castro • Paul Epstein help support ALBA’s continuing educational work and • Maggie Kast • Fran Krieger in memory programs. of Sam Krieger, Sec’y of the Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade • David To donate, please call (212) 674-5398 or mail the enclosed Millstone • Ruth Ost in memory of envelope, checking the recurring donation box. Steve Nelson and John Simon • Nadrian Seeman • Rosalind Singer • Irene and Eric Solomon • Carolyn Syvanen in memory of Carl R. Syvanen Friend ($1-$99) Impugning Impunity Gerald Aubrey • Michael Blanc • Nancy Continued from page 3 Hall Brooks • Kathy McGuigan Castaneda • Shirley Cohen in memory of Louis hundreds of Chilenos during the reign The human rights agenda has also Czitrom • Noel and Cathy Folsom • of dictator Augusto Pinochet. become an integral part of ALBA’s James Geiser • Ann Hayes in memory The film series addressed the educational mission. In our upcoming of Louis Czitrom • Joan Intrator • John dangers of fascism in today’s soci- teachers’ development programs, Kailin in memory of Clarence Kailin • ety and the role that international ALBA’s documentary sources of the Dorothy Keller • Bella Kranz in memory courts can play to protect human Spanish Civil War will be linked with of Moishe Breir • Milton Lessner • Bertha rights. In partnership with ALBA contemporary issues that address the Lowitt • Mark Marin • Margaret Matlin were other organizations—the indiscriminate bombing of civilian • Andrew McKibben • Timothy Michel Puffin Foundation, the Center for populations, the targeting of individ- • Ann Niederkorn • Dagny Rodriguez Constitutional Rights, the Center ual suspects, and the use of • Peter Schwab • Robert Snyder in for Justice and Accountability, anonymous technologies to achieve memory of Louis Czitrom • Alan Wald • the North American Congress for military ends. Seven decades after the Dolores Wright Latin America, the United Nations, end of the Spanish Civil War, Picasso’s and the International Center for Guernika, Robert Capa’s images of The above contributions were made Transitional Justice—which together homeless refugees, the drawings of through September 2011; subsequent create a powerful platform to spread Spanish schoolchildren—key visual gifts will be noted in the next issue of The awareness about our human rights documents from the 1930s—remain Volunteer. commitment. sadly relevant.

December 2011 THE VOLUNTEER 23 The Volunteer NON PROFIT ORG c/o Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives US POSTAGE 799 Broadway, Suite 341 PAID New York, NY 10003 SAN FRANCISCO, CA PERMIT NO. 1577

Winter Events

December 9, 2011 75th Anniversary ALBA Benefit Party February 12, 2012 “ Call Mr. Robeson” at Carnegie Hall. Written and perfomed by Tayo Aluko. Bringing actor, singer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson back to Carnegie Hall on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. With the support of ALBA.

SAVE THE DATE! April 15, 2012 ANNUAL NYC EVENT

DONATE TO ALBA • WWW.ALBA-VALB.ORG GET THE LATEST INFO AT WWW.ALBAVOLUNTEER.ORG JOIN THE ALBA EMAIL LIST • [email protected]