The Spanish Civil War: Meet the American Volunteers By Rodeline Belizaire

Preview What reasons would a person have to leave his or her country to go to another country to fight for a people he/she doesn’t even know?

The Spanish Civil Wart: The International Brigades  32,000 people from 52 countries volunteered to fight on the side of Spanish Republic against General Francisco Franco and the military.  Most of the volunteers were recruited through their country’s communist parties.  The volunteers overall goal was to "make Madrid the tomb of fascism."

The Americans: Abraham Lincoln Brigade  The Abraham Lincoln Brigade was made up of both men and women.  The Brigade was the first racially intergraded military unit in U.S. History.  They served in combat, medical, and transportation units.  Though they came from all walks of life, the majority of the ALB were members of the American Communist Party.  They had individual motivations for joining…  The Neutrality Acts by Congress made it illegal to travel to Spain, they broke the law when they left for Spain.

The Americans: Abraham Lincoln Brigade  An estimated 2,800 Were Americans, close to 1,000 died in Spain.  Many went on to fight against the Fascists again when the U.S. entered WWII.  They were labeled premature anti-fascists after the U.S entered WWII  They were investigated by the government during the 1950s during the early years of the Cold War.

The Americans: Women  There were 80 women volunteers.  They mostly served at nurses.

They Come Home  In the spring of 1938, the Spanish government called off the International Brigades.  The Lincoln Brigade disbanded, the volunteers returned home not as American heroes, but as “premature anti-fascists”.  Returning volunteers founded Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB) to keep the memory of Spain alive.  In 1979 the VALB founded the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) in an effort to preserve and share the legacy of the American volunteers.

jNo Pasaran! “No pasarán”–”They shall not pass”–was the antifascist rallying call throughout the war. The phrase referred to the defense of Madrid from the Fascist onslaught. video-uploads-4-%C2%A1no-pasaran/

Journal of the Senses Think of the volunteers’ overall experience both in Spain and at home here in the U.S., what do you imagine the volunteers saw, smelled, heard, tasted, and felt as veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade?