Tag Archives: cuban

Galeotti to Gazeyog

Alba Galeotti (born Giuseppina Genisio)

Alba Galeotti, postcard to her son Ferrer, c. 1930s. Courtesy of Gina Norsedt.

Born: 1867, Canischio, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Housewife; laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US c. 1902
Affiliation: Anarchist

After immigrating to the United States around 1902, she married coal miner Killo Gotti in Lafayette, Missouri, later adopting the anarchist name “Alba,” meaning “Dawn.” She named her children Idea (i.e. “L’Idea” of anarchism) and Ravachol (after the French anarchist of the same name). By 1908 she was contributing funds and articles to the Italian-language anarchist newspapers Cronaca Sovversiva and La Questione Sociale and corresponded with anarchists in Italy. She also raised money for the antimilitarist anarchist paper Rompete le file! in Milan. Following her separation from Gotti, she married anarchist miner Guglielmo Galeotti in 1909. The couple lived in mining communities in Kansas and Illinois and named their children Ferrer and Germinal. Unconfirmed reports suggest she was deported in 1916 and illegally returned to the United States. Arrested in 1920 alongside Galeotti, she escaped custody while he was deported. She continued anarchist activity, including collecting funds for the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee in 1921. In 1923 arrested in Schulter, Oklahoma. While detained, she refused food for thirty-three days, was declared insane, and forcibly fed. Deported on January 10, 1924, leaving her two youngest children in the care of her eldest daughter, Ida (Idea) Gotti.

In Italy she did not reunite with Guglielmo Galeotti, and remained in correspondence with her children. Died in Turin in 1940.

Sources: Cronaca Sovversiva, May 31, 1913; Jennifer Guglielmo, Living the Revolution: Italian Women’s Resistance and Radicalism in New York City, 1880-1945; Henryetta Daily Stanard (Henryetta OK), January 1 and 2, 1924; Henryetta Standard (Henryetta OK), January 3 and January 7, 1924; Ancestry.com; additional information provided by Gina Norstedt.

Guglielmo Galeotti (a.k.a. William Galleoti)

Guglielmo Galeotti with his wife Alba and children, c. 1915. Courtesy of Gina Norsedt.

Born: 1871, Santa Sofia, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1902
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist in Italy during the late 1880s and was regarded by Italian authorities as a dangerous subversive. Repeatedly arrested and imprisoned for subversive activities between 1888 and 1902. Fled briefly to Switzerland in 1901, but was expelled and arrested on unfounded suspicion of complicity in the assassination of King Umberto I. Subsequently emigrated to and then expelled from Trieste. After immigrating to the United States, lived in mining communities in Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Illinois and became a leading figure in the Kansas anarchist Gruppo 11 Novembre. In 1909 married fellow anarchist Alba Genisio. In 1911 joined other group members in traveling to Mexico to assist the anarchist Partido Liberal Mexicano during the Mexican Revolution but soon became disillusioned and returned to the United States. Deported on February 19, 1920.

Although he remained under surveillance in Italy, authorities reported that by 1935 he had withdrawn from politics and allegedly showed sympathy toward the Fascist regime.

Sources: CPC busta 2236; Michele Presutto, La rivoluzione dietro l’angolo: Gli anarchici italiani e la Rivoluzione messicana, 1910-1914; Henryetta Daily Stanard (Henryetta OK), January 1, 1924; Ancestry.com; additional information provided by Gina Norstedt.

Luigi Galleani

Luigi Galleani, 1919. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy.

Born: 1861, Vercelli, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Editor
Migration: Immigrated to US 1901
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist while studying law at the University of Turin. After fleeing police repression in Italy, he lived in France and Switzerland, working with anarchist geographer Élisée Reclus, before being arrested, expelled, and imprisoned in Italy. While confined to the island of Pantelleria, he met his wife Maria. He escaped in 1900 and fled to Egypt and England before immigrating to the United States in 1901.

In the United States, edited La Questione Sociale in Paterson, New Jersey, and led the 1902 silk workers’ strike, for which he was indicted for inciting riot and fled to Canada, then Barre, Vermont, where founded newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva in 1903. Later relocated the paper to Lynn, Massachusetts. Emerged as the leading Italian anarchist proponent of insurrectionary violence. Deported on June 24, 1919, leaving his wife and six children behind.

Upon arrival in Italy, briefly arrested and then relaunched Cronaca Sovversiva in Turin. Imprisoned for sedition in 1922, and again arrested in 1926, serving prison time followed by internal exile. He remained under surveillance until his death in 1931.

