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“Tradition and Innovation”: The Nineteenth-Century Dilemma.
Ideological confrontation, violent military intervention in politics, social imbalance, and
the threats of regional secession turned the nineteenth century in Spain into a period of conflict.
Although the Spanish population grew considerably, antiquated industrial means of production and the still near feudal system of land distribution impeded economic and social development. The mass of Spain’s inhabitants continued to live in conditions that contradicted official pronouncements and would not catch up to their European counterparts for at least a century.
A minority of middle class, liberal and progressive men, mostly intellectuals, inherited
the ideas of the ilustrados and, like them, were concerned about the economic and educational
problems of the country. They tried to take political control of the country and set up various
committees to draft model constitutions for Spain. Despite their best efforts, however, they
were never able to bring the country together nor resolve the country’s structural problems. Another two centuries, a fierce civil war and a repressive dictatorship finally resolved some of
these issues.
The Two Spains:
The expression, las dos Españas (the two Spains), refers to the opposition of ideologies
that had polarized the country since the end of the eighteenth century into liberal, progressives
on the one hand and conservative, traditionalists on the other.
Liberal ideology, sustained, on the whole, by the middle class and intellectuals, affirmed
national sovereignty and wanted a parliamentary government with a division of powers entrenched in a Constitution. Despite the drafting of ten different constitutions throughout the century, none lasted for more than ten years.
Conservative ideology, sustained by the landowning classes (the nobility and the clergy)
and, ironically, the landless peasants who were often controlled by their employers, supported
absolute monarchy and refused all changes.
The Carlists - those who supported the right to the throne of Don Carlos, the brother of
Fernando VII, against his daughter Isabel II - were also conservative in their support of absolute
monarchy but they also spoke in favour of regional autonomy, as seen in the fueros since medieval times. This group was responsible for two Carlist wars during the nineteenth century.
Political Labyrinth:
The nineteenth century began with violence when Spain was invaded by Napoleonic
forces under the pretext of securing Portugal that was allied with England against France. This
invasion led to the Spanish War of Independence in which Spanish patriotism was used by the
conservatives against the liberals who were accused of being pro-French (afrancesados) and of
collaborating with the enemy and thereby undermining their own reforms and ideals. In this
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conflictive situation, while Spaniards were fighting against and dying at the hands of France,
others in the Cortes of Cadiz were drafting what they hoped would become the liberal Constitution of 1812, Spain’s first constitution, that was inspired by the values espoused by their enemy. The Constitution of 1812 was said to embrace all the “revolutionary” ideas of France and
America, the most revolutionary of which was the idea that the nobility and the church were to
pay taxes for the first time in Spanish history.
King Carlos IV had let himself be led by Napoleon and his own first minister, Godoy,
whom he named the “Prince of Peace.” Meanwhile his son, the future Fernando VII, was plotting against his father in a successful effort to get him to abdicate in his favour. Because Napoleon preferred the father over the son, once he had Fernando under house arrest in France, he
forced him to return the crown to his father. Carlos then ceded all his powers to Napoleon’s
brother, Joseph Buonaparte - commonly known in Spain as Pepe botellas, because of his alcoholism. The more than 100,000 French soldiers in Spain were a constant reminder to the Spanish people of their subservient condition. On 2 May, 1808, when a rumour circulated that
French soldiers were going to remove the royal children from the Madrid palace, there was a
popular uprising against the foreign soldiers; the leaders were shot by firing squad the following
day. Goya recorded this tragedy in his 3 de mayo o Los fusilamientos en la Moncloa. This was
the symbolic beginning of the Spanish War of Independence, perhaps the first guerrilla war,
which eventually led to the Spanish victory at Bailén where 21,000 French soldiers were killed
or taken prisoner. England came to Spain´s assistance and the French were forced to abandon
Spanish soil. In 1814, Fernando VII returned to Spain after promising that he would abide by
the new constitution. As soon as he was crowned, however, he retracted that promise, repudiated the constitution, abolished the Cortes and repressed liberalism. Bourbon absolutism was
restored to Spain. Although there was some local opposition to him, after 10 years of war, people were prepared to accept any form of government in return for some peace.
Meanwhile, in Spanish America, ideas of separating from Spain acquired considerable
support. There are many reasons that explain this: one was the example of the USA that had
recently achieved independence from Britain; another was the support of Spanish liberals and
Spanish regional separatists for this move; yet another was the governmental vacuum created
during the Spanish War of Independence when little concern was paid to issues in Spanish
America. Most Spanish American countries achieved their independence from Spain between
1810 and 1824.
Losing her colonies bought grave repercussions to Spain. No longer an Empire, Spain
closed in on itself and underwent two Carlist wars and many political coups d’état. There was a
deep economic recession caused by the loss of American markets that had sustained Spanish
industry, and by the loss of precious metals used, especially, for minting the coinage that had
shored up the Spanish economy.
