Asturian-American Migration Forum

In July 1942 I was brought to the U.S. along with several other Spanish chilren, from France. where we had been refugees from the Spanish Civil War. Initially, we stayed in New York City (the Bronx) but were gradually distributed throughout the U.S to American families.
I was one of the younger children and am still alive (more or less), but I'm wondering if anybody knows the whereabouts of any of the other children.

Corsino,

I wasn't aware of any program to bring Spanish refugee children from France to the US, although some of my relatives escaped to France and later moved to Mexico. Do you have any names or other information? I would be happy to help track down our lost cousins.

Bob Martinez

Hi Bob,
The Quakers of Philadelphia sponsored our group coming over in 1942. There were about 25 boys and girls in our group. We came in a Portuguese ship called the Nyassa which landed in Baltimore. We were put in a facility operated by the Edwin Gould Foundation on Stillwell Ave. in the Bronx. I am from Asturias, but I think the rest were from other parts of Spain. I do have a photo of the group and a few names.
The kids were gradually dispersed to American families aound the U.S. In 1943, I and another boy named Jose Fernandez were brought to San Antonio, Texas. I don't know what happened to him later. I know that a friend called Juan Ruiz was sent to Hartford, Connecticut. Another was sent to Madison, Wisconsoin. But I lost track of everybody.
My Spanish name was Corsino Fernandez Garcia, but was eventually changed to Cole Kivlin after I became an American citizen.

Last year I wrote a rather small book on my life, called 'Corsino'. It is available on Amazon.com [ Corsino's book on Amazon ]. There's also a review of the book there, so you can get an idea about the book without actually buying the book.

Hi Bob,
I have researched my information and, although I have several old photos, I neglected to identify everybody in them.
The ones I did identify, I failed to write down complete names. However these are some:

Antonio Ribares
Jose Ribares

Juan Ruiz
Jose Ruiz
Antonio Ruiz

Manuel Fernandez

Germinal Luis

Manolo Izquierdo
Pepe Izquierdo
Lucia Izquierdo

I know that it's a very long shot locating any of them after all these years.

Corsino (Cole Kivlin)
colefk@juno.com

Hola, Corsino.

No puedo ayudarte mucho, pero el tema que tocas me resulta especialmente sensible, ya que mi propia familia también sufrió en sus carnes la Guerra Civil española.

Quizás te resulte interesante echar un vistazo a estos vínculos:

http://www.portaldelexilio.org/

http://www.portaldelexilio.org/apl/EXP_ ... enidos.asp

http://www.nodo50.org/age/

Se trata de una exposición virtual sobre el exilio de los republicanos durante y después de dicha guerra. La exposición física fue llevada a cabo por el Partido Socialista, quien también realizó una miniserie de documentales que fueron emitidos por la cadena estatal de TV, Televisión Española. Eso sí, en esos documentales no se mencionó el esfuerzo de ciertas organizaciones como los cuáqueros de USA, aunque yo ya conocía este dato por otras fuentes.

Respecto a tu nombre original, Fernández y García son apellidos muy frecuentes en todo el país, pero son muy típicos de Asturias, y con el nombre Corsino no cabe ninguna duda, es muy corriente en nuestra tierra.

Quizás sería una buena idea dirigirte a la dirección de contacto de esa página web, tal vez ellos puedan ayudarte incluso a localizar algún familiar. Yo podría intentarlo si al menos pudieras darme algún dato más, como la población de origen de tus padres.

Si te interesa algún texto de los que aparecen en esa página en francés, no dudes en hacérmelo saber, puedo traducirte lo que quieras sin esfuerzo, pues tengo familia y amigos en Francia y hablo bastante bien el idioma, mucho mejor que el inglés.

Por si te interesa saberlo, mi padre y sus dos hermanos participaron en la Guerra Civil en el bando republicano. Mi padre era militante de las Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas, que era una organización juvenil resultado de la unificación de las juventudes socialistas y comunistas, ya que mi abuelo paterno era un trabajador socialista. El hermano mayor de mi padre fue adscrito a una Brigada Internacional compuesta fundamentalmente por italianos, ya que su evolución ideológica le llevó al Partido Comunista. Cuando finalizó la guerra, mi padre estuvo un breve tiempo encarcelado, pero consiguió salvar su vida, ya que pasó por un simple soldado del Ejército Republicano. En cambio mi tío Fernando pasó muchos años en prisión. El otro hermano, el pequeño, llamado Eugenio, pasó la frontera como tantos otros, y se reincorporó a la lucha formando parte de la Resistencia Francesa, ya que los republicanos consideraban la Guerra Civil sólo una batalla de una guerra más amplia contra el fascismo, y no podían olvidar la ayuda prestada por Hitler y Mussolini al general genocida Franco. Mi tío Eugenio murió en combate y se halla enterrado en un pequeño pueblo francés, en Normandía.

