Once upon a time Ernest Hemingway wrote a tribute, “On the
American Dead in Spain” (scroll to page 37), to the 800 members of
the American Lincoln Brigade who gave their lives for the Republican cause against Franco’s
fascists during the Spanish Civil War.
His tribute begins: “The dead sleep cold in Spain tonight. … It was cold that
February when they died and since then the dead have not noticed the change of seasons.” It ends:
“They are part of the earth now. … Those who have entered it honorably, and no men ever
entered earth more honorably than those who died in Spain, already have achieved
immortality.”
Was Hemingway right? Will they be memorialized forever? Ask the surviving members of the
Brigade, who will remember them at a reunion in New York on Sunday, along with others of a
later generation who hold to Hemingway’s conviction. The reunion, organized by the Abraham
Lincoln Brigade Archive, is to feature keynote speaker Victor Navasky, publisher of The
Nation, the musical revue “Patriots Act!” by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and protest songs
performed by the redoubtable Barbara
Dane. (She’s been described by music
critic Leonard Feather as “Bessie Smith in Stereo.”)
Nearly 3,000 Americans joined the Brigade, which was organized in 1936 to provide support
for the Spanish Republic when the U.S. government refused to assist it against a fascist rebellion.
Like other volunteers from more than 50 countries, they hoped in vain to stop the spread of
fascism and avert a second world war.
“Patriots Act!” is billed as a dramatic presentation of historical texts and songs of struggle
that tell the story of patriotic dissent from the Depression era of the Spanish Civil War through
the current wars. The event, beginning at 1:30 p.m., is to be held at the Skirball Center for the
Performing Arts, 60 Washington Square South (between Thompson and Wooster Streets) in
Manhattan. About 20 members of the Brigade are expected to attend.
Tickets are still available. For information, call 212-674-5552, 212-674-5398, or contact
Howard Wuelfing at Howlin’ Wuelf Media, 215-428-9119 (howlingwuelf@aol.com). For
information regarding the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Achive, a nonprofit educational organization
celebrating its 25th anniversary, contact Julia Newman, 212-674-5398 (exemplaryone@aol.com).
The archive is considered “the most comprehensive historical record of American
involvement in the Spanish Civil War,” according to New York University, which
acquired the collection in 2001. It holds the Brigade’s office files as well as the
personal diaries, oral histories, autobiographical writings and memorabilia of the veterans.
