This is the first comprehensive historical restrospective on Las Villas of Plattekill and Ulster County ever written. Ulster County was first settled in 1652 and officially became a county in 1683. Its rural nature, scenic beauty, and the Catskill Mountains have made it a popular vacation destination since the 19th century. Describedin numerous news article as the Spanish Alps, Las Villas, as they were collectively known, was a lively enclave of Spanish, Puerto Rican, and other Hispanic summer resorts in Plattekill, New York, and the Catskill Mountains. Starting in the 1920s and for the next 60 years, the area became the most popular vacation destination for Latinos in the Northeast, with an emphasis on music, food, language and customs. -- from cover.

In the 1930s, anarchists and socialists among Spanish immigrants living in the United States created España Libre (Free Spain) as a response to the Nationalist takeover in their homeland. Worker-oriented and avowedly antifascist, the grassroots periodical raised money for refugees and political prisoners while advancing left-wing culture and politics. España Libre proved both visionary and durable, charting an alternate path toward a modern Spain and enduring until democracy's return to the country in 1977. Montse Feu merges España Libre's story with the drama of the Spanish immigrant community's fight against fascism. The periodical emerged as part of a transnational effort to link migrants and new exiles living in the United States to antifascist networks abroad. In addition to showing how workers' culture and politics shaped their antifascism, Feu brings to light creative works that ranged from literature to satire to cartoons to theater. As España Libre opened up radical practices, it encouraged allies to reject violence in favor of social revolution's potential for joy and inclusion.

The papers collected here are a product of the second conference on Ireland's Great Hunger held at Quinnipiac University in 2005. This volume, focused on the theses of relief, representation, and remembrance, contains essays from a broad range of disciplines including works of history, literary criticism, anthropology, and art history.