Lucy's Post on Sociedades Hispanas Confederadas

I read Lucy's post on the Sociedades Hispanas Confederadas. It was very interesting. Like Mr. Fernandez, I was intrigued by the unopened letter found in one of the folders, and I hope that it is only unopened because the archivists have not sorted through that box yet. I do not agree with the argument that since the letter arrived unopened the person who donated it must have wanted the letter to remain sealed. A letter holds so much more information than an envelope.

The Sociedades Hispanas Confederadas box contains letters and other materials in Spanish. I am envious and impressed that Lucy can tackle archival material in Spanish. It also sounds like the boxes are rarely researched, partly because of the language issue, so they are swiftly sorted or not sorted at all. A collection like this would be a good one to annotate as part of the term project.

At the beginnning of the blogpost, she describes looking through the files of Robert Steck, a veteran who spend months in a Franco prison. I have read some of these files myself, and love the prison community Steck describes in which inmates set up a makeshift university, write the "Jaily News" and even use their meagre soap rations as chess pieces. The actions of the prisoners represents an absolute refusal to bend to the unhumanity and depression of Franco Spain.