La Pasionaria

On, November 12, 1989, 25 years ago from today, the world lost one of the greatest Republican leaders of the Spanish Civil War, Dolores Ibárruri. Ibárruri is better known as “La Pasionaria.” She is of Basque origin and one of the most well-known communist leaders of Spain.

La Pasionaria is perhaps best known for saying, “No Pasarán” (“They Shall Not Pass”), a war-cry of the Republican forces during the Battle of Madrid. As Republican Madrid was surrounded by Francoist forces during the war, this slogan became prominent amongst the supporters of the Republic. As long as this saying was heard, the Republicans believed that they could hold off the Nationalists from entering Spain’s capital city.

Following the Republic’s loss, she was exiled from Spain but, despite this, still continued her political activism as a strong supporter of communism and as a leading anti-fascist. She was known as a strong public speaker and with an enchanting manner of convincing people to support the Republic and preach the communist ideology.

After becoming aware that today was the anniversary of her death, I felt that it was necessary to commemorate such a powerful female figure for communism, anti-fascism, and the support of the Republic. Through her experience during the civil war and during the posguerra, La Pasionaria is perhaps one of the greatest political leaders and activists of Spain’s entire history.

Robert Raven

Robert (“Bob”) Joseph Raven was born on March 4, 1913. He was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up in poverty with four siblings and his mother, after his father had died young.

Raven took the pre-med course at the University of Pittsburgh. He studied there for three years and worked a day job at Montefiore Hospital. He received a bachelors degree in science, but could not afford medical school, so he travelled to New York to work.

Raven’s antifascist political beliefs led him to Spain, as he left for Europe on December 26, 1936 aboard the Normandie and walked through the Pyrenees.

Raven served as a Lieutenant in  XV BDE (the Abraham Lincoln Battalion). On the Jarama front, Raven was injured three times: remnants of an explosive bullet pierced his back, a bullet had run along the side of his head, and finally, on March 15, he was blinded by a grenade explosion. Raven was sent home on November 23, 1937 on the Berengaria.

After returning home, Raven served as a strong advocate for the Loyalist cause and as a touring speaker to raise money to support the American volunteers in Spain.

After the war, Raven opened up his own florist company, called Robert Raven Flowers Inc.. It is evident he may have suffered mental problems as a result of his blindness and war experience. In mental health reports, it stated that Raven would threaten to injure his wife and make her blind, so that she could sympathize with him (she separated with him in January 1942); he was also suicidal.

Raven died in February 1969, leaving behind his son, Michael Raven.

To focus over three specific parts of Raven’s life, I’ve added quotes and information from ALBA; what I focus on is his encounter with Ernest Hemingway, his advocacy for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade following his blindness, and his mental health problems.

Ernest Hemingway Encounter

In a piece called, “…Wounds are the Only Decorations,” Hemingway described his encounter with Raven. He said that Raven’s face looked like “some hill that has been fought over in muddy weather and then baked in the sun.” Hemingway noted that despite his recent blindness, the only thing that Raven was upset about was the fact that he could no longer be much help in Spain and in the war effort. He seemed to have an optimistic tone without a complaint. (music, instead of art – Margaret Palmer, a woman who was in Spain to collect pictures for the International Exhibition of the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh)

Advocate for Abraham Lincoln Brigade

Raven gave $56 education savings to Americans in Spain. “I took the money out of my Pittsburgh bank because one of the vets just read to me Louis Fischer’s cablegram pleading for an emergency shipment of food for the Americans in Spain. My education can wait. The fascists won’t. What is important is that they be stopped. We must move heaven and earth to help the Americans in Spain. I know from my own experience what food means during a battle and what a chocolate bar means when food doesn’t get through to the front lines. I couldn’t use it for books knowing the fellows I fought with are now going hungry.” (Daily Worker Newspaper: April 7, 1938)

Following his blindness and return home, Raven also said, “I am not sorry I fought for Democracy. The price of liberty is sometimes high.”

Mental Health Problems

“For the past two years, he has been subject to fits of severe rage in which he threatens to injure his wife and to kill himself. These outbursts have become more acute since his wife has separated from him since January 1942. On July 25, 1942, during such an attack, he tried to blind his wife, saying that after she were blind, she wold be more sympathetic to his blindness. Following the failure to blind her, he attempted suicide by cutting his right wrist.”

