31/5/09

El mito de Almanzor

Sin que sirva de precedente, por no ser algo habitual hablar en esta bitácora de infieles y herejes, voy a hacerlo de Almanzor, caudillo y guerrero andalusí de esa España que nos robaron durante casi 8 siglos, los de la secta mahometana. Lejos de mi intención hacer proselitismo de su figura, pero de justicia y de caballeros es, recordar a aquéllos que lucharon con bravura y honor en el otro bando que, aunque equivocados en su motivación y en sus fines, no por ello les fue cerrada la puerta que abre paso a la leyenda.

Cuentan las crónicas arábigas:

“El hagib Almanzor, gobernó el estado con mucha gloria y ventajas para el Islam durante veinticinco años (…) cuando la infausta nueva de su muerte se supo en Córdoba fue un día de luto y general desconsuelo, así en esta ciudad como en las demás del reino, y en mucho tiempo no pudieron consolarse de tan grave pérdida.”

Ése fue Almanzor, figura histórica colosal, político profundo, ministro sabio, guerrero insigne, el Alejandro, el Aníbal, el César de los musulmanes españoles. Incierto como un cometa errante, terrible como el trueno, rápido como el rayo, no se sabe nunca dónde irá a descargar el siniestro influjo de este astro de muerte, si al norte, si al este, si al oeste de la España cristiana. Todo lo recorre el valeroso musulmán, y allí se deja caer como una lluvia de fuego donde menos se le espera. Los cristianos siempre hemos peleado con valor, pero ¿quién resiste a la impetuosidad del mahometano?. Cada estación señala un triunfo para el guerrero árabe y sus victorias se cuentan por el número de sus campañas. ¡Calamitosos tiempos aquéllos para nosotros, infelices cristianos de España, que nos vemos reducidos a la cuna de nuestra independencia como en los días de la conquista!.

Flora, religiosa de León, cautiva con tres compañeras cuando la toma de aquella ciudad, lamentó con estas palabras las tribulaciones de aquella época aciaga: “nuestros pecados atrajeron la gente sarracena sobre toda la región occidental para devorar la tierra, pasar a todos al filo de sus aceros o llevar cautivos a los que quedaron con vida. Nuestra constante acechadora, la antigua serpiente, les dio la victoria: destruyeron las ciudades, desmantelaron sus muros y lo conculcaron todo: los pueblos quedaron convertidos en solares, las cabezas de los hombres cayeron tronchadas por el alfanje enemigo, y no hubo ciudad, aldea, ni castillo que se librara de la universal devastación”.

Árabes y cristianos, inventamos leyendas sobre su fallecimiento, como sucede con los grandes hombres y sucesos. Gran general y admirador de las letras, se hizo acompañar en sus estancias en Córdoba, de poetas, sabios y literatos. Su palacio era una academia abierta a los sabios de todos los paises, y a ella concurrían así de África, de Egipto, de Siria y de Persia, como de las tierras de Afranc y de Galicia.

En los últimos tiempos, Almanzor, que por su aspecto físico bien pudiera haber pasado por caudillo cristiano (cuentan algunas crónicas que su cabello era rojizo como el sol al apagarse y sus ojos azules y profundos como el océano), al crecer en años, suavizase como Augusto y ejerció el poder con moderación luego que pudo ejercerlo sin obstáculo y hubo derribado o reducido al silencio a todos sus rivales. Entre los sabios y poetas que con mas intimidad le trataban, hallábase uno llamado Schallah, quien haciendo presente al regente que sus vigilias se prolongaban demasiado y que el cuerpo necesitaba de reposo, recibió de Almanzor la siguiente contestación: “¡Schallah! el príncipe no debe dormir cuando los súbditos duermen. Yo te prometo que si durmiera cuando tengo gana no quedaría en esta gran ciudad un ojo que pudiera cerrarse”.

¿Qué habría pasado de ser contemporáneo del Campeador? Entonces España habría temblado de Norte a Sur y de Este a Oeste.

29/5/09

The International Brigades in Spain: The true story

Fuente: Der (Hispanismo.org)

by Ricardo de la Cierva

(comments to the book by Ángel Maestro)

According to the author this is a "book of an emergency", requested by many friends after the decission of the Partido Popular to support the Social-Communist initiative to grant the members of the brigades the Spanish nationality as a sign of "gratitude of the nation" for fighting "for freedom and democracy". The nationality for the brigadists was granted by Royal Decree on 19th January 1996, signed by king Juan Carlos I and countersigned by his minister J.A. Belloch who the purists called, before his terrorific facial traits, "the choffeur of Frankenstein".

This book is a convincing work of historical correction and, at the same time, a crushing statement against the "historical lies and the terrible error of the State" committed by the MPs of the Partido Popular[1]. Through the book there are a number of adverse adjectivations: bias, sectarism, shamelessness, ignominy, ignorance, dementia, utter nonesense, big deceit, trick, incoherence, desire to humilate Spain and to deprive her from the historic memory. The speech of the Popular MP by the city of Teruel, Mr. Bueso, iin favour of the bridagists for "their work in favour of freedom" is ironically classified as a "deed" and it provokes shame. An affront to his own party and its speaker.

The International Brigades were units near to divisions, of some five thousand men each. There were seven of these units with effectives never superior to thirty thousand men, and the total number of volunteers was almost one hundred thousand, of which ten thousand died. They didn't come [to Spain] to fight for freedom, but they came organized by the Communist International on behalf of Stalin, to whom De la Cierva calls, not without reason, "the biggest murderer in History". This is also the thesis of Andreu Castelles --who was a member of the 129th Brigade-- in his book Las Brigadas Internacionales en la guerra de España (ed. Ariel, Barcelona 1973); a main source of information which De la Cierva quotes frequently. Like Sandor Voros (a political commisaire of the XV Brigada) declared: "We came to fight and to die under the direction of the Kommitern". They didn't come to fight for freedom, as that would be a sarcasm in a stalinist operation. William Herrick, a member of the same Brigada confesses: "when I went to Spain I had no faith in the bourgeoise democracy".

Most of the brigadists were the scum of their respective societies, battered by the economic crisis. This was their environment: "squandering of provisions, drunkness, binges and robberies". On ocasions, whole sections of drunk brigadists threw themselves over the frontline to fall under the fire. André Marty, secretary of the Kommitern, was appointed by Stalin as chief-in-command of the International Brigades. In the province where he established the headquarters of the Brigades, he murdered 1,126 people. That gained him the nickname of "el carnicero de Albacete" (the butcher of Albacete). This was the opinion of Marty himself about his brigadists in an official report: "There arrived hundreds of criminals and while a part of them passed the time living comfortably without doing a thing, many others, taking advantage on the chaos, committed a very large series of abominable crimes: rapes, gratuitous violence, robberies with violence, homicides for the sake of it, thefts, kidnappings, etc. Not happy with it, they have promoved rebellions with bloodbaths against the authorities and some have even spied in favour of Franco... In Albacete they intended to continue with the criminal acts committed in other places; after being detained, they ran away from the concentration camp beating or killing to part of the personnel of wards. Before this I did not hesitate in ordering the necessary executions; those ordered by me were not more than 500". An irrefutable and burdensome testimonial for the MPs who voted to offer "gratitude" to these peoples. It was, like De la Cierva writes, "to spit over the blood" of the people assassinated by the brigadists.

