U N C U R S O D E F IL O S O F ÍA P R Á C T IC A : GALDÓS’S
ASSESSMENT OF SPANISH COLONIAL HISTORY
M ary L. Coffey
The historical scope and extensive details o f everyday life that characterize Benito
Pérez G aldós’s fiction are rich sources o f information about nineteenth-century Spanish
society. The author’s historical and realist narratives chronicle the establishm ent o f the
middle class early in the nineteenth century, its political fortunes from the reigns o f Charles
IV to A lfonso XIII, and its ultimate failure to solve vexing social and political problems
during the years o f the Restoration. The issues addressed at first glance seem to relate
exclusively to the m etropolis, to events within Spain’s peninsular borders. Indeed, Galdós
tends to avoid direct references to Spain’s colonial history, particularly in his early historical
novels. N onetheless, the century that Galdós so carefully chronicled in both the Episodios
nacionales and the novelas contemporáneas w as framed by significant historical moments
o f territorial loss for the Spanish colonial empire, first much o f the Am ericas in the early
decades o f the century, then the remaining Caribbean and Pacific colonies at century’s end.
With the events o f 1898, Galdós and the Spanish public w ere forced to accept that
Spain w as no longer a colonial pow er nor a significant force in w orld politics. Many
historians and writers have considered Spain’s defeat in the Spanish-American War as a
definitive m om ent o f national trauma. I w ould point out, however, that public attitudes
relative to colonial loss and the end o f empire took shape and developed throughout the
century, beginning w ith the initial imperial losses in the 1820s and culminating with 1898,
and that these attitudes played an important part in attempts to establish a shared sense o f
national identity. In fact much o f nineteenth-century Spanish literature offers evidence that
its producers and consumers were involved with a process o f com ing to terms, slow ly yet
steadily, with the nation’s colonial history even as they struggled to construct a definition
o f Spain as a nation.
G aldós’s n ovels in particular prove fertile ground for exam ining late-nineteenthcentury responses to Spam ’s colonial history. The author’s narratives evidence a trajectory
o f opinion that surely influenced his readers, even as it w as itself influenced b y historical
and biographical factors. Although his references to Spanish colonialism rarely rise to the
level o f main plots and central characters, the author fills out his fiction’s broad portrait o f
Spanish society by using subplots and secondary characters w ith imperial connections. To
date, only a few scholars have looked clo sely at G aldós’s representations o f colonial
experience (Bly, Martinez, D elgado). John Sinnigen’s Sexo y política: lecturas galdosianas
certainly constitutes an important step toward understanding the connections between class,
gender and em pire in G aldosian fiction. N onetheless, an in-depth analysis o f G aldós’s
attitudes toward Spanish colonialism , particularly before 1898, has not yet appeared, largely
because textual references are oblique and can easily be overlooked.
A paucity o f critical attention notwithstanding, G aldós’s fiction from the 1870s and
1880s reveals a com plicated process o f accepting Spanish colonialism as an essential part
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o f Spanish history. In the 1870s, the early years o f his literary career, the author demonstrates
a noticeable reticence regarding the inclusion o f colonial issues in the Episodios nacionales
that address the years o f American territorial loss. B y the 1880s, w hen Galdós writes novels
placed w ithin his ow n contemporary m ilieu, however, the references to colonial space and
to Spain’s colonial legacy becom e more frequent and pointed. This study does not focus on
G aldós’s work immediately before and after 1898, in part because so m any writers at the
tim e felt com pelled to com m ent on the events o f that year, but m ostly because G aldós’s
later work reveals changes in representational strategy rather than a significant reformulation
o f opinion, a topic I com m ent upon in m y conclusions but w hich is m ore appropriately the
focus o f a separate article. I have also chosen to analyze certain n ovels, without attempting
to include all that contain colonial references, in order to present exam ples that best illustrate
the essential parameters o f G aldós’s view s about Spanish colonialism and its relationship
to life in the m etropolis.
In addition to referencing sp ecific historical and biographical information, this
analysis em ploys the framework o f several theorists w hose work has profoundly influenced
the w ay w e currently understand metropolitan and colonial relations. In Culture and
Imperialism, Edward Said has made the argument, now alm ost universally accepted, that
“em pire functions for m uch o f the nineteenth century as a codified, i f on ly m arginally
v isib le, presence in fiction” (63). Equally relevant are B enedict A nderson’s theories
regarding the necessity o f an im agined community in the process o f creating the shared
concepts o f nation and nationalism. Both theorists focus on the importance o f print culture
and its often hegem onic strategies for supplying national narratives to a nascent reading
public, and as Sim on During has noted, “it is becom ing a com m onplace that the institution
o f literature works to nationalist ends” (138). A ccordingly, to note that G aldós’s fiction
participates in the cultural process o f nation building in nineteenth-century Spain is not in
itself new; but this study show s how he uses references to Spanish colonialism to explore
the perceived obstacles to a successful establishment o f national identity.
The plots, subplots and characters with a connection to Spanish colonialism tell us
m uch about how G aldós perceived his nation’s colonial legacy. B y including these
references in h is n ovels, G aldós clearly participated in the creation o f an im agined
com m unity o f Spaniards, w ho as readers o f his very popular fictions tacitly accepted the
author’s view s and internalized them in their ow n process o f defining the nation in a tim e
o f dim inished international standing. D iane U rey has convincingly demonstrated how
Galdós m olded his readership through his w idely read historical fiction, underscoring the
importance o f this bond between the author and public. U rey’s insights help highlight the
link betw een literature and the process o f nation building through the creation o f an
im agined community. Galdós’s historical and realist n ovels were not only a product o f print
capitalism , a phenom enon that Anderson identifies as a building block for national
consciousness (37), they w ere also narratives w hose very intent w as to present for public
consumption a palatable version o f national history.
