A Spanish quest

The Guardian reports that Spanish authorities are trying to identify a black American soldier who fought against fascism in the Spanish civil war.  He appears in a single black-and-white picture among a collection of civil war photography recently bought by the Spanish state.  Of note here is the little-known fact that more than 90 African-Americans volunteered to defend the Spanish Republican government in the 1930s.  But we also have to ask: why are Spanish authorities so interested in identifying this one black man?  Why is this historical detail worthy of international attention, and indeed, transnational investigation?  

The article claims that

Spanish authorities want to put a name to him so they can present his picture to President Barack Obama when he visits Spain next year.  

Although vague, this suggests the strategic use of history, the instrumentalization of memory - neither of which is new or surprising in international relations.  The implicit emphasis on racial unity, particularly in support of a 'just war' such as that against fascism (and perhaps, by analogy, against terrorism?), is intriguing from a foreign affairs perspective.  But I also wonder what role this quest plays in Spanish approaches to their own past, especially in light of the increasingly fragile 'pact of forgetting'?