Anger and Indignation

In 1899 Ramiro de Maeztu published Hacia otra España, a collection of newspaper and journal articles that stands out as a remarkable contribution to regenerationism, the fin-de-siècle intellectual movement that reflected on the theme of national decadence and offered practical proposals for reforming Spain. Like other regenerationist (and modernist) texts, such as En torno al casticismo and Idearium español, Hacia otra España follows some of the conventions of the essay form and displays a basic opposition between what is old or decadent and what is new, emerging and vigorous. This polarity, which has an unequivocal social dimension in Maeztu, symbolizes a distinction between an illusory Spain (made up of imperial legends and conquering myths, of unproductive classes and destitute peasants, of corrupt politicians, the state, and the Church) and a real one (made up of the industrial bourgeoisie, the working classes who valued hard work, and the intellectuals, a handful of “individualidades sensatas y energéticas” [sensible and energetic individuals] who were lucid enough to anticipate the nation's illnesses (Hacia otra España 149).

Maeztu's enthusiasm for the values of a new Spain – this otra España to which his essay aspires – springs from a deep sense of dissatisfaction with traditional social agents and values. Notorious as an eccentric nonconformist, Maeztu did not hesitate to express his anger over the way in which noble values in Spanish society (discipline and hard work, the ethic of conflict, the will to power) were corrupted by the influence of the State and the Church. “Maeztu, en aquella época,” recalls Pío Baroja, “era muy agresivo” [Maeztu, at that time, was very aggressive] (169). This aggressiveness manifested itself in relation to the things Maeztu both loved and hated. For instance, when he saw Benito Pérez Galdós's Electra, a controversial play that had become a symbol for anticlericalism, he was so enthused that he cried out “¡Abajo los jesuitas!” [Down with the Jesuits!] (P. Baroja 209). Later, when Maeztu read a tepid review of the play, he was so flabbergasted and enraged at the author, Azorín, that he insulted and physically threatened him (P. Baroja 209–10). Other contemporaneous anecdotes corroborate the notion of Maeztu's exuberant personality.