Biographically speaking, Galdós had com pelling personal reasons to be aware o f the
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practical realities o f colonialism and the transatlantic exchange o f good s and labor. A s a
child in the Canary Islands he w as certainly witness to the daily maritime traffic between
the A m ericas and Spain. E ven m ore important for purposes o f this argument, G aldós’s
immediate fam ily had extensive personal connections to Spain’s colonial empire. G aldós’s
maternal uncles, José Maria, Ignacio, Pedro and M anuel, all traveled to the Americas as
lawyers, soldiers and clerics. José Maria in particular had a long history as an administrator
in Cuba, never returning to Las Palmas (Ortiz Arm engol 50). Galdós saw m any o f his ow n
siblings emigrate to America, m ost notably his oldest brother, Dom ingo, w ho left the Canary
Islands in 1847 for a military post in Cuba. H e returned to Las Palmas a few years later
with a Cuban-born w ife and sufficient funds to build the fam ily home, now the Casa-Museo
Pérez Galdós (Ortíz-Armengol 90). D om ingo’s w ife, Magdalena Hurtado de Mendoza, gave
young B enito em otional and financial support, encouraging him to study in Madrid. Her
brother, also b om in Cuba, eventually married B en ito’s sister Carmen, and their child
became Benito’s principle caretaker in the author’s final years. In an interesting genealogical
wrinkle, B enito’s uncle José Maria had an illegitim ate daughter with M agdalena’s mother,
Adriana Tate, herself b om in South Carolina to a Scottish ship captain w hose parents had
emigrated to Florida in the late eighteenth century. In short, the links betw een the Galdós
fam ily, the Hurtado de M endozas and colonial Spain w ere com plex and stretched back
several generations.
G aldós’s decision in the 1870s to spend summers in Santander also increased his
awareness o f the m any connections betw een the m etropolis and its former colonies
(Madariaga 15). A t the tim e, Santander w as a significant port city for traffic betw een Spain
and the A m ericas, w ith ships frequently traveling to Havana, Valparaiso, M ontevideo,
Buenos A ires and R io de Janeiro. The m any announcements o f transatlantic traffic in local
papers kept the author inform ed o f the connections betw een peninsular Spain and the
American territories. A s a result, w e might expect to see quite a number o f references to
colonial matters in the author’s novels, but this is not the case in the first and second series
o f Episodios nacionales, works that address historical events during the very years in which
the independence m ovem ents in the Am ericas gained sufficient strength to prevail over
Spain.
The noted historian M ichael Costeloe, in his study o f peninsular Spain’s response to
colonial revolution, claim s that Galdós “m akes only passing and superficial reference to
the wars in America, and permits his characters almost no opinions on what Spaniards felt
about the loss o f empire” (2). I f w e accept this evaluation as true, w e m ust ask w hy the
writer avoided this aspect o f early nineteenth-century Spanish history and h ow such
avoidance affected h is fictional portrayal o f Spain in h is ow n period. For a n ovelist w ho
initially supported Spain’s liberal bourgeois ideology with fervor and w ho later becam e one
o f its staunchest critics, Galdós w as in a unique position to com m ent on what the colonies
meant for the nation’s urban m iddle class. The situation merits closer scrutiny and reveals
a com plicated picture o f Spanish response to colonial loss.
Galdós experienced h is earliest literary su ccess w ith the first series o f Episodios
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nacionales, ten historical n ovels written betw een 1873 and 1875. They narrate the
adventures o f a young Spaniard w ho participates in the 1805 battle o f Trafalgar against the
British and later w itnesses k ey events o f the 1808-1814 War o f Independence against
N apoleon. The second series o f Episodios, written soon after, narrates events occurring
betw een 1813, w hen the war ended and Fernando VII regained the throne, and 1833, the
year o f the king’s death. This span o f years, from 1804 to 1833, represents a crucial period
in terms o f the nation’s first and m ost significant historical loss o f colonial territory. A s one
historian has noted, “The loss o f America w as a stunning econom ic b low to Spain, leading
to continued national penury in the nineteenth century” (Anna 293). Yet the first series o f
Episodios rem ains surprisingly mute on the grow ing threat, and the second m akes only
oblique references to colonial loss, without exploring its effects o n the nation. On the
surface, C osteloe’s claims appear to be justified. Nevertheless, details in the Episodios reveal
that the author’s references were far from superficial.
The lack o f direct references in the first series, and in particular the n ovel Cádiz,
w hich sets forth the events surrounding the writing o f the Constitution o f 1812, constitutes
an attempt, I w ould argue, to forget colonial history. It is a strategy w ith a purpose, a
rewriting o f the past that “shapes its vision o f the future out o f the silences and ellipses o f
historical amnesia” (Gandhi 7). Unquestionably, Galdós saw the m ove to a constitutional
monarchy as the first step toward establishing a viable m iddle class. In Los A postólicos, the
penultim ate volum e o f the second series, the highly sym pathetic character o f B enigno
Cordero offers the follow ing assessm ent o f that historical moment:
La formidable clase media, que hoy es el poder omnímodo que todo lo hace y deshace,
llamándose política, magistratura, administración, ciencia, ejército, nació en Cádiz entre el estruendo
de las bombas francesas y las peroratas de un congreso híbrido, inocente, extranjerizado si se quiere,
pero que brotado había como un sentimiento, o como un instinto ciego, incontrastable, del espíritu
nacional. (Episodios Π, 881)
Because Galdós identifies Cádiz in 1812 as the tim e and place in w hich a n ew Spain
is bom , his representation o f that moment needs to be understood as an attempt to define the
m odem nation’s parameters. The vision Galdós presents to h is readers in the n ovel is
uniquely postcoíonial. I u se the term here to indicate not only an im age o f Spain without its
American territories but also the process o f com ing to terms with that loss. H is presentation
clearly reflects an 1870s perspective since the doceañistas could scarcely have predicted
the astounding lo ss o f empire that w ould occur within the next decade or its impact on their
political agenda. A s José Á lvarez Junco has noted, “el Estado español pasó a lo largo de los
tres primeros cuartos del siglo X IX , por im a fase crítica, casi fundamental: ‘de imperio a
nación ’” (534). Without reference to colonial concerns in the political debates over the
Constitution o f 1812 and the war against France, Cádiz encourages readers to jettison this
part o f Spam ’s historical past from any formulations o f contemporary identity.
To show that G aldós’s representation o f the period evidences notable gaps, w e have
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only to look at the Constitution o f 1812 itself. Drafted by an assem bly o f clergymen, jurists,
noblem en, professors, businessm en, high-ranking m em bers o f the governm ent and
representatives from both the Am ericas and the Philippines, the Constitution w as the first
Spanish political m odel for a constitutional monarchy. Political liberals considered it an
essential legislative step toward bringing Spain into line w ith other m odem European
nations. Worth noting within the document itself are the very definitions o f the nation and
its citizens. Article One o f the Constitución Política de la Monarquía Española, Promulgada
en Cádiz a 19 de marzo de 1812 states, “La N ación española es la reunión de todos los
españoles de ambos hem isferios.” Article F ive defines a Spaniard as ‘T o d o s los hombres
libres nacidos y avecindados en lo s dom inios de las Españas, y los hijos de éstos.” These
definitions, notably o f residents o f the m etropolis as w ell as the A m erican and P acific
colonies, demonstrate a conscious awareness o f the importance o f empire. The document
consistently defines the physical geography o f nation as “Las Españas,” thus em phasizing
the desire o f the A ssem b ly o f 1812 to unify the various territories o f the nation and
strengthen their political bonds at a tim e o f national crisis. That the term “Las Españas”
w ould later b e used p ost-1898 to refer to the political division s w ithin the m etropolis
indicates a failure, perhaps even as refusal, to remember the nation’s colonial past.