Although Fernando VII married three times, he did not produce an heir. His fourth wife
gave him a daughter. He had to abolish Salic law that forbade a female inheriting the crown of
Spain and, when he died in 1833, he was succeeded by Isabel II. As she was only 3 years old,
her mother reigned as regent. There was much opposition to Isabel II which led to the Carlist
war in which Fernando VII’s brother Carlos Isidro claimed the throne. Eventually the carlistas
were defeated by General Espartero. The queen mother left Spain in 1840 and Espartero suc-
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This portrait of Fernando VII is by Goya. It hangs in the Prado Museum, Madrid. One of the king’s growing
concerns was the progressive liberalism of the army. He constantly visited the military barracks and camps in
an attempt to forestall this.
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ceeded her as Isabel II’s regent until 1843 when, at 13, it was decided that she was old enough
to reign in her own name with the help of another general, General Narváez. Isabel was an unfit
and disinterested queen who allowed the country to be run by a series of military governments
(some 60 in total during her 28 year reign). In 1868 she was declared unsuitable by a group of
generals and she left Spain. This group of generals, that included Miguel Primo de Rivera who
would himself later become a dictator, wanted Spain to be a constitutional monarchy but there
were few available choices for a king, especially given the problems caused a century earlier
when Carlos II turned the Spanish Hapsburg crown over to the Bourbons. They chose Amadeo
of Savoy, the third son of an enlightened Italian king, who was favourably disposed to the constitution. Opposition to this choice led to another civil war but General Serrano vanquished the
carlistas. Amadeo abdicated within three years of coming to Spain. Given that the experiment
in constitutional monarchy had failed, the generals, with a vote of the Cortes, declared the First
Spanish Republic which produced nothing but political and economic chaos. In 1875, Alfonso
XII, the eldest son of Isabel II, returned from France and became king of Spain. He ruled with
the able assistance of a conservative leader, Cánovas, del Castillo, and a liberal leader, Sagasta.
When he died in 1885, King Alfonso XII was succeeded by his wife, Queen María Cristina,
who was to act as regent for her unborn child, the future Alfonso XIII. Spain knew political
peace until 1902 when both Sagasta and Cánovas died.
Until the Restoration period (1875-1902), Spain underwent wars, coups, military pronouncements, revolutions, a regency, two abdications and repeated political changes that threw
the country into deep instability. The Restoration, thanks to Cánovas del Castillo, represented a
period of stability for some but others saw it as regressive. Cánovas del Castillo was a conservative ideologue who created the Constitution of 1876 which proclaimed the sovereignty of the
King with the Cortes and established a system of rotational government between liberals and
conservatives. Thanks to electoral fraud, vote manipulation and pork barreling (called
pucherazo), this system actually worked for a while but did nothing to ameliorate the morality
of Spanish governors.
Although the nineteenth century was a time of progress for Spain when new roads and,
eventually, railroads were built, improving communication and fostering industry and when
education was more widely available, it was also a time of great financial instability, economic
depression, and debt. From 1800 to 1900, the country’s debt increased by 100 percent. Crown
lands were sold to pay some of these debts but there wasn’t a strong market for land at this
time.
The appearance of new countries, such as the USA, further undermined the dying Spanish Empire that now consisted of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo in the Atlantic Ocean
and the Philippines, Guam, the Marianas, Carolinas and Palaos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. By
1898, after the Spanish American War, even they would go. Like earlier Spanish thinkers before them, the “Generation of ‘98" began to question “España como problema,” the role to be
played by Spain in these new circumstances.
Middle Class Society:
Liberal minded men wanted to create a broadly based middle-class made up of small
landowners but, to do so, like the ilustrados before them, they desperately needed agrarian re-
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forms that would free unused lands. This process of expropriation, called desamortización, was
imposed and, by the middle of the century, thanks to the nationalization and public auctioning
of municipal and church properties, and the limits imposed on the rights of the nobility (whom
the government feared to alienate by taking their land), lands did change hands. The results,
however, were disappointing because the land was not bought by landless peasants or city
dwellers, as expected, but by the nobility and the wealthy who were at the root of the problem
to begin with. The reforms impoverished the church, in turn limiting their social welfare role
and further harming the poor.
Education was the other theme which was of interest to the liberals. By mid-century
they imposed a series of uniform and secular criteria to be followed in schools administered by
the state. In an attempt to control the quality of education, only the University of Madrid was
permitted to grant the degree of Doctor.
The population grew from 10.5 million to 18.5 million inhabitants during the nineteenth
century. The greatest growth was in the urban middle class. Madrid and Barcelona surpassed
half a million inhabitants. As in other European cities at this time, new suburbs were built to
accommodate this growth, thereby changing the street-scapes that were once dominated by
mansions and palaces or slums.