Sources: INS file 54235/33; CPC busta 2241; Ugo Fedeli, Luigi Galleani: quarant’anni di lotte rivoluzionarie (1891 –1931); Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Antonio Senta, Luigi Galleani: The Most Dangerous Anarchist in America.

Alexander Gallod (a.k.a. Golod; Gold)

Gallod’s Communist Party membership card. National Archives.

Born: 1888, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Polish
Occupation: Machinist
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Socialist Party of America before becoming an active member of the Communist Party of American and then the United Communist Party in Camden, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Arrested in Philadelphia on January 7, 1920, and deported to Russia on February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54811/973.

Laureano García

Born: Spain, year unknown
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US year unknown
Affiliation: Anarchist; IWW

An anarchist and IWW member, he was arrested in Jerome, Arizona, in February 1919 and deported later that year.

In 1931 he contributed funds from Spain to the New York anarchist newspaper Cultura Proletaria.

Sources: La Nueva Solidaridad, June 14, 1919; Cultura Proletaria, April 18, 1931.

Rogelo García (a.k.a. Regelio García; Roglio García)

Members of Spanish-speaking Los Corsarios Group, including García, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1894, Quibicano, Cuba
Nationality: Cuban
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Cigar maker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1903
Affiliation: Anarchist

Became an anarchist around 1917 and joined the Los Corsarios Group, which published the anarchist paper El Corsario. Arrested in New York in February 1919 with thirteen other Spanish-speaking anarchists on unfounded allegations of plotting to assassinate President Woodrow Wilson. Although charges were dismissed, García was held for deportation. When questioned about his failure to naturalize, replied, “I do not even believe in my own country.” He was married to U.S.-born Blanca Fernandez and had an infant child at the time of his deportation on April 25, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54616/79.

Isso Gartner (a.k.a. Imre Geery or Geerry)

Born: 1895, Kassa, Hungary (present-day Košice, Slovakia)
Nationality: Hungarian
Ethnicity: Jewish
Occupation: Jeweler
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Socialist Party of America

Joined the Socialist Party of America in Baltimore. A conscientious objector, he opposed military conscription during the First World War. Attempted to unionize Baltimore jewelry workers through the International Jewelry Workers Union (AFL). In May 1918 he was arrested on dubious theft charges, sentenced to six months in prison, and later interned as an “alien enemy” at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. There he contracted tuberculosis of the hip, forcing him to use crutches. Upon release, Gartner was deported on May 8, 1920 on the unsubstantiated charge that he believed in overthrowing the U.S. government by force.

Sources: INS file 54709/38; Baltimore Sun, May 23, 1918; Jewelers’ Circular-Weekly, July 10, 1918.

Jack Gaveel (a.k.a. Jakov Zukatansky; Jackotonsky; Jacknowsky)

Born: 1889, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Nationality: Dutch
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Labor organizer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1915
Affiliation: IWW

Migrated to England in 1905; returned to the Netherlands in 1910 and emigrated to Canada that same year. Joined the IWW in 1913 in Canada and became secretary of IWW Local no. 339 in Edmonton, Canada the following year. Migrated to the U.S. in 1915. Included in the federal indictment of IWW leaders in 1917, but dropped from the case before it went to trial. Acted as an IWW delegate in Los Angeles, where he was “active in organizing the Austrian and Croatian fishermen.” Arrested in April 1921 and sentenced to 1-4 years under California’s criminal syndicalism law. In San Quentin, refused to work in the prison jute mill, declaring: “I have never scabbed on my class outside of prison, and I won’t do it inside.” He was sent to solitary confinement, sparking a sympathy strike of thirteen other imprisoned IWW members. Deported to The Netherlands on August 1, 1924.

Remained active in labor and anarchist circles in The Netherlands. Into 1951 he resumed contact with the IWW and distributed IWW materials in Europe. In 1960, at age 71, he wrote: “I wish I were in America. I’d join you in the fight then.”

Sources: FBI file BS 186701-240; Industrial Worker, June 11, 1921; August 5, 1922; IWW Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library.

Fred Gazeyog (a.k.a. Gazeyek; Gazeycg)

Born: 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity: Belarusian
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to the United States in 1911
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Employed by the B. F. Goodrich Company and joined the Union of Russian Workers in Akron, Ohio, in 1916, becoming secretary of the local branch. Arrested during the first Palmer Raids in November 1919 and deported to Russia on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/535.