In his representation o f C ádiz in 1812, Galdós never m entions the Am ericas, the
Philippines or Spain’s colonial em pire b y name. D espite the n o v el’s largely faithful
rendering o f the oratorical moments that determined the political tenor o f the constitutional
assembly, the furious debates occurring in the various tertulias in the city, and the growing
concerns o f conservative royalists, there are no colonial representatives in G aldós’s
narrative. It is as i f the Spanish colonjal empire did not exist. H ow ever there are tw o
references to colonialism that help clarify w hy direct references to Spanish colonial history
are ab sen t Their inclusion in the plot structure o f the novel points toward a desire to avoid
direct representation o f Spanish empire.
One o f the more charismatic figures portrayed in Cádiz is an English nobleman, Lord
Gray, a romantic adventurer w ho has rejected English society and w ishes to fight w ith the
guerrilleros against the French. W hen asked w hy he hates his countrymen, Lord Gray
responds with a sharp condemnation o f British imperial aspirations:
Aborrezco el comercio; aborrezco a Londres, mostrador nauseabundo de las drogas de todo e! mundo;
y cuando oigo decir que todas las altas instituciones de la vieja Inglaterra, el régimen colonial y nuestra
gran marina tienen por objeto el sostenimiento del tráfico y la protección de la sórdida avaricia de los
negociantes que bañan sus cabezas redondas como quesos con el agua negra del Támesis, siento un
crispamiento de nervios insoportable y me avergüenzo de ser inglés. (Episodios 1 ,849)
This reference is a powerful condemnation o f the econom ic underpinnings o f colonial
enterprise even as it places the blame squarely on a nation other than Spain. Though Spanish
colonial history rem ains unexam ined, the reference still describes colonialism in
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unam biguously negative terms.
Lord Gray’s repudiation o f colonial econom y in v o lv es one other important
nineteenth-century colonial concern. H e bitterly com plains that his countrymen have failed
to address the moral issue o f slavery: “Se precian m ucho de su libertad, pero no les importa
que haya m illones de esclavos en las colonias” (Episodios I, 849). This com m ent is both
ironic and provocative, since it appears contrary to the historical realities o f the slave trade
in 1812 even as it reflects peninsular concerns in the 1870s about slavery in Spanish
America. Spanish involvem ent in the slave trade, in particular in Cuba, sharply increased
in the nineteenth century, even as England w as pressuring other European nations to abolish
the trade as it had done in 1808 (Curtin 3 5 ,2 6 7 ). Accordingly, the trade that Lord Grey so
thoroughly condem ns w as illegal in England by 1812 but w as very m uch a part o f the
Spanish econom y. In addition, w hen Galdós wrote Cádiz, in 1874, the question o f slavery
w as a hot topic o f metropolitan political debate due to the 1868-1878 Ten Year War in Cuba
and the increased activity o f peninsular abolitionist m ovem ents (Schmidt-Nowara 126). A s
one important study has show n, the Ten Year War marks “un antes y un después en la
relación entre la elite hispano-cubana y Europa” (Bahamonde 362).
B y lim iting his discussion o f the slave trade to British involvem ent, without referring
to the historical reality o f Spain’s ow n investm ent in the practice, Galdós elides
responsibility for the negative effects o f colonialism , in terms o f colonial subjects and the
m etropolis, onto an imperial pow er other than Spain, even as h e subtly references the
grow ing econom ic tensions affecting Spain and Cuba. Grey’s com m ents can be read as not
only a general critique o f colonialism but also an acknowledgem ent o f the contemporary
political differences between metropolis and its m ost valuable colony. H is words obliquely
point to Cuba’s grow ing econom ic independence in the 1870s and the consequent political
distance between the tw o entities (Bahamonde 361). Accordingly, the absence o f references
to Spanish colonialism in the first series o f E pisodios nacionales signals an attempt to
reconfigure Spain as a postcolonial entity in the minds o f readers, as a nation m oving beyond
colonialism both in the past and the present. M ost importantly, Spain’s identity as constituted
in the first series is that o f a nation w hose hopes o f retaining pride in the face o f defeat are
predicated on silence regarding a significant part o f its ow n history.
N onetheless, the nation’s colonial legacy and consequent problems only seem to have
disappeared, because they still hover ghost-like in the text’s allusions to other empires and
distant colonial societies. The author’s fictional representation o f Spain as a nation with a
purpose uncluttered by the moral dilemmas posed by colonialism and slavery ultimately
proves problematic. It is an exam ple o f the Derridean concept o f “hauntology,” w hich Jo
Labanyi em ploys so w ell in her analysis o f another important m oment in Spanish cultural
history, specifically the representational strategies em ployed in Spanish film o f the postFranco period for dealing with the dictatorship. In the exam ple o f Galdós’s historical novels,
the very term postcolonial functions as a reminder that “colonialism returns at the moment
o f its disappearance” (M cClintock 255). B y not including references to Spanish colonialism
in the representation o f Spain in 1812, Cádiz participates in the process o f accepting colonial
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losses o f the past and, in terms o f econom ic realities o f 1874, anticipating colonial losses
to com e. Inevitably, in writing about his ow n contemporary bourgeois society, Galdós came
to recognize the indelible effects o f Spam’s colonial legacy on metropolitan society.
In reference to the 1808-1813 war with France, Álvarez Junco writes, “Era difícil
pedir un com ienzo mejor al proceso de nacionalización contemporáneo” (129). For Galdós,
however, the process experienced a serious setback during the reign o f Fernando VII from
1814 to 1833, the years that constitute the historical focus o f the second series o f Episodios
nacionales. In these novels, Galdós finally addresses the loss o f the Am ericas, but he does
so in such b rief fashion and w ith such m inim al impact that h e erases its historical
complexity. The single textual reference to colonial lo ss appears in the second volum e o f
the series, M emorias de un cortesano de 1815, and it is presented from the perspective o f
Juan Bragas de Pipaón, an unsympathetic character w ho, the narrator tell us, “carecía por
com pleto de im aginación y de sensibilidad fina” (Episodios II, 151). Bragas’s utter lack o f
moral compass and sensitivity help him rise up the ranks o f bureaucrats to becom e a member
o f Fem ando V II’s inner circle. That Bragas should narrate the m om ent w hen the king
recognizes the historical reality o f colonial loss heightens the negativity o f the experience
for the metropolis. D espite the effects that w ould be felt by so m any Spaniards, the loss o f
empire and the diminishment o f the nation are described as neither the fault o f society in
general nor the result o f a particular imperialist ideology. They are due to the stupidity o f
specific individuals.
