Alejandro Batista Tejada

University of Seville
§ International brotherhood

§ Intra-histories of solidarity, commitment and

transethnicity

§ “’Transethnicity’ both emphasizes the desirability of

‘crossing’ ethnic boundaries and, more importantly,
suggests a problematization of the very term ‘ethnic’,
without entirely dismissing it.” (Simal, “The Challenge
of Going Trnasethnic”: 33)
§ These writers were impregnated with “an identity as a working
writer and with a strong sense of personal and political agency
within history”. (Nelson & Hendricks, Edwin Rolfe: A
Biographical Essay and Guide to the Rolfe Archive: 10)

§ “In the Spanish Civil War, […] the ‘self’ becomes ‘us’”. (Castillo,
“El forastero en la Guerra Civil española”: 12)

§ Writers of the Spanish Civil war, “in spite of having different An ever-growing literary
agendas and target audiences, they did not work completely phenomenon
isolated from one another”. (Cueto, “A Multilingual Reading of
Spanish Civil War poetry” : 472)

§ A “collective and almost choral nature” of literature of the

Spanish Civil War. (Nelson, Disciplinarity and Dissent in
Cultural Studies : 68)
 From James Neugass’
War is Beautiful:
This was the first time I had shared a
room, much less a bed, with a negro. My
grandfather had been a slaveholder. Two
ancestors had fought with the
Confederates. The eyes of three
generations of New Orleans private
bankers were on me as I stood in the
room with D. He sensed this but made no
comment. Both of us knew that I had an
opportunity of permanently putting to
sleep a hundred years of prejudice. This
I did. (47)
From James Yates’
Mississippi to Madrid
…I shivered with pleasure. Suddenly I
felt as one with these people, Black
and White. I was part of their hopes,
their dreams, and they were a part of
mine. And we were part of an even
larger world of marching poor
people.
Spain was the first place that I ever
felt like a free man. If someone didn’t
like you, they told you that to your
face. It had nothing to do with the
color of your skin.
 James Neugass’ “Before Battle”
“Rich in bankruptcy, to the world
I leave my heart to the Republic my
gun
To men’s slow eyes my
unvanishing footsteps”
[…]
Too tired to speak or sing
Quick to tire but long in strength
Now too tired to curse, the men
advance
[...]
Advance! Leaving night and death
behind
We advance into light and life!
Advance!
Leaving the old world behind us we
march into the new!
TALES OF COMMITMENT
AND CONSTANT FIGHT
Edwin Rolfe’s “Postscript to a War”
…even if we find
Our truest loves indifferent, false –
We must remember cleanly why
we went,
Clearly why we fought
From James Yates’
memoir:
Some days there would be
defeats; other days,
victories. And in between
times, advances, retreats,
attacks and
counterattacks. But I could
be sure of one thing: the
enemy could not win
forever. As sure as the sun
rises, people will keep
rising and keep fighting
for human dignity and
freedom.
 SEEDS OF HOPE

From James Neugass’ “Give Us This Day”

From Edwin Rolfe’s “Epitaph”
Some day their history will
This is no grave,
Be carved ineradicably across
No, no resting place.
The earth by tractor-drawn plows
This is the plot where the self-growing seed
Sends it fresh fingers to turn soil aside,
…let the memory of the songs
Over and under earth ceaselessly growing
The volunteers sang never die from out
Over and under earth endlessly growing.
throats
 From Langston Hughes’ “Tomorrow’s
Seed”

[…]
That from your death
New life will grow.
For there are those who cannot see
The mighty roots of liberty
Push upward in the dark
To burst in flame –
A million stars –
And one your name:
Man
Who fell in Spanish earth:
Human seed
For freedom’s birth.
It is usually said that history is written by
conquerors, but that was not the case with
the Spanish Civil War. It was the
volunteers who returned home and wrote
their own stories… They told their truth,
[…] they themselves forged their own
legend. (Celada & Pastor 2012: 312)