Local experiences of international anti‒fascism. American writers in defense of democracy

Abstract

In this article we propose to narrate a political‒cultural event related to the plot of international solidarity around the Republican Spanish exile once the Civil War in that country ended. For this we will refer to an intervention carried out in the city of Rosario in April 1939, whose purpose was to raise funds for the transfer of Spaniards to Chile on the steamship Winnipeg. The main figure and promoter of this journey was the writer and cultural ambassador of Chile in France, Pablo Neruda. With his presence, added to that of other cultural figures, both local and international, an event was held under the title «For the defense of democracies in America» at the Teatro Cine Real in this city. The event revealed some aspects that we are interested in exploring. On the one hand, the local impact of international solidarity practices associated with anti‒fascism; on the other, the emergence of cultural associative spaces made up of ideologically committed intellectuals; Finally, we propose a reconstruction of the cultural political panorama based on a cross between various newspaper sources such as the local press, the organizations' newspapers, the Intellectual Culture Bulletin and the police records in the description of said event.