Johnny Got His Gun: Spanish Civil War

This week, I am doing research on American volunteer, Robert Raven. Raven had been seriously wounded in the Spanish Civil War and lost his vision due to a grenade that exploded right in his face. Although, blindness is obviously a devastating loss, Raven seemed able to accept his new life and the difficulties that are associated with loss of vision.

There is an aspect of Raven’s story that reminded me of a novel that I briefly read in high school called Johnny Got His Gun. It is an antiwar novel about a man named Joe was severely injured in World War I and that lost his arms, legs, and his face (although his mind is still able to function). Joe, in his injured state, hopes to be displayed in a glass box in a tour across the United States in order to serve as an antiwar message and expose the true horrors that are associated with warfare.

This desire of Joe reminds me of Robert Raven’s life after being sent home from the Spanish conflict due to his injury. Raven served as a supporter of Loyalist Spain and was used to gain support of the cause within America. He would give rally speeches, be honored at dinner ceremonies, and participate in fundraisers to show what Franco’s forces and fascism had done to his vision. Ironically, unlike Joe’s wishes in the novel, Raven served as a support for war and felt the need to send support to his American comrades in Spain in order to put a stop to fascism and save the Spanish people and the rest of the world from the dangers of Franco, Mussolini, and Hitler.

Robert Raven’s story of blindness and his life immediately after returning from Spain instantly reminded me of Johnny Got His Gun and the desires of Joe in the novel. Although Raven and Joe ultimately represented two different ideals, their stories are similar enough to be relatable.

Irving Fajans

For the oral presentation, I am presenting information on Abraham Lincoln Brigade Veteran, Isidore (“Toots”) Irving Fajans. Although not that much information was presented about him in the online database of the archive, there was a decent amount of information to piece together the parts of Fajans life. To dissect his life, I will provide a quote found through my research and analysis for four different time periods: Pre-War, Spanish Civil War, World War II, Post-War.

Pre-War

“If you were caught distributing union literature around the job, you were instantly fired, We thought up ways of passing leaflets without the boss being able to pin anybody down. We swiped the key to the toilet paper dispensers in the washroom, took out the paper and substituted printed slips of just the right size! We got a lot of new members that way – it appealed to their sense of humor” (Jewish Americans).

Before the war, Fajans joined the Young Communist League as a manner to seek answers for the economic problems of the Great Depression. During the 1920s and the Depression, Fajans tried to persuade department store workers to join the Department Store Employees Union for better pay and working conditions. He used techniques to gain membership. The public was not supportive of striking workers and workers’ right since they saw strikes as unrest in society and people were trying to adjust back to peaceful living after World War I, so organization of unions had to be creative and more secretive.

Spanish Civil War

“Irv was a humanitarian in the very best tradition. The motives that inspired him to fight in Spain were the noblest. To fight for justice and brotherhood and peace is difficult, perilous, and often painful. To take part in such a fight is the very special mark of a very special breed of man. As a humanist and as a Jew, your father was the product of ancient and ageless traditions of struggle for impossible dreams” (Eulogy at Fajans’ funeral)

Fajans’ personality and political reasoning for fighting in Spain are emphasized in this eulogy at his funeral that is addressed to his two daughters. The “often painful” mention may refer to the fact that Fajans was severely wounded in Jarama and Brunete. The anti-semitism of fascism was alarming for Fajans (as a Jew) and he seemed to view religion with great importance in his life, for a later part in the eulogy compares Irv’s dedication to fight in Spain to the pride and honor associated with the Israeli army.

World War II

“In making inquiries up the chain of command, neither my company commander, battalion commander, nor my regimental commander knew whether I would be commissioned, or the reason for the delay… Previously I had been told that it was “very likely” that I would spend the duration at Fort McClellan… Officers with whom I have talked have told me that the reason for all this is ‘probably’ because I fought in the war in Spain. This unofficial opinion has served to explain. I cannot believe that that is the reason, as I cannot see how my fighting the Axis in Spain can have any detrimental effect on my value as a soldier in this war, in which we are fighting the same forces which enslaved the Spanish people.”