Galdós demonstrates this view by means o f a conversation between Femando VII and
the members o f his camarilla. W hen told that the royal coffers are em pty and that only the
riches o f the Americas w ill allow Spain to com pete w ith other nations o f Europe, Femando
VII com m ents gloom ily, in a sin gle sentence, “Hay que despedirse de las A m ericas”
(M emorias 122). H is sycophantic follow ers, nearly all o f w hom are authentic historical
figures, im m ediately reassure the king that “toda la insurrección americana se reduce a
cuatro perdidos que gritan en las plazuelas” (122), reassurance that from the contemporary
perspective o f Galdós’s readers is clearly ill advised and patently unirne. The conversation
quickly turns to other issues, and the matter does not reappear in the novel.
This moment o f recognition merits attention for a number o f reasons. First o f all, the
king’s phrasing reveals an attitude o f resignation relative to colonial loss. Secondly, the
statement allow s the king to avoid a discussion o f culpability. The response o f his advisors
demonstrates their failure to understand the situation. Bragas blam es “unos cuantos
presidiarios con cuatro docenas de ingleses y norteamericanos echados por tramposos de sus
respectivos países” (122), but the reader has learned not to trust the narrator’s notably poor
judgment. B y focusing on the king’s remark and the poor advice that he receives, Galdós
places blame for this imperial loss on Spain’s leaders and their incom petent management,
a v iew supported by historians (Anna 151-152). The m oment unequivocally portrays the
historical short-sightedness o f the femandino administration, but it does more than that from
the perspective o f G aldós’s literary goal o f narrating the nation’s history. It serves to
exculpate the Spanish people from colonial failures, an important step toward the goal o f
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reinventing Spain as a nation, not an empire.
The n ovel presents an important historical event in b rief and resigned terms and
sharply delim its those w ho should be held accountable. W hile readers can lay the blame
solely on the king and his counselors, the text encourages them to m ove on to other issues,
to shift their attention to other problem s o f the m etropolis. In other w ords, the lo ss is
acknowledged in this historical account, but radically truncated. The text encourages readers
to accept colonial independence without seeing themselves as lesser for it. B y presenting this
version o f Spanish history, the novel promotes the developm ent o f an im agined community
o f Spaniards, an act that Anderson w ill identify as “the n ovelty o f [an] im agined world
conjured up by the author in his readers’ minds (26).
The fact that Bragas blames the insurrection on the Americans and the British in a text
written in 1875 appears prescient in terms o f the colonial lo sses o f 1898. Interestingly
enough, this particular chapter from Las memorias de un cortesano de 1815 w as reprinted
in July o f 1898 in Vida N ueva, one o f the journals that sprang up in the aftermath o f the
nation’s defeat at the hands o f the United States. The reprinted chapter appeared under the
title “Fumándose las colonias,” thus reasserting the v iew that it w as bureaucratic stupidity
that had once again led the nation to defeat and shame. More importantly, the piece indicates
that Galdós and the editors o f the paper saw the tw o m oments o f colonial loss as closely
related. The events o f the early nineteenth century, from their perspective, are part and parcel
o f what happens in 1898, em phasizing the sense o f a centuiy-long political and historical
process.
In analyzing these references, w e m ust not forget that the connections betw een
history and narrative are com plex and hard to quantify. H om i Bhabha, for exam ple, begins
his introduction to N ation and Narration by claim ing that “N ations, like narratives, lo se
their origins in the myths o f tim e and only fully realize their horizons in the m ind’s eye” (1).
This declaration aptly describes Galdós’s monumental project o f narrating nearly the w hole
o f nineteenth-century Spanish history in the five series o f Episodios nacionales. G aldós’s
historical narratives reflect the liberal im pulse o f the later h a lf o f the nineteenth century to
re-envision the past as part o f the complicated task o f nation building. B ut the process o f
reinvention, in the service o f establishing a sense o f patriotic unity, begins with series o f
n ovels that om it unpleasant aspects o f the nation’s historical past. The Spain that Galdós
creates in the early Episodios has no history prior to the start o f the War o f Independence.
Perhaps for this reason the first tw o series o f Episodios remained bestsellers w hen published
and for m any years thereafter, far outselling the post-1898 novels that make up the last three
series o f Episodios (Botrel 50). The early n ovels functioned in a particular fashion for
Spanish readers o f the Restoration period. To borrow D oris Sum m er’s term for the
romanticized historical novels o f Latin America, the Episodios constitute a Spanish form o f
“foundational fiction,” n ovels that “developed a narrative formula for resolving continuing
conflicts” (12), even as they reimagined Spain as a nation defining itse lf anew. A s such,
these early historical novels present a fictional narrative, an imaginary construct, o f a nation
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without a problematic colonial history.
What the concept o f hauntology m akes clear, however, is that there can never be a
com plete rejection o f the past, on ly a ch oice o f how to engage it. G aldós’s attempts to
m inim ize the importance o f Spanish colonial history as part o f his fictional evocation o f
national identity no longer function for him w hen he b egins to w rite the novelas
contemporáneas o f the 1880s. H e begins to em ploy other discursive strategies relative to the
realities o f Spanish colonialism . The ideological and generic structures o f the historical
novel prove inadequate for representing the myriad concerns o f contemporary daily Spanish
life, as the author’s focus shifts aw ay from the creation o f a sense o f nation through a
reimagining o f its past and toward an exploration o f the nation’s present and future. H is
novels during this period contain m ore frequent references to colonial history and reveal
changing attitudes toward Spam’s colonial legacy, in part because colonial connections were
sim ply an undeniable part o f Spanish society o f the time. G aldós’s fiction from the 1880s
still focuses on the metropolis, addressing the practical results o f the Restoration and the
political stability o f the tum o pacífico. With that stability cam e the expectation that the
nation w ould begin to address its problems, yet when this potential for progress appears to
have stalled, Galdós begins to exam ine Spanish society w ith a m ore critical eye.
