
Standing up for what we believe it right is one act most of us can not do, but those of us that can demand respect. We will send our brothers into the fray of war to die for a set of idea, yet some of those who plead for war when ask to fight will run from the call. Rossi and Marta form Pereira Declares by Antonio Tabucchi are two such people. By looking at the civil unrest and the nationalist movement of the Spanish Civil War, we can get a better understanding of Rossi and Marta’s actions and involvement in the international brigade.

Who are Rossi and Marta? In the novel Pereira Declare, the main character Pereira is a mid-life journalist in charge of the cultural section of the local paper. While looking for his next story, he meets this duo Monteiro Rossi and his girlfriend Marta. The two are the young rebellious and outspoken type of their age.  Rossi is a left wing writer performing at a Salazarist Youth festival, and Marta is also a writer.  More importantly both are proud members of the international brigade.  It is this involvement with the brigade that secretly interests Pereira, and it ends up being just what he needed to get out of his shell and turn his life around. Pereira does hire Rossi because he sees a part of himself in Rossi. In exchange Pereira pays for all of Rossi expenses.

To understand why Rossi and Marta were members of the brigade we first have to understand what the international brigade was. During the time Spain was going through a civil war between the Republican party and the Nationalist party. The international brigades were groups of foreign volunteers who traveled to Spain to fight for the republican cause. The members of these brigades were not often meet with open arms by their own governments. They were often criminalized and killed for their involvement as well. As Rob Stradling notes in his book English-speaking Units of the International Brigades: War, Politics and Discipline  “the West often associated Franco and all who fought for him with the crimes of fascism” so too were the brigades associated with fascism (Stradling,746).

When looking deeper into the personality of these two characters, we see that they are the ideal revolutionists.  Rossi is publicly attending a Salazarist Youth festival, so he is obviously firm in his political beliefs.  Marta favors the more educated and politically conscious role following the trend of “the contemporary campaign in Republican Catalonia, In which both (man and women) would be offered equal if not identical opportunities” (Lannon,214). Pereira paints them as “just two benighted romantics without a future” (Tabucchi,91). They believe in their ideals and will stand up and speak out against their enemies. This shows they both have a strong determination to make a difference in their world, and that determination is a defining characteristic in a revolutionary type of person.

When looking at Rossi’s “unpublishable” work in regards to the time period, it becomes clear that this is because of the rampant censorship the government is trying to enforce.  Pereira finds himself worried just showing up to the festival Rossi is performing at so to not be roped in with the festival goers.  He starts to wonder if Rossi might be “one of them” in reference to Rossi being a Franciso Franco supporter. However, his worry is abolished when he reads Rossi heavily politically influential articles.  With Pereira feeling obligated to run and confess to his catholic father António at the smallest transgressions and with the big socialist scare at the time in Portugal, such articles if published would cause an uproar.  As it stands “the police had killed a carter who supplied the markets, because he was a Socialist”, if even a local evening paper such as the Lisboa were to publish such articles the political ramifications would drastic (Tabucchi,5).

Rossi and Marta go to extreme lengths for their cause.  With their line of work it is hard to see a happy ending. They cut their teeth on raising awareness and recruiting members for the brigades.  In  addition the international brigades were seen very unkindly by some, even being called “a collective instrument of Stalinist terror”, and “an army of criminals, constituted by the scum of the earth, the scouring of its goals, lunatic asylums, doss-houses and brothels”(Stradling,746).  Those same people in chapter 24 of the novel are hunting down Rossi. Pereira tries hiding Rossi in his home to keep him safe from the authorities, however they still find and kill Rossi (Tabucchi).  Rossi ended up giving his life and Marta had to change her appearance and name just to keep herself safe.  Rossi’s cousin even tries to find refuge in portugal from the Spanish military.  

In closing, when you look at the historical events of the time with the Spanish civil war, the Salazar regime, and organization of the international brigades the actions of Rossi and Marta make more sense and bring a much needed element to the story.  They may have been throwing their lives away to some people, but to those that matter they were fighting for a good cause that was worth dying for.  Yes, they were were breaking laws, but they inspired a man to turn his life around and take a stand for something he believed in. 