Another myth that the author debunks is that of the "popular" character of the red army. Although there were elitist people and elements in the Brigades, most were, effectively, "populace" from several countries (only three thousand Jews). But in the Spanish units of the Republic, out of more than one million men, only less than 150,000 were volunteers. Azaña summoned 26 reserves of conscripts, from those of 1915 (who were 40 years old at the time) till the reservists of 1941 (almost teenagers). While Franco only summoned 15 reserves of conscripts because he had 68,000 volunteers of the Requeté[2], 208,000 volunteers in the Flags of the Falange[3], apart from 30,000 alféreces provisionales[4] and 70,000 volunteers from Morocco[5]. De la Cierva writes: "the National Army was much more popular than the Republican Army". (page 84.)

De la Cierva denies that the Alzamiento[6] was "the war of the generals" against the people. Out of 21 existing generals with a command place, 17 adhered to the Republic and only 4 to the rebellious Mola[7]. And nearly all of those who later were marshalls in the USSR in 1969, had been sent by Stalin to Spain to give military advice to Azaña, considered as the creme of his officials.

The author destroys the myth of the novelist Malraux, who was never engaged in a real combat nor did he know a word about planes, although he was the captain of a French wing. Later on he became a Gaullist. And he destroys too the myth of Hemingway, who wrote "reports which were detestable from the point of view of History and which have as little to do with the reality of the Spanish war as his pseudo-historic novel".

De la Cierva includes a testimonial of the Argentinean brigadist Víctor de Frutos, in his book Los que no perdieron la guerra (Buenos Aires, 1967), where he sheds light over the destruction of Gernika. The brigadist writes: "Bilbao had to be set flames, those were the plans... The old city did not burn in flames because, when we were running across the streets with ready-to-use incendiary bombs, cans of petrol and lightning matches, we could see terrorized women and children in the windows". Another myth that falls apart.

It is true that many brigadists fought with courage, as shown by the fact that 10% of them died in action. But they only achieved military failures, which De la Cierva lists battle after battle: "The International Brigades did not obtain one single victory since the day that they engaged in their frist combat; but the Battle of Brunete, which lasted until July 1937, was the worse and more humiliating defeat. However, there were still bigger disasters still to come for them."

In this important work, a must read for the recovery of the historical memory, the author uses materials from earlier books, especially from his Historia esencial de la guerra civil (1996) which I referred recently (see «Razón Española» núm. 78, julio 1996, págs. 103-105), as well as the important research works by J.M. Martínez Bande and Jesús and Ramón Salas Larrazábal, and all the available bibliography of the Brigades. The background is, therefore, a complete one. He does not omit anything important to the subject.

Years ago --like the title of one of his inciting books reads (see «Razón Española» núm. 71, mayo 1995, págs. 352-6)--, De la Cierva set himself on the noble task of impeding that a team of falsifying clerks from our national near past, rob us from our History. Still today he continues with such an enterprise with impetus, courage and historiographical precision. D. Ricardo de la Cierva is, nowadays, the champion of truth about the age of Franco. He is not alone. But, in all justice, there should be many others. It is a bad thing to be a forgetful and and ungrateful nation.

Notes of translation:

1. Partido Popular was born out of the Social-Conservative Alianza Popular of D. Manuel Fraga Iribarne which, like he defined it himself in the years of the Transition, it represented the Sociological Francoism. Since those years, PP has transformed as a part of its "search for the center", into a group of Neo-Liberals and Neo-Conservatives, betraying its origins. However, they still count with the faithful vote of a sector of the Spanish society of Social-Conservative ideology, who don't see an alternative against the Left. This "faithful vote" is what in Spain is known as a "captive vote", which is represented by the sector of subsidized temporary workers in Andalusia for the Socialist Party (PSOE) and which in times of Socialist President Felipe González was labeled as "grateful tummies".
2. The Requeté is a name by which is known the Armies of the Traditionalist Carloist supporters.
3. Falange Española de las JONS, after the fusion of FE with JONS. Spain's own Fascist-style movement of the 30s.
4. An alférez in the Spanish Army is an officer below the rank of leutenant and above a cadet (since the cadet is not yet an officer). During the Spanish Civil War the alférez provisional was created with equal rank to alférez, with the difference that the alférez was instructed in the Military Academy while the alférez provisional only passed a sort of crash course.
5. These were Spanish troops of the Tercio (Spanish Legion) and other units and regiments, as well as the indigenous troops from Morocco.
6. literally: Rising. This is the name by which is often known the rebellion against the Republic. 7. General Mola, initially in charge of the Alzamiento in the Peninsula and chief-in-command of the Army of the North.

70th Anniversary of Victory Day in Spain

Fuente: Volontario (Hispanismo.org)

RADIOMESSAGE «CON INMENSO GOZO» OF HIS HOLINESS

PIUS XII, TO THE SPANISH FAITHFUL (April 14, 1939)

With great joy We address you, most dear children of Catholic Spain, to express to you our paternal congratulations for the gift of peace and of victory, with which God has deemed worthy to crown the Christian heroism of your faith and charity, tried in so many and so generous sufferings. Our Predecessor, of venerable memory, expected, with longing and trust, this Providential peace, which is undoubtedly the fruit of that copious blessing which he sent, in the very beginning of the struggle, "to all those who had devoted themselves to the difficult and dangerous task of defending and restoring the rights and the honor of God and Religion" [1]; and We do not doubt that this peace shall be the one that he himself foretold since then, "the sign of a future of tranquility in order, and of honor in prosperity" [2].

The designs of Providence, most beloved children, have once again appeared over the heroic Spain. The Nation chosen by God as the main instrument of the evangelization of the New World and as an impregnable fortress of the Catholic faith has just shown to the apostles of materialistic Atheism of our century the greatest evidence that the eternal values of religion and of the spirit stand above all things.

The tenacious propaganda and the constant efforts of the enemies of Jesus Christ seemed to have desired to have tried in Spain a supreme experiment of the dissolving forces which they have at their disposal throughout the world; and even though it is true that the Almighty has for now not allowed them to achieve their goal, He has at least tolerated some of their terrible effects, so that the world could see how religious persecution, undermining the very bases of justice and charity, which are love for God and respect for His holy law, may drag modern society to unthinkable abysses of evil destruction and passionate discord.

Convinced of this truth, the sane Spanish people, with the two marks characteristic of its most noble spirit, which are generosity and frankness, rose up determinedly in defense of the ideals of Christian faith and civilization, deeply rooted in the Spanish soil, and aided by God, "who does not abandon those who hope in Him" (Judith 13, 17), could resist the push from those who, deceived by what they believed to be a humanitarian ideal of the exaltation of the meek, truly fought only for Atheism.