Although Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade had fought against fascism in Spain, many enlisted to fight Hitler and Mussolini in World War II; however, many A.L.B. veterans were discriminated against and their support of the Spanish Republic actually compromised their military status. Many were prohibited from promotion or from even participating in active duty, and the A.L. vets did not receive the postwar benefits that World War II veterans often received.

Fajans had written the quoted letter to the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces that mentioned the possible discrimination he had received after completing his training at the top of his classes but not receiving orders to see action. Fajans goes on to talk about how he is proud that he fought in Spain for he was able to see the horrific intentions of the fascist powers back in 1937, yet doesn’t understand how this could have a negative effect on him as a soldier.

It turns out that the U.S. feared the Lincoln vets association with communist ideologies. The military often didn’t believe that American volunteers realistically went to Spain to fight fascism in 1937, but rather, they believed it was due to their desire to promote communism, also asking ALB Veterans questions like, “What would you do if the United States went to war with Russia?” As a result of this, many veterans of the Spanish conflict received much discrimination during the Second World War and the post-war.

Post-War

After the war, Fajans served as an executive secretary to the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB) and as an editor of a literary collection on the Spanish Civil War called The Heart of Spain. He resigned as editor since Communist leaders persuaded the VALB to not include a work by Ernest Hemingway that paid homage to those who lost their lives in Spain since it had criticized the communist party leaders. Fajans then moved onto filmmaking, using the GI Bill (1944 bill that provided benefits for WWII veterans including expenses to further their education) to learn about the field. Fajans joined blacklisted filmmakers (communist sympathies often complicated employment in Hollywood) and produced Salt of the Earth, a documentary on a zinc mine worker strike in New Mexico. The film was seen as revolutionary and helped advance the feminist political and social point of view in a neorealist manner. (Neorealism was a form of art and film that focused more on daily life and the struggles of the working class – Fajans can relate since grew up in working-class Brooklyn)

Fajans unfortunately died prematurely in 1968 at the age of 52 due to a heart attack, leaving behind his wife, Muriel, and his two daughters, Jane and Betsy. However, in a span of 52 years, Fajans accomplished more than most can hope to achieve and his pride in fighting in the Spanish Civil War is remarkable due to the discrimination he and other VALB members received.

Revisiting James Lardner

“I don’t know whether you are aware of the sad fact that I was wounded six days ago and am taking it easy at a popular Mediterranean hospital. … Anyway it’s nothing serious, just to keep me out of action for a couple of weeks.”

-James Lardner, writing to his mother; August 2, 1938

For one of my ALBA Archive visits, I revisited the papers of an Abraham Lincoln Brigade volunteer about whom I had already written: James Lardner. Lardner had interested me greatly through his desire to fight in the Spanish conflict. This was displayed through letters, mainly to his mother, in which he listed various reasons for his yearning to fight fascism. The reasons varied from his strong communist beliefs and his dislike of the oppression and hatred that are associated with fascism to his desire to improve his Spanish and further his worldly knowledge. I had already written about this in my first post.

Due to my interest in Lardner, I took a look upon his files again. What I came across in this revisiting of the files was something that I must have overlooked when I first visited in a letter to his mother, which I quoted above. He had been injured in a bomb explosion near the Ebro River. Lardner’s style of writing is quite whimsical in his letters back to his family. He talks about orchards and how his injury was not grave and how he is just fine. However, I’ve realized in the study of the Spanish Civil Wars and other 20th-century wars that a small injury is often foreshadow of an imminent death; in Lardner’s case, this turns out to be true. Lardner returns to battle after a month of hospitalization and is later killed on September 23, which may be the “last American volunteer death in the war.”

It seems that, although his injury was not severe, Lardner knew that he was going to eventually die in Spain, fighting for what he believes in. The letters to his mother show the emotional attachments that one can develop with the past and how sadly a situation can turn out. It is terrible that Lardner’s mother would not receive any more whimsical letters with excellent reporting of what was going on amongst the Americans in the war. It is hard to imagine what the outcome of death can do to the family members of Lardner. However, it is good to realize that men like Lardner died doing what they felt was necessary to protect the world from fascism. This reflects a quote from one of Lardner’s friends (to whom he wrote numerous times), author Ernest Hemingway: “No men entered earth more honorably than those who died in Spain.”

