Abstract

From 1936 until 1939, an ideological battle was being waged on the Iberian peninsula which polarized Spanish society between the two protagonists of the war, the Republicans which was composed of an uneasy alliance between the Communists, Socialists, and the Anarchists, and on the side the Nationalists composed and supported by the Spanish Falange and the rebellious armed forces led by Gen. Francisco Franco. Anti-Fascist organizations and sympathizers from all over the world signed up and volunteered to fight on the side of the republic by either joining the International Brigade or by directly joining the various armed groups of republic. This paper seeks to explore some of the individual stories of these Filipinos who found themselves on both sides of the conflict, and the dual role played by the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Communist Party of the United States in forging an alliance against Fascism from the Philippines and the United States.

Dr. Francis M. Navarro is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History of Ateneo de Manila University. He went to the University of the Philippines at Diliman where he took his Bachelor of Arts in History. Later on, he pursued higher studies at the Universidad de Salamanca as a scholar of the Spanish government where he obtained his Ph.D. in Archival Management with a dissertation entitled "Una Legislacion Archivistica Para El Archivo Nacional De Filipinas Con El Modelo Castillaleones" or "An Archival Legislation For The Philippine National Archives Using The Model Of Castille And Leon".

Currently, he teaches courses on Philippine History, Rizal Studies, and the Histories of Spain and Latin America in Ateneo de Manila University. Prior to this, he taught Philippine History and Asian Studies at the University of the Philippines Diliman, his alma mater; and, at the University of Asia and the Pacific where he taught Philippine and Medieval History.

His research interests include Philippine Colonial History from the 16th to the 19th Centuries, Paleography, Hispanic and Transpacific Studies, Philippine Local and Oral History.