Muchos de aquellos republicanos integraron una división del Ejército Americano, compuesta oficialmente por franceses, la División Leclerc, que obtuvo el privilegio de ser la primera en entrar en la ciudad con ocasión de la liberación de París. En muchos de sus carros de combate y semi-orugas pueden verse pintados rótulos con nombres en español, como Guadalajara, Belchite, Quijote y otros.

http://www.portaldelexilio.org/apl/Foto ... 08g.jpg%27

La mayoría de los "niños de la guerra" (así se les llama) provenían de la ciudad de Madrid, de Cataluña, y, en la zona norte, de Asturias, Santander (hoy llamada Cantabria) y el País Vasco.

Un abrazo muy fuerte y nunca renuncies a tu condición de asturiano, es algo de lo que sentirse muy orgulloso.

Carlos, desde Asturies.

Hola Carlos,
No se si puedes leer ingles, asi escribo un poco en espan`ol aunque ya no es bueno.
La verdad es que ya encontre mi familia espan`ol.
Marche desde Asturias en un barco cuando tenia siete an`os para Francia. Era 1937. Estaba en varios sitios en Francia hasta 1942, cuando me trajeron a EEUU porque no sabian donde mi familia estaban.
En 1996 volvi a Asturias buscando mi familia y la encontre. Tengo familia en Gijon, Moreda, Pola de Lena, y Pola de Laviana.
Dos hermanos murieron peleando contra Franco. Uno defendiendo Oviedo, y el otro le mataron despues que la guerra acabo.
Ahora estoy buscando nin`os que vinieron a EEUU al mismo tiempo que yo , para saber que paso.

Corsino.

Corsino,

Have you checked with the Quakers to see what kind of records they may still have. One problem, I think, is going to be that the names of the children were often changed, as yours was. The Quakers may be able to tell you the names of the families that adopted or fostered the children.

Bob Martinez

Hi Bob.
No, I haven't checked with the Quakers. All I know is that they were based in Philadelphia. I haven't been able to find an address. Another problem is that I think that control of the children was passed on to the U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children, based in New York, which I think was phased out about 1953. They would be the ones that would know the disposition of the kids.
My hope is that, although the kids may not have been from Asturias, somebody may surf the internet and find this website. Also, it's possible that some Asturian here may have met one of them.

Corsino.

Hi Corsino,
My mother and her brothers and sister were also signed up to be evacuated, but since it was not something immediate and my grandmother didn't stop crying for a month straight, my grandfather decided that "if we're going to die, we'd better die all together", he took them off the list again. Thank goodness, because especially the children expatriated to Russia were not allowed to return after the end of the war.

The web sites provided by Carlos are very interesting, and the one www.nodo50.org/age
has a form at the end that you can fill out so they can include you. Who knows, maybe someone is looking for you, too.
-------------------------------------------------------
Hola Corsino
Mi madre y sus hermanos también estuvieron apuntados para ser evacuados, pero como no fue una cosa inmediata y mi abuela no paro de llorar en un mes, mi abuelo decidió que "si vamos a morir, será mejor que muramos todos juntos" y los borró de la lista. Menos mal, porque especialmente a los niños expatriados a Rusia no se les permitió volver después de terminar la guerra.

Las páginas web que indica Carlos son muy interesante, y la de
www.nodo50/org/age tiene un formato al final que puedes rellenar para que te incluyan. Quién sabe? Igual alguien te está buscando a tí también.

