Las "Brigadistas"

[Hijo]

Read last week where another U.S. veteran of the Spanish Civil War passed away. Apparently in San Francisco, there is a monument to those who "fought the Good fight."

Capt. Milton Wolff - "Milty!" - died in January, at age 92.

Those who violated the U.S. "Neutrality Act," and joined the 15th Brigade of the Communist International army to stop Francisco Franco's Fascists from toppling the democratically elected Republic of Spain - some of whom later fought Hitler and Tojo/Hirohito in World War II - were targeted as Communists and Communist sympathizers (the equivalent, at the time, of the blanket term "terrorists") by the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities, chaired by then-Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

Hemingway loved the Brigadistas (two American units, the Lincoln Battalion and the Washington Battalion, joined after the Washington Battalion, led by Wolff, was decimated). Much of Spain remembers them fondly as well.

But as they die off, perhaps its good and fitting to remember a group that fought and died for an ideal rather than personal gain or strategic national interest...

They were not, by the way, all Communists. Though history shows the Russian Soviets, who ultimatedly controlled the Internationale, under Joseph Stalin, handed Spain to Franco to invade Poland with Hitler - thus disappointing, and betraying, those who'd risked their lives from other countries for Spain.

There spirit was one of defending others from Fascism, not blind loyalty to an ideology other than liberty and the right to choose one's own leaders.

Which is why, in his tragic novel about the Spanish Civil War, Hemingway chose to open the book with a quote from the poet - and cleric - John Dunne. "No man is an Island...."

Best,
Hijo