Refugees from Aragón disembarking from the SS Winnipeg in Valparaíso, Chile. Biblioteca Nacional de Chile.
Human Rights Column
By Isabel Allende
A Dark Time
Isabel Allende, the Chilean author and philanthropist, spoke at ALBA’s Lincoln Brigade Monument Celebration on September 12, 2020. This is what she said.
W
elcome to this virtual gathering organized by ALBA, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade archives, in which we honor the Americans who went to Spain in 1936 to fight against fascism. We also celebrate the monument of the Lincoln Brigade in the Embarcadero in San Francisco. And we also recognize today No More Deaths, or No Más Muertes, which works to protect the lives of Central and South American refugees trying to find safety in the United States.
forces of the right, the Catholic Church and the military, led by General Francisco Franco, rebelled against the government. They were helped by Mussolini and Hitler. A brutal civil war ensued. The country was torn to pieces. Hundreds of thousands were killed in battle or executed after being conquered. Franco’s fascist dictatorship would last 40 years. Many young men and women around the world saw the Spanish Civil War as an epic struggle between democracy and fascism, which had already triumphed in Germany and Italy.
First, some history. In 1936, a Democratic leftist government was elected in Spain, the Second Republic. Immediately, the
Between 35,000 and 40,000 volunteers went to fight for the Republic in the International Brigades. Among them were December 2020 THE VOLUNTEER 7
