"Every town along the Mediterranean shore was empty and deserted. The road was jam-packed with peasants evacuating toward the north, on mule-back, in donkey-carts, afoot. They looked at us in the cab of the truck, moving against the stream they made, and they kept moving. Hundreds were camped along the roads; hundreds were plodding north toward Barcelona, their few possessions, mattresses, blankets, household utensils, domestic stock, on their backs, in wheelbarrows or on their burros backs. Little children were walking, holding onto their mother's skirts; women carried babies; older children were driving goats, sheep; old men were helping old women along the road; their faces were impassive, dark with the dust of the roads and fields, lined and worn. Their eyes alone were bright but there was no expression in their eyes. Looking at them you knew what they were thinking: 'Franco is coming; Franco is coming.'"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Anti-fascistsJews from the United StatesScreenwriters from the United StatesNovelists from New York CityMembers of the Communist Party USA
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p. 134
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alvah_Bessie
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Alvah Bessie
Alvah Cecil Bessie (June 4, 1904 – July 21, 1985) was an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter who was imprisoned for ten months and blacklisted by the movie studio bosses for being one of the group known as the Hollywood Ten. In 1938, Bessie fought in the "Abraham Lincoln Brigade", an all-volunteer unit of Americans who fought for the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War.
16 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Alvah Bessie →
Related Quotes
"Those Americans who went to Spain to fight Franco and stave off World War II have never minded being called "prematur…"
"We have long memories. We have developed a relative immunity to the endless barrage of propaganda, slander and outrig…"
"Whenever we hear it said that Communism threatens us from within and without; whenever we are told that the Soviet Un…"
"The free meal was bad, and 'Lopez' wasted a lot of time sending a cablegram signed 'Hy' to some one in America. But w…"
"I was four years in the war," Merkel said. "German army." "What was it like?" "It ain't bad," he said. "It ain't bad …"
"We switched out the light and tried to sleep again; the windows were clouded with steam as the train shrieked along t…"
"Here were students, dock-workers, clerks and labor-organizers, farmers. Most were unacquainted with each other, but t…"
"Whenever the mind has led the body to an important decision, events have a way of assuming, momentarily, a half-symbo…"
"You cannot really believe in the existence of a foreign country until you see it."
"And towering above each town, generally built on a height commanding it, stood the church, its finger pointed to heav…"