Accordingly, references to the colonies, as they appear in his fiction, serve to em phasize
metropolitan problems (Sinnigen, “Cuba en Galdós” 115). N o longer is colonial history
ignored. Instead, Galdós incorporates aspects o f Spain’s connections w ith present and
former colonies into his fiction, and as he does so, he develops a perspective on what those
connections m ean for the nation.
A n early example o f this inclusion o f colonialism into Galdosian fiction can be found
in La desheredada, published in 1881. W hile the central plot o f the novel addresses the class
aspirations o f Isidora Rufete, the secondary characters o f Melchor Relimpio and Joaquin Pez
reveal a great deal about how Spaniards understood the role o f empire in their daily lives.
The attitudes toward the colonies are stereotypical in that Relim pio, P ez and their respective
fam ilies see the colonies, and in particular Cuba, as sources o f easy m oney and as places for
solving the problems o f the m etropolis. In the first h a lf o f the novel, Melchor, the n e’er-dow ell son o f José R elim pio y Sastre, becom es involved in a schem e to sell rotting beans and
rice to the government. W hen this plan becom es a scandal in the press and the public expects
him to b e sentenced to jail, he is instead named, in a moment o f Galdosian irony, “oficial
primero de Aduanas en Cuba” (255). B y means o f this subplot, Galdós im plies that Madrid’s
social parasites can be sent o ff to the colonies to make their negative effects less keenly felt
by Spaniards at hom e. Readers later discover that M elchor remained in the position for a
mere twenty days before he w as dism issed and sent back to the mainland, a clear sign o f the
depth o f his dishonesty and incom petence. The reference is a b rie f but significant
commentary on the abysmal state o f Spain’s colonial administration. Later in the novel,
Joaquín Pez, member o f thé fam ously greedy “familia pisciforme,” contemplates taking a
job in the colonies to revive h is financial situation. Like M elchor, he is destined for a
position in customs, and he says, “Los españoles tenem os esa ventaja sobre los habitantes
58
MARY L. COFFEY
de otras naciones. ¿Qué país tiene una Jauja tal, una isla de Cuba para remediar los desastres
de sus hijos?” (307). In short, the colonies, and Cuba in particular, provide quick and
effortless fortune, even as they represent “una válvula de escape,” a space where one can
escape responsibility for actions at hom e (Sinnigen Sexo y política 80).
This stereotypical view o f the colonies as a source o f w ealth is repeated in 1882 with
the publication o f El am igo Manso, but this tim e Galdós im bues the idea o f colonial society
w ith a moral value o f its ow n. The n ovel is also perhaps G aldós’s clo sest fictional
approximation to his ow n fam ily’s colonial connections in its depiction o f M áxim o M anso’s
brother, José Maria, w ho returns to Madrid a wealthy indiano with his Cuban-born w ife,
L ica and members o f her family. M áxim o’s description o f his brother’s w ife and her sister,
just arrived by train from Santander, is the beginning o f a noticeable articulation o f cultural
difference:
Ambas representaban, a mi parecer, emblemáticamente, la flora de aquellos risueños países, el encanto
de sus bosques, poblados de lindísimos pajarracos y de insectos vestidos de todos los colores del iris.
(60)
The description is essentially positive and initiates a trajectory in M áxim o’s educa­
tion relative to Spanish colonialism . A t first, M áxim o’s im agining o f natural beauty as an
essential quality o f Cuba and the Americas results from his response to the visual im age o f
his n ew ly arrived family, m ost notably the colorful fashions o f the wom en. The initial focus
on physicality holds true for the entire family, w hich evidences its colonial experience
through appearance. For exam ple, José Maria’s face is described as “de color de tabaco”
(60), setting him apart from his brother, and b y extension, other Spaniards. Curiously, the
differences that M áxim o notes in his brother and w ife are not the same. W hile the response
to his creole sister-in-law leans toward the positive, his v iew o f his brother grows more neg­
ative. This difference, exacerbated b y the plot structure, show s M áxim o favoring the colo­
nial other over the returning Spaniard.
The fam ily’s first task is to change its im age to fit Madrid society b y purchasing the
latest in available fashion, a physical transformation representing the first step toward so­
cial integration. José Maria turns h is attention to Spanish politics, uses his w ealth to be­
com e a diputado representing Cuba, and turns his hom e into a liv ely salon. Lica, however,
struggles to fit into Madrid society, and M áxim o attributes this to her Cuban upbringing.
El origen humildísimo, la educación mala y la permanencia de Lica en un pueblo agreste del interior
de la isla no eran circunstancias favorables para hacer de ella una dama europea. Y no obstante estos
perversos antecedentes, la excelente esposa de mi hermano, con el delicado instinto que completaba
sus virtudes, iba entrando poco a poco en el Nuevo sendero y adquiría los disimulos, las delicadezas,
las practicas sutiles y mañosas de la buena sociedad. (76)
M áxim o reveals h is admiration for his sister-in-law in this description, view ing her
disadvantages to b e not o f her ow n making. She rapidly becom es a sympathetic character,
UN CURSO DE FILOSOFÍA PRÁCTICA
59
one w ho is more honorable than her husband. In addition, M áxim o sees Madrid society as
fundam entally hypocritical. A s M áxim o understands the situation, part o f L ica’s social
education in the Spanish capital requires her to overcom e her natural goodness in order to
acquire the manipulative talents o f the society w om en with whom she is expected to interact.
That L ica eventually withdraws from her husband’s social life on ly serves to heighten
M áxim o’s regard for her, even as it sends the m essage that the m etropolis is a corrupting
influence. A t several points in El am igo M anso, Lica, her sister and her m other profess a
deep nostalgia for their former life in Cuba, as a place fundamentally different from Madrid.
Lica complains o f this new life “en que todo es forzarse una, fingir y ponerse en tormento
para hacer todo a la m oda de acá, y tener que olvidar las palabras cubanas para saber otras,
y aprender a saludar, a recibir, a m il tontadas y b o b ería s...” (142). W ithout including
descriptions o f life in Cuba, Galdós represents it as fundamentally foreign to the metropolis,
but, ironically, more positive.
U nlike his w ife, José Maria, has no difficulty adjusting to Madrid society. H is wealth
paves the w ay for him. In this curious portrayal o f the indiano, José Marfa is negatively
compared to Lica. B y attempting to seduce Irene, his children’s governess, José María
demonstrates his disregard for the m ost fundamental o f social values, a w om an’s honor.