Sachar to Sánchez

Andrey Sachar (a.k.a. Andrej; Andrew; Henry Sugar)

Born: 1898, Minsk oblast, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Autoworker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation:

Employed by the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. In 1918 he became secretary of the Russian National Home (also called the Russian People’s Home), described by authorities as “an alleged Bolshevik organization” that hosted speakers from the Union of Russian Workers and the Communist Party of America. He admitted supporting the Bolshevik government and revolution in the United States, but later claimed his testimony had been mistranslated. Arrested April 1919 after three members of Detroit’s Russian community accused him of advocating overthrow of the US government—possibly tied to a dispute within Detroit’s Russian Orthodox All Saints Church. He “voluntarily departed” September 25, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54709/557; FBI file BS 202600-353-1; Aram G. Sarkisian, “Their Daily Dread: Russian Orthodox Christians in Red Scare Detroit, 1918–1920,” Journal of American Ethnic History 41, no. 4 (2022).

Andrei Sacharchuk

Born: c. 1895, Wołyń, Russia (present-day Poland)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Communist Party in Atlantic City. Arrested November 19, 1919; later rearrested in Welch, West Virginia for distributing radical literature. Deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/359.

Mike Sachco

Born: c. 1897, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Steamfitters’ helper
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Member of Milwaukee’s Russian Branch No. 2 of the Communist Party. Arrested January 1920; deported to Russia March 18, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54859-158.

Nikita Safroniev (a.k.a. Necita; Safronieff; Zafronia)

Born: 1883, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration: Immigrated to US 1914
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

His wife remaine din Russia when he emigrated. Arrested November 9, 1919 during the first Palmer Raids. A member of the Maspeth, Queens branch of the Union of Russian Workers. He testified: “I lived long enough in Russia under the Czar. I have seen enough brutality committed there, but I have never seen the brutality that was committed upon the Russian people here in my case…When I was arrested…I was travelling in the automobile, they were beating me in the sides with their handcuffs; and this continued all the way until they brought me to the Park Row Building in New York.” Deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/284; FBI file OG 379106; Constantine M. Panunzio, The Deportation Cases of 1919-1920.

Orteof Sahtabnog (a.k.a. Ortiof; Ortiob Shtabnoy)

Born: 1891, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Miner
Migration: Immigrated to US 1913
Affiliation: Union of Russian Workers

Joined hte Union of Russian Workers branch at the Jamieson No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia in September 1919, and became its secretary. Arrested November 1919; he was deported on the Buford on December 21, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54709/586.

Nikofor Salabay

Born: c. 1890, Kyiv, Russia (present-day Ukraine)
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Autoworker
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1913; then to US 1916
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

His wife and two children remained in Russia. He joined the Communist Party in Pittsburgh in September 1919. Arrested January 1920, he was deported to Russia February 1, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/644.

Marcelo Salinas y López (a.k.a. Marcelino Menéndez; Jorge Gallart; George Gallart; Pedro Martín; Pedro Martín Sánchez; Palomero)

Marcelo Salinas.

Born: 1889, Batabanó, Cuba
Nationality: Cuban
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Cigarworker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1911
Affiliation: Anarchist IWW

Became an anarchist around 1908 and collaborated on Havana’s anarchist newspaper ¡Tierra!.

Migrated to the U.S. in 1911 to work in the cigar industry in Tampa, Florida. Active in anarchist groups there affiliated with the Partido Liberal Mexicano, and also joined and organized for the IWW. He was briefly the roommate of Spanish anarchist Manuel Pardiñas, who in 1912 returned to Spain and assassinated Spanish Prime Minister José Canalejas; wrongly suspected of involvement in the assassination, Salinas was also accused by the Mexican government of being part of plot to kill Mexico’s President Madero. Arrested and deported to Cuba February 7, 1913. He illegally returned to the U.S. in June of that year under the name “Marcelino Menendez” and participated in an IWW maritime strike in New Orleans; he then moved to New York where he frequented the Francisco Ferrer Center and collaborated on the newspaper Cultura Obrera under the name “Jorge Gallart.” In 1914 he migrated to Spain, where he was part of an influential group of “americanos” (Spanish-speaking anarchists who had lived in the US) and collaborated on anarchist newspapers and joined and organized on behalf of the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo; he was imprisoned numerous times for these activities. Around 1918 he returned to New York where, under the name “Pedro Martín,” he was a member of the Los Corsarios Group and became editor its newspaper El Corsario. One of fourteen group members arrested in February 1919 by the Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate President Wilson; although all charges were dropped, he and several others were held for deportation as anarchists. Salinas claimed to have been born in Cartagena, Spain, and was deported to Spain May 4, 1919 as “Pedro Martín.”