This primordial meaning of your victory makes us dwell in the most promising hopes, that God in His mercy will deign lead Spain through the safe path of its traditional and Catholic grandeur; which will be the point that will guide all Spaniards, who love their Religion and their Fatherland, in the effort to organize the life of the Nation in perfect harmony with its most noble history of Catholic faith, piety, and civilization.

We thus exhort the Authorities and Shepherds of Catholic Spain to enlighten the mind of those who were deceived, showing them, lovingly, the roots of Materialism and Secularism from which their errors and wrongful acts came forth, and from which they could spring forth again. Propose to them the principles of individual and social justice, without which the peace and prosperity of nations, as mighty as they may be, cannot subsist, and which are those contained in the Holy Gospel and in the doctrine of the Church.

We do not doubt that it will happen thus, and the bases for Our firm hope are the most noble and Christian sentiments, of which the Chief of State and so many gentlemen, his faithful collaborators, have given unequivocal evidence with the legal protection which they have granted to the supreme religious and social interests, according to the teachings of the Apostolic See. The same hope is also founded upon the enlightened zeal and abnegation of your Bishops and Priests, tempered by pain, and also in the faith, piety, and spirit of sacrifice of which, in terrible hours, all classes of Spanish society gave heroic proof.

And now, before the remembrance of the mounting ruins of the bloodiest civil war recorded in the history of modern times, We, with pious regard, bow our head, above all, to the holy memory of the Bishops, Priests, Religious of both sexes, and faithful of all ages and conditions who, in such an elevated number, sealed with blood their faith in Jesus Christ, and their love for the Catholic Religion: «maiorem hac dilectionem nemo habet», "Greater love than this no man hath" (Jn 15, 13).

We also acknowledge our debt of gratitude towards all those who sacrificed themselves even unto heroism in defense of the unalienable rights of God and of Religion, either in the battlefields, or devoted to the sublime works of Christian charity in prisons and hospitals.

We cannot hide the bitter sorrow that the remembrance of so many innocent children, who, having been ripped from their homes, were taken to faraway lands, often in danger of apostasy and perversion: we desire nothing more ardently than to see them returned to the bosom of their families, where they will once again find the warm and Christian tenderness of their own. And those others who, as prodigal sons, wish to return to the house of the father, we doubt not that they will be welcomed with goodwill and love.

It falls upon You, Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate, to advise all, so that in their policy of pacification all will follow the principles taught by the Church, and proclaimed with such nobility by the Generalísimo: of justice for crime, and of lenient generosity for the mistaken. Our solicitude, also as a Father, cannot forget these deceived ones, whom a deceitful and perverse propaganda succeeded in enticing with praises and promises. Your Pastoral solicitude should be targeted at them, with patience and meekness: pray for them, seek them, lead them again to the regenerative bosom of the Church and to the warmth of the Fatherland, and lead them to the Merciful Father, Who awaits them with open arms.

Therefore, most dear children, since the rainbow of peace has returned to brighten in the firmament of Spain, let come together heartily in a fervent hymn of thanksgiving to the God of Peace and in a prayer of forgiveness and mercy for all those who perished; and, in order for this peace to be fruitful and longlasting, We exhort you with all the fervor of Our heart, to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4, 2-3). Thus united and obedient to your venerable Episcopate, devote yourselves joyfully and with no delay, to the urgent work of reconstruction, which God and the Fatherland expect from you.

As a pledge of the copious graces, which the Immaculate Virgin and Saint James the Apostle, Patrons of Spain, shall obtain for you, and which the great Spanish Saints have merited for you, We bestow upon you, Our dear children of Catholic Spain, upon the Chief of State and his illustrious Government, upon the zealous Episcopate and their selfless Clergy, upon the heroic combatants, and upon all the faithful Our Apostolic Blessing.

PIUS XII

The Social Doctrine in Vázquez de Mella

Fuente: Donoso (Hispanismo.org)

THE MAN

Juan Vázquez de Mella y Fanjul is not very well known in the English speaking world. Some of his contemporaries have been translated into English and are commonly, if loosely, associated with Spanish traditionalism. The late Frederick D Wilhelmsen stressed in a number of occasions the distinction between the views of true traditionalists, like Vázquez de Mella, and a number of prominent conservatives. Donoso Cortés (a study on him was published by Eerdmands with an introduction by the same Wilhelmsen ) although close to traditional positions at the end of his life, is not properly a traditional author. This excellent study of Donoso by Robert A Herrera proves that he was really a conservative, and shows the evolution of his thinking. A similar conclusion can be applied to Ramiro de Maeztu, whose masterpiece Defensa de la Hispanidad is also traditional in essence, but is also in stark contrast with the views he had fostered previously in his younger writings and even at the beginning of his influential magazine Acción Española. Menéndez Pelayo, author of the encyclopaedic Historia de los heterodoxos españoles is usually listed as a traditionalist, but if one is to be precise he should be included amidst the conservatives.

What makes Vázquez de Mella stand tall and apart from his more or less conservative contemporaries is that he upheld the pure and undiluted principles of Saint Thomas Aquinas in politics, presenting them in a practical synthesis which is the best that Christendom has given in recent times. In addition, he incarnated the same doctrine to a remarkable degree. He practised the virtue of pietas to heroic extremes both towards God and towards Spain, his fatherland. Vázquez de Mella served as representative for the Traditionalist party, known as Carlism, and from that position his arguments in favour of Tradition illuminated the political scenery of the turn of the century in the Spanish Parliament. Born in Asturias, the cradle of the Reconquista, he received a very solid thomistic education in Santiago de Compostela, under the protection of St James, and eventually obtained a doctoral degree in Law. Nonetheless, his few writings and his many oratory pieces cover the fields of History, Philosophy and Theology in a very illustrious manner. He was a master of Rhetoric and Dialectics in the service of Truth. The beauty of his speeches remains unrivalled even now, when we can only read them, but his delivery is said to have been even more outstanding. During his first intervention in Parliament, the Conservative Prime Minister, Cánovas del Castillo, who had been distracted and not paying much attention to the ongoing debate, was deeply impressed by his eloquence, and turning his head towards Vázquez de Mella, asked in wonder: “Who is this monster?”. In character, he was a gentleman, a knight, of such a calibre that he earned the respect of his most declared critics and opponents, as parliamentary chronicles show. Perhaps an anecdote can illustrate the character of our man. Cánovas had become Prime Minister again and tried to neutralise Vázquez de Mella’s opposition by offering him a position in the cabinet. He sent his personal secretary to the house of don Juan Vázquez de Mella, whom he found so austere and sober that the secretary felt compelled to say: “You live as a monk and as a warrior. Your home and the way you live is your best speech, don Juan.” Vázquez de Mella refused the proposition, because he would have no part whatsoever in the conservatism that was ruining Spain. In his mind, such was the deep disagreement between Tradition and Conservatism. When Cánovas saw Vázquez de Mella in the Parliament corridors again he shouted at him: “I know, I know, don Juan, that lions cannot be hunted with a sling.” Vázquez de Mella represented the noble virtue of gravitas on top of his unscathed pietas. Indeed, in a country where the honour (and benefits) of becoming Minister are so high, he did not do just a little in refusing the position. Spanish Tradition can boast of having been immune to Cartesian philosophy, as well as to any other kind of liberal contaminants and additives. And this in spite of the fluid communication across the Pyrennees with France, where many traditional authors have been somehow affected by the common diseases of rationalism or liberalism. Vázquez de Mella is the royal banner of a long succession of names such as Ramón Nocedal, Aparisi y Guijarro, Manterola, Gabino Tejado, Villoslada, Víctor Pradera, Elías de Tejada, Rafael Gambra and many others, who laboured to carry pure Catholic principles into the spheres of society and politics. Moreover, the close proximity of some Spanish conservative authors to Tradition (Donoso Cortés, Jaime Balmes, Sardá y Salvany, Ramiro de Maeztu, Menéndez Pelayo, etc.) is largely due to the strong magnet of Tradition in Spain. This proves once more that true doctrine preached incessantly always renders wonderful fruits. 20th century Carlist thinking is largely based on the work and systematisation done by Vázquez de Mella. The Carlists have been the most traditional party in Spanish politics for almost 200 years. During the 19th century Carlists fought three wars against the liberals, following the dynastic dispute after the death of the king Fernando VII. They supported Infante Don Carlos, a convinced Catholic who wanted to continue the Catholic Monarchy of Spain against the liberal party, deeply influenced and supported by the French revolutionaries and other more secret enemies of Altar and Throne. Carlism embodies traditionalism in Spain, and its soldiers and politicians have been staunch defenders of the Catholic way of life that the introduction of liberalism had broken. At the turn of the century, they gathered again under the direction of Vázquez de Mella and consolidated as a small but significant political force, setting the stage for their resistance to Communism and Anarchism during the Spanish civil war. Indeed, their participation was paramount to win the Crusade of 1936-1939 –considered by them as the 4th Carlist War–.

THE COMMON GOOD

Vázquez de Mella follows Saint Thomas Aquinas in making the common good the central issue of his political philosophy. The common good is something superior to the mere reunion of individual goods. Professor Eustaquio Galán Gutiérrez says that “just as for other existing things, there is also an aim or end for the State”, which is, in St Thomas’ own words: ‘quod homines non solum vivant quod bene vivant’ (i.e., that men not only live, but live goodly). The accomplishment of this end is the good of the State. Now, according to the classical definition, the State is a political community, and its good, or its perfection, extends to all of its parts. Hence, St Thomas often refers to it as the bonum commune: the common good. In the treatise On Truth, St Thomas says that “sicut influere causae efficientis est agere, ita influere causae finalis est appeti et desiderari” , i.e., that the end of each being is the target of its desires and inclinations. The common good then must act as a goal that attracts and orients each and every member of the State to act for the benefit of the whole, serving as a cohesive against the individualistic tendencies of the citizens. St Thomas, who in this matter follows Aristotle closely, conceives the common good as the perfection of the community as a whole (“perfectio totius communitatis”), which is at the same time the goal of the State and the cornerstone of all political activity. Thus, each human action –whether private or public– ought to be judged by its reference to the common good. An action is bad not only when it damages the subject that carries it out, but also, and most importantly, when it takes away from the perfection of the community as a whole. An interesting corollary for our own times is that the higher the position of a person on the State, the graver the consequences of his actions for the common good. Conversely, the perfection of a single contemplative contributes more to the common good that the material goods provided by much economical exchange. On the contrary, liberalism disintegrates, breaks up and severs the unity of the political community, making it a mere collection of individuals who seek partial and fragmentary goods with an utilitarian purpose, each for his own benefit. Thus, the common good is denied as a possibility and is replaced by the general interest, which turns out to be some kind of algebraic sum total of the whims and wishes of the individual citizens, without regard for perfection. In this context, material increase is seen as the only useful contribution to the State, the sin of usury becomes accepted practice, and moral depravation a matter of individual choice.

LABOUR

In order to understand labour, we have recourse to the best treaty on anthropology ever written: the Genesis. There is a contradiction in labour because of its dual nature, born out of Original Sin. On one side labour in itself dignifies (Gen 1, 28 and 2, 5); on the other hand –and as a consequence of a curse–, it brings fatigue and pain (Gen 3, 17-19 and 3,23). Fatigue and pain were absent in Paradise. In the exercise of labour man is subjected to matter, but in its end he achieves his own dignity. Therefore there is something else in labour than its mere economical aspect. It is a means to perfect man, hence it has a moral duty with regard to the final destiny of man. Even from a practical point of view we can see how those who see the ethical dimension in working render fruits very different to the ones rendered by those who just look for the acquisition of money to supply basic needs or even superfluous things. Vázquez de Mella quoted specifically the example of the Benedictines, who elevated the condition of labour with their “Ora et labora”. Juan Vázquez de Mella goes one step further and emphasises that labour is besides a social duty, not only a moral duty. A man should avoid being a ballast for the rest of the community, as is the case with the many perverted uses and abuses of the modern social welfare system. Christian doctrine is much more straightforward: “If any man will not work, neither let him eat ”. Moreover, labour brings economical relationships that generate mutual obligations. Hence the social character of work. This tridimensional view of labour, material, moral and social, is what Vázquez de Mella calls integral labour, and it is the central axis of his economic doctrine. Based on this notion, our author distinguishes production, protection and perfection of labour, following Plato. And based on these distinctions Vázquez de Mella said “there is no right to the integral product from labour”, because all parts of the political community have a participation in it. This is from our point of view the most accurate criticism to the theory of added value (or surplus value). Let us illustrate this with an example. The owner of a field cannot claim for himself entirely the product of his field. Not only he needs the co-operation of his employee who seeds and works the field. Without the protection given by the police and the armies, he could have seen his field invaded and his crop appropriated by others. The politicians who made laws acknowledging and defending the natural right to property made it possible. Not to mention the rest of the society, who make possible the selling and distribution of the product. Vázquez de Mella culminates this example saying that without the monk –who literally shaped the minds and hearts of the proprietors’ ancestors and literally taught them how to cultivate the land– and the Priest –who continued the monk’s spiritual labour bringing benefits (both spiritual and material) from Heaven and deflected God’s wrath– this crop would not have been at all possible. Deepening this concept La Tour du Pin said that “the law of labour is the backbone of socio-economics, because is the law of human life itself. Indeed, physical and intellectual life is maintained through a series of continued efforts, each of which is essentially painful [...] No, the end of labour is not productivity. The essential element of a good labour regime is the ability to provide adequate goods for a good life, first to the worker, and next to the whole of society.” From this point of view it is worth saying that property is defined by the Christian Doctors as the fruit of labour. And, as labour itself, it has a character predominantly social. The pagans defined it as the right to enjoy a good with exclusion of others. Catholic teaching makes of property a right to dispose of that same good in order to communicate it to others.

ORGANISATION OF LABOUR

A distinction needs to be made between the so-called production factors, such as land, labour, or property, and instrumental means, such as capital. Understanding this distinction is paramount to judge economic policy, which ought to refer to principles serving a man inserted in nature. Nature, created and ordered by God, reflects the plan of the Creator and obeys His laws. Therefore, human nature is under the same demand of obedience from God as the rest of Creation. This demand is expressed first in natural law, which is a certain knowledge immediately present to our conscience, but which was summed up in by God Himself in Ten Commandments of the old law. From these first principles the pagans derived the system of objective law that allowed the organisation of the Western world. Land is part of nature. Labour appears to us organised in a corporative manner. Let us see some examples. In order to build a house, a corporation of men that goes from architect to unskilled construction workers, including specialists in structure, engineers for the machines an so on, are needed. A hospital is an institution created for the purpose of helping the sick people regain their health. In this case doctors, nurses, auxiliary nurses, ward clerks, phlebotomists, technicians and other people make a corporation. A corporation, as any society, tends naturally towards stratification. Doctors will gather with other doctors, nurses with other nurses and so on. These associations are called intermediate professional bodies. In this way the liberal professions are grouped in colleges, and the workers in professional trade unions, which were called guilds under the old regime. On the other hand, businessmen and managers are associated in chambers led by the government. However, neither the government nor the chambers are allowed to interfere with the function or ruling of the professional bodies, since it is evident that these smaller organisms have a natural right to exist and to self-regulate themselves. This is what traditionalists affirm when they request “less government and more society”. The implication is that the government of the State must be small but very strong, minimising bureaucratic red tape and interventionism, but still allowing the maximum protection of the common good by a powerful executive. Intermediate professional bodies are a natural necessity, as proven by the fact that even in a world so inorganic and homogeneous like ours, fragmented by two centuries of liberal rule, they remain an important part of political life. These intermediate professional bodies have the right to possess and hold whatever is necessary to them for the proper exercise of their function within the society. As the individual has right to property, so do these intermediate communities and societies. This is what Vázquez de Mella calls social property: “Social makes a reference to Society [...] and this concept [of Society] is clearly different of the concept of Government, which is no other thing than the political apparatus which serves as a tool to the authority for the governing of the civil society [...] This civil society is integrated and made of some other smaller societies: the intermediate bodies. These intermediate bodies existed before the State and have characteristics of their own, as well as their own rights and peculiar properties. This is the gravitational centre of the distinction between the ‘social’ and the ‘political’, so fundamental and so keen to Traditionalist Spanish political thinking [...] Each intermediate body has a certain sovereignty and therefore a right to self-governing in what is pertinent to itself. Hence the concept of ‘social sovereignty’ as exposed by Vázquez de Mella” . It is important to stress that, in the mind of Vázquez de Mella, this sovereignty implies freedom from government meddling or intervention.

INTERACTION OF NATURE AND LABOUR: MORAL

The goods we need for our subsistence either come from nature directly, as oxygen or water, or from hard work on nature, like clothing or bread. Therefore, nature and labour are the two factors of production. Now, if man is a social being, then the production is going to be carried out in society. From this social aspect we are emphasising here emerges the division of work, the co-operation in labour activities, and the harmonious direction towards the proposed aim. This is the complete cycle of the productive process. Víctor Pradera was the foremost disciple of Vázquez de Mella, and he completed and systematised his work. We were deprived of this bright Catholic intellect by the Basque nationalists, who murdered him in San Sebastián . He tells us: “the land, labour and society are the essential factors of the productive process; [on the other hand] the methods, habits, the various roles, co-operations, and functions, the population, machinery, and capital are the means and conditions under which human activity applies itself to nature and increases the yield of production. Hence, any economic system which excludes any of these variables will be at least deficient [...] It also follows that the wealth generated by the productive process cannot belong to any single factor or means that participates in it” . Both Víctor Pradera and Juan Vázquez de Mella go further in this analysis. Labour requires justice and peace. Without them labour becomes difficult and its fruits are stolen by the consequences of social distress. Strikes are a good example of this. Here is the link between economy and morality. The link between economy and religion comes from the fact that labour is applied on nature, and nature is God’s work. Hence, nature is subjected to the dispositions God has established for it. Neither man nor the raw material of his work escape this fact. On the other hand, man is out of his very nature a religious being, that is to say as well, a moral being. These relations outline the dependence of economics towards God and His Divine Commandments. Man cannot walk freely in the economical order without having found out previously these Commandments and its implications. Ultimately, given man’s religious being, “his activity in the economical sphere ought to be subjected to religious law, which exerts a beneficial influence upon the economy” .

INTERMEDIATE BODIES AND SUBSIDIARETY

In addition to the professional corporations, the intermediate natural bodies include the family, the town, the county, and the region (or in the USA, the State). It is very important to insist on the patrimonial aspects of these intermediate bodies, because they need that social property to carry out their duties and also to survive. Neither individuals nor societies can exist without property. For instance, the modern economical system is plundering the family. In fact, even liberal professionals have to spend a greater and greater percentage of their income, and for periods that are counted in decades, in order to buy a house. Modern centralised governments are using the lethal weapon of a seizing economy (most obviously through onerous taxation) to despoil the families of their properties. This can be proven, for instance, by comparing the percentage of land in private ownership, with that owned by the Federal Government or by the banks, to quote just an American example, specially if one takes into account the progression of these figures. The same applies to European countries. The Communist experience shows how far the government can go, but there are many other ways to deprive society of its freedom. During the 19th century, in Spain, liberals took pride in taking away all the properties belonging to the Catholic Church, as well as to the municipalities. Misery was until then non-existent because the poor could use these lands not for a fixed rent, but for a percentage of the profits obtained. The Catholic Church owned 15% of the land, which yielded 25% of the total agricultural production. This process of confiscation was named desamortización and created a class of new rich, liberal in thought and extremely oppressive of the working classes. The peasants were then reduced to work as labourers, or paying high rents on the land now owned by the liberal bourgeoisie. Many of the secular problems in Spain are due to this fact. Minister Mendizábal was the author of this disaster, and he had and incredible contempt and hatred for the Catholic Church. As Henry VIII had done in England, Mendizábal used the confiscated diocesan, monastic and municipal lands to bribe men that became firm supporters of the liberal Constitution, and the backbone or a new powerful and illegitimate political regime. Rafael Gambra affirms that “a true institutionalisation of society and efficient limitation of the State can only arise from a renaissance of [these intermediate bodies] ... There can be no other origin of that social-political dualism which constitutes the essence of any truly representative system.” Nonetheless, the State also has a right to own property. In fact, if as St. Thomas Aquinas teaches, the State is a perfect society, it also needs to possess all the means necessary for the accomplishment of its end, which is, as we discussed, the common good. This includes necessarily a State property. The wave of privatisation of State-owned corporations (usually ending in the hands of big multinational corporations, very wealthy individuals, or banks) that is afflicting Europe is not always correct. In Britain, the selling of the train companies to private hands has brought an expensive, inefficient and unreliable public transport system in a country where road traffic tends to be very heavy. The notion of State ownership is, however, different from the social property which we discussed, and in a sense it is its complement. Precisely this concept lead to the foundation of distributism, as enunciated by G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. It was also adopted in the USA by the Southern Agrarians (Donald Davidson, Andrew Nelson, T.S. Eliot and others). A healthy State will guarantee the increase of the social property of the smaller societies, or intermediate bodies, that are its constitutive parts. Thus, although the State has a right to have all the necessary properties for the fulfilling of its mission, it can not expand at the expense of the burden and expropriation of the intermediate bodies. The key of this relationship is the Subsidiarity Principle, which can be stated thus: it is illicit “for a bigger and more elevated society to do what can be done and procured by smaller and inferior communities”. For instance, if something can be done by the government of Texas, the Federal Government commits an evil act if it takes the task over to itself. In the process, the Federal Government would steal the attributions of the Republic of Texas and interfere with the right to self-rule. Similarly, if the Bexar County is able to do something by itself, without recurring to the State of Texas, the State government should refrain from intervention, and so on.

ECONOMIC ORDER AND WEALTH

Spain was deeply Catholic one hundred years ago, far from the un-Catholicism of nowadays Spain, and even at that stage Juan Vázquez de Mella was forced to say from his seat in Parliament that “the acting economical order [was] neither the work of Catholic principles nor of Christian economics. It [was] rather due to the liberal-individualist economics triumphant in the French Revolution ... [and] which has originated, with its theory about the origin of property, the collectivist reaction ...” Our author called for a spontaneous economical order, previous to the State but protected by its government, therefore an order capable of correcting or preventing injustices. “Order is something essential to individuals and to the people. It is also paramount for the developing of economical life. And the economical order has its centre in the social order, which in its turn is derived from the objective moral order imposed by God to men. Now, man has to fulfil the dual duties of justice and charity so that he can achieve that ‘order’ [...] ‘The one who has more has to give more, and he one who has less is obliged to receive more’, as said by Tonniollo.” Vázquez de Mella did certainly not believe in all the rubbish about the self-adjustment of the market based on the law of supply and demand. It is patrimony of the Protestant culture a certain kind of fatalism, so well described by Max Weber in his masterpiece Protestant Ethics and the spirit of Capitalism. Opposing this notion of negative fate, Vázquez de Mella said that “there are not natural laws in the economical order analogous to the ones in the material world, because the economical order, as everything that applies to man, is subordinated to the moral order, that is not carried out inexorably but freely.” Mocking the liberal economics and not without sarcasm, Vázquez de Mella asked: “Which is the leitmotif of all actions in that individualist economics? Interest, I am answered. And what’s the law of interest? ... Oh! That is one of the most extraordinary things in science in a long time. Interests, by their very nature, are conflicting, divergent, just as the passions that promote them. Nonetheless, if [interests] are free they would surely merge as in a romantic song.” He was demanding a control of these interests by the State government, with a view to the common good, because the life of society requires an ordering and a restraint of these interests unless a calamity is wanted. Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical Rerum Novarum expresses the same opinion regarding the common good. He stressed the duties of the State governments to keep “peace and order; and the whole of domestic society to be governed by God’s Commandments and the principles of Natural Law; and to keep and promote religion; to flourish in private and public life pure habits and customs; to keep Justice unharmed; not to let without punishment the one who violates other’s right; to make strong citizens capable of helping other human beings, and if necessary, capable of defending society.” Not quite like modern governments. With forceful expression, Vázquez de Mella calls for “the empire of Christian Charity and the Kingdom of Justice”. For him the social question has only two solutions: “The slavery of force or the slavery of love. There can only be a majority serving, under a rule of force, a powerful minority which owns the power and the capital; or a minority enslaved by love, serving the social majority ... Either the forced slavery of most people, or the voluntary sacrifice of the few.” Sacrifice is (or should be) the core of all aristocracies, and the reason of their influence and ascendancy over the rest of the people. The Christian faith was dependent at the beginning on an elite of Apostles and disciples. Today, the world is totally dependent on the action of true Catholics. But that voluntary sacrifice of the few requires a love willing to sacrifice welfare, health and even life in favour of their fellow men. This notion is enshrined in ancient Spanish law, and repeated by the general consensus of Spanish traditionalism down the centuries: the King does not have power for his own benefit, but only for the benefit of his subjects. The Fuero Juzgo, the oldest written Spanish law, said “Rey eres si haces el bien e si non non lo eres”, i.e. ‘You are king if you do good, and if you don’t, you are not’.

EPILOGUE

Let us look at the Church Magisterium and we will find that, as Vázquez de Mella wanted, the order in the relationship between capital and labour reflects something certainly higher. Pope Leo XIII said, “there was once a time when states were governed by the principles of Gospel teachings. Then it was that the power and divine virtue of Christian wisdom had diffused itself throughout the laws, institutions, and morals of the people; permeating all ranks and relations of civil society. Then, too, the religion instituted by Jesus Christ, established firmly in befitting dignity, flourished everywhere, by the favour of princes and the legitimate protection of magistrates; and Church and State were happily united in concord and friendly interchange of good offices. The State, constituted in this wise, bore fruits important beyond all expectation, whose remembrance is still, and always will be, in renown, witnessed to as they are by countless proofs which can never be blotted out or even obscured by any craft of any enemies.” Vázquez de Mella wanted to give an experimental proof, and asked himself about who achieved the prodigious change from paganism to Christendom, that changed all the old economical order and replaced slavery by freedom. “It was not [achieved by] the philosophers or the philanthropists, but [by] the religious orders, especially [by] those monks from the Rule of Saint Benedict, whose cells, set in the wilderness as beehives –in the words of Montalambert- from which the monks took the wax with their hands, and the honey of prayer and psalmody with their lips. Even rationalistic historians like Michelet, or positivists like Taine, have acknowledged that the monks liberated work, broke the yoke of slavery, and, in a word entirely ruled by force, established the kingdom of freedom which began in the workshop of Nazareth. Later, Brotherhoods [Cofradías] would give origin to Guilds, emancipating the manual workers, and joining for the first times the forces of capital and labour. United by the hierarchy of officers and masters, the medieval guilds made impossible the rising of the ‘social question’, which would later appear hand in hand with the great manufacturing industries. The social question, initiated by the introduction of the machines, was to develop fully with the violent destruction of the medieval guilds by the tyranny of the revolution. [...] Since then, first cautiously but later with all fury, capital and labour are facing each other by the injustice of an economy concocted by ideologues.”

By Juan M. Santos and Andrés Hermosa Gacho

27/5/09

La conversión del rey Recaredo

Por aquel tiempo, año 587 de Nuestro Señor, Recaredo, tocado de la misericordia divina, reunió a los obispos arrianos y les dijo: "¿Por qué se suscitan cada día altercados entre nosotros y los obispos que se llaman católicos (qui se catholicos dicunt)? Y cuando su creencia les hace obrar infinitos milagros ¿por qué no podéis vosotros hacer cosa semejante? Os ruego, pues, que os reunáis y discutáis con ellos las creencias de ambos partidos, a fin de que podamos venir en conocimiento de qué parte está la verdad. Entonces o ellos se rendirán a vuestras razones y creerán lo que decís, o vosotros reconoceréis estar ellos en lo cierto y creeréis lo que vienen anunciando".



El rey hizo observar que los obispos herejes nunca habían curado enfermos y recordó que en vida de su padre, un obispo que con el auxilio de sus falsas creencias se jactaba de devolver la vista a los ciegos, tocó con sus manos a uno que fingía serlo y le ocasionó una cegera eterna. Así pues Recaredo llamó en particular a los ministros de Dios, y después de examinar sus creencias, reconoció que había que adorarse a un solo Dios, Uno y Trino. Comprendió la Verdad e hizo que cesara toda discusión, sometiéndose a la Ley católica, recibió la señal de la cruz y la unción del santo crisma y confesó a Nuestro Señor Jesucristo, hijo de Dios e igual al Padre y al Espíritu Santo. Así sea. Envió diputados a la Septimania, para atraer al pueblo a la misma creencia: había allí por un entonces un obispo de la secta arriana llamado Athaloco, quien turbaba de tal modo las iglesias de Dios con proposiciones vanas e interpretaciones falsas de las santas escrituras, que se le habría tomado por el mismo Arrio, quien según relato del historiador Eusebio, sacó sus entrañas en un lugar escusado. Como dicho obispo no permitiese a los de su secta abrazar la fe católica, y no contase sino con un número reducido de partidarios, entró en su celda fuera de sí de despecho y apoyando su cabeza en la cama, entregó al Señor su alma perversa. Así fue como el pueblo de herejes que habitaba esta provincia confesó la indivisible Trinidad y abandonó su error.



Carta de Recaredo, rey de España, al papa San Gregorio Magno

(recuperada de un código antiguo de la Biblioteca Colbertina)



Domino Sancto, ac beatissimo Papae Gregorio episcono

Al Santo y beatísimo Papa el Señor obispo Gregorio



Recaredus:

Recaredo:



I. Tempora quo nos Dominus sua miseratione nefandae arrianae haeresis fecit esse discordes, melioratos fidei tramite intra sinus suos catholica colligit Ecclesia.

En el tiempo que Nuestro Señor por su divina misericordia nos separó de la secta sacrílega de los Arrianos, la Iglesia católica, viéndonos mejorados en la Religión, nos recibió dentro de su seno.



(...)



VII. Salutem vero tuam reverendissime, et sanctissime vir audire delector: et peto tuae christianitatis prudentiae, ut nos gentesque nostras, quae nostro post Deum regimine moderantur, et vestris sunt a Christo adquisitae temporibus, communi Domino tuis orebo commendes orationibus, ut per eamdem rem, quos orbis latitudo dissociat, vera in Deum acta charitas feliciter convalescat.

Reverendísimo y santísimo varón, he oido con mucho placer que Dios te conceda salud, y suplico a tu cristianísima prudencia, que a los pies de Nuestro Señor te acuerdes de nosotros y de nuestras gentes, a quienes nosotros, después de Dios, gobernamos, y a quienes has visto en tus días reducidos al rebaño de Jesucristo. Esperamos que por tus oraciones, aunque tan separados, viviremos todos unidos en unión de caridad.



Cartas del Papa San Gregorio Magno a Recaredo, rey de España

(Son tres cartas de las que reproduzco lo mas relevante)



Gloriosissimo, atque Praecelentissimo filio Recharedo Regi Gothorum, atque Suevorum

Al Gloriosísimo y Excelentísimo hijo nuestro Recaredo, Rey de los Godos y Suevos



I. No puedo explicar con palabras, hijo mío, cuanto me consoláis con vuestra vida y acciones. El nuevo milagro que ha sucedido en nuestros días, de haber pasado los Godos por obra vuestra de la herejía arriana a la verdadera fe, me mueve a exclamar con el profeta: "Esta mudanza es obra de la diestra de Dios". ¿Qué pecho habrá tan de piedra, que oyendo tan gran novedad, no se derrita en alabar a Dios y en amar a vuestra persona? (de la primera carta)



(...)



VI. He recibido las trescientas vestiduras que ha enviado vuestra excelencia de limosna a los pobres de san Pedro, y ruego a Dios con toda mi alma que en el tremendo día del juicio final, os ampare y proteja aquel mismo Señor, a cuyos pobres habéis favorecido y vestido. Si he tardado tanto en enviar a vuestra excelencia mi criado, no ha sido por descuido, sino por falta de ocasión, pues no ha habido bastimento alguno que pasare de estas tierras a las de España. (escribe en latín: Spaniae) (de la segunda carta)



(...)



Os remito también otra llave que ha tocado el sagrado cuerpo de San Pedro Apóstol, para que, colocándola vos en lugar digno, merezcáis de Dios toda bendición y felicidad (único fragmento conservado de la tercera carta)

26/5/09

Las Querellas de Alfonso X el Sabio

Séanos permitido, citar aquí las dos únicas octavas que nos quedan de las Querellas, en que se lamentaba el rey de su mala ventura, que por la elevación de su estilo, por lo sentido de sus conceptos, hacen deplorar mas y mas la pérdida de las restantes. Dicen así:



A ti Diego Pérez Sarmiento, leal

Cormano e amigo e firme vassallo,

Lo que á mios omes de cuita les callo

Entiendo decir, plañendo mi mal:

A tí que quitaste la tierra é cabdal

Por las mias faciendas en Roma é allende,

Mi pendola vuela, escochala dende,

Cá grita doliente con fabla mortal:



Como yaz solo el rey de Castiella,

Emperador de Alemania que foe,

Aquel que los reyes besaban el pie,

É reinas pedian limosna é mancilla,

El que de hueste mantuvo en Sevilla

Diez mil de á caballo e tres dobles peones;

El que acatado en lexanas regiones

Foe por sus tablas e por su cochilla.

18/5/09

Algo de Arte (pero del bueno)


De abajo a arriba:








Nicolás de Bari salva la vida a tres inocentes (Repin)


A la guerra (Savitsky)


Cristo y la pecadora (Polenov)


Los Bogatyr (Vasnetsov)


Ofelia (Millais)


Infancia de Cristo (Van Honthorst)


El pastor distraido (Hunt)


El panteón de los héroes (Michelena)


Leif Eriksson (Krogh)


Washington cruzando el Delaware (Leutze)

15/5/09

Foto del Requeté, requeterretocada

El menda, que hoy por la tarde se aburre un poco...

14/5/09

Recordando "las sacas" republicanas



...o cómo miles de presos eran fusilados (creyentes, sacerdotes, monjas, escritores, periodistas, adversarios políticos, poetas, militares, etc...etc...etc...) en un goteo incesante diario, en el trayecto de una prisión a otra, o sencillamente en medio del campo, sin proceso judicial previo, ni siquiera sumario. Así se las gastaba la horda roja, así se las gastaban las milicias de voluntarios o escuadrones de la muerte roja. A veces, quienes dirigían "el paseillo", eran propios agentes del Gobierno.



Generalmente se solía fusilar de uno en uno, lo cual convertía el "proceso" en un auténtico suplicio para el prisionero. Se esperaba mañana, tarde y noche en las celdas, no ser el próximo elegido (al azar) para salir de la prisión.



