Institut Ramon LLull

The International Brigades are one of the most legendary chapters in the history of the world’s fight against fascism. When General Franco’s coup d’état threatened the Second Republic, more than forty thousand men and women from around the world came to Spain to battle against fascism. Jordi Martí-Rueda pays tribute to them in this book and invites us to relive their stories. Sixty portraits—each with a photograph and a short text—tell us about the people who risked their lives to defend the lives of others. In these pages we discover young men who crossed borders on bicycle to join the Republican cause; men and women who came from across the Atlantic to fight in Spanish trenches; students driving ambulances; friends who adopted the surnames of the fallen to commemorate them; African-Americans who find they aren’t discriminated against for the colour of their skin; women who earn the respect of entire battalions; English and Irishmen who find a shared cause and homeland in the ranks of the international brigades.

These true stories pack more emotional impact than fiction; they are richly layered, surprising and moving, each with its own distinct essence and particulars but all with a common goal: the generous defence of freedom.