Foreign veterans of Spain



In the 60th year since the Spanish Civil War began and young men and women came to our country
from all over Europe and North America to fight fascism, the veterans of the International Brigades
returned to Spain for what was probably going to be their last big reunion. Forgotten and at times
despised in their own country, they were much applauded and honored with celebrations and
ceremonies in many Spanish towns.

The Parliament remembered their services by making them honorary Spanish citizens, a tribute that
has deeply touched the Americans, Russians, British, French, Cubans and Poles who were among the
380 veterans that got together from 29 nations so many years after the war. Mr. Rappoport, 86, who
worked in a New York grocery store in 1937 when he offered to risk his life in a country of which he
had heard very little, said: «We came to fight fascism and Nazism and I’m still proud of it.»

Today, as Western armies fight far-off wars with long-range bombs, the idealism that drove young
people to the trenches of Spain in its 1936-39 civil war may seem hard to understand; yet more than
40,000 young people with little or no fighting experience came to Spain then. Most were workers and
students, among them Communists, Socialists and democrats. A few were women, who worked as
nurses. Carmen Parga, 82, who arrived from Mexico City, said Spain at that time was considered the
front line against fascism. «The slogan was,» she recalled, «‘We are defending all of Europe in Spain’.» It was the time when fascism was installed in Germany and Italy. Generalissimo Francisco Franco had rebelled and tried to overthrow Spain’s democratically elected leftist government, but his coup attempt turned into war.

During the concert in their honor in the Sports Palace, where 10,000 people cheered the veterans,
many cried openly. As old comrades in arms recognized each other after years, there were embraces,
back slaps and laughter as people shouted things like: «Hey, you’re still alive!»

1. Answer the following questions without copying from the text.
a) Why did some of the foreign veterans of the Spanish war come back to Spain last year ?


b) What, according to the text, made them come and fight in that war far from their own
countries?


c) How would you describe the old veterans’ feelings about the big reunion from the
information given in the text?


2. Answer one of the two options:
Option A: Carmen Parga, the Mexican nurse, has learned that her granddaughter, who
has just graduated as a doctor, has decided to join a volunteer organization and work on
a health project in an African country. Before leaving, the young girl wants to talk to her
grandmother. Imagine the conversation they have and write it down.

Option B: Tom is Mr. Rappoport’s grandson. He is now 18. Before his grandfather left for
the reunion in Spain he sent him a letter wishing him a good trip. In the letter, Tom also
told him why he thinks all wars are absurd and why he would never do what his grandfather
did coming to Spain in 1936. Write down this letter.

 

3. Vocabulary

Explain next words in English, write the phonetics and also an example: to despise, to seem, to overthrow, to recall, to rebel