M áxim o has to threaten his brother with scandal in order to force him to end his pursuit o f
Irene, even as Lica remains a loyal w ife. With this, Galdós does not im ply that colonial
experience itself has led to José Maria’s immorality; instead, b y implicating other members
o f Madrid society in the plot to com prom ise Irene’s virtue, Galdós indicates that the
corruption o f values is part o f the metropolis itself. The seeds o f José Maria’s immorality
lie in the fact that he is truly a metropolitan subject.
The story o f Lica and José Marfa remains secondary, but it does more than provide
support for the n ovel’s central plot. It also presents a m odel o f how colonial experience
relates to peninsular Spanish society. José Maria, having been bom in Spain, adapts with
greater ease to the corrupt and hypocritical social sphere o f the nation’s capital. The Cubanborn Lica is a different kind o f Spanish citizen, one w ho must learn to abandon her social
innocence. In other words, not all citizens o f the empire are alike.
El am igo M anso represents an early attempt by Galdós to conceptualize the
connections betw een peninsular society and colonial citizens. M áxim o M anso’s ow n
problems integrating into Spanish society indicate that the author w as still ambivalent about
the nature o f these connections’ effects. N onetheless, whereas the binary o f s e lf and other,
metropolis and colony, has not been transcended, the author has managed to confuse the
traditional moral values assigned to them. N o longer does the m etropolis exercise a
civilizing influence on the colonial subject. Although Galdós em ploys a stereotype o f the
indiano, he com plicates it w ith a positive representation o f the colonial other. In this sense,
El am igo M anso does not legitim ize the discourse o f nation as empire but rather em ploys a
variety o f representational strategies to question sharply its validity.
In 1884, w ith the publication o f Tormento, Galdós places the issu e o f Spanish
colonialism on center stage. For the first tim e Galdós presents a protagonist w hose life has
60
MARYL. COFFEY
largely been spent outside o f Spain. Curiously, Agustín Caballero’s thirty years away from
the metropolis have been spent in M exico and Texas, thus expanding the colonial references
beyond Cuba. Agustín is often described in the novel as “salvaje” (41, 61), and it is clear
that he, like José Maria Manso, displays physical signs o f colonialism:
El color de su rostro era malismo: color de América, tinte de fiebre y fatiga en las ardientes
humedades del golfo mejicano, la insignia o marca del apostolado colonizador que, con la vida y la
salud de tantos nobles obreros, está labrando las potentes civilizaciones futuras del mundo
hispanoamericano. (40)
Again, true to the stereotype o f the indiano, Agustín appears to have returned to Spain
with considerable wealth. H e is, as his servant says, “capitalista” (9), but he is more than a
financier. Agustín actually feels the need to participate in the daily life o f his society. H e is
clearly uncomfortable in the role o f idle gentleman, and when he discovers the disorganized
state o f a friend’s business, h e throws h im self into the physical work o f arranging the
stockroom. H is concern with practical order mirrors his b elie f in the need for a similar social
order.
Like Lica, but unlike José María, Agustín experiences difficulty in reintegrating into
Spanish society. H is years in America have forever changed him physically and emotionally.
Again, this inability to reconnect is described in terms that cast Agustín in a positive light,
allow ing Galdós to criticize the political and social expectations o f the period. D espite the
negative description o f his life as a speculator in M exico and Texas, w hich included selling
arms and supplies to the Confederate Army, A gustín is still described as having had a
positive role in the econom ic developm ent o f the Americas and thus stands in sharp contrast
to what happens in Madrid:
En verdad, aquel hombre, que había prestado a la civilización de América servicios positivos, si no
brillantes, era tosco y desmañado, y parecía muy fuera de lugar en una capital burocrática donde hay
personas que han hecho brillantes carreras por saberse hacer el lazo de la corbata. (40)
U nlike the M anso family, Agustín does not attempt to change him self. A t one point
he claim s, “Ya estoy viejo para reformas” (39), and h e admits that life, and not the
circumstances o f his birth, has made him w ho he is:
A mí me han hecho como soy el trabajo, la soledad, la fiebre, la constancia, los descalabros,
el miedo y el arrojo, el caballo y el libro mayor, la sierra de Monterrey, el río del Norte y la pútrida
costa de Matamoros... ¡Ay! Cuando se ha endurecido el carácter, como los huesos, cuando a uno se
le ha pintado su historia en la cara, es imposible volver atrás. Yo soy asi; la verdad, no tengo maldita
gana de ser de otra manera. (43)
G aldós’s m essage is clear: A gustín represents a role m odel, albeit imperfect, and as
UN CURSO DE FILOSOFÍA PRÁCTICA
61
such can be a possible catalyst for change and progress, i f society can accept him as he is.
Agustín is undeniably a sympathetic character, but he is not the only one in Tormento
with a connection to the colonies. H is rival, Pedro Polo, the fallen cleric w hose seduction
o f Amparo threatens to derail her marriage to Agustín, is also linked to Spanish colonialism.
P olo is a character o f extremes, incapable o f self-control, but capable o f dominating others.
H e v iew s h im self as som eone w h o “había nacido para domar salvajes, para mandar
aventureros; quizás, quizás para conquistar un imperio, com o su paisano Cortés” (112). His
family, acknowledging that he is not fit for Madrid society, arranges for him to leave Spain
and serve the church in the Philippines. In Pedro Polo, Galdós presents a character w ho
evok es Spain’s imperial past, a character w h ose extrem e temperament cannot thrive in
contemporary society but is better suited to dominate other civilizations. A t one point in
the novel, Amparo im agines Polo in this very role, reflecting a romantic notion o f an exotic
other:
Veía un hombre bárbaro navegando en veloz canoa con otros salvajes por un río de lejanas e
inexploradas tierras, como las que traía en sus estampas el libro de La vuelta al mundo. Era un
misionero que había ido a cristianizar cafres en aquellas tierras que están a la otra parte del mundo,
redondo como una naranja, allá donde es de noche cuando aquí es de día. (194)
Significantly, given that Tormento parodies the sentimental plots and character
stereotypes o f the popular folletín and consistently depicts Amparo as less than worldly,
this im age o f a conquest w hose goal is to civilize that exotic other can be read as a critique
o f imperialist m otives (Sieburth 105). But as important, Amparo’s visio n sets forth an
imaginary construct that perceives colonialism as a form o f direct engagem ent that
ultimately threatens the European subject with absorption into the im agined other.
