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COMMUNITIES
​Announcements and Photographs of Rallies and Demonstrations, Photos and Obituaries of Demonstrators
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Through their activism and print culture, US Hispanic workers’ associations and mutual aid societies affiliated with the Sociedades Hispanas Confederadas (SHC) were one of the antifascist hubs during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the Francisco Franco dictatorship (1939-1975). Like other ethnic worker antifascist movements in the United States, SHC developed transnational proletarian cultures and networks. These practices include customary mutual aid that also meant sharing: (1) headquarters with other grassroots organizations, (2) subscribers to their periodicals and membership, and (3) volunteering performers for their fundraisers. SHC fundraisers were advertised and reviewed in US Hispanic periodicals, consolidating Hispanic antifascism and culture. This proletarian antifascism developed from local, earlier migrant, and exile workers from Europe and Latin America. They brought a deep-seated working-class identity and radical ideologies that linked them beyond national boundaries.
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Feu, Fighting Fascist Spain. Worker Protest from the Printing Press. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2020.
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Jon Bekken. "Crossing Borders: Reader-Editors and Publishing Communities." American Periodicals. 30.2 (2020). Volume on collaborative editorship.
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España Libre, Feb. 16, 1962:1. Founders’ picture. From left to right: Jesús González Malo (11th first row); José Nieto Ruiz (4th-second row​); Félix Martí Ibáñez (8th-second row); Aurelio Pego (5th top row).
When the Spanish Civil War broke out, about two hundred US Hispanic cultural and mutual aid societies came together in what became known as the Sociedades Hispanas Confederadas (SHC). The SHC was devoted to its antifascist cause, particularly through its activism and the publication of Frente Popular (1936-1939), which changed its name to España Libre (1939-1977), until Francisco Franco died, and democratic elections were held again in Spain. España Libre (1939-1977) was the longest-sustained antifascist bilingual periodical in the United States. Its documentation of transnational antifascist solidarity and culture for four decades is representative of the grassroots and cooperative efforts of anarchists in the USA.
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Twentieth-century US Hispanic workers had a clear transnational consciousness: old migrants and new exiles from European fascism coalesced in overlapping communities across the United States and were linked to similar anti-fascist networks in other countries. In particular, the anarchist antifascist community – built on prefigurative politics – expressed itself through periodicals, which created a tight-knit community. Along with affiliated associations, theater groups, rallies, and demonstrations, these publications provided public spaces of protest and solidarity in the United States where antifascists could live their activism and culture.
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