ABSTRACT
The author of this chapter is the granddaughter of Maximiliano Olay, the Spanish immigrant anarchist and US representative of the Confederación Nacional de Trabajadores (CNT) during the Spanish Civil War. Born in Asturias, Spain, during 1893, Olay migrated to Florida and worked in cigar factories. Years later, after being accused of subversive activity in both the United States and Spain as well as participating in labor actions, he was operating his own translation bureau in Chicago, where he spoke out against General Francisco Franco and the rise of fascism in Spain and Europe. Dying at the age of 48 after a serious illness, he left a widow who later committed suicide and a son who in some ways followed his own literary footsteps while becoming one of Hunter S. Thompson’s buddies. Growing up knowing virtually nothing about her grandfather’s life and work and having little contact with her own father, this is a personal narrative of discovery, reconciliation, and recovery of Spanish immigrant heritage, unspoken and hidden for decades.