The Industrial Revolution was late in reaching Spain. Because of the availability of coal
and the existence of natural ports, industry in Spain was first established in Cataluña and in the
Basque region. Although never extensive, industry did produce, as in other European countries,
a new class of industrial and salaried workers. The upper middle class - the engine of progress
and social change - was reluctant to grant to these workers the same political and labour rights
that they had earlier lobbied for themselves. Faced with such opposition, the workers soon organized into trade unions that supported anarchist or socialist ideologies.
The loss of her colonies and subsequent loss of markets put Spain’s industries in difficulty. Catalan and Basque industrialists accused the central government of inefficiency and
joined forces with the Carlists in an attempt to replace the government. After the loss of the
Second Carlist War, they lowered their expectations and concentrated on successfully influencing regional, rather than national, governments. They found allies in those who espoused romantic ideas that emphasized local regionalism and fought for the restoration of regional languages and cultures. These demands appeared in many of the regional constitutions drafted in
the 1880s that called for separation from the central government. The Partido Nacionalista
Vasco -PNV (National Basque Party) was formed in 1906 and still exists today as a separatist
force that does not disallow the use of force as a means to achieve power. The defense of regionalism in Cataluña would eventually also become a rallying cry to political action.
Romanticism:
Romanticism was more than a literary style, it was a way of life, a world vision that responded to the emotions. Romanticism rejected the rationalism of earlier times and insisted on
the importance of the individual. Romanticism was essentially a rebellion against all norms and
regulations.
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Some aspects of Romanticism were useful to those who wanted to emphasize regionalism, to dream nostalgically of past times, of exoticism, of fantasy. The Middle Ages were of
great interest to many European and Spanish romantics because it fulfilled their dreams of past
heroes, of past glories, of exotic medieval palaces and Hispano-Arabic mosques, of veiled
women, of lonely plains of unconquered lands. Authors such as Théophile Gautier, Henri
Merimée, Ravel, Byron, Washington Irving, Richard Ford, etc. wrote anecdotally and superficially about the people and the customs of Spain, usually with no regard to historical accuracy.
They - and many Spanish authors as well - are responsible for la España de pandereta, (the
Spain of the tambourine), of romantic hoarse voiced singers, of gypsies, of bullfighters and bandits. In Las cosas de España -The Things of Spain, Richard Ford.said:
The Spaniards’ interest in dancing is as unchanging as the instruments they play;
according to the historians, three thousand years ago, they sang and danced all night, or
rather, they screamed and jumped and, far from tiring, they find it restful.
Romantic Poetry:
Intimacy, imagination, colours, freedom are all romantic themes that were of interest to
all romantics. Freedom also implied freedom of style and the romantics willingly freed their
poetic style from the rigidity of neoclassicism.
José de Espronceda was the first great Spanish romantic poet. His work is lyrical, emotional, symbolic and transcendent. His work summarizes all the conceptual, and formal characteristics of the new style. He is known for his long narrative poem, El diablo mundo (The Devil
World) which tells us about the life of a “new” man, Adán, who appears on the streets of the
city unclothed, with no identity and also without the prejudices of his time. In a society that
cannot accept difference, he is jailed but eventually he is saved by the love of his jailer’s daughter. Adán is the quintessential romantic hero. Espronceda’s other well known work is the
shorter poem, Canción del Pirata (The Pirate’s Song) where the refrain glorifies the unfettered
life of the traveler adventurer:
“Sail on, swift bark, at my command,
So brave and bold,
No warship by your foemen manned,
Nor storm, nor calm, nor any force
Shall turn you from your chosen course
Nor daunt your hardy soul.
The interest in medieval topics led to a reconsideration of the epic. Many romancero
texts were collected and published at this time by avid collectors who wandered the villages of
Spain listening and recording the songs and poems drawn from collective memories. José de
Zorrilla,who was also a dramatist, Rosalía de Castro and Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer are the best
known poets of this time.
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Gustavo Adolfo Béquer (1836-1870) was not a prolific writer but his poetry reveals the
care he put into his refined and emotional verses. He was as attentive to every single word as he
was to the musicality of his lines. His favourite themes are deeply romantic: solitude, love and
despair:
By its master perhaps forgotten,
Standing in a corner dark,
Covered with dust and silent,
One could see a harp.
How many notes lay there sleeping
In its strings like a nested bird,
Awaiting a skilled white hand to play it
In order to be heard!
Oh I thought; how often genius
Sleeping thus, in soul, lies,
Awaiting, like Lazarus, a voice
To command it “Arise!”
Satire of the romantic suicide caused by love by Leonardo Alenza. This hangs in the Museo Romántico in Madrid.
Alenza’s sarcastic caricature of the excesses of love is a caricature of Romanticism. Despite his venom, Alenza,
perhaps without realizing it, was also a romantic.