Into the Fire: American Women in the Spanish Civil War

When studying the wars of history, from wars of ancient civilizations to contemporary wars of the 21st century, it can be said that the achievements and struggles of women are often overlooked. The truth is, however, that women play a major role during wartime, whether on the warfront or on the home front.

Julia Newman knew nothing about the eighty women who went to Spain as volunteers for the Republican forces in the International Brigades. Through intensive study, research, and use of archives, Newman created a film, Into the Fire: American Women in the Spanish Civil War, in order to bring light to the females that risked their lives to serve the ideology of democracy over that of fascism supported by Franco, Hitler, and Mussolini. Many have heard of the stories of male war heroes and writers such as Ernest Hemingway from the Spanish conflict, but Newman allows for the stories of the female volunteers to shine.

Evelyn Hutchins wanted to go to the front, but did not necessarily meet the criteria: “I couldn’t be a nurse. I wasn’t a nurse. I couldn’t be a doctor, because I wasn’t a doctor. And I wanted to go. And I was doing a lot of driving.” Hutchins ended up serving as a truck and ambulance driver for the Republican forces. Eleanor Roosevelt was a strong advocate of the Republican cause in Spain; she hoped that her husband, President Roosevelt, would lift his non-intervention policy on the nation to help bring fascism’s demise. The Roosevelt family was shown “The Spanish Earth,” Joris Ivens’ propaganda film in support of the Republicans, but President Roosevelt was too reluctant to politically, economically, or militarily support a nation in fear of a large-scale European conflict. Helen Freeman was among the many nurses who left everything to come to Spain and help out the Loyalists. Freeman’s dedication is shown in her war injury: she received a fractured skull and severe arm injury after a hospital was bombed by Franco’s forces. She was upset to go home for she wanted to continue helping the Spanish cause, but was forced to in order to ensure her recovery.

Hutchins, Roosevelt, and Freeman are among the many women who supported the Republicans of the Spanish Civil War on the home front and warfront. It is disappointing that women are often overlooked in war conflicts because their contributions are often as important as the contributions of men. So, to correct Ernest Hemingway’s notorious quote: “No man or woman ever entered the earth more honorably than those who died in Spain.”

U.S. Interests During the Civil War and Post-Guerra Spain

The United States has always sought its own interests with regards to international affairs and the creation of its foreign policy: isolationism to avoid getting involved in European conflicts, acting as a police officer for the Western Hemisphere, trade embargos to nations with differing ideologies, etc. The issue of foreign policy is one that often polarizes the people of the United States, especially seen during the Spanish Civil War and Spain’s postwar period under the Franco regime. Much of this topic is discussed in the Edward Barsky Papers in the ALBA Archive.

Dr. Edward Barsky served as physical and medical volunteer in the Spanish conflict and, after surviving the war and returning back to the U.S., was a strong advocate of breaking relations with Francoist Spain. Barsky condemned the United States and other Western democracies for not stopping fascism in Spain. He stated, “Hitler, and Mussolini and Franco, won the battle of Spain and learned that the democracies in 1937 were too ignorant, too trusting or too much afraid to fight for freedom.” Barsky believed that ending any diplomatic relations with Franco would help isolate Spain from the world and lead to the fall of his right-wing, totalitarian government.

Barsky was supported by many others in the country, including the American Committee for Spanish Freedom (centered in New York). Papers and articles were often written by the committee to show dangers of fascism and reasons for shunning Franco, including the fascists’ interests in Latin America (although many nations of Central and South America had broken ties with Franco, it was obvious that the United States powerfully determined foreign policy for the hemisphere) and the fact that the fight against the extremely right-wing ideology can provide the groundwork for World War III. Members like Allen Chase wrote and published these letters to the government to sever ties with Franco. Chase wrote, “Madrid, which was to have become the Tomb of Fascism, became, instead, its Womb.” America, Britain, and France’s allowing of Hitler and Mussolini to support Franco without interfering in the war allowed fascism to become a stronger influence on populations throughout the globe, where a foreign policy of interventionism in the Spanish conflict could have brought the downfall of the political ideology. Chase saw that in order for a lasting peace (with the memory of the quick falling into the Second World War only twenty years after the First World War), the complete condemnation of fascism was necessary: “We have the problem of achieving a sound peace that will not produce a third world war within a decade. It is impossible to win such a peace without an immediate diplomatic break with Franco.”

