Ernesto Gimenez Caballero is one of Spain's more infamous authors. Incredibly prolific, and an early promoter of literary Futurism and other vanguard movements, he nonetheless veered into fascism in the late 1920s/early 1930s and was one of the main propagandists working in Franco's favor once the Spanish Civil War began.
I went to the BNE this week to start doing some research on his writings. There's a lot of love in his writings; titles such as Amor a Cataluña, Amor a Argentina, Amor a México populate his oeuvre. And I think this love is meant in the best possible light, however, such incessant declarations of love seem to derive from desperation and nostalgia, and his work just shimmers with imperial tendencies.
Perhaps my favorite of his works is the tiny volume, Norteamérica sonrie a España; a 25-ish page 4-part essay about American economist, Frank Henius. In it, EGC addresses US optimism, Dale Carnegie, the Marshall Plan, and the development of Henius's book "Save Spain or Lose Europe" (I can only find it in Spanish, though I bet it's at the Library of Congress). He's especially taken with the optimism part in one of my favorite quotes, which I will put here:
"And like all of the panglossian sons of North America, who, thanks to their belief that everything will turn out for the best, always work it out so that everything turns out for the best. Rescuing thus for Humanity one of the treasures that God set upon the Earth for one chosen race: self-confidence. The ultimate secret of the Western or Aryan genius (I told you all that the man was a Fascist, ok?!?). The secret that was of Ancient Greece. And of 15th Century Florence. And of Victorian England. And today is that of men who, like Henius, want to save North American by helping Spain, in a fit of filial gratitude to Spain for having been the inventor of America and for having given them the occasion of being born in the best land of possible lands: that of Washington. And of being able to live from time to time in 2000 Connecticut Avenue." (p. 20).
Professor Pangloss is a character from Voltaire's satire, Candide. Pangloss is supposedly the greatest philosopher in the Holy Roman Empire, according to Wikipedia. There's some fun linguistic acrobatics that I need to work through before I can use this in my research, but it gives you all an idea of what I'm working on.
If you want to see the original Spanish, here it is:
"Y como todos los panglossianos hijos de Norteamérica que, gracias a creer que todo puede ir bien, logran al fin que todo vaya bien. Salvando así para la Humanidad uno de los tesoros que Dios colocó sobre la tierra para una raza elegida: 'la confianza de sí mismo'. Secreto último del genio occidental o ario. Secreto que fue de la Grecia antigua. Y de la Florencia del XV. Y del inglés victoriano. Y hoy es de los hombres que, como Henius, quieren salvar a Norteamérica ayudando a los españoles, en un rapto de gratitud filial por haber sido España la inventora de América y haberle dado la ocasión de nacer en la mejor tierra de las tierras posibles: la de Washington. Y poder vivir de tiempo en tiempo en la Avenida Connecticut, número 2.000" (20).
I went to the BNE this week to start doing some research on his writings. There's a lot of love in his writings; titles such as Amor a Cataluña, Amor a Argentina, Amor a México populate his oeuvre. And I think this love is meant in the best possible light, however, such incessant declarations of love seem to derive from desperation and nostalgia, and his work just shimmers with imperial tendencies.
Perhaps my favorite of his works is the tiny volume, Norteamérica sonrie a España; a 25-ish page 4-part essay about American economist, Frank Henius. In it, EGC addresses US optimism, Dale Carnegie, the Marshall Plan, and the development of Henius's book "Save Spain or Lose Europe" (I can only find it in Spanish, though I bet it's at the Library of Congress). He's especially taken with the optimism part in one of my favorite quotes, which I will put here:
"And like all of the panglossian sons of North America, who, thanks to their belief that everything will turn out for the best, always work it out so that everything turns out for the best. Rescuing thus for Humanity one of the treasures that God set upon the Earth for one chosen race: self-confidence. The ultimate secret of the Western or Aryan genius (I told you all that the man was a Fascist, ok?!?). The secret that was of Ancient Greece. And of 15th Century Florence. And of Victorian England. And today is that of men who, like Henius, want to save North American by helping Spain, in a fit of filial gratitude to Spain for having been the inventor of America and for having given them the occasion of being born in the best land of possible lands: that of Washington. And of being able to live from time to time in 2000 Connecticut Avenue." (p. 20).
Professor Pangloss is a character from Voltaire's satire, Candide. Pangloss is supposedly the greatest philosopher in the Holy Roman Empire, according to Wikipedia. There's some fun linguistic acrobatics that I need to work through before I can use this in my research, but it gives you all an idea of what I'm working on.
If you want to see the original Spanish, here it is:
"Y como todos los panglossianos hijos de Norteamérica que, gracias a creer que todo puede ir bien, logran al fin que todo vaya bien. Salvando así para la Humanidad uno de los tesoros que Dios colocó sobre la tierra para una raza elegida: 'la confianza de sí mismo'. Secreto último del genio occidental o ario. Secreto que fue de la Grecia antigua. Y de la Florencia del XV. Y del inglés victoriano. Y hoy es de los hombres que, como Henius, quieren salvar a Norteamérica ayudando a los españoles, en un rapto de gratitud filial por haber sido España la inventora de América y haberle dado la ocasión de nacer en la mejor tierra de las tierras posibles: la de Washington. Y poder vivir de tiempo en tiempo en la Avenida Connecticut, número 2.000" (20).
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