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Bécquer also wrote some prose Leyendas (Legends) in which he returns to the Middle Ages for
elements of mystery, magic and fantasy:
Closing her eyes, she tried to sleep ...; her efforts were in vain. Soon she
sat up, more pale, more worried, more terrified. It was no longer an illusion; the
brocade hangings over the door had separated and slow steps on the carpet could
be heard; the sound of those steps was silent, nearly imperceptible but they continued and, at the same time, there was a sort of creaking sound like wood or
bone. And they came closer moving the prayer stool that was beside her bed.
Beatriz screamed, clutching the bedclothes that covered her, she hid her head and
held her breath. (From: Leyendas: El monte de las ánimas - Legends: The Hill of
Souls -Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer)
Chimney pots of the Casa Milá built by Antonio Gaudí in Barcelona seem nearly geological
thanks to their shape and the mosaics used to cover them. In the background are the twin towers
of the Sagrada Familia Cathedral of the Holy Family.
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Rosalía de Castro (1837-1883) was, according to Azorín, a later Spanish poet, one of
the most delicate, intense and original romantic poets. In En las orillas del Sar (On the Shores
of the Sar) she revives some of her native Galician themes to share the deep melancholy, the
saudade, of this land. Rosalía de Castro was also an innovative poet who tried new metric
rhythms that would interest later modernista authors. As part of the revival in regionalism,
Rosalía de Castro wrote in Galician as well as Spanish:
By the River Sea
Through the evergreen
I hear strange whispers,
and amidst a wavy green oceanthe loving mansion of birdsI see from my window
the temple I dearly loved.
The temple I dearly loved…
for I do know if I love it still,
since my turbulent thoughts
war without a truceI doubt that love can live
as long as rancor fills my soul.
Satirical and Costumbrista Prose:
The prose of the transplanted Englishman, J. M. Blanco White, whose work spanned
both the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, provides the best example of satirical prose.
To quote the modern Spanish novelist and literary critic, Juan Goytisolo, Blanco White’s work
was “the most vivid and fresh, perceptive and profound document that we have today to judge
Spain and Spaniards of the nineteenth century.” In Cartas desde España - Letters from Spain,
J.M. Blanco White wrote:
No matter what the feelings that created it, in Spain there is a form of crusade against
the fair sex, that our priests incessantly maintain, and have done so at all times, although
not always with the same vigour, except for those who have secretly been won over to
the enemy’s cause. The main goal of the controversy is the right claimed by the clergy
to regulate ladies’ clothing and thereby prevent the development of the arts of seduction that might endanger the peace of the Church
Mariano José de Larra was as much a journalist as a creator of prose costumbrista articles that reveal the everyday life of early nineteenth-century Spaniards. He was a social critic
along the lines of Cadalso and Blanco White and had considerable influence on the future
“regenerationists” and members of the Generation of ‘98 who sought to understand their world
and Spain’s place in it. Some of the short stories by Larra are simply amusing and harmless as
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they describe personal, or even national foibles, whereas in others the irony leads to tragic endings. Larra satirizes Spaniards in Vuelva usted mañana - Come back tomorrow:
You must realize that this is not your country where you can be active and hard
working.
-Oh! Spaniards who have traveled abroad have acquired the habit of always speaking poorly about their country so as to appear superior to their compatriots.
-I assure you that you will not be able to speak to anyone whose cooperation you
require within fifteen days.
-What hyperbole! I will be able to tell anyone about my activities.
-And everyone will communicate their inertia to you.
I realized that Mr. Sans-Delai (Without Delay in French) was only ready to be convinced by his own experience, so I shut up for a while, because I was certain that
the facts would speak for me ...
Romanticism on Stage:
Romantic playwrights soundly rejected the norms of the neoclassical stage. They chose
epic, historical themes and returned to the Siglo de Oro for some of their subject matter. Although they claimed to only seek amusement for their audience, their didacticism is apparent.
Romanticism first hit the Spanish stage when Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino (Don Álvaro or the Force of Destiny) by Angel Saavedra, the Duke of Rivas, was presented in 1837. In
this play, the impossible love of Don Álvaro, a Spanish American of mixed blood, for Leonor,
the only daughter of the Master of the Order of Calatrava, is tested against his heritage, his destiny, and the deaths of her father and three brothers at his hands as he tries to defend his honour.
This play caused great scandal when it was staged because the solution is the double suicide of
the hero and heroine rather than face lives apart.
