ALBA Institute inspires record number of New York teachers

December 19, 2013
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ALBA Institute inspires record number of New York teachers

An unprecedented 71 New York high school teachers—who collectively teach more than 7,000 students every day—gathered at the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center on November 5 for a full-day workshop. The ALBA institute, taught by Peter Carroll, James Fernández, and Sebastiaan Faber, introduced teachers of Social Studies, Spanish, and English Language Arts...
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Posted in News, Education

Bay Area honors Vets and Dreamers

December 19, 2013
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Bay Area honors Vets and Dreamers

“Singing was an important part of our life in Spain,” wrote Lincoln Brigade volunteer Carl Geiser. And music was a strong theme at the West Coast ALBA annual reunion held at the Freight & Salvage music hall in Berkeley, California on October 6.
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Posted in News

ALBA film series impugns impunity

December 19, 2013
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ALBA film series impugns impunity

ALBA’s third human rights film series, held at Pace University this past November, featured eight compelling documentaries. Richard Rowley’s Dirty Wars (2013) lays bare the dirty little secret of America’s War on Terror with the help of investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill; Tatiana Huezo’s The Tiniest Place (2012) tells the...
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Posted in News

ALBA launches new website with standard-aligned teaching resources

December 19, 2013
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ALBA launches new website with standard-aligned teaching resources

ALBA is proud to announce a new website for high school teachers in Social Studies, Spanish, and English Language Arts, featuring resources and lesson plans aligned...
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Posted in News, Education

Watt Prize winners write on Jewish volunteers and religion in Spain

December 19, 2013
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Watt Prize winners write on Jewish volunteers and religion in Spain

Jewish volunteers from Palestine and the central role of the Virgen del Pilar in the rise of Spanish National-Catholicism are the topics of this year’s award-winning essays.
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Posted in News

Kent State publishes Carl Geiser letters from Spain

December 19, 2013
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Kent State publishes Carl Geiser letters from Spain

Carl Geiser, political commissar of the Lincoln Battalion, prisoner of war held in Spain until 1939, and author of Prisoners of the Good Fight, left the letters he wrote...
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Posted in News

Escape from death row: Three Lincoln POWs on trial

December 19, 2013
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Escape from death row: Three Lincoln POWs on trial

In February 1940, one year after the end of the Spanish Civil War, eight members of the Lincoln-Washington Battalion still languished in Spanish prisons. Among them were Peter Kerhlicker, Rudolph Opara, and Larry Doran. Buried in the Spanish military archives are documents of their trials. An original investigation.
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Posted in Features

Human Rights Column: Guatemala Expects Justice

December 19, 2013
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<em>Human Rights Column:</em> Guatemala Expects Justice

Last May, in a historic verdict, former Guatemala dictator Ríos Montt was found guilty of genocide. Ten days later the verdict was vacated in a controversial split decision by Guatemala's highest court. Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís filmed the entire trial.
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Posted in Features

Special Feature: The nature and rationale of the Gernika bombing

December 19, 2013
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<em>Special Feature:</em> The nature and rationale of the Gernika bombing

The bombing of Gernika, in April 1937, continues to be shrouded in mystery and lies. Xabier Irujo has spent six years researching 12,000 documents from Basque, Spanish, French, British, United States and Italian archives. A summary of his findings.
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Posted in Features

Letter from ALBA: Help us inspire new generations

December 19, 2013
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<em>Letter from ALBA:</em> Help us inspire new generations

Dear Friends, This has been an ambitious year for ALBA as we continue to grow our human rights initiatives and strengthen our educational programming. We recently wrapped up our Third...
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Posted in Letters

From Ottawa to Spain and back again: Canadians in the SCW

December 19, 2013
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From Ottawa to Spain and back again: Canadians in the SCW

In June 1935, nearly 2,000 young, unemployed, and angry men living in western Canada and intent on demonstrating their discontent hitched a ride on a train of boxcars to...
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Posted in Features

Carlos Blanco Aguinaga (1926-2013): An exile’s fiction

December 19, 2013
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Carlos Blanco Aguinaga (1926-2013): An exile’s fiction

Carlos Blanco Aguinaga, a preeminent scholar of Spanish literature, a refugee of the Spanish Civil War, and a great friend of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and ALBA, died on...
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Posted in Memory's Roster

Carlos Blanco: Critical thinker from the margins

December 20, 2013
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Carlos Blanco: Critical thinker from the margins

Along with thousands others, Carlos Blanco left Spain defeated but managed to preserve what is most admirable of the Spanish Republican values at the core of his identity, and...
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Posted in Blog, Memory's Roster

Book Review: Anticlerical violence in Spain

December 19, 2013
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<em>Book Review:</em> Anticlerical violence in Spain

The Faith and the Fury: Popular Anticlerical Violence and Iconoclasm in Spain, 1931-1936. By Maria Thomas. (Brighton: Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies/Sussex Academic Press, 2013.)
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Posted in Reviews

Book Review: Teenagers fighting Franco

December 19, 2013
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<em>Book Review:</em> Teenagers fighting Franco

Paso a la juventud. Movilización democrática, estalinismo y revolución en la República Española. By Sandra Souto Kustrín. (Valencia: PUV, Universitat de Valencia, 2013.)
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Posted in Reviews

Faces of ALBA: Evelyn Scaramella and Victor Grossman

December 19, 2013
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<em>Faces of ALBA:</em> Evelyn Scaramella and Victor Grossman

In every issue of The Volunteer we introduce two members of the ALBA community. Meet Spanish professor Evelyn Scaramella and author Victor Grossman.
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Posted in Interviews

Letter to the Editor: Van der Schelling’s voice

December 19, 2013
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<em>Letter to the Editor:</em> Van der Schelling’s voice

Dear Editor, Fine piece about Bart van der Schelling in the September issue. I recall going along with Alvah and Bart on two occasions, somewhere between 1949 and 1951, where...
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Posted in Letters

A Civil War heritage trail in Spain

December 4, 2013
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A Civil War heritage trail in Spain

Alasdair Fotheringham, writing for The Independent, explores a curiously uninformative official heritage trail--the first of its kind established by a governmental entity--commemorating a Spanish Civil War battlefield outside of...
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Posted in Blog

David Graeber dedicates new book to his Lincoln vet father

October 14, 2013
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David Graeber dedicates new book to his Lincoln vet father

In 2011, David Graeber’s monumental book "Debt: The First 5,000 Years" was published. In that very same year, he burst into national consciousness with the Occupy Wall Street movement...
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Posted in Blog, Interviews, Uncategorized

Spanish tribute to Sam Levinger

September 29, 2013
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Spanish tribute to Sam Levinger

Juan Arana writes (for a version in Spanish, see below): Today, September 29, 2013, a group of friends and sympathizers of the International Brigades, brought together by Luis Granell,...
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Posted in Blog

Did Hollywood aid Hitler?

September 27, 2013
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Did Hollywood aid Hitler?

The New Yorker's David Denby has followed up his negative review of Ben Urwand's new book, The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact with Hitler--which claims that major Hollywood studies actively collaborated with...
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Posted in Blog