I found interesting a dialogue between two Americans who volunteered for Republican Spain in a play called “Key Largo” by Maxwell Anderson. As one soldier contemplates leaving the front to seek safety, he wonders why the fight for democracy is even important for a meaningless people; the other soldier finds the necessity of fighting to show that the human race is dedicated to stop injustice and, in fact, have meaning of existence. The dialogue clearly highlights the issue between democracy and fascism and the issue of an interventionist or isolationist foreign policy:

“I tell you it was a dream, all a dream we had, in a dream world, of brothers, and might save them. Long ago men found out the sky was empty; it follows that men are a silly accident, meaningless, here in the empty sky, like a flag on the moon, as meaningless as an expedition led to take possession of it — in the name of Marx or maybe Democracy — or Social Justice! Why should we die here for a dead cause, for a symbol, on these empty ramparts, where there’s nothing to win, even if you could win it?”

“Yes, but if I die then I know men will never give in; then I’ll know there’s something in the race of men, because even if I had it, that hates injustice more than it wants to live. Because, even if I had it — and I’m no hero. — And that means the Hitlers and the Mussolinis always lose in the end, force loses in the long run, and the spirit wins, whatever spirit is. Anyway, it’s the thing that says it’s better to sit here with the moon and hold them off while I can. If I went with you I’d never know whether the race was turning down again to the dinosaurs — this way I keep my faith. In myself and what men are and in what we may be.”

Vaughn Love

One of the aspects of the Spanish Civil War that captivates me is the grand mixing of soldiers and volunteers of the Republican forces. People of different countries, ethnicities, political backgrounds, social classes, and other types of categorization fought a united front in Spain with the common goal of anti-fascism, being able to see the horrors of rulers such as Spanish Franco, German Hitler, and Italian Mussolini. There, today, is a hindsight bias with regards to mid-20th century fascism, in which people of today’s generation are able to tell that these rulers are harmful and destructive, yet it was not well known during the Great Depression. The people who came to Spain fought because they knew the evils of fascism before it became widespread.

With regards to the variety of people fighting in the Spanish Conflict, it is interesting to see the integration of an armed forces before its acceptance. In the Spanish Civil War, colored and white people fought together without discrimination and racial prejudices, yet, during World War II, in which the United States entered December 1941, African Americans were completely segregated from caucasian forces. In fact, the armed forces did not become integrated in the United States until an executive order by President Truman in 1948.

African American men in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, like Vaughn Love (who served as a political leader), enjoyed the integration experienced in the Spanish Civil War. Vaughn was affected by the Great Depression and, like many decided to do in this time period due to the economic catastrophe, joined the communist party. He heard of the conflict in Spain and was more than eager to serve. He was quoted to say, “We didn’t know too much about the Spaniards, but we knew that they were fighting against fascism, and that fascism was the enemy of all black aspirations.” The association of fascism with anti-black sentiment was enough for Love to join the internationals and use his training to stop the Nationalists.

Surviving the war, however, he also fought in World War II, where he experienced the backwardness of social progress: being able to fight in integrated forces in the Spanish Civil War in 1938, but being forced to fight in segregated forces in World War II in 1942. Despite the racial discrimination, Love saw the importance of both conflicts and the need to stop fascism. He associated with the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws of Hitler with a darker anti-black associated that could personally affect him and the progress of black history in the past few centuries. Vaughn Love and other African Americans that fought in the Spanish conflict are heroes for being able to fight politically and socially against the terrors of fascism and were able to experience the beginning of progress towards the integration of armed forces in United States history.

Bill, Bill, and Bill

This week for one of my visits, I looked through the individual files of many individuals in the International Brigades. Three of the files stuck out to me and, ironically, all three of them were named Bill: Bill Aalto, Bill Alexander, and Bill Bailey. All three of them have distinct pasts and were able to survive the Spanish Civil War, yet they were united by their political desire to fight with the Republican forces as members of the communist party.

