Vaill - Hotel Florida

Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins

Everybody Was So Young:

Gerald and Sara MurphyA Lost Generation Love Story

Seamen Schepps: A Century of New York Jewelry Design (coauthor)

For those who died in Spain, or left their hearts there; and for Tom

You could learn as much at the Hotel Florida in those years as you could learn anywhere in the world. Ernest Hemingway

Cmo se pasa la vida,

Cmo se viene la muerte.

Tan callando:

Cun presto se va el placer,

Cmo, despus de acordado,

Da dolor,

Cmo, a nuestro parecer,

Cualquier tiempo pasado

Fu mejor.

Jorge Manrique

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Matthew 16:26

1931 King Alfonso XIII leaves Spain, ushering in the Second Republic, a coalition of Socialists and liberal middle-class Republicans; the new government gives women the vote, legalizes divorce, cuts the size of the army

1932 General Jos Sanjurjo attempts a right-wing coup against the Spanish Republic; Anarchist uprisings take place in Andalusia, Aragon, the Basque country, and Madrid

Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected president of the United States; U.S. unemployment at 25 percent

1933 Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany; all political parties except National Socialists (Nazis) are banned; the first Nazi concentration camp is opened at Dachau

Spanish right-wing parties win a majority in the Cortes

1934 General Francisco Franco leads suppression of miners rebellion in Asturias

Austrian Civil War causes street fighting in Vienna and other cities; conservative premier Dolfuss outlaws the Social Democrats and Austria becomes a proto-fascist state

1935 Andrs Nin and Joaquin Maurin form the Workers Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) in Catalonia

Prime Minister Benito Mussolini sends Italian troops to invade Abyssinia

Stalin initiates the first purge of what will be called the Great Terror

1936 February Newly formed Popular Front coalition of Socialists, Communists, and Republicans narrowly wins Spanish general elections; the new government relieves Francisco Franco of his command and posts him to Canary Islands

March Hitler reoccupies the Rhineland

May Popular Front wins general election in France; Lon Blum narrowly escapes assassination by fascist militia, becomes premier

July Concerted military uprisings take place all over Spain; Franco flies from Canary Islands to Morocco to take charge of the Army of Africa and invade the Spanish mainland; the government arms civilians to combat the mutiny

August European nations, joined by the United States, declare a Non-Intervention Agreement for Spain; Nationalist (rebel) army, aided by secret gifts of war materiel from Germany and Italy, advances steadily; Socialist leader Francisco Largo Caballero becomes premier of Spain

September Spanish rebels take Toledo and San Sebastian; Franco is appointed supreme political and military commander of the rebels

October Spanish gold reserves transported to Russia; first International Brigades arrive in Spain

November Nationalist forces advance to outskirts of Madrid, but are halted; government relocates to Valencia; Germany and Italy recognize Franco

1937 January Moscow trials of Old Bolsheviks and current army officers begin; U.S. Congress forbids all arms sales to Spain

February Nationalists take Mlaga, begin offensive in Jarama Valley

March Government forces push back Nationalists at Guadalajara

April German Luftwaffe bombs Guernica

May May Days in Barcelona; Juan Negrin replaces Largo Caballero as premier

June Bilbao falls to Nationalists

July Battle of Brunete; USSR enters Sino-Japanese War

August Fighting begins on Aragon Front

October Government forces take Belchite in Aragon; Nationalists win control of north; government moves from Valencia to Barcelona

December Teruel offensive begins. In China, Japanese besiege and take Nanking

1938 January Government forces take Teruel

February Nationalists retake Teruel

March Nationalists retake Belchite, start drive to Mediterranean; Italian planes begin bombing Barcelona; France reopens border with Spain; Germany annexes Austria in the Anschluss

April Nationalists take Lrida, then Vinaroz, cutting the Republican zone in two; Franco privately signs the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan, Italy, and Germany

June Lon Blum resigns as French premier and is succeeded by douard Daladier; French border with Spain closed

July Spanish government begins counteroffensive along the Ebro

September Munich conference among France, Britain, Germany, and Italy permits Hitlers annexation of Czech Sudetenland

October Spanish government agrees to withdrawal of all foreign volunteers; International Brigades have farewell parade in Barcelona; in China, Hankow falls to Japanese

November Rio Segre offensive; Battle of the Ebro ends in government defeat and retreat back across river; in Germany, Kristallnacht results in destruction of 7,500 Jewish shops and 400 synagogues

December Franco begins offensive on Catalonia

1939 January Nationalist troops take Barcelona

February Fall of Catalonia; Britain and France recognize Franco

March Franco marches into Madrid; Germany annexes all of Czechoslovakia, demands the free city of Danzig in Poland

April Franco announces the end of military hostilities, makes public his agreement to the German/Italian/Japanese Anti-Comintern Pact

Julio lvarez del Vayo, foreign minister of the Spanish Republic, September 1936May 1937 and April 1938 March 1939

Arturo Barea Ogazn, patent engineer, press censor, would-be writer

Lus Companys, president of the Generalitat (autonomous government) of Catalonia

Francisco Largo Caballero, Socialist leader, prime minister of the Spanish Republic, September 1936 May 1937

Enrique Lster, Soviet-trained commander of the 11th Division of the Popular Army, later of the 5th Army Corps

Jos Miaja, Loyalist general and chief of the Defense Junta of Madrid

Colonel Juan Modesto, Communist commander of the Fifth Army Corps, later of the Army of the Ebro

Constancia de la Mora y Maura, aristocrat, Communist, deputy (from May 1937) and then propaganda chief of the Spanish Republic, October 1937 February 1939

Dr. Juan Negrn, Socialist leader, finance minister, and later prime minister of Spain, May 1937 March 1939

Andrs Nin, anti-Stalinist Catalan communist, founder of the POUM

Indalecio Prieto, socialist leader, rival of Largo Caballero, Spanish minister of defense, May 1937March 1938