Saludos
Terechu

Hi Terechu,
Yes, the websites are very interesting. They're about the children that went to Russia or Mexico. It seems that I was very lucky to be sent to France instead of Russia.
I think that most of the children that were taken to France were probably returned to Spain after the Civil War was over. Although I've heard that many were put in orphanages in Spain after they returned. Also, I've heard that after a while, Franco's regime stopped accepting returning refugees from France.
As for me, if I'd known my birthplace, or my papers had been correct, I'd probably would have been returned too. It was just a case of several things gone bad.
Now I know where my relatives are in Asturias. I have a sister and
nephew in Pola de Laviana, and a niece and nephew in Gijon. Three brothers were also alive when I found them, but have since died.
Now my project is to try to find some of the children to came to the U.S. with me. Just to find out what happened to them.
Corsino.

Yes, Corsino. I can understand English, but it's more easy and quick for me when I write in Spanish a long text.

France was, of course, the nearest place for evacuate the childrens, and also the adult refugees, and this friend-country was a kind of re-distribution centre to other countries (Portugal at this time was a fascist dictatorship, and, for example, the Galician and Extremadurian republicans that cross the frontier were quickly arrested and returned to the Franco's repressive forces).

I believe, as Terechu says, that meet in contact with associations or forums of old refugees can give you good results.

Regards.

Dear Corsino,

You might want to make the same query on the message boards at some of the other genealogy sites, such as www.genforum.genealogy.com, www.ancestry.com or www.rootsweb.com. This will increase your chances of success since many of your friends may have not been from Asturias.

I would definately suggest you contact the Quakers. There is a good chance your friends may have been looking for you also. If so, they probably contacted the organization that sponsored you all. If the US government was involved with your evacuation then there might be government documents you can request through the Freedom of Information Act. Good luck with your search!

Hi Sweeney
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try to find the appropriate website for the Quakers. I just started this project, so I haven't exhausted all the possibilities. I did run a search for Quaker sites, but there are quite a few. Most of them don't seem pertinent, so I'll have to weed them out. I would think that, since I know the name of the ship, where it landed, and on what date, they would have a record of the names of the kids that they brought over from France. That is, unless they have destroyed the records after so many years.
My best bet would have been the U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children, but I think it was terminated about 1953, so no telling what happened to their records. I don't think it was financed by the government, although Eleanor Roosevelt was an honorary member.
As for genealogy sites, my wife has been doing quite a bit of research about her family tree, so she's familiar with them. Maybe I can get her interested in my project too.
I'm also thinking about searching for websites about Spaniards from, say, Barcelona. I would think that some of the kids would have been from that area since it's close to the French border. But we'll see....
Corsino.

Hi Carlos
I can tell that you can read English pretty well. Reading a language seems to be a lot easier than writing it. I have the same problem, except with Spanish. Of course, at one time, I could speak Spanish and French pretty well, but after I came to the U.S. and learned English, I spoke English exclusively and quickly forgot all my French and most of my Spanish. When I made my first trip back to Spain , I had a terrible time communicating in Spanish. But after the second week there, I had improved quite a bit and was a lot more confident. I think that if I stayed in Spain a month or two, I would remember a lot more Spanish.
I sympathise with you about the hardships your family went through during the Civil War. I don't know much about politics, except that the Communist Party was, and still is, very strong in Asturias. Particularly among the miners. I spoke to my Spanish nephew about it, and he said that the communists there are not the same as in Russia. I get the impression that it's more of a labor union rather than an idealogy thing.
Actually, my eldest brother was executed, after the war was over, for being a communist. So he probably was a Communist, but I don't think that was sufficient reason.
Corsino.

Hi again, Corsino,
You are getting a lot of e-mails!
I have known several "niños de la guerra", some of my mother's cousins were evacuated to Russia, and one of them returned ON FOOT as soon as he was 18! It took him 3 years, with the added difficulty of crossing several countries in the immediate post-WW II years. He worked occasionally on farms along the way, (with 20 Mill. people dead, farm hands were in high demand) to make a little money to continue on his way and even buy a train ticket a couple of times. But most of those children were not allowed to return until the 70's, when they had long been settled and married in Russia.
Those who returned to Spain were granted a retirement pension in the 80's by our previous socialist Government and they do have a wonderful association called "Fundación Nostalgia", that raises funds to help those who remain in Russia, abandoned by the Putin regime, and forgotten by God and the world. They also have a search service.

By the way, to judge by the name of the ship and the fact that it sailed from Lisbon, it must have been Portuguese (I believe Nyassa is in Moçambique, former Portuguese colony). Maybe you can get the name of the shipowners from the Lisbon Port Authorities and then a passanger list from them. That could be another line of investigation. Just a suggestion.

Terechu