The great Matti Mattison, one of the few surviving veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the New York area, will be accepting Spanish citizenship on August 26, 2009 at the Spanish consulate here in New York.

I hope to attend the ceremony and, with the permission of Matti and the consular officials, videotape the proceedings.

The relatively new "Ley de memoria histórica" offers Spanish citizenship to all veterans of the international brigades.  Previously, brigadistas had been offered Spanish citizenship but only if they were willing to renounce their other nationality.  For folks in the eighties and nineties -depending on pensions, insurance, social security, etc.-- that was an almost impossible proposition.

I know that Lincoln vet Clarence Kailin of Madison, Wisconsin, recently availed himself of the new law, and became a Spanish citizen.