Lea la traducción al español aqui.

I knew little about Juan José Ibañez Esnal, the man behind the Spanish translation of Jim Higgins’ book, Fighting for Democracy, A Canadian Activist in Spain’s Civil War. I set out to learn more about his family but more importantly, I wanted to know why he did it. His reasons are somewhat surprising.

Juan José lives with his family — wife, Elena, and two school-age children — in San Sebastian, a city in Basque Country in northern Spain which sits on the Bay of Biscay. Basque Country shares a border with France at its eastern end and has its own language and customs. His three sisters, Mari Carmen, Koro and Juli, live nearby with their families.

Juan José speaks Spanish, French and English, but only a little Basque because it was outlawed under Franco’s dictatorship. Armed with a business degree, he develops markets in North America for a German freight forwarding company. Pre-pandemic, he made frequent business trips to the US and one to Toronto in 2017, hence his excellent English.

Juan José first became interested in his father Julian’s, “war stories” when he was a teenager. He learned that, at 46, his grandfather, Vidal Ibañez, was considered too old for the front so he became a stretcher bearer in the Facundo Perezagua Battalion. He was later falsely accused of being a Chekist (Soviet military police) and imprisoned until January 1940. Tragically, he was infected with TB in prison and died from it in 1943.

Juan José’s father, Julian, was a vigourous 21-year-old, eager to defend the government. By the time of the army uprising, having lost his job as a carpenter, he had turned to commercial fishing, probably tuna, in the Bay of Biscay. That came to an abrupt end. He became a miliciano with the Russia Battalion of the Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas (JSU) – Unified Socialist Youth, a mix of communists and socialists.

Julian was injured at the Irun front, east of San Sebastian, in August 1936. Once recovered, he was sent west to the Oviedo front in February 1937. There, he received a serious leg injury and was taken to a hospital in Catalonia. It’s quite a story.

It was impossible to evacuate the injured soldiers by land through Spain because it was controlled by Franco’s troops, so they were taken in a leaky, bomb-damaged boat across the Bay of Biscay to France (it sank shortly after their arrival in Bordeaux) and were then put on a sealed train across southern France where French fascists on the platform at Narbonne mocked them with the fascist salute. They re-entered Spain by way of Perpignan, the same town Jim Higgins passed through twice.

While hospitalized in the village of Cambrils, Julian met injured Canadian and German volunteers and Juan José remembers his father expressing great admiration for the Canadians; it’s a small part of what was behind his offer to do the translation.

After convalescing in Caudete, Julian joined the army in reserve at Orgaz, south of Madrid, where he and a friend took it upon themselves to teach a shepherd to read and write; a reflection of the bigger picture in Spain where the Republican government, amongst its many other accomplishments for workers’ and women’s rights, had significantly raised the literacy rate.

Julian’s unit was then sent to the front at Madrid. He returned to Caudete in March 1939 where he was taken prisoner by Italian troops supporting Franco. Shortly after, on April 1, Franco declared victory.

Julian’s experience after the war mirrors what happened to countless Spaniards — as well as many internationals who didn’t get out of Spain in time — in his case, he was imprisoned in San Sebastian, then sent to concentration camps in Miranda de Ebro and Madrid.

Finally, he was sent to a forced labour camp in Lavacolla in Galicia, where he and other inmates built runways for the international airport at Santiago de Compostela. I wonder how many of the tens of thousands of pilgrims who have walked the Santiago de Compostela trail are aware that Franco’s prisoners built the airport runway at their destination.

Julian was released in 1942 and by 1945 he was married to Maria Esnal. In1950, they moved to Venezuela to get away from Francoist repression and economic hardship but returned to San Sebastian a couple of years later for family reasons. Julian Ibañez was to die there in 2002.

Back to present day. It was my last question to Juan José; what motivated him to make his offer.

He responded, “I think it’s important for Spanish speakers to read the story of your father. Many Spaniards don’t know their own history. They don’t know what it was like before. They only know what it’s like to live in a democracy.”

Beyond that, he said, “It’s my humble way to thank your father for coming to Spain. Your father’s commitment was far bigger than mine in doing this translation. Why would someone who lived thousands of miles away risk his life to help us. I find it heroic and incredible. It’s a very human story; an easy way for Spaniards to be inspired to do something heroic themselves.”

I was curious: I asked him if a common expression in Spain, no tener mas remedio, applied to him. He allowed that it did.

To translate that phrase; it seems that, in truth, Juan José Ibañez Esnal “had no other choice.”

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Fighting for Democracy: The True Story of Jim Higgins (1907-1982), A Canadian Activist in Spain’s Civil War can be ordered here.