B y the end o f the novel, A gustín discovers that he, like Polo, is unsuited for life in
Spain, but his inability to integrate is quite different from that o f his rival. The revelation
o f Amparo’s seduction has made marriage to her im possible, and A gustín finds that he
cannot live up to his professed commitment to the three pillars o f Spanish society: “familia,
estado, religion” (288). H e leaves Spain for Bordeaux, then a haven for Spanish indianos,
taking Amparo with him as his unmarried partner. H e rejects traditional social rules in favor
o f circumstance and reality, telling him self: “Sal ahora por el ancho cam ino de tu instinto,
y encom iéndate al D ios libre y grande de las circunstancias. N o te fíes de la m ajestad
convencional de lo s principios, y arrodíllate delante del resplandeciente altar de los
hechos. . ( 3 0 0 ) . H e has learned that practical concerns trump ideology, especially when
personal happiness is at stake.
W hile Tormento is a biting criticism o f Isabelline society, the novel is also a turning
point in Galdós’s representation o f colonial experience and its place in Spanish society. N o
longer sim ply destinations for profligate sons in need o f easy fortune, the former and present
colonies are clearly described as places that are truly other, distinct from Spain. The novel
im plies that returnees from the colonies cannot successfully reintegrate into Spanish society
62
MARY L. COFFEY
because the metropolis is corrupt and impervious to change. T hose w ith colonial experience
are forced to construct a world for them selves, where behavior depends on individual needs,
and moral judgm ents are more carefully m eted out. A s one critic has noted, “The n ovel
invites us to im agine a better world and a better ending [...] in w hich the burden o f the past
[...] does not w eigh upon the future, in which an ideal society can be sketched on a blank
slate” (Amann 475-76).
One o f the m ost telling references to colonial experience in G aldós’s n ovelas
contemporáneas is in Fortunata y Jacinta, published in 1886-87. Instead o f depicting the
individual with colonial experience as unable to integrate, in this n ovel Galdós presents a
character w ith the ability to carve out a niche for h im self within Madrid society. Evaristo
G onzález Feijoo, a retired m ilitary m an w ith m any years o f service in Cuba and the
Philippines, em bodies the p ossib ility o f co-existen ce through h is tolerance and
understanding.
Su facha denunciaba su profesión militar y su natural hidalgo; tenía bigote blanco y marcial arrogancia,
continente reposado, ojos vivos, sonrisa entre picaresca y bondadosa; vestía con mucho esmero y
limpieza, y su palabra era sumamente instructiva, porque había viajado y servido en Cuba y en
Filipinas; había tenido muchas aventuras y visto muchas y muy extrañas cosas. No se alteraba cuando
oía expresar las ideas más exageradas y disolventes. (Π, 16)
Through this generous and tolerant individual and his “curso de filosofìa práctica”
(II, 89), Fortunata discovers a n ew w ay o f seeing herself and participating in society. She
is encouraged by Feijoo to question the social rules o f the time, to choose a path for herself
that allow s her a m easure o f stability and happiness. Yet the lesson s that Feijoo offers
Fortunata still stress the importance o f social appearances. The n ovel presents his advice as
practical and justified but not hypocritical, and consequently his role in the novel is positive
and supportive. B y m eans o f this sympathetic representation, the reader can conclude that
Feijoo’s lessons constitute a valid pedagogy.
Feijoo and his “curso de filosofia práctica” mirror Agustín Caballero and his common
sense recognition o f circum stance and facts, but without the adherence to M adrid’s
bourgeois morality. The aging gentlem an teaches Fortunata that her obsession with being
“honrada” is inappropriate in her circumstances and, more importantly, irrelevant from a
moral perspective. A s h e h im self states, “no predico y o la hipocresiá,” adding , “sé que decir
humanidad es lo m ism o que decir debilidad” (Π 103). H e presents h im self to Fortunata as
an alternative lover, one w ho w ill in fact support her financially, allow her a degree o f liberty
and self-determination, a m odest but comfortable life and a chance to recover her physical
and mental health after her break-up with Juanito Santa Cruz.
This period o f Fortunata’s life is relatively short, but im m ensely important. She
discovers in herself, as she listens to this discourse o f practical w isdom , the possibilities for
redemption and acceptance. F eijoo’s ability to circumvent social expectations, know ing
w hen rules can b e bent and w hen they m ust b e follow ed , com es from a lifetim e o f
U N C U R S O D E F ILO SO F ÍA P R Á C T IC A
63
experience, m ost o f it outside peninsular society. H is colonial connection, as a member o f
the military and not as an indiano motivated by financial self-interest, is crucial to his ability
to present a reconfigured moral world that can accom modate the com plexities o f a person
like Fortunata. Curiously, one o f F eijoo’s trademarks is h is personal use o f “agua de
colonia,” a clever Galdosian reference. Fortunata says to him one morning, at the start o f
their affair, “ ¡Huy!... Cóm o huele usted a colonia. E se olor sí que m e g u sta ...” (I I 96). This
comment appears in close proximity to the chapter’s description o f Feijoo’s service to the
empire, ironically connecting the tw o different meanings o f the word. The implication is that
this colonial experience and the know ledge gained from it have made Feijoo attractive to
Fortunata. Like Agustín Caballero, he returns to the metropolis a better and w iser man. It
remains incumbent upon metropolitan Spaniards, like Fortunata, to recognize this wisdom
and learn from it.
Both Tormento and Fortunata y Jacinta indicate a changed v ie w o f Spanish
colonialism on G aldós’s part. N o longer is Spain’s colonial history to be avoided and
repressed. The m etropolis’s link to the colonies becom es in Galdosian fiction a m eans by
w hich the nation’s lack o f progress is rendered visible. From this point on Galdós’s critiques
o f Spanish society becom e ever sharper, eventually questioning the very notion o f progress.
I f one accepts Eric H obsbawm ’s description o f European nationalisms as beginning with a
liberal revolution follow ed b y imperial expansion, thus demonstrating “a proven capacity
for conquest” (38), then the fact that Spain fails at both indicates that Spanish nationalism
in the nineteenth century “tenía que inventarse ima función” (Álvarez Junco 508). Rather
than repress the memory o f colonial engagem ent as he did in the early historical novels,
Galdós begins to address the effects o f colonialism on the metropolis, positing the possibility
o f an antidote to the corruption and decadence o f Spanish society, teaching individuals to
perceive the world on different terms.
Perhaps one o f the m ost com pelling reasons for this change is the fact that the
author’s ow n political career began during this decade. In 1885 Galdós w as asked by
Práxedes M ateo Sagasta, the leader o f the Liberal Party, to stand as a candidate for election
to the Spanish Congress. H e w as to represent the district o f Guayama in Puerto R ico, a
place o f w hich he had little know ledge and w ith w hich he had even few er connections.
