What is the Mexican Suitcase?

The Mexican Suitcase is a series of photographs, film negatives, taken by photographers David Seymour, Gerda Taro, and Robert Capa during the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Civil War took place from 1936 to 1939 between those loyal to the left-leaning government of the Second Republic, called the Republicans, and the Nationalists, a military conservative group led by General Fransisco Franco. The photos are an example of the earliest instance of the use of a 35mm film which allowed the three photographers to move quickly and capture action on the front line. These photos span the entire civil war from photos taken in Madrid in 1936, three months before the war began, to pictures of French internment camps for exiled Republicans in 1939. The Mexican Suitcase is not only a portrait of the war and the front lines but a window into the lives of ordinary people living in Spain through the duration of the war.