José Zorrilla’s poetry and drama are the best Spanish Romanticism can offer. As a playwright, Zorrilla brings his unlimited imagination to topics and situations already dealt with in
Baroque drama. This is the case in his El puñal del godo (The Visigoth Dagger) where he revisits the legend that the Muslim invasion was caused by the traitorous love of Rodrigo, the last
Visigoth monarch, for Florinda la Cava. More especially, Zorrilla’s mythic Don Juan Tenorio, a
continuation of Tirso de Molina’s El burlador de Sevilla (The Jokester of Seville), is the best
known romantic drama in Spain. It continues to be staged every year on All Souls’ Day. In Zorrilla’s play, the violent libertine, Don Juan, comes to know the meaning of real love in Doňa
Inés but, when his past actions, society’s rules and her father’s arrogance prevent them from
marrying, and to save their souls, Don Juan must accept the concept of divine love and forgiveness. Mozart later revived the story in his opera, Don Giovanni.
In music the same trends prevail as in literature. Popular Spanish music becomes international in the romantic period thanks to composers such as Ravel, Chabrier, Korsakov, etc.,
while, at the same time, Italian and French influence is felt by Spanish composers. The zarzuela, which had nearly disappeared, is reborn as part of the romantic interest in costumbrismo.
Three act productions will be produced by some composers such as Arieta, Caballero, Chueca,
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Chapi, Jiménez and, especially Bretón de los Herreros but the shorter, one act zarzuela, called
género chico (smaller genre), grew in popularity. By the end of the century, as in literature,
there was a “second Siglo de Oro” in music, especially music based on popular themes such as
Granados’ romantic Danzas españolas and Zambra, and the work of Manuel de Falla.
Realism:
Romantic excess that distanced it from reality led, by mid-century, to another way of
looking at the world. Authors abandoned verbal exaggeration and emotionalism for a more serene representation that could best be expressed in the novel, a genre that had practically been
abandoned since the Siglo de Oro. This new approach was first seen in the novels and costumbrista articles by one of Spain’s great female novelists, Fernán Caballero, whose real name was
Cecilia Böhl de Faber. As the daughter and then wife and widow of highly placed men, she had
access to the upper ranks of Andalusian society which she sought to describe in a nearly journalistic or anthropological manner. Her best novel, La gaviota (The Seagull), tells the story of a
peasant girl who is lured away from her community and the man who loves her, to Seville and
then Madrid, by an upper class noble man who wants to help her reach the concert halls her
beautiful voice deserves. She cannot handle the effects of fame and eventually returns to her
village a broken woman. Cecilia Böhl de Faber was able to earn a living for herself thanks to
her skill as observer and chronicler of her world.
Later realists will be more interventionists, trying not only to describe their reality but to
suggest ways in which it might be improved. Thanks to their work, the novel as a genre became
more popular than ever before. This popularity was aided, as we saw earlier, by the increase in
literacy, especially among women, and the increasing number of newspapers and magazines
which published the novels as weekly or monthly serials, thereby putting books of all sorts
within the financial reach of a new class of readers.
Juan Valera (1824-1905) was a literary critic as well as novelist. His prose fiction is
characterized by the careful study of his characters’ psychology. In his Pepita Jiménez, for example, by the exchange of letters, we come to know the brilliant young woman and her lover
who must chose between her and his calling to be a priest:
The beauty of that woman, as I now see her, will disappear in a few brief years: that
elegant body, those slim curves, that noble head that sits so gently on her shoulders,
will all become food for disgusting worms; but even if the body must change,
who will destroy the form, the artistic thoughts, beauty itself? Is that not within the
realm of the divine? Now that I have come to know it, will it not live in my soul, victorious over age and death? ... I wanted and at the same did not want the others to
arrive. I was happy and unhappy to be alone with that woman. (Pepita Jiménez,
Juan Valera.)
Benito Pérez Galdós (1843-1920), one of the greatest Spanish novelists of all time and
second only to Cervantes, took a political and ethical stance in his novels, denouncing Restoration policies and studying the social behaviour of his fellow Spaniards in novels such as Fortunata y Jacinta where the protagonists represent two classes of Spanish women both in love with
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the same man, and Doña Perfecta in which Pepe Rey, a young, progressive, recent engineering
graduate comes into conflict with the elderly, conservative and overly religious Perfecta. To
preserve her authority in the village and over her daughter whom Pepe loves, Perfecta has him
murdered.
The historical novel was a popular genre in the nineteenth century, with authors such as
Fernández y González and Mora who wrote lengthy novels based on medieval Spanish history
recorded in the epic. Galdós, in his multi volume Episodios nacionales (National Episodes)
combined Spain’s modern history, from the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, to his own days. Galdós
was also a working journalist and reported on many current events, especially criminal cases in
which his interest and considerable expertise in clinical psychology can be seen.
Tejedora -The Weaver, by Planella. The Industrial Revolution and the exploitation of child labour reached realist painting as well as literature.
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Although realist drama was written, even by Galdós who adapted some of his own novels to the stage, it could not come close to the quality seen in prose. The Spanish realist playwright José de Echegaray won the Noble Prize for literature in 1904, the first in a long list of
other Spanish and Spanish-American recipients of this prize.
