[1] El Mono Azul was started in Madrid in 1936 by the Alliance of Anti-Fascist Intellectuals led by communist writers Rafael Alberti and María Teresa León at the beginning of the Civil War.

[5] The first issue of El Mono Azul appeared on 27 August 1936,[6][7] a month after the start of the civil war.

[6] The final issue was an independent publication, but was published as part of a literary magazine entitled Cuadernos de Madrid.

[7][8] The 29th issue dated 19 August 1937 featured four poems of Langston Hughes which were translated into Spanish by Rafael Alberti.

[9] Major directors and contributors included José Bergamín, Rafael Dieste, Lorenzo Varela, Miguel Hernández, Vicente Aleixandre, Vicente Huidobro, Luis Cernuda, Antonio Machado, León Felipe, Rosa Chacel, Emilio Prados, Octavio Paz, César Vallejo, Tomás Navarro Tomás, Pablo Neruda, and Ramón J.