The Blood of These Children… Runs through Our Veins

Abstract

Chapter 4 begins with Teté Casuso in the aftermath of her husband’s death in Spain, when she founded Havana’s Asociación de Auxilio al Niño del Pueblo Español (Association of Aid to the Child of the Spanish People, or AANPE), the central organization of the Cuban campaign to assist Republican children during the conflict. Composed of children, women, and men from all over the island and Cuban communities abroad, the AANPE was part of the international campaign to aid Republican children but was nonetheless unmistakably Cuban. One of its most powerful organizing mechanisms was the argument that the blood of Spanish children ran through Cuban veins. Fostering this sense of familial and cultural solidarity and billing itself as a nonpartisan charity served the association well for much of the war, helping it to achieve impressive successes in collecting aid. That its pro-Republican stance was deemphasized indicates mobilization of a subtle solidarity, in which the cause was obscured to garner broader popular support.