The UB pays tribute to brigadier Robert H. Merriman with a replica of his monument, which will be installed at UC Berkeley
The original monument, made by sculptor Mar H Pongiluppi, was unveiled in 2019 in Corbera d’Ebre, where Merriman and other Lincoln Battalion commanders allegedly lost their lives during the Battle of the Ebro. Marcos Mandojana, the US Consul in Barcelona, attended the inauguration. The new replica will be installed at UC Berkeley, where Merriman had studied and worked as a professor before joining the brigades to fight during the Spanish Civil War.
DIDPATRI has funded exclusively this piece and has coordinated the project with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese of UC Berkeley. The latter have adapted a small square in the campus to house the sculpture, with a large rock that will support the bas-relief. The Delegation of the Government of Catalonia in the United States and Canada has facilitated its transport.
The most popular version is that he was taken prisoner in Corbera d’Ebre and shot on 2 April 1938. Many years later, his wife co-wrote, with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Warren Lerude, the book American Commander in Spain: Robert Hale Merriman and the Abraham Lincoln Brigades (1986). Merriman met Ernest Hemingway during the war, and the writer apparently used him as a model for the character of American university professor Robert Jordan in the well-known novel For Whom the Bell Tolls.
During 2018, an interdisciplinary research team formed by researchers, archaeologists and local scholars and coordinated by DIDPATRI tried to locate the remains of Robert Hale Merriman. The location work was carried out in the area of Corbera d’Ebre, but was ultimately unsuccessful. As a result of the study, which became a unique model of public archaeology and research, the documentary Els darrers dies de Robert Hale Merriman (The Last Days of Robert Hale Merriman) was made.
The University of California, Berkeley, renowned for academic excellence and social commitment, has been a connecting point for the ideals of freedom and justice that Merriman and other brigade members supported. The installation of the replica monument on campus symbolizes not only the recognition of Merriman’s legacy, but also the academic and cultural collaboration between the UB and UCB.
This project, which combines historical memory and research, highlights the role of universities in the preservation and dissemination of a crucial part of contemporary history. Through initiatives such as this one, the UB stands out as a leader in research and as a promoter of projects that connect the past with the present and reinforce universal values such as solidarity and commitment to human rights.
The bas-relief will be officially unveiled early next year at an event that will bring together academic and cultural representatives to pay tribute to Robert Hale Merriman and the ideals for which the American Brigade members stood.