Although the election itself w as a textbook exam ple o f the political corruption associated
with the tum o pacífico, Galdós served in the Liberal Party’s long ministry from 1886 to
1890, during w hich tim e a number o f reforms w ere achieved, including the enactment o f
universal m ale suffrage. A s a representative o f Puerto R ico, Galdós had no option but to
learn about the m any concerns o f his constituents (Armas Ayala 107). H is experience in the
C ongreso, in particular w ith issu es relative to Spam ’s last v estig es o f empire, w as to
influence his writing and his political activities for the rest o f his life. A s Galdós him self later
w rote about h is ow n election as a diputado cunero— a representative from outside the
district— “C on estas y otras arbitrariedades llegam os años después a la pérdida de las
colonias” (M emorias 60). The author’s role as a legislative representative for one o f the
nation’s remaining colonies only underscores the need to look m ore closely at the attitudes
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MARY L. COFFEY
toward colonialism expressed in his fiction.
G aldós’s attitudes toward this com plicated aspect o f Spanish history changed, even
as h is ow n understanding o f Spain’s relationship to the A m ericas grew. The Episodios
nacionales written in the 1870s represent G aldós’s attempt to present a com m on vision o f
Spanish national identity. This contribution to a “proceso nacionalizador,” however,
encouraged the Spanish people to overlook the empire’s former greatness as it defined itself
in the present (Alvarez Junco 571). W hen the author turned to contemporary realist fiction,
he invariably included descriptions o f metropolitan and colonial relations, exploring the
negative consequences for both sides. B y the end o f the 1880s, Galdós had m oved beyond
presenting the colonies as a destination for young m en in search o f fortune and began to
entertain the idea that the colonies, both former and current, constituted independent
societies that offered Spain possible solutions for its problems. Yet Galdós’s 1880s narratives
p ose the question o f whether Spanish society w as able or w illing to accept this different
perspective as a part o f its n ew identity. The n ovels exam ined here indicate that Galdós
feared Spain w as not prepared to embrace changes that m ight result from an honest
exam ination o f its colonial history. Perhaps this is w h y his references nearly alw ays
remained on the level o f secondary characters and subplots, a reflection o f the “dreadful
secundariness” that Said identifies as the permanent position o f the colonized
(“R epresenting the C olonized” 207).
What w e discover in exam ining references to colonial history in the narratives o f the
1870s and 80s is that Galdós instinctively grasped the importance o f colonial experience in
the process o f defining national identity. The initial historical n ovels attempt to avoid it by
presenting a vision o f Spain without its colonial legacy, thus positing the notion that Spain
could, and indeed should, redefine itself as a nation and not an empire. Yet, not surprisingly,
colonial history eventually finds its w ay into Galdosian fiction, like the inevitable return o f
the repressed, this tim e in the form o f a colonial other w ith a unique ability to reveal
problems w ithin the metropolis. Spain, these novels show, m ust adopt a practical approach
to its colonial legacy, remembering and learning from it but not allow ing it to becom e an
overarching determinant o f identity. In other w ords, G aldós’s treatment o f Spanish
colonialism can be read as a process o f mourning, w hich “allow s one to lay the ghosts o f
the past to rest by, precisely, acknowledging them as past” (Labanyi 65).
Galdós underscored the urgency o f this process with a subtle but m eaningful change
in the text o f one o f h is early Episodios soon after Spain lost its last Caribbean and Pacific
colonies. The editions o f M emorias de un cortesano de 1815 printed after 1898 are labeled
“esmeradamente corregida,” w ith one revealing change in the conversation the king has
with h is advisors relative to the colonies. Instead o f “H ay que despedirse de las Américas,”
the author reformulates Fem ando V II’s com m ent into a m ore vigorous and w illfu l
expression: “D espidám onos de las Américas” (179 Episodios, 1903). Clearly the events o f
1898 led Galdós to pay closer attention to his earlier references to Spanish colonial history.
The ch oice o f a first person plural command in this instance serves to endow the Spanish
peop le, not just Fem ando VH and his camarilla, w ith a political w ill clearly absent in the
U N C U R SO D E F ILO SO F ÍA P R Á C T IC A
65
original phrase. In short, this textual change encourages readers to participate actively in the
process o f letting go o f the past, consistent with what both Agustín Caballero and Fortunata
must learn to do.
Notably, the perspective developed in the author’s novels by the end o f the 1880s
remains consistent with subsequent Galdosian references to colonialism , particularly after
1898. For instance, in the fourth series o f Episodios written from 1902 to 1907, in particular
A ita Tettauen, Carlos V I en la Rápita and La vuelta al mundo en la Numancia, Galdós again
stresses the imperative to rethink Spam ’s imperial past, the n eed to com e to terms with a
failed liberal revolution and the problems that result from imperialist projects incapable o f
sustaining a sense o f national identity (Martín-Márquez 9 , C offey 363). T hese later
Episodios no longer evidence the patriotic utopianism o f the first series; instead, they serve
as “antiépicas” that question the nation’s very ability to maintain its unrealistic perception
o f itself (Álvarez Junco 572). Indeed, these novels and others, including the fifth series o f
Episodios and El caballero encantado, place in doubt the very adequacy o f realism as a
m ode o f representation.
A s his v ie w o f Spanish colonialism d evelops in the nineteenth century, Galdós
becom es less sanguine about the possibility for progress on a national scale, and when Spain
experiences the colonial losses o f 1898, the author’s perspective grow s increasingly
pessim istic. Overall, G aldós’s fiction from the 1870s, 1880s and beyond continues to insist
that Spaniards re-imagine the nation as an entity without pretensions to empire, but over time
the author’s approach to this project shifts from denial to acceptance. B y not addressing
colonial history in the first series o f Episodios, Galdós sends his readers the clear message:
“Hay que despedirse de las A m éricas.” Soon after, w ith his subsequent novelas
contemporáneas, Galdós begins to acknow ledge the inability to repress Spain’s colonial
legacy and eventually signals that the m etropolis must com e to terms with colonialism by
m eans o f a “curso de filosofía práctica.” Accordingly, G aldos’s fiction mirrors the process
that the nation underwent as it experienced the inevitable transition toward a postcolonial
state. That the colonial references in these novels and others have begun to attract attention
should com e as no surprise, considering the current interest in postcolonial studies. But
what w e find, in a careful reading o f even the sm allest o f them, is that Galdós w as very
m uch aware o f the importance o f colonialism in determining Spam ’s present and future,
and aware o f Spam ’s unique challenges in re-im agining itse lf as a nation rather than an
empire.
Pomona College
MARY L. COFFEY
66
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