Peter Bloch Collection Addenda

This collection consists of photographs, correspondence, clippings, original diary entries, autographed photographs from actors and other celebrities, two U.S. passports, and various other documents pertaining to Peter Bloch. Also included is his death certificate from 2008.

This collection is an addendum to the Peter Bloch Collection, AR 25353.

Folder 1 contains newspaper clippings from Spanish and English language newspapers as well as various photographs documenting Bloch's engagement in Hispanic culture and civil rights from the 1940s-1960s. The clippings show Peter Bloch's frequent honors for his selfless advocacy on behalf of the Puerto Rican-Hispanic Culture. In 1955 he was honored by the “League of Belgian and allied Patriots”. Furthermore, this folder contains a Universum Press passport belonging to Peter Bloch, undated, as well as a payment-receipt for a manuscript, dated Frankfurt am Main, May 29th, 1964.

Folder 2 contains correspondence from, but mostly to Peter Bloch. There are e.g. four letters from William Ryan, Member of the U.S. Congress, promoting Puerto Rico's culture and history; a letter from Deborah Walley, the Hollywood actress who played the fictional character Gidget in 1961; a letter from the Julio Iglesias Fan Club; and two letters from Dr. Alfonso Ramirez. He and Peter Bloch maintained an epistolary friendship for almost five decades, after they had been introduced to each other by Ernest Mandel, the secretary of the Fourth International. Alfonso Ramirez's first letter details the political situation in Venezuela in 2007, his second letter is written in Spanish, not to Peter Bloch, but to Carmen D. Lucca, in which Alfonso Ramirez relates the story of his friendship with Peter and mentions his visit to New York in 1956 and meeting Peter’s mother, Else Bloch (Israel). Furthermore, there is a letter from Peter Bloch to Reverend Colón, dated May 8th, 1979, in which he relates his friendship with the Reverend. Peter Bloch mentions how difficult the relationship became during the illness of Reverend Colón's daughter, Miriam Dorcas. In addition, there is a photograph of Miriam Dorcas with a personal note on the back, addressed to Peter and his mother.

Folder 3 contains autographed photographs from actors and other celebrities, like Maurice Chevalier, Eddie Cantor, Jayne Mansfield and Elizabeth Peña, almost always with personal dedications to Peter Bloch. In addition, there is a photograph of Peter Bloch with Elizabeth Peña.

Folder 4 contains original diary entries of Peter Bloch written in German. The first entry is dated May 9, 1955 at the Waldorf Astoria’s meeting with General Douglas MacArthur and is a transcript of Peter Bloch's conversation with him. At this meeting, Peter Bloch presented Douglas MacArthur in the name of a Brussels-based organization with a medal and Certificate of Honor for his merits for peace, especially for his reconstruction work in Japan and his peace speech in Los Angeles. In this conversation, MacArthur related, among others, the story of how he stood at the head of a United States Army division in Belgium in 1918, and how he met after World War I with Konrad Adenauer, then mayor of Cologne, who showed him around the cathedral. MacArthur also spoke about the deeper meaning of the war, and how, after World War II, it had become pointless because of the new era that had begun. The second entry is dated May 31, 2008 and June 24, 2008 and references Peter Bloch's illness (prostate cancer). Also included are two U.S. passports of Peter Bloch (one expired), and a certificate of the “Israel Family Name History”. Dr. James Israel was Peter Bloch's grandfather. Several documents in this folder pertain to Peter Bloch's death, such as his death certificate from 2008, and an Ode to Peter Bloch by Abraham Lind-Oquendo, who was an accomplished professional singer and a good friend of his.

Folder 5 consists of a 15-page essay on "Ex-Trotskista, Peter Bloch" by Alfonso Ramirez, dated 2010. The essay is in Spanish.