Naturalism:
By the end of the century, and greatly influenced by French writers such as Emile Zola,
Spanish realism evolved into a peculiar form of naturalism that was an amalgam of nearly biological, scientific realism and social idealism. Emilia Pardo Bazán, as a novelist as well as literary and social critic, best expressed the meaning of naturalism and incorporated it into her novels, such as Los pasos de Ulloa. Here a frightened young priest, who believes in the perfectability of mankind and the idea of progress, comes into contact with a violent and barbaric nobleman who mistreats his young wife and is well suited to the isolated, nearly medieval, rural society that was not the pastoral paradise the priest expected. Emilia Pardo Bazán was a precursor
to women’s rights in Spain; she eventually became a university professor and a member of the
Royal Spanish Academy.
Leopoldo Alas (1852-1901), who wrote under the pseudonym Clarín, is the most representative of Spanish naturalist novelists. Like Galdós, his liberalism led him to criticize severely
Restoration society. His best novel, La Regenta (The Regent) is a superb portrayal of a provincial city and the effects of its oppressive environment on the heroine, Ana Ozores:
Even before she wanted, Ana felt her fingers entwined in those of the
tempting enemy ...Under the fine leather of her gloves, the feeling was softer yet
harsher. Ana felt it like a cold and vibrant current in her stomach, right beneath
her chest. Her ears were ringing, the dance that had been repellent was now festive, new, unknown, of irresistible beauty and diabolic seduction. She was afraid
she might faint ... and, without knowing how, she saw herself on Mesia’s arm ...
and among the swirl of brightly coloured skirts and black clothing, hearing at a
distance the sound of the violins and the squeals of the brass instruments that
sounded like voluptuous music to her, she understood that she was being dragged
from the room. (La Regenta -The Regent, Leopoldo Alas.)
Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’ La barraca (The Shack) chronicles the life of a landless peasant
family who occupy some vacant land and a shack but, in doing so, come into tragic conflict
with other workers and the deeply held traditions of those who live in the countryside near Valencia.
The Rebirth of Catalan and Galician literature:
Castilian was the official state language throughout Spain since the Renaissance. Minority languages such as Catalan, Basque and Galician that had fallen into disuse recovered their
importance in the nineteenth century as symbols of regional nationalism.
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In Catalan this rebirth is known as the
renaixenca and began with the publication in
1833 of Carlos Aribau’s Oda a la Patria
(Ode to the Nation) and ended with Jacinto
Verdaguer’s poem La Atlántida and Canigó.
In Galicia the same spirit of rebirth,
known as the rexurdimiento, began with the
publication in 1822 of Nicomedes Pastor’s
poem Alborada (Dawn Song) and the poetry
by Rosalía de Castro, Eduardo Pondal and
Curros Enríquez.
In the Basque regions there was a
similar revival in the use of the language
both in poetry and in journalism.
Portrait of Santiago Ramón y Cajal. It now hangs in
the Madrid Atheneo. His work in histology earned
him a Nobel Prize in 1906 and brought Spanish
science to the notice of the world.
Testamento de Isabel la Católica - The Will of Isabel the Catholic Queen by Rosales. It
now hangs in the Casón del Buen Retiro, Museo del Prado, Madrid. Painting historical
themes with a narrative element allows us to ‘see’ how others ‘saw’ other times.
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Krausism and the Institución Libre de Enseñanza:
The philosophy of the German philosopher Krause greatly influenced Julián Sanz del
Río in his El ideal de la humanidad (The Ideal of Humanity) where he proposed a renewal of
society through the harmonious development of human relations. In this way, krausism, as a
progressive, rational and liberal philosophy reached Spain. It was also a reaction against the
prevailing conservatism of the country. In 1876, the krausists opened the Institución Libre de
Enseñanza (The Free Institute of Learning) which was to be on the vanguard of education, promoting great cultural advances and training most of Spain’s early twentieth-century intellectuals. The Institución was heir to the ideals and spirit of the eighteenth-century ilustrados and all
those who wanted to turn liberalism into an instrument of secular culture and civilization.
Progressive Politics:
The First Spanish Republic, under the leadership of its first president Francisco Pi y
Margall (1824-1901), created serious political programs although regional factionalism soon
destroyed this political experiment.
Pi y Margall advanced the idea of a system of values based on freedom and respect for
the law. He tried to resolve Spain’s problems by combining socialism and anarchism with the
idea of federalism. He thought that federalism was the only way to avoid the regional conflicts
that were beginning to tear Spain apart. He also advanced the idea of an Iberian Union that
would include Portugal and - well ahead of his time - he theorized about the possibility of a
European Union. In a speech he gave on 12 February 1875 to the Spanish Cortes he said:
We are federal republicans; we believe that federalism is the solution to the problem
of human autonomy; we believe that federation will today bring peace to Spain and
later to all of Europe; but we also understand that we must all sacrifice some of our
ideas without prejudice so that tomorrow the Parliament will decide on the shape of
the Republic.
