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A Gathering of Fugitives

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We've heard about the Hollywood Ten and other Communists and those suspected of Communist activities who sought haven in Mexico in the 1950s. What happened to these people and their families as they struggled to earn a living in an alien culture, always fearful of being deported? Diana Anhalt, who was 10 years old when her parents left the Bronx for Mexico City, has tracked down many of these people and their families whom she knew from her childhood. The stories she tells sound like they could have come from the movie scripts and other writings of the fugitives who gathered in Mexico. As a witness, she makes their stories come alive in a very personal book.

A Gathering Of Fugitives: American Political Expatriates In Mexico 1948-1965 by Diana Anhalt is a solid reference and historical narrative about a group of Americans (ranging from Spanish Civil War veterans, Communist Party organizers, Hollywood activists, and other post-World War II political dissidents) who went through political exile and expatriation in Mexico for a variety of different reasons. Their individual and community struggles to adapt, political clashes, along with the personal stories of some who returned to America are all covered in-depth in this most remarkable and recommended study.

I was motivated to read Diana Anhalt's book in almost one sitting. Having grown up in the setting she describes but being well sheltered from the events, I am very impressed by her very thorough research into the smallest details of the events. She is objective and points out the extent to which governments, including our own and not excluding others, will go to in order to protect their current objectives. It makes us painfully aware of how much we should or should not allow our government to do in the name of expediency.

The fate of creative Americans trapped in the McCarthy mulcher of the early 50s is well-known, but in this splendid volume Diana Anhalt sheds much-needed light on an unfamiliar aspect of that era. Here we meet lesser lights who chose to flee their homeland and take up residence in Mexico, in a tightly-knit community of the similarly beset. This is not a scholarly treatise but a deeply personal, moving account of innocents abroad. Will appeal to the general reader in addition to those with a particular interest in this period, and is highly recommended.

I am fascinated by all things blacklist, and this book, recommended to me by the late Christopher Trumbo, is wonderful and essential reading for any student of this rich period in American history. It is thorough, balanced, smart, and vivid. Having been born to parents who fled to Mexico, the author has a unique POV, which separates her book from so many of the others written on the subject. And what could be more affirmative and hopeful than the fact that she lives in Mexico still, having made a life for herself in the country of her parents' exile?