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Álvaro Alcalá-Galiano y Osma

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This article is about the Spanish writer and historian. For the Spanish painter, see Álvaro Alcalá Galiano y Vildósola.
Marquis of Castel Bravo
Álvaro Alcalá-Galiano y Osma
Phiotograph by Christian Franzen (Mundo Gráfico, 1914)
Born(1886-04-29)April 29, 1886
Madrid
DiedJuly 28, 1936(1936-07-28) (aged 50)
Vallecas
CitizenshipSpanish
Occupation(s)Journalist, writer, and historian
Political partySpanish Renovation
MovementAteneo de Madrid
Parents
HonoursLegion of Honour (1919)
Signature

Álvaro Alcalá-Galiano y Osma (Madrid, 29 April 1886–28 July 1936) was a Spanish writer, literary critic, historian, and journalist, frequent contributor to newspaper ABC and magazine Acción Española [es]. As a monarchist, he was influenced by Charles Maurras.[1][2][3] While he was pro-Allied during the First World War, his writings later extolled Italian fascism and spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and a strong anti-communism sentiment. He was a member of Spanish Renovation during the Second Republic and was executed at the beginning of the civil war in the Republican zone due to his support for the coup and his fascist ideology.

He held the title of marquis of Castel Bravo [es].[4][5]

Biography

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Family origins and early years

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His father Emilio was ambassador in London and minister of state in 1875.

He was born in Madrid on 29 April 1886 as an heir to the County of Casa-Valencia [es].[6][7][8] His father, Emilio Alcalá-Galiano had been minister of state and would later hold the post of Spanish ambassador to the United Kingdom.[9] His mother was Ana de Osma y Zavala, a native of Lima, cousin of Guillermo de Osma y Scull [es], and a noblewoman of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa.[6][10][11] The other children born to the marriage of the Counts of Casa Valencia were Consuelo,[a] María Teresa, Juan [es], and Emilio [es].[12] On his father's side, Álvaro was the great-grandson of Vicente Alcalá Galiano [es], who served as general treasurer during the War of Independence (1807–1814).[11] Meanwhile, on his mother's side, he was the grandson of Joaquín José de Osma y Ramírez de Arellano [es], the Peruvian foreign minister.[10]

Starting in 1915, he would develop a letter-writing relationship with his cousin, Peruvian nationalist José de la Riva-Agüero y Osma, marquis of Montealegre de Aulestia [es], whom he would have met in 1913.[7][b] He was a member of the Ateneo de Madrid and also a fan of wrestling in his youth.[8][14] Around 1915, he was living in the palace built by his parents [es], located at number 5 Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid.[15][16]

Pro-Allied period

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Front cover of España ante el conflicto europeo, 1914–1915, published in 1916.
Front cover of Junto al Volcán: impresiones del frente occidental, published in 1917.

Alcalá-Galiano was a staunch defender of the Allied cause during the First World War[17][18] —a rarity in Spanish aristocratic circles, where Germanophilia ran rampant.[19] He authored four books on the conflict, published between 1915 and 1919. Around this time, he also wrote compilations of literary studies.[20]

Apart from his inclination as a supporter of the Allies, the categorization of Alcalá-Galiano's ideologies during this period varies depending on the author. According to historian Maximiliano Fuentes Codera [es], he would have conceptualized the war at first in rigid terms as a conflict between the right and the left.[20][21] Back then, according to historian Ignacio Peiró Martín [es], Alcalá-Galiano would have been un escritor cosmopolita, monárquico y liberal. [c][9] Meanwhile, historian Javier Moreno Luzón identifies his brand of opinion journalism during the conflict as that of an uncategorizable proaliado a fuer de maurrasiano. [d][3] Alternatively, his contemporary Emilia Pardo Bazán, who reviewed several of his works, described him in 1915 as intelectual de sangre azul y conservador abolengo. [e][22] By royal decree of 23 May 1918, the nobility title of marquis of Castel Bravo del Rivero [es] was reinstated for him and his descendants.[23] [f]

After the rise of Bolshevism in Russia, Alcalá-Galiano changed his geopolitical vision, replacing Mitteleuropa with Russia as the main focus of concern for Spain.[25]

Maurrassisme and anti-Semitism

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As an admirer of the political doctrine of French intellectual Charles Maurras—leader the so-called "integral nationalism"—Alcalá-Galiano criticized the Vatican for having turned its back on him.[4][26][27] During the 1920s and from the pages of newspaper ABC, Alcalá-Galiano spread his anti-Semitic ideas stemming from Maurrassisme, as well as his favorable opinions on Italian fascism and viscerally anti-parliamentary positions.[28][g] He became an advocate of repression against the "red threat" in the press, and by the start of the decade he was already adhering to the conspiracy theories of the extreme right and recalcitrant anti-communism.[30] Moreover, he was an unconditional admirer of Benito Mussolini and, after the coup by Miguel Primo de Rivera in September 1923, he referred to the differences between both dictatorships, as follows:

En España al fin ha sonado la hora. No ha sido tal como hubiéramos deseado; es decir, un Mussolini español, un fascismo civil, ajeno a la política oficial, que ocupase repentinamente los ministerios, los ayuntamientos y las oficinas del Estado. Pero no había opción. España, como indiqué en estas columnas a principios del actual verano, se hallaba ante el siguiente dilema: o dictadura, o revolución. Por desgracia, a falta de dictador que anhelaba la parte sana del país, ha tenido que ser el elemento militar el encargado de dar realidad a los anhelos nacionales.[h]

— Alcalá-Galiano (22 September 1923)[31]

Alcalá-Galiano was a contributor to newspaper ABC and a sympathizer and collaborator of magazine Acción Española [es] during the Second Republic, as well as a member of political party Spanish Renovation.[26][32][33][34][35] Furthermore, he stood out as an antisemita de pluma,[i][36] since he published La caída de un trono in 1933—in which he blamed the fall of the Bourbon monarchy on a conspiración judeomasónica [j]—and in the pages of ABC, he also praised the anti-Semitic measures taken by Adolf Hitler in Germany.[37] He would also insist on the idea of a Masonic infiltration in Spain during the Second Republic.[38] After the failed Sanjurjada military coup in August 1932 and the resulting closure of Acción Española [es] by the government, he was sent to the Cárcel Modelo prison for a while, along with other collaborators of the magazine.[39]

In February 1934, disillusioned with the ups and downs in the evolution of the nascent fascist movement of Falange Española (FE) and unable to effectively exercise violence on the workers' movement, Alcalá-Galiano did not hesitate to refer to Spanish fascism—contrary to its European counterparts—as platónico.[k][40][41] Also, while meddling with the FE and coinciding with the burial of Falangist Matías Montero [es], he reproached it for its inaction in the face of the attacks it was being subjected to.[42][43][44] He suggested that the FE should carry out a plan of indiscriminate violence.[43] Moreover, amid the controversy, he maintained that:

Un fascismo teórico, sin la violencia como medio táctico, será lo que se quiera, pero no es fascismo. [l]

— Alcalá-Galiano (ABC, 13 February 1934)[43][44][45]

FE leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera would end up accusing Alcalá-Galiano of incitement to murder.[43]

In July 1934, in reaction to Catalan nationalism and from the pages of ABC, Alcalá-Galiano would call on the creation of a patriotic league for the defense of unity in Spain.[46] Later, in 1935, he took part in the strategy to discredit the CEDA, attempting to make