POETRY
To my Son in Spain, Aku Paivio. The best known poem dedicated
to one of the volunteers. Aku Paivio was a Finnish Canadian poet, writer
and journalist. His son Jules travelled to Spain at the age of 18 and distinguished
himself in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, ending the war as a Captain.
Returning to civilian life he became an architect and educator, and was
responsible for the erection of two of the monuments to the Battalion in
Canada - at the Ontario Legislature and in Ottawa.
I Dreamed in Spain a Beautiful Dream, by Lee Burke, Mac-Pap Veteran
Red Moon,
by Norman Bethune. Bethune is the best known of the Canadians to serve in
Spain. A doctor, he travelled there in 1936 to organize mobile transfusion
units, an innovation at the time. He served during the seige of Mardrid,
helped evacuate hundreds of civilians from Almeira as the city was overrun
and continued on the front lines throughout the war.
A Nightingale’s
Song, by Frank (Slim) Blackman, Mac-Pap Veteran. This
poem was written March 1989 about the concentration camp at San Pedro
de Cardeña, Spain where he was a prisoner of war.
SPEECHES
Farewell to the International Brigades in Spain, Dolores Ibarruria.
This most famous of Civil War Texts was delivered by Ibarruria, a deputy in
the Republican government, known a La Passionaria, to the International Brigade
as it was disbanded in 1938.
Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada: unveiling
of the monument to Canadian participation in the Spanish Civil War, October20,
2000.
Ukrainian Participation in the Spanish Civil
War by Myron xxxxxx, the opening address for an exhibition of drawings
at the Schevchenko Museum, Toronto, March 19, 2004
TEXTS ON INDIVIDUAL
BRIGADISTAS
The Centenary of Pablo de la Torriente Brau by Moe Fishman, veteran
of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. Pablo de la Torriente Brau was a Cuban
volunteer who died in the Spanish Civil War.
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