Ethel Rosenberg was killed by the U.S. government because of her spouse. Without evidence or proof that she committed treasonous acts worthy of death, the U.S. government executed her and her husband on June 19, 1953, “to prove a point,” to play bluff with her and Julius, her husband, trying to get each to rat on the other.
But they had nothing to give.
The Soviets said later they didn't need the little information Julius had about the development of the atom bomb. They scoffed at the idea that it was because of them that the Rosenbergs were executed.
Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, later admitted he lied during testimony, words which sent his sister to the electric chair. He said he lied to protect his wife, also involved in the scheme but never charged. David Greenglass played a much larger role than Ethel Rosenberg, yet he got less than 10 years in prison.
In Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy, Anne Sebba furnishes a well-documented, gripping story of the first woman executed by the U.S. government since 1865 when Mary Surratt was hanged for the death of President Abraham Lincoln.
Ms. Sebba's accounting is an engrossing biography about Ms. Rosenberg and her long love affair with Julius.
The ending is based on original letters the Rosenbergs exchanged while in prison and what appears to an infatuation Ethel had with a psychotherapist.
Ethel's chief desire was to be a good mother for the couple's two sons, Michael, 7, and Robert, 3, who were forced into a children's home when their parents were taken to jail, after their grandmother, Ethel's mother, and other relatives refused to take the boys in.
Ethel questioned her own motherly abilities.
She wanted to be an opera singer and during her prison confinement, entertained guards and other prisoners with her singing. Because she was considered "dangerous" (?), the government forced her into solitary confinement the last two years of her life.
Presiding at their trial, Judge Irving Kaufman became a witness for the prosecution. Roy Cohn, a friend of Donald Trump and chief legal counsel to Sen. Joseph McCarthy, was a chief prosecutor who prided himself on the Rosenbergs' executions, claiming the judge followed his recommendations.
The Rosenbergs' bail had been set at $100,000 which today is equivalent to one million dollars.
Because of their clients' notoriety, the Rosenbergs' two attorneys, lacking the skills and experience for a death trial, were unable to recruit other practiced lawyers to help them.
Three million letters from around the world poured in, pleading for reduced sentencing for the couple; thousands protested at the White House.
Albert Einstein and Pope Pius XII pleaded for reduced sentencing for the couple, but not President Eisenhower, not President Truman, not Eleanor Roosevelt, nor the U.S. Supreme Court (with Justice Hugo Black dissenting) would relent.
And the "civil rights" organization, the ACLU which boasts today about its "attorneys nationwide" who help "handle thousands of cases each year on behalf of clients whose rights have been violated" ignored the pleas to come to the aid of Ethel Rosenberg.
This is a sad story of a couple, deeply in love, caught in the wave of the 1950s Red hysteria, the only civilians killed by the U.S. government for espionage-related activity during the Cold War.
It's an important story in the annals of American history which proves judges, juries, and the U.S. Supreme Court are swayed by events of the times.
Ethel Rosenberg is not dead. She lives on, proof that the American justice system is not just.
Thank you, Ms. Sebba.
For the next edition, may I suggest a simple family tree and a two-sentence biographical identification about the major players.
patricialesli@gmail.com
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GALA Hispanic Theatre's La Casa de la Laguna (The House on the Lagoon) is anything but calm.
It's the world premiere of the play by Caridad Svich, based on the novel by Rosario Ferré, the story of a tumultuous marriage and a woman's search for meaning.
Directed by Rebecca Aparicio, the production follows the adult life of a woman seeking her independence while Puerto Rico's modern history and internal debates about its quest for statehood, flow in the background.
, and Yaiza Figueroa. Photo Daniel Martínez.jpg)
This "casa" is a complex, multi-generational drama, action-packed with relationships and disharmonies.
The acting brings some of Puerto Rico's finest to Washington, many making their technical and stage debuts at GALA.
The lagoon is a conclave of wealthy homes where the Mendizábal family has raised their son Quintín (Ernesto Concepción), according to strict guidelines of the father, Buenaventura (Juan Luis Acevedo).
Quintín is a vigorous showman whose dominance will never succumb to a woman or love of family. Like his father, he is unwilling to compromise, and his intensity increases as the play progresses alongside the passage of his wife's journey.
Yaiza Figueroa is Isabel, who falls in love with the seemingly suave, "gentle" Quintín on a romantic beach. As their relationship evolves, his controlling father wants to know if Isabel is good enough for his son.
Buenaventura has no trouble convincing the audience that he calls the shots in his family, aided by his charming wife, Rebecca (Luz Nicolás), whose well-tamed behavior is one desired by her offspring for his own wife.
Never without a lit cigarette, Rebecca coddles her husband and son, smiling all the while with soothing deliveries.
But someone forgot to tell Quintín that time moves on and today is not yesteryear.
Quintín and Isabel marry and have a son Manuel (Omar Cruz, excellent in his role as the irreverent son). The years pass, and Isabel struggles with wifely duties vs. her own self-awareness and questions of identity.
She starts writing an autobiography about their families which enrages Quintín when he finds the book that he secretly begins to edit.
At home, the housekeeper, Petra (Evelyn Rosario Vega) maintains some normalcy with a mild demeanor until she, too, can't handle it anymore. Her slower pace, pulled back hair, and halting speech keenly demonstrate the advent of time.
Throughout the performance I held my breath, worrying whether the men would strike, like the vipers they were.
The conclusion was quite the surprise.
Another cast member is María Coral as Coral, Manuel's girlfriend.
Germán Martínez produced savvy sounds and music to forecast rising conflicts and tension on many horizons.
