Paraguayans in the International Brigades (2002)

One of the key works to understand the participation of Paraguayans in the Spanish Civil War is the book whose cover can be seen here.  Milicianos paraguayos en la España republicana y en la lucha contra la ocupación nazi de Francia ("Paraguayan Militiamen in Republican Spain and in the Struggle Against the Nazi Occupation of France"), was written by Paraguayan member of the IBs Víctor M. Martínez Ramírez based on his own memories and those of another Paraguayan volunteer, Tomás Vera, who appears as the coauthor of the book, by mutual agreement.

The history of this little book is very important, not only because it constitutes one of the very few memorial documents we have about the experience of Paraguayan volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, but also because reflects the history of Paraguay during the forty-five-year dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner. It was originally handwritten by Víctor Martínez in 1969 after returning to Argentina following a visit to Moscow with his wife, the Spanish militiawoman Adela Dueñas. On their return from Moscow, Martínez and Dueñas passed through Paris, where they found Tomás Vera, who had been living in the French capital since the end of World War II.

Víctor Martínez later typed the handwritten manuscript in 1980. It is not known if he made any changes to the original text. He then gave it to his lifelong friend, Alfonso Guerra, who had met Martínez as militants of the Paraguayan Communist Party in 1936, almost fifty years earlier. Guerra was tasked with editing and publishing the work; Víctor Martínez passed away in 1983, shortly after delivering the document. However, the book would not see the light of day until 2002, as in Paraguay, the Stroessner dictatorship made the publication of such a book difficult, as well as something that could put the families of the Paraguayan volunteers at risk.

The book was published with the collaboration of Víctor Martínez's family, especially his eldest daughter Mariadela Martínez Dueñas. The preface states that these memoirs "constitute moving testimonies of a period of dramatic struggle for freedom in the land of Spain." However, the book is also an important memorial exercise of description, analysis, and fine detail of certain events experienced firsthand by the Paraguayan members of the IBs, and not just moving testimonies.

One last important and interesting detail: Martínez and Vera decided to omit the name of Vicente Durá Campos, another of the Paraguayan volunteers who survived the war in Spain and the French internment camps. In 1969, when Martínez wrote the work on his return to Rosario (Argentina) after meeting Tomás Vera in Paris, Durá Campos was still living in Paraguay under the military dictatorship. They left Vicente Durá's out of the book in order to protect his identity from the Stroessner regime.

ETB