José Robles

For the Colombian cyclist with the same name see José Robles (cyclist)

José Robles Pazos (Santiago de Compostela, 1897–1937) was a Spanish academic and independent left-wing activist. Born to an aristocratic family, Robles embraced left-wing views which forced him to leave Spain and go into exile in the United States.

In the 1920s he was teaching at Johns Hopkins University and became friend of writer John dos Passos, at the time also supporting the radical left, and his translator to Spanish. Actually his translation of Manhattan Transfer is still considered to be exemplary. He also translated some works of Sinclair Lewis.

At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War Robles was on vacation in Spain. He supported the cause of the Spanish Republic but his independent and outspoken views brought him in conflict with the Soviet Union's emissaries, who were gaining increasing control of the Republican government.

In early 1937 Robles disappeared. The American Left-wing journalist Josephine Herbst, then on a visit to the Civil War front, found out that he had been arrested and shot as "a spy for Francoists", and conveyed this information to Ernest Hemingway and Dos Passos who were in Madrid. The exact circumstances of his death were never clarified, and the charge of his having spied for the Fascists was doubted. Rather, it was suggested that he was among many sincere left-wingers (for example, Andrés Nin) killed by Soviet NKVD agents, led by Alexander Orlov, for their independent stance at the time.

Robles' killing caused a total rift between Hemingway and Dos Passos, who were previously friends. Hemingway condoned the killing, as "necessary in time of war", while Dos Passos, embittered by the killing of his friend, broke away from the left altogether and started his move to the political right.

References

• Stephen Koch, “The Breaking Point: Hemingway, dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles” reviewed by George Packer
• Martínez de Pisón, Ignacio (2005). Enterrar a los muertos (1st Edition). Editorial Seix Barral (Spanish).
• Preston, Paul (2008). We Saw Spain Die. Foreign Correspondents in the Spanish Civil War. Constable, London, (2008)