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Whatever Happened to EANA?

According to Wikipedia and other sources, the original US Esperanto org was the Esperanto Association of North America (EANA), which was cast out of UEA in about 1957 for alleged McCarthyism. (I believe there was weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth involved.)

But what happened to EANA afterwards? How long did it persist? Are there any successor groups? Are there any former EANA members still using Esperanto while hanging on to the alleged heretical viewpoints of EANA?

Or is ELNA a great, half-biomechanical entity that hunted down former EANA members, crying 'Resistance is futile' or perhaps using the Dalek battle cry 'exterminate!'

I hope so, that would make ELNA way cooler.

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  • By aliplanedulo at 2007-01-04 17:13
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EANA History

There's a need for a thorough history of Esperanto in the United States. Bill Harmon wrote a small book A History of the Esperanto League for North America that probably has the most authoritative information about the split and the early history of ELNA, but it doesn't have much info about EANA and what happened after. You can get it for $5 or $6 from the libroservo.

My impression is that ELNA captured the mindshare of the US Esperanto community rather quickly and, although EANA formally existed for years afterwards (George Alan Connor lived until 1973), it contributed relatively little in terms of the mainstream Esperanto movement.

When George Alan Connor died, his wife contributed his library and materials to the University of Oregon Special Collections Library. There is a catalog of the 3500 books, magazines, etc. which you can download (and almost read) from ERIC. Probably among the materials would be the complete set of the American Esperanto Magazine, which would be the best source of info, if you wanted to hear the "other side of the story".

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Steven BREWER

  • By limako at 2007-01-05 18:13
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Met a former EANA member

Just a few years ago, I met a guy who was a member of EANA at that time. He had (when I met him) just discovered ELNA.

I think there may have been a lot of people like him in the late 1950s and early 1960s--people who were very concerned about communism as a threat and who didn't think that neutrality was an important enough reason for an organization to welcome "enemies" as members. I don't doubt that others dropped out of the movement during that period. I hope most of them have found their way back by now.

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Philip BREWER

  • By pbrewer at 2007-01-05 19:32
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