Contract made by Brigadista Victor Manuel Martínez Ramírez

Some Paraguayan volunteers (like thousands of others who fought in the International Brigades) participated in the conflict by signing contracts with the Government of the Spanish Republic. This mainly occurred among those who had accredited military experience, as they were of particular value to the Republican Army. Their previous experience on the frontlines was particularly useful, especially for filling gaps in the mid-level command structure, as well as for integrating units made up of recruits with no military experience with soldiers battle-hardened in other conflicts.

The contract shown was signed by the Paraguayan volunteer Víctor Manuel Martínez Ramírez with the Army of the Republic in September 1937. Víctor Martínez had been an officer in the Paraguayan Army during the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay between 1932 and 1935. For that reason, Víctor Martínez was assigned to the Cavalry Brigade of the Army of the Centre with the rank he had achieved during the Chaco conflict: lieutenant. When the international volunteers were demobilized in late 1938, Víctor Martínez ended up in the concentration camp in Gurs (France).

His story is particularly interesting because during his time in Spain, he met the Spanish militiawoman Adela Dueñas Guerrero, who he married in Alacalá de Henares in early 1938. After the Spanish conflict ended, the couple traveled to Paraguay. When they arrived, contacts members in the Paraguayan Communist Party who helped them enter the country handed them a note that said: “They send their joyous greetings and a warm, fraternal embrace to the new and esteemed comrade Adela, a brave daughter of heroic Republican Spain, and to long-standing comrade Víctor, a beloved son of this Guaraní land, a vigorous and genuine defender of the Motherland, Democracy, and International Law, as an expression of warm and united support for the great common cause that was valiantly defended yesterday."

In 1940, the couple settled in the capital, Asunción. However, a few years later, the political circumstances in Paraguay—where members of leftist parties and progressive critical thought had little to no space—forced them into exile once again. The family eventually settled in the city of Rosario (Argentina), where Víctor Martínez created a photo album that became the main historical source on the Paraguayan members of the International Brigades. This historical document is housed in the Museo de la Memoria in Rosario.

ETB