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Mary Stanley Low

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Mary Stanley Low
Born14 May 1912
London, England
Died9 January 2007
Miami, Florida, US
Occupationpolitical activist, poet, Latin teacher
CitizenshipCuba
GenreSurrealism
Notable worksRed Spanish Notebook: the first six months of revolution and the civil war
SpouseJuan Breá (m. 1937, died 1941)
Armando Machado (m. 1944)
Children3

Mary Stanley Low (14 May 1912–9 January 2007) was a British-Cuban political activist, Trotskyist, surrealist poet and Latin teacher.

Life

Low was born in 1912 in London, England, to Australian parents. She was educated in France and Switzerland and travelled with her parents in Europe.

In her early career, Low worked as a Latin teacher, wrote for English magazines and edited Classics Chronicles, a biannual magazine dedicated to the Latin language and the history of the Rome.

Low met the Cuban poet Juan Ramón Breá (1905–1941) in 1933 in Paris. The couple travelled extensively in Europe, including trips to Prague, Vienna, Belgrade, Istanbul, Bucharest, Brussels and London, and visited Breá's native Cuba.

Low and Breá travelled to Barcelona together, in August 1936, following the military uprising against the Spanish Republic in July 1936 and crossed into Spain from France. During this revolutionary period Low and Breá supported the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (Spanish: Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM; Catalan: Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista, POUM). Low was an English-language announcer for the POUM radio station in Barcelona, translated POUM publications into English for international circulation and produced propaganda images. Low and Breá were lived in Spain until December 1936 and fled back to France when they were threatened by Stalinists.

In England, Low and Breá co-wrote and published the Red Spanish Notebook: the first six months of revolution and the civil war, which was the first English language written testimony and political analysis of the 1936 Spanish revolution. Mary wrote her chapters and translated chapters by Breá into English. The book was forwarded by the Marxist historian and critic Cyril Lionel Robert James, and was praised by the author and journalist George Orwell in a review for Time and Tide magazine. In the book, Low disputed claims that milicianas were the most concerned with their appearance, recounted the burial of the anarchist leader Buenaventura Durruti after his death in November 1936, and noted her experiences of the bureaucratic culture of politicians of the Catalan government in contrast to the "egalitarian" mood on the street.

Low and Breá married on 24 September 1937 in England and lived in Prague during 1938 and 1939. Here, they befriended Czech surrealists including Toyen, Bohuslav Brouk and Jindřich Heisler.

In February 1940, Low and Breá emigrated to Cuba, after obtaining safe-conduct papers through their acquaintance with a German cultural attaché. Breá died in Cuba in 1941, aged 35. After her husbands death, Low remained in Cuba for almost 25 years. In 1943, she published a selection of political and cultural essays forwarded by the French poet Benjamin Péret. She also taught at the Instituto de El Vedado and the Universidad de la Habana.

In 1944, Low married for a second time to Armando Machado (1911–1982), a Trotskyist Cuban trade-union leader, gaining Cuban citizenship. They had three daughters together. She retained her British citizenship, holding duel nationality.

She published the poetry volume Three Voices in 1957. By 1964, Low became frustrated with what she viewed as the Stalinisation of Fidel Castro's Cuban government. She moved to live in Australia, before settling in Florida, United States, where she contributed to the growing America surrealist movement. She published several works of poetry in America, including In Caesar’s Shadow (1975), Alive in Spite Of (1981), A voice in Three Mirrors (1984) and Where the Wolf Sings (1994).

Low died in 2007 in Miami.

References

  1. ^ Jump, Jim (30 January 2007). "Obituary: Mary Low". The Independent.
  2. Rosemont, Penelope (5 July 2010). Surrealist Women: An International Anthology. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-78769-8.
  3. ^ Munin, Fionn (4 March 2023). "Agustin Guillamón — Mary Low: Surrealist Poet, Trotskyist and Revolutionary (1912–2007)". Medium. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
  4. Bayó Belenguer, Susana (26 November 2018). "Mary Low: A Trotskyist with the POUM in Barcelona". Hispanic Studies and Researches on Spain, Portugal and Latin America. 95: 311–324. doi:10.1080/14753820.2018.1537285. ISSN 1475-3820.
  5. ^ Badillo, Jorell A. Meléndez; Jun, Nathan J. (29 July 2013). Without Borders or Limits: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Anarchist Studies. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-4438-5105-3.
  6. Smith, Angela K. (28 February 2018). Gender and warfare in the twentieth century: Textual representations. Manchester University Press. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-1-5261-3070-9.
  7. ^ MacPhee, Josh; Reuland, Erik (1 January 2007). Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority. AK Press. p. 283. ISBN 978-1-904859-32-1.
  8. Rosemont, Franklin (1978). André Breton and the First Principles of Surrealism: A Companion Volume to What is Surrealism? : Selected Writings of André Breton. Pluto Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-904383-70-6.
  9. Orwell, George (3 May 2001). Orwell in Spain. Penguin Books Limited. p. 401. ISBN 978-0-14-191390-2.
  10. Lines, Lisa Margaret (2012). Milicianas: Women in Combat in the Spanish Civil War. Lexington Books. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-7391-6492-1.
  11. Hampton, Paul. Mary Low Machado (1912-2007). Marxist Theory and History, Spanish Revolution 1936-7. 26 January 2007. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
  12. Goodkind, Molly; Mitchell, Marcella Hayes and Amanda (26 October 2015). Spanish Civil War and Its Memory, The. Edicions Universitat Barcelona. p. 56. ISBN 978-84-475-3927-7.
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