Fin de Siècle ‘Regeneration.’
Spanish society had great difficulty adapting to the many changes that appeared in this
century. The same problems that intellectuals had been pondering since the Siglo de Oro continued to plague Spain. Some had tried but failed to resolve these issues by relying on traditional
solutions and values. Another group of intellectuals - called regeneracionistas
(regenerationists) - acting as the conscience of the country, suggested that the answer might be
in the rejection of traditions that were impeding original ideas. Joaquin Costa, for example, insisted that social reforms were needed before politics could follow. He demanded metaphorically that the venerable and legendary figure of El Cid be put to rest in his grave and that the
grave be sealed with a double padlock so that Spaniards not be tempted to resurrect the ideas of
Spain’s past glories that were now a thousand years old. Costa’s idea did not reach fertile soil
because many later authors continued to reflect on the heroic figure and try to find answers in
him and in his example. In any event, there were other much more pernicious legends that had
to be put to rest such as the fertility of Spain’s soil and the pleasures of its climate, that stood in
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the way of a serious consideration about why Spain was underdeveloped when compared with
other European countries. Some politicians suggested that the problems that beset Spain were
the inequitable distribution of land, electoral abuses seen in the system of caciquismo, public
immorality, and the lack of desperately needed agrarian, hydraulic and forestry reforms. Most
were convinced that drastic changes were needed to set Spain right. Lucas Mallada in Los males
de la Patria -The Ills of the Nation - explains that:
In a country such as ours, where the rivers must spill their waters forcibly from great
heights; in such a sad country like ours, where the lament over floods drowns out the
pain of droughts and where the burning sun follows torrential rains that destroy everything in their path; in a country as unhappy as ours where thousands of square
kilometers are totally abandoned, abandoned by those who have emigrated and by
those of us who still live here but who fail to reforest. The rivers run over their banks
through fields where no one has bothered to prevent erosion.
Despite these nearly insurmountable ills, Spain continued to produce men of letters and
scientists of international stature. Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, a conservative intellectual,
was a great historian, and literary critic whose books are still vital today. He was responsible for
the training of many other intellectuals who, together, will form a ‘second Siglo de Oro’ such as
Ramón Meneéndez Pidal, also a historian, literary critic and linguist. In the new art of cinema,
Segundo Chomón was the first to add colour to film and other technical improvements to
comic strips and special effects. In the physical sciences Spain also excelled: Jaime Ferrán discovered a vaccine for cholera; Torres Quevedo produced calculating machines; Eduardo Torroja made great advances in geometry; Isaac Peral improved on Monturiol’s submersible; and
Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who received the 1906 Nobel Prize for Medicine, created the field of
modern histology and did research on the nervous system.
New Art For a New Society:
Until the nineteenth century, art was nearly always intended for and dependent upon the
tastes of the king, the church or the nobility who paid and protected artists. The middle class
now became interested in art and turned it into a product of consumption. Nineteenth-century
architects, on the whole, continued to follow neoclassical precepts. Some, like the romantic
writers, were interested in neo-medievalism while others, the so called modernistas or vanguardistas, tried to experiment creatively and imaginatively with form and materials. The modernista architect Antonio Gaudí (1852-1926) was the most adventuresome of these builders.
Relying on expressive forms and a sort of neo-gothicism, Gaudí tried to imitate nature in his
abundant decoration. One of his best creations is the Parque Güell (the Güell Park) in Barcelona where he also built the Casa Milá (Mila House) with its undulating facade and curious
chimney pots, and the forever unfinished Sagrada Familia (the Cathedral of the Holy Family)
that is a combination of Gothic and Baroque style covered by decorative sculpture that is nearly
organic.
Sculptors at the beginning of the century were hesitant about continuing with neoclassical forms; there was some return to the traditional polychromatic wooden figures and some fantastic imagery drawn from romanticism also appeared. Later in the century, with modernism,
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their imagination is more free and leads to abstract sculptures.
Painting remains neoclassical at the beginning of the century and then follows the trend
to romanticism, costumbrismo and historicism. Esquivel’s painting Los poetas contemporáneos
o Una lectura de Zorrilla en el taller del pintor - Contemporary Poets or A Reading by Zorrilla
in the Painter’s Workshop, for example, is a good example of academic classicism, while
Alenza in his Satire of the romantic suicide caused by love follows in Goya’s steps. Others,
such as Fortuny, Casado del Alisal, Gisbert and Rosales paint historical themes. Later, the naturalistas will firmly reject the, in their opinion, bourgeois themes and provide clear denunciations of a capitalistic and industrial society, as seen in Planella’s Tejedora—The Weaver.
