Transatlantic Studies Association, 14th Annual Conference.

6-8 July 2015

David Corrales Morales , Complutense University of Madrid

Latins against Anglo-Saxons:

Spanish Cultural Magazines as a Channel of Transatlantic Debate on Race

According to the magazine Alrededor del Mundo, the demographic evolution of Latin and Anglo-Saxon races from 1400 to 1910.
The Research Sources: Spanish Cultural Magazines (1898-1914)

Selected publications: La España Moderna, Nuestro Tiempo and

Revista Contemporánea.

These magazines supported the Europeanisation of Spain as a way

of national regeneration.

Important initiatives, such as the sections entitled “Revista de

revistas” .

Authors:

 A wide range of public figures without any dominant ideology.

 Intellectuals from the Generation of 1898 or promoters of the national

regeneration.

 Regular collaborators, who were from Latin America or had made longer-term
stays on the other side of the Atlantic. 
 The European Debate on Latin and Anglo-Saxon Races

Joséphin Péladan William Thomas Stead

“Consider for a moment what at present is the distribution of the surface of this planet among the various races of
mankind. Instead of counting Britain and the United States as two separate and rival States, let us pool the resources
of the Empire and the Republic and regard them with all their fleets, armies, and industrial resources as a political, or,
if you like, an Imperial unit”.
STEAD, W. T.: The Americanization of the World, London, H. Markley, 1902, 5-6.
 The Impact of the Debate on Spain
 Main ideas propagated by cultural magazines:

 The menace of a British-American alliance had to be counteracted through a decisive action by the rest of European nations:

“Britain threatens to open the doors of Europe to the invasion of American Anglo-Saxons, as D. Julián and D. Oppas opened the doors of Spain to
the barbaric invasion of the Saracens”.
PÉREZ DE GUZMÁN, Juan: “Europa ante el conflicto hispano-yankee”,
La Época, 27 April 1898, 1.
[All articles in Spanish have been translated by the author of this paper ]

 The moral superiority of Latin race.

 The similitudes between President McKinley and British politician Joseph Chamberlain.

 The big differences between the United States and Britain:

“When Britain has won the heart of Irish, Germans, Scandinavians, Bohemians, Polish, French and Russians that constitute a large
majority of the Yankee population, it can count […] on the true and profound friendship of the United States of America”.
GARCÍA ACUÑA, José: “Inglaterra y los Estados Unidos”, Revista Contemporánea, vol. CXX-III (15 September 1900),
248.
 Other Proposals of Spanish Cultural Magazines
1. Translating a great number of works of foreign 3. Promoting the collaboration of foreign personalities,
origin, such as Gabriel Tarde’s studies. especially politician Napoleone Colajanni.

2. Reprinting of cartoons from European magazines, which 4. Book reviews: La decadenza delle nazioni latine (1900) by
questioned the reciprocal character of that possible alliance Giuseppe Sergi, The Americanisation of the Word (1902) by
between the Unites States and Britain. William Thomas Stead, etc.

The Anglo-Saxons “Butterfly Hunters”, cartoon from the British periodical

Moonshine. While Uncle Sam is lucky, John Bull asks himself when he will catch a
butterfly. Nuestro Tiempo, no. 8 (August, 1901), 10.
 The Hispanic Solidarity against the Yankee Enemy

José Enrique Rodó Rufino Blanco Fombona

“Would it be impossible a Pan-Hispanic rapprochement?

Not as a national unity […] but rather as a political fraternity”.
BLANCO FOMBONA, Rufino: Ensayos históricos, Caracas, Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1981, 447.
 Shaping the Spanish Perceptions of American Imperialism

A New Application of the Monroe Doctrine, illustration from Uncle Sam’s Saddlebags, cartoon from the Mexican newspaper El independiente.
the Spanish magazine Hojas Selectas. No. 73 (January 1908), 508. Europe asks him what he does and Uncle Sam replies that his only interest
is remaining neutral. ABC, 3 January 1914, 5.

“We are not the only ones who realize the

injustices of the United States […] the sons of “Mexican policy will be headed by the White House,
emancipated Spanish America rebel against the offering an eloquent testimony to how civil strife led to
false protector of the North”. territorial disintegration and loss of autonomy”.

GAY, Vicente: “La América moderna. Los escritores mejicanos contra MARFIL, Mariano: “Política extranjera. La intervención
los yanquis”, La España Moderna, no. 300 (December 1913), 189. de los Estados Unidos en Méjico”, Nuestro Tiempo,
no. 185 (May 1914), 60.
 Conclusions
• The transatlantic debate on the decline of the Latin race allowed to include Spain
within a shared awareness with some European and Latin American nations.

• Particular features in the Spanish case, as a consequence of shared links with

Latin American countries.

 A higher concern for the threat to Hispanic identity.

 Images and perceptions of American imperialism.

• The analysis of Spanish cultural magazines shows the establishment of a

transnational circuit of intellectual opinions.
 Thank you for your attention

The American Invasion of Europe. Nuestro Tiempo, no. 10 (October 1901), 122.

E-mail: davidcorrales@ucm.es