Tag Archives: Mac-Paps

Mac-Pap canadiense honrado por un extraño de España. ¿Por qué?

Artículo publicado por primera vez en inglés el 7 de mayo de 2021. Traducido con Google Translate y publicado el 9 de octubre de 2022. Luchando por La Democracia de Jim Higgins fue publicado por PUZ el 27 de septiembre de 2022.

***This article was published in English in May 2021***

Sabía poco sobre Juan José Ibañez Esnal, el hombre detrás de la traducción al español del libro de Jim Higgins, Fighting for Democracy, A Canadian Activist in Spain’s Civil War. Me propuse averiguar más sobre su familia pero, lo que es más importante, quería saber por qué lo hizo. Sus razones son algo sorprendentes.

Juan José trabajando en la traducción el 25 de abril de 2021. Me envió un correo electrónico esa mañana para decirme que solo le quedaban unas pocas horas. Le pedí que alguien de su familia tomara una foto para conmemorar este día señalado para ambos
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Big thanks to Ben Pratt in Augusta, Maine for supporting Jim Higgins’ book. No Pasaran!

The man holding Fighting for Democracy is Ben Pratt, a full time firefighter/paramedic in Augusta; Maine’s state capital.

So what is my father’s book doing in a fire station in Maine and why is it featured in this image.

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Canadian Mac-Pap Honoured by Stranger in Spain. Why?

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.

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Honouring War Veterans Who Stood Up to Hitler

This Remembrance Day, as always, the veterans of the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion are not amongst those officially honoured here in Canada; unless they also fought in the First or Second World Wars, as many did.

Today, November 11, 2020, I went to the Mac-Pap memorial in Toronto on the grounds of the Ontario Legislature to honour them in my own small way. The memorial is a boulder from the battlefields near the town of Gandesa Spain; a place where the Mac-Paps fought and where many lost their lives.

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Why Would a Canadian Spanish Civil War Veteran Bike From The West Coast to New York in 1940?

I’m thrilled to have a feature article, A Mac-Pap Amongst the Lincolns, published in The Volunteer, the magazine of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in New York, Click on it, and learn why Jim Higgins ended up seeking refuge there during the winter of 1940/41.

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A Rival for Norman Bethune?

Book Review: Not for King or Country: Edward Cecil-Smith, The Communist Party of Canada, and The Spanish Civil War by Tyler Wentzell. University of Toronto Press, 2020

Edward Cecil-Smith was commander of Canada’s Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).  Other than his battle reports, that’s about all we’ve known. Oh, other than the gossipy (slanderous?) bit about him deserting his troops. It’s bare bones, one dimensional and some would say, unjust.

Tyler Wentzell’s biography, Not for King or Country, puts flesh on those bones, lays the gossip to rest with facts (leaving it for the reader to decide), and fills a void in the history of Canadians—known as Mac-Paps—who volunteered to fight in Spain’s civil war.

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Who was Captain Medina?

“Captain Medina was the sort of officer soldiers dream about commanding them, but seldom do. I had been in some tough situations with him, and we saved one another’s lives more than once. I was shifted around so much that most of the time I did not know where I was or who the comrades were who were fighting with me. He was a constant presence, and I will always consider him the best officer I had alongside me in battle.” Jim Higgins

Higgins reported to Captain Jose Medina for much of the time he was in Spain and, in his soon-to-be-published memoir, writes about one of those times when Medina (and his horse) probably saved his life when he was caught behind enemy lines. Besides the serious business of saving each other’s lives, Medina once figured in a humorous incident involving Higgins.

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Deciphering Jim Higgins

“The volunteers, led by Cecil-Smith and Jim Higgins, the commissar for the trip home, marched onto the stage to thunderous applause.” 

Really? It made sense to me that Edward Cecil-Smith would be leading. He was the battalion commander. But Jim Higgins?

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Reflections on being 75

Today is my birthday. My 75th. I’m not telling you this to garner birthday greetings, but rather to reflect on the fact that Jim Higgins was 75 when he died. He’d been frail and failing for several years by then, and writing what is mostly the first draft of his memoir during that time was all he could handle.

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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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