For nearly a year now, I have been working on a translation project for ALBA, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. I have been translating the online journal The Volunteer from English into Spanish. The Volunteer is the journal of the veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a group of American volunteers who traveled to Spain and fought in the Spanish Civil War. The journal recounts stories of their wartime experiences, supplies information about their lives since the war, and provides updates about ALBA’s present efforts to educate the public about the war and their role in it.
In recent years, calls have been made for this journal to be available in Spanish as well as English. Muhlenberg College became involved in this project after a visit from ALBA Chair Peter Carroll and ALBA’s traveling photo exhibit in Fall, 2002. In Spring, 2003 the Advanced Spanish Grammar and Translation class translated one volume of the journal, and this work has been continued in subsequent semesters by myself and Melissa Stein, ‘04. Right now I am working on translating the second full issue of the journal. This project has been very rewarding and educational, affording me the opportunity to hear stories and learn a history I might otherwise not have known. I encourage anyone interested in working on this project in the future to contact Dr. Erika Sutherland.

--Jessie R. Bergstrom, ‘04