Bill Aalto, from New York, was educated on communist principles and ideals from his mother, who had fled from Finland due to her radical political beliefs. Aalto agreed with this philosophy and decided to fight in the Spanish conflict in order to protect the world from fascism and spread the communist ideology. One of his writings, which can also be found in Peter Carroll’s The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, stated, “A soldier who is politically conscious that he is right and who has a feeling of community with his society will do his job well.” This summarizes pretty well the motive of those who came to Spain and their strength of the political ideologies. I also found interesting that Aalto was a homosexual, being featured in one of James Schuyler’s poems as his lover after the war. This highlights the variety of people who joined the fight in Spain and could also represent the fear of fascism becoming widespread, for it targets people of different political beliefs, religions, sexual orientations, ethnicities, etc.

Bill Alexander was a British commander for the Republican forces. Like Aalto, Alexander was also influenced by his mother’s way of thinking, as well as the the hunger marches of the 1930s, to join the communist party. As a veteran of the war, he kept alive the memory of his comrades who left their homes to fight against Franco and fascism, focusing much on class solidarity that emerged during the Spanish Civil War and its relevance to the struggles of today’s working class. He worked with much effort on the running and upkeep of the International Brigade Association, believing in the importance of recognizing and remembering the amazing effort to fight fascism and defend democracy in the civil war and postwar era.

Bill Bailey was an Irish-American who fought amongst the Republican forces as a communist, not supporting the fascist ideals and anti-Jewish sentiments of Franco’s Nationalist forces. After the war, Bailey highlights his strong political ties, but the horrors of war, in a conversation with Bill (yes, another Bill) McCarthy: “I came to Spain with real revolutionary fervor. I was going to stop fascism. But in no time at all, I’m holding on to my best friend who’s got a bullet in the stomach. And I’m trying to think of a Hail Mary, the one that goes, ‘Now at the hour of our death.’ But I can’t remember it.”

The strength of the political ideologies of Aalto, Alexander, and Bailey represent just three of the many volunteers of the Spanish Civil War. It was the first time that fascism was fought against and the meaning of political ties took the concept of war to new levels of sacrifice and vigor. To show this, here is a poem that was featured in a newspaper article on Aalto by Republican volunteer of the International Brigade, Hugh Sloan:

With idealism in our minds, we were no idealists,

with passion in our hearts, we were no romantics,

with fire in our bellies, we were no warriors,

we were doing the job that life had thrust upon us.

Alternative History in Helen Graham’s, The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction

In The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction, Helen Graham raises an interesting point about international support and involvement, rather the lack of it, with respect to the Republican forces in the conflict. “Negrín never ceased believing that sooner or later Britain and France would have to wake up and stop appeasing Germany and Italy if they wanted to retain their imperial advantage – or even out of sheer survival instinct. … That was why Negrín went on resisting. If Britain and France had heeded him, then the whole course of European history might have been different – Anschluss, Munich, even the Second World War itself” (113).

In my high school history course, the Spanish Civil War was only mentioned once, skipping over any importance that it may have had in world history. Although many historians seem to skip over the Spanish Civil War and only briefly mention it with context to German and Italian aggression, the significance of the conflict is seen through its outcome. Franco’s victory, backed by Germany and Italy, shifted the balance of power in Europe in favor the fascist forces, proliferating the countries’ abilities to conquer and spread power.

However, if the Republican forces had received support from abroad, from nations like France and Britain, the tide of the Spanish conflict and of European history may have differed drastically. The fact that the Republic only received inadequate support from the Soviet Union and from individual volunteers from across the globe was its major downfall. It could not compete with the advanced military and technological forces coming from Berlin and Rome. International support for the Republic could have hindered Hitler’s efforts and policies. If Britain and France had sent forces into Spain, Hitler may have been more reluctant to send troops in and more reluctant to invade neighboring nations. Perhaps the Munich Conference would have never occurred because Hitler would fear attack from Britain and France if he were to invade the Sudetenland. If France and Germany had gotten involved, perhaps Chamberlain’s foreign policy of appeasement would have never become a reality, and nations would have instead taken an approach of collective security. This could have lead to a smaller, less deadly Spanish conflict and World War II.

It is interesting to see the importance of the Spanish Civil War on the international scale and how the fate of the Spanish Republic and Franco’s victory ceased Europe’s deadly fate as it entered the Second World War in September 1939.