B2 Students on Freedom Fighters

Class Presentations on Freedom Fighters

Tell your classmates about a courageous person in the history of your country that fought for civil rights. What did this person do? Don't mention his/her name until your classmates guess it at the end of your presentation, and then write his/her name on the board. OR Tell your partners about an important breakthrough in human rights in the history of your country. What was achieved and how? Speak for 2 minutes. You may look at your notes but try not to read them. (See text on Rosa Parks for vocabulary and expressions on page 41, and use passive tenses when necessary.)

Here are some of your classmates' presentations. If you can you guess who they talked about, post your comment below.

_________________________(1888-1972) She was born in 1888 and died in 1972. She was a Spanish politician who was the first person to fight for the right of women to vote in Spain, when only men were allowed to vote in parliamentary elections. She was a courageous woman, because she defended universal suffrage, in spite of being criticized by many people, including women like Victoria Kent, who was another member of the Spanish Parliament during the Second Republic. Finally, the Spanish Government granted women the right to vote in 1931 and since that moment all Spanish people have had equal rights regardless of their gender. Can you guess her name?

A courageous person in the history of my country is ____________________. Born in 1910, he was a young diplomat from Zaragoza who was assigned to Hungary during the Second World War. He was shocked by the horror of the Holocaust and he saved the life of more than 5,200 jews. Four hundred more than those saved by Oskar Schindler. However, the latter is more well-know than our Spanish hero. He forged jews’ passports and he had to bribe people and rent some flats with his own money to hide jews. He even built an annex at the Spanish embassy in Budapest, so they were untouchable for the Nazis. He didn’t have the approval of Franco’s regime to do this. He died in 1980.Also known as the Spanish Schindler, he is an example of true bravery in Spain. Can you guess who he was?

There have been a lot of freedom fighters in Spain, a few more famous and appreciated than others. But the fighters I’m going to write about are not famous, because there isn’t a visible face, I want to talk about the Spanish people today.

We are immersed in the worst economic, financial and social crisis in many years, and many social groups find themselves in a very difficult situation. That’s why there are more and more freedom fighters in this country, in order to stop abuses from the establishment, banks, speculators... all those that are supposed to resolve this situation, but not at all costs.

These freedom fighters do not agree with stifling taxes, privatizations, collective dismissals, evictions, cuts here and there... they are people who try to play their part with food and clothes donations, people who sit in front of a house to avoid an eviction, people who let homeless families live in their empty houses, or go to a demonstration to keep pushing for our rights and welfare... They –we- are the true freedom fighters today, and will never leave the struggle.