Puerto Rican artist Gerardo Díaz Sánchez designed a minimalist set of dining and living room furniture on opposite sides of the stage to complement the backdrop of frequent video and photo changes of Puerto Rico.(Production by Kelly Colburn.)
Costuming by Jeannette Christensen is realistic with Rebecca's bright, colorful gowns, a welcome visual variation.
Other technical crew members are Jennifer Fok, lighting; Ilyana Rose-Dávila, stage manager and props; Vanessa Losada, production manager; and Hugo Medrano, producer.
La Casa de la Laguna was a finalist for the National Book Award when it was published in 1995. Ms. Ferré (1938-2016) was a leading author in contemporary Latin America who studied at Wellesley College, Manhattanville College, the University of Puerto Rico, and the University of Maryland.
Her father was the third elected governor of Puerto Rico and the founding father of the New Progressive Party which advocates for U.S. statehood.
The production is made possible with generous support from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Miranda Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts which recently awarded GALA a $150,000 grant from the American Rescue Plan.
GALA will use the money to save jobs and to fund operations and facilities, health and safety supplies, and marketing and promotional efforts to encourage attendance. GALA was one of 567 arts organizations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington, DC. to receive a grant.
GALA audiences are seldom disappointed by anything less than dynamic acting and fascinating stories which capture our minds and send us away on thoughtful adventures.
Duration: About two hours and one intermission
Metro stations: Columbia Heights is one block away or get off at McPherson Square, take bus #52 or #54 up 14th, or, instead of the bus or Metro, walk two miles up 14th, save money and expend calories! Lots of places to eat along the way.
Whoa!
For those who think it's too late, those do not know about Alma Thomas, DC celebrated artist extraordinaire who didn't really get her start until her 70s, after she retired from 35* years of teaching which then gave her time to "blossom."
Which she did at her own home, gazing outside her windows to see magnificent gifts of nature presented in dazzling array which often became part of her paintings which evolved into astonishing vertical lines of bright colors.
Her vehicle to happiness, she said, was color which is where her works take viewers.
Said Ms. Thomas: "Through color I have sought to concentrate on beauty and happiness in my painting rather than on man's inhumanity to man....Color is life, and light is the mother of color."
Alma Thomas (1891-1978) was an abstractionist who enjoyed many firsts: At age 81, she became the first black woman to enjoy a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of America Art; she was the first fine arts graduate at Howard University.
She never abandoned learning, earning a master's from Columbia University and traveling to larger cities and museums to absorb their sights and treasures.
After her retirement, she made her art debut at Howard in 1966 and at age 75, her career took off.
She was born in Columbus, Georgia but moved to Washington with her family when she was 16, to a house where Ms. Thomas lived the rest of her life (and is now on the National Register of Historic Places).
Like springtime's bouquet which inspired her, Ms. Thomas brings us the same stimulating colors and bright canvases to the Phillips Collection exhibition in contrast with the dark and cold winter.
Read the labels and learn that the show is much more than art: It sheds light on the many achievements by Ms. Thomas who resisted being categorized as a "black" or a "woman" artist. Let art stand on its own, she said. Note how her styles changed over the years.
In a private transaction last year, Wikipedia says her painting Alma's Flower Garden sold for $2.8 million. You don't have to be a youngster or a rich world traveler to claim success: You just have to keep up with what you love to do!
You see what art can do!
I don't know anyone who thinks the show is anything less than fantastic.
*(or 38, depending upon the source)
What: Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful
When: Through Sunday, January 23, 2022, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Where: The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St., N.W. at Q St., Washington, D.C. 20009
Admission: $16, adults; $12 for those over 62; $10, students and educators (with ID); free for members and for children 18 and under. Timed tickets are required, but members may walk in at any time. Visitors 12 and over must show proof of vaccination or a same-day negative COVID-19 test upon entry, along with a government-issued photo ID for visitors 16 and over.
Metro Station: Dupont Circle (Q Street exit. Turn left and walk one block.)
For more information: 202-387-2151
Patricialesli@gmail.com
I must stop researching and writing about the show and its photographers or I'll still be writing long after the pictures come down (which is January 30!).
The more I learn about the photographers, the more I want to learn and return to see their works and read their biographies and find out more about their enticing, engrossing lives and shout: "Right on, sisters!"
It was 100 years ago when this period of photographs began, when the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed, granting women the right to vote in the U.S. (about 25 years after the UK extended the right, and almost 200 years following Sweden's right to vote which was granted female property owners).
"Right on, sisters!"
Look at the independence, the strength, the drive in these pictures, some of my favorites which I have included here. The images are stunning and you will remember some long after you have left the show.
They are not happy pictures: They are telling, historical; they portray the times, presenting society of the era and place, realistic, stark in many cases, representing hundreds of observances of world events, of everyday lives.
The portraits excel about the time when the "new woman" was emerging to assume independence and rights, values we still strive to reach today.
Almost 50 lenders, including Sir Elton John and the California African-American Museum, loaned pictures.
An excellent catalog includes almost 300 pages of mostly black and white pictures, some spread over two facing pages, with enlightening brief biographies of most of the photographers.
Thank you, National Gallery of Art and sponsors, the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation, Trellis Fund, Exhibition Circle of the National Gallery of Art and the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation for another spectacular show which gives me confidence to walk another mile. "That's what art can do!"
The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and curated by Andrea Nelson, associate curator in the department of photographs at the National Gallery of Art.
Also, upcoming this week is a free two-day virtual symposium, "Global Perspectives on The New Woman Behind the Camera," Jan. 19-20, 2022, featuring talks by historians, curators, and artists, made possible by the James D. and Kathryn K. Steele Fund for Photography. Register here.
What: The New Woman Behind the Camera
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