Arrested during a propaganda tour in Andalusia (for possession false identity documents under the name Pedro Martín); he was sentenced to two months in prison in Cádiz and then deported to Cuba August 1, 1919. In Cuba he took an active part in the general strikes of 1919; for which he was arrested multiple times and sentenced to death along with several other leading anarchists, but released in 1921. While in prison he sent a letter to the Comintern to apply for the creation of a Cuban Communist Party, but soon became disillusioned with Soviet Communism. In the 1920-1940s he became nationally recognized as radical poet, novelist, and playwright. In 1944 he helped found the Asociacíon Libertaria de Cuba (ALC); in 1948 he was appointed its Secretary of Culture. Edited a succession of Cuban anarchist newspapers. In 1956-1959 he served on the secretariat of the Confederacíon de Trabajadores de Cuba. Refused to support Castro’s seizure of power. In 1967 he was allowed to enter the United States as an anti-Castro refugee. He settled in Miami, Florida, where he continued to be an active member of the Movimiento Libertario Cubano en el Exilio and write for anarchist publications. He died in 1976.

Sources: INS files 53572/12 (1913 deportation) and 54616/79 (1919 deportation [under name “Pedro Martin aka Pedro Martin Sanchez”]); Marcelo Salinas: Un ideal sublime y elevado; Kirwin R. Shaffer, Anarchists of the Caribbean: Countercultural Politics and Transnational Networks in the Age of US Expansion; Frank Fernández, Cuban Anarchism: The History of a Movement; Manuel Buenacas, El movimiento obrero español, 1886-1926; Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America.

Nikolai Salov (a.k.a. Nick Saloff)

Born: 1891, Alagir, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to Canada 1914; then to US 1915
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

Joined the Communist Party of America in Seattle. Deported on January 22, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54861/31.

Nikolai Saluk (or Celiuk)

Born: 1892, Bobry, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer; punch press operator
Migration: Immigrated to US 1910
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of Detroit’s Russian Branch No. 3 of the Communist Party, he was deported February 26, 1921.

Sources: INS file 54860/24.

Roland S. Samuelson (a.k.a. Roy)

Born: 1884, Stockholm, Sweden
Nationality: Swedish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Laborer
Migration: Immigrated to US 1912
Affiliation: IWW

Joined IWW Mixed Local No. 382 in Seattle in April 1917, and became and IWW delegate. Arrested January 1920 in Everett, Washington, for “criminal syndicalism” after the Great Northern Railway fired him for organizing his fellow workers and reported him to the police. Deported to Sweden August 13, 1920.

Sources: INS file 54861/371; FBI file OG 386735.

Ivan Samuylov (a.k.a. John; Samuyloff; Somaurloff; Samuyilof)

Born: Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America in New York. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1919 and deported to Russia December 23, 1920. No further information has been located.

Sources: 54325/36G and FBI file BS 202600-33; Minneapolis Star, December 27, 1920.

Vladimir Samuylov (a.k.a. Samuyloff; Samoileff; Pavel Wolkoff)

Born: Russia
Nationality: Russian
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: Communist Party of America

A member of the Communist Party of America in New York City. Arrested during the second Palmer Raids in January 1919; deported to Russian December 23, 1920 with his teenage son and daughter.

Sources: INS file 54325/36G; FBI file BS 202600-33; Minneapolis Star, December 27, 1920; New-York Tribune, December 19, 1920.

Ramón Sánchez

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-2.png
Members of Spanish-speaking Los Corsarios Group, including Sánchez, 1919. National Archives.

Born: 1886, Santa Cruz, Canary Islands, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation: Cigarmaker
Migration: Immigrated to US 1916
Affiliation: Anarchist

His family emigrated to Cuba in 1898, and in 1916 he migrated to Mexico and then the United States.

A member of New York’s anarchist Los Corsarios Group, and one of fourteen members arrested in February 1919 by the Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate President Wilson. All charges were dropped, but Sánchez and several other members were held for deportation as anarchists. Deported to Spain May 4, 1919.

Sources: INS file 54616/79.

Ramón L. Sánchez

Ramón L. Sánchez, 1921. National Archives.

Born: Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Ethnicity:
Occupation:
Migration:
Affiliation: IWW

Arrested June 21, 1921 in Sacramento on criminal syndicalism charges after distributing IWW literature. Sentenced to 1–14 years in San Quentin Penitentiary, where he contracted tuberculosis. Deported to Spain on August 1, 1924.

Sources: Sacramento Star, June 22, October 21, 1921; Daily Worker, February 29 and June 2, 1924; Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts.