In a world split by lies disguised as truth, where do we turn? Why should we stand up for Dreamers and immigrant families divided by manufactured fear? Why should we stand up for families of color ripped apart by street executions with no due process? Why should we vote?

History provides an answer, and the answer has a name: “La Causa” (The Cause).

During 1936 people from all over the world banded together to save a struggling new democracy in Spain. The International Brigades welcomed every race, religion, political affiliation, man, and woman into their ranks to fight the creeping rise of fascism. Without official military assistance from the U.S. or England, they took on Franco and his well-equipped allies – Mussolini and Hitler. Outgunned and outnumbered, the International Brigades fought valiantly for nearly three years, but ultimately lost the war.

The result of that loss? Five months after Franco’s victory, the Nazis rolled into Poland; World War Two began; the people of Spain began a forty-year sentence of fascist oppression; and years of death rained down on the world.

For more information about America’s battalion in the Spanish Civil War, click here.

If the mightiest countries had joined La Causa, they could have saved millions of lives. Let us learn from their mistake, and let us learn from the heroism of the International Brigades. Let us UNITE against any force that tries to divide us by race, religion, political affiliation, sex, age, class, choice of who we love. Let us stand up for each other. And let us VOTE!

The Weight of a Pearl is a novel that tells the true story of this pivotal time in history.

¡VIVA LA CAUSA!