MIAMI, United States. — With 1,225 internationalists, Cuba was the country that sent the most volunteers to the Spanish Civil Wara conflict that occurred between 1936 and 1939 caused by a climate of internal turmoil due to the economic, political and social situation of the Iberian country.
In accordance with island researchersMost of the recruited Cubans formed part of a main detachment sent from Havana clandestinely by the Communist Party.
Another group was made up of “Cuban revolutionaries and communists who were in exile, organized in the Julio Antonio Mella and Antonio Guiteras clubs in New York.” These traveled from the United States as part of the Abraham Lincoln battalion of American communists.
Cubans residing in Mexico, as well as in other Caribbean and Central American nations, also volunteered for the Civil War.
The foreign detachments were joined by dozens of nationals who were already in Spain when the Franco uprising took place on July 18, 1936.
The investigators also accessed the personal files of dozens of Cuban volunteers and unpublished documents such as the history of the XV Abraham Lincoln International Brigade, where an important force of Latin Americans operated.
The flow of Cubans covers the three years of the war. The first, exiled in Spain, enlisted from the beginning, in July 1936. From January 1937, exiles from the US arrived and from April 1937 to May 1938, recruits from Cuba.
In all, an estimated 35,000-40,000 volunteers from more than 50 countries rushed to join the International Brigades to defend the Republic. A smaller number of foreign recruits joined the forces of General Francisco Franco, who would rule Spain until his death on November 20, 1975.