Through their use of tremendismo they brought the most negative aspects of Restoration society
to the attention of Spain.
Chronology:
1805: The Spanish Armada is defeated at Trafalgar, leaving the Spanish colonies without supplies.
1807: In the Treaty of Fontainebleu Spain and France plan for the annexation of Portugal. The
French army enters Spain with the pretext that they are going to Portugal. The Aranjuez
mutiny. According to the Bayonne abdications, Napoleon replaces the Bourbon dynasty
with his brother. On 2 May the people of Madrid rise up against the French and the
Spanish War of Independence begins. It will last until 1814.
1812: The Parliament of Cadiz promulgates the liberal constitution that includes middle class
political hopes.
1813: The Parliament of Cadiz suppresses the Inquisition and all Military Orders.
1814: Fernando VII returns from exile and rejects the Constitution of 1812. Goya paints Fusilamientos de la Moncloa
1819: Goya paints La última comunión de San José de Calasanz (The Last Communion of St.
Joseph of Calasanz) and begins the “black paintings.”
1820: The rights of first born sons (mayorazgos) are repealed by the Ley de desvinculaciones.
1823: Reactionary Europeans send the “100,000 Sons of St. Louis” to fight against Napoleon
in Spain. This supports Fernando VII’s claims against the liberals.
1810-1824: Most of the Spanish American colonies have acquired their independence from
Spain.
1828: Goya dies.
1833: Fernando VII dies; Isabel II becomes the Queen of Spain with her mother as regent. The
First Carlist War begins.
1834: The Inquisition is finally suppressed after Fernando VII reinstated it. The Royal Statute
grants more powers to the monarch than the Constitution of 1812 had provided for.
Saavedra publishes El moro expósito (The Abandoned Moor) and stages the Conjuración
de Venecia (The Conjuring of Venice).
1836: The rights of sheep-owners (La Mesta) are suppressed and the expropriation of clerical
land begins. A new liberal constitution is approved because of the complaints that led to
the military mutiny at La Granja.
1837: Saavedra stages Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino.
1840: Espronceda publishes El diablo mundo (The Devil World).
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1846: Esquivel paints Los poetas contemporáneos o Lectura de Zorrilla en el taller del pintor.
1848: The first train travel in Spain, between Barcelona and Martorell.
1855: Madoz’ plans for expropriations are put into effect.
1857: Claudio Moyano’s Ley de instrucción pública (Law For Public Education) is approved.
1863: Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares gallegos (Galician Songs).
1868: Revolutionary triumph. Isabel II must leave Spain. Sanz del Río publishes Lecciones sobre la filosofía analítica de Krause (Lessons on Krause’s Analytical Philosophy).
1869: The most advanced and democratic constitution of the century is promulgated. Universal
male suffrage is recognized.
1871: Amadeo of Savoy becomes King of Spain.
1873: Amadeo abdicates. The First Republic begins with a plan to organize the country along
federal lines. Pérez Galdós begins the publication of the Episodios nacionales.
1874: The Bourbon dynasty returns to rule Spain. Alfonso XII, son of Isabel II, becomes the
King of Spain.
1876: The Institución Libre de Enseñanza is started.
1877: Rebirth of Catalan literature when Verdaguer wins the Jocs Florals prize for La Atlántida.
1879: Pablo Iglesias starts the Partido Socialista Obrero Español PSOE (Spanish Socialist
Workers’ Party) which will eventually come to power in 1982 under the leadership of
Felipe González.
1882: Antonio Gaudí begins work on the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona.
1884: Leopoldo Alas published La Regenta.
1888: The Unión General de Trabajadores UGT (General Union of Workers) is formed.
1897: Angel Ganivet publishes Idearium español (Spanish Ideas).
1898: Spain loses the Spanish American War and the last vestiges of its Empire. Blasco Ibáñez
publishes La barraca (The Shack).
Themes for Review and Discussion:
1. Explain how literature shows us the many changes that occurred in Spain at this time. Compare and contrast the ideas of various authors.
2. Analyze the political, economic, cultural, and social problems Spain faced in the nineteenth
century.
3. What is meant by the expression “the Spain of the tambourine”? Why was this a problem?
4. Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of two party politics as seen in Spain at this time.
5. What were the main characteristics of Spanish Romanticism?
6. Explain how nineteenth-century Spain broke from, or was true to, Spanish tradition.
7. What salient events of the nineteenth century still have repercussions today?
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Bibliography:
Bassegoda Nonell, J. The Designs and Drawings of Gaudi.
Carr, R. Spain 1808-1939
Clarke, H. B. Modern Spain, 1815-1898
Callaghan, W. The Catholic Church in Spain, 1875-1998
Kirkpatrick, S. Las románticas: Women Writers and Subjectivity in Spain, 1835-1850
Sweeney, J. Atoni Gaudi