Category Archives: Spanish Civil War

Books, research and other tidbits

Tantalizing Threads to Pursue

Time for an editing update. Since I joined the social media crowd in August, some intriguing information has come to light about my father’s time in the Spanish Civil War. As I tease things out, with help from people I’ve met online, it seems that Jim Higgins was no ordinary soldier.

At first, when I heard him comment on one of his audiotapes, that he “wasn’t the average guy”, or that he “knew things others didn’t”, I pushed it aside. I knew deep down these weren’t idle comments, but I didn’t have any evidence of what he meant. If anything, he underplayed his role in his memoir, so no help there.

Now, it turns out, his cryptic comments mean something. 

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You are history. You are legend.

These oft-repeated words ring through the years as an emotional tribute to tens of thousands of people who left their countries, often illegally, to help the people of Spain in their fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War.

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Who is that Mac-Pap on the Gun?

The historical record isn’t always straightforward. Take this photo of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion’s machine gun company.

From Victor Hoar’s book published in 1969
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Why a 30-year Wait for the First Book about the Mac-Paps?

I have no doubt that my Dad, Jim Higgins, was writing about his experiences in the Spanish Civil War in early February 1939, while still on the boat back to Canada .

Major Cecil-Smith,  a journalist before volunteering for Spain, was to be editor of a book about the Canadian volunteers who fought in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion.  He asked Dad to make some contributions; they wanted it out as quickly as possible.

Why did Jim Higgins write this inscription on the flyleaf of  The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion by Victor Hoar
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Message from Madrid

Last October, I dropped everything, and went to Spain. I had reached a point in editing my father’s memoir, where I felt stuck. I had many questions, and few answers.

I thought I might find some answers in Spain. More than that, I was compelled to see the place in Corbera d’Ebre where my father, Jim Higgins, rescued Manuel Alvarez.

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Jim Higgins’ 1930s story makes international news in 1978, again in 1980, and now in 2018

It happened, first, in January, 2018. I was at a dinner party in San Miguel de Allende. The host had steered the conversation towards my plans to publish my father’s 1930s memoir.

I was telling the other guests a bit about him, when a fellow Canadian asked, “What was your father’s name?”  I said, “Jim Higgins”. He replied, “I’m pretty sure I just heard about him on the news.”  I said, “Impossible!”, and promptly forgot about it.

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