From Madrid to Belgrade via Paris: Ibero-Yugoslav Connections in the 1950s

• In Event: Yugoslav Configurations I: Close Encounters of the Third Way: Memory of Yugoslav Transnational Solidarity with the International Left

Abstract

This paper will discuss how Paris provided a central connecting point for Yugoslav and Spanish artists and underground activists in the mid-twentieth century. I will focus on the Cooperación cultural íbero-yugoslava (CCIY) [Ibero-Yugoslav Cultural Cooperation], an organisation founded in 1953 in Paris by Spanish exiles. The CCIY facilitated correspondence and positive relations between Yugoslavia and Spain in the name of advancing a joint leftist, anti-Stalinist vision: the organisation arranged conferences, fundraisers for maimed Spanish Civil War veterans, cultural events, and a monthly newsletter entitled Amistad. Drawing on Michael Rothberg’s work on multidirectional memory, my paper will consider the extent to which Amistad was successful in the transmission of cultural memory across national borders — both at the time and from the vantage point of 2025.

Author

• Alma Prelec, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (UK)