Tristemente famosas eran aquellas sacas próximas a la liberación de Madrid por las tropas nacionales, en las que eran trasladados de una prisión a otra, unos 2000 presos, de los cuales solo llegaban a su destino 400.

Eran "las sacas" de la España republicana, olvidadas hoy por el Desgobierno de España en su Ley de la Memoria Histérica. Pero claro, los malos siempre son los mismos. ¡¡Viva Progrelandia y su mundo de libertad y fantasía!!

11/5/09

De Soto Memorial







Monumento y parque en memoria del conquistador y explorador español Hernando de Soto (1500-1542), en Bradenton (cerca de Tampa), La Florida, USA

Juan de la Encina y el drama pastoril




En España, lo mismo que en Italia, el drama en sus primeros ensayos tomó la forma pastoril y las muestras mas antiguas de este género que han llegado hasta nosotros son las composiciones de Juan de la Encina, contemporáneo de Rojas, director que fue de la capilla pontificia en Roma y después prior de la Iglesia de León. Las obras de Encina se publican por vez primera en la Salamanca de 1496 y comprenden, además de otras poesías, una porción de églogas dramáticas sagradas y profanas (las segundas amatorias). Estas composiciones se representaron en el palacio del Duque de Alba, protector de Encina, en presencia de la corte, y alguna vez ayudó el mismo poeta a representarlas. Poco después, juntas con otras escritas a imitación suya, pasaron al pueblo, el cual desde entonces empezó a ver cómicos de oficio, dedicados a representar pequeños dramas de 3 o 4 personajes, con algunos muchachos que hacían el papel de mujeres.




Las églogas de Encina son sencillas, con poco artificio y enredo, y sin duda que a su autor no se concedería ahora el título de poeta dramático. Los caracteres son de humilde clase y de la vida pastoril; el diálogo es fácil y en extremo adecuado, y si ningún escritor del S. XV aventaja a Encina en dulzura, él los vence a todos en naturalidad. La sencillez de estas églogas y la facilidad de representarlas por las pocas decoraciones y trajes teatrales que requerían, las recomendó a la imitación popular, que continuó por mucho tiempo después de haberse introducido en España el verdadero drama. Una muestra de Encina:




Escudero: Pastora, sálvete Dios.


Pascuala: Dios os dé, señor, buen día.


Escudero: Guarde Dios tu galanía.


Pascuala: Escudero, así haga a vos.


Escudero: Tienes mas gala que dos


de las de mayor beldad.


Pascuala: Esos que sois de cibdad


perchufais huerte de nos.


Escudero: Deso no tengas temor,


por mi vida, pastorcica,


que te hago presto rica


si quieres teber mi amor.


Pascuala: Esas trónicas, señor,


allá para las de villa.


Escudero: Vente conmigo, carilla,


deja, deja ese pastor.


Déjale que Dios le vala,


no te pene su penar,


que no te sabe tratar


según requiere tu gala.


Mingo: Estate queda, Pascuala,


no te engañe ese traidor


palaciego burlador,


que ha burlado otra zagala.




El mérito de la introducción del verdadero drama en España, lo tendrá el extremeño Bartolomé Torres Naharro, que con Fernán Pérez de Oliva, ponen fin al este periodo de nuestra historia literaria e inauguran la brillante época de Cervantes, Lope y Calderón.

8/5/09

Los libros de caballería, en la Edad Media

En aquellos tiempos, la mayor fecundidad de la imaginación, se empleaba en los libros de caballería, escritos en Prosa, que hoy yacen sepultados en completo olvido, después que les descargara el golpe de gracia, la obra inmortal de Cervantes. Créese generalmente que esta clase de libros hubo de principiar en Inglaterra y norte de Francia, pues eran igleseses y franceses sus primeros héroes.





Ocupa el primer lugar el rey Artus con sus paladines de la Tabla Redonda, y las hazañas de Carlomagno y sus capitanes, particularmente Roldán; fueron otros sucesos que posteriormente llenaron el mundo con su fama y dieron igualmente origen a nuevas canciones y romances. Al difundirse el espíritu caballeresco por la Cristiandad, aplicáronse a aquellos héroes tan celebrados por todos, las cualidades que en concepto de las gentes constituían al perfecto caballero, y se convirtió a cada uno, en paladín dedicado en buscar aventuras extraordinarias, la imaginación así, tuvo rienda suelta y como al propio tiempo el conocimiento de la literatura árabe, difundió la afición de lo maravilloso, se formó aquella especie de mitología propia de los tiempos heróicos de la Europa moderna y representación de la idealidad poética de la Edad Media. Los primeros vestigios de los libros de caballería, reducidos entonces a cuentos y leyendas populares, debieron por consiguiente aparecer por los siglos VII y VIII; pero solo cuando se organizó el feudalismo y estuvo en su auge la caballería andante, pudieron reunirse y engalanarse en la forma que han llegado a nosotros; en efecto, tenía que transcurrir un tiempo para que la verdad histórica se desnaturalizase enteramente y para revestir a héroes reales en un principio, de un carácter que no tuvieron y de costumbres posteriores a la edad en que brillaron.





En las series que pueden dividirse los libros de caballería pertenece a la literatura española la llamada de las empresas galesas o célticas, es decir, de los Amadices y sus diferentes ramas. Atribúyese al portugués Vasco Lobeira, que vivió a últimos del XIII o principios del XIV, el primer libro de caballería original que apareció en la península, mas no se publicó en castellano ni se imprimió hasta el 1490 (lo hizo Garcí Ordóñez de Montalvo). Por aquel mismo tiempo, se imprimión en Valencia Tirant lo Blanch, uno de los libros de caballería que declara Cervantes, digno de ser librado de las llamas, y como el Amadís de Gaula, fue traducido al castellano. Desde entonces comenzaron a llover continuaciones o imitaciones. La fantasía española había encontrado un dilatado campo en que esparcirse; y si a la verdad no sobresale esta literatura por las dotes de la bellaza clásica, si los libros de caballería están llenos de absurdos, monstruosidades y aun ridiculeces, se ve en todos sobra de imaginación, lozanía de ingenio, sentimientos nobles, delicadeza de afectos, entusiasmo guerrero, pundonor llevado al extremo, religiosidad nunca desmentida y no pocas veces un lenguage fluido y elegante. Encierran por fin el tipo de una civilización particular y son la expresión de una sociedad que ya no existe.





Tirante el Blanco, la escrita con mayor naturalidad y verosimilitud, no ha dado hijos o descendientes, al paso que el Amadís fue el patriarca de una dilatada familia de caballeros andantes, escrita al contrario del Tirante, en los sucesos sobrenaturales, las hadas y los magos, mas del gusto de aquellos tiempos, pero sin duda, lo que mayor nombradía le dio, fue el espíritu caballeresco. Lo que parece extravagante y ridículo para esta generación, se presentaba como heróico y sublime a los hombres de aquel tiempo que, criados entre hazañas portentosas, no consideraban ninguna imposible.

7/5/09

Uniformes carlistas




Uniformes carlistas de la 3ª Guerra (1872-1876)...arriba

Uniformes carlistas de la 1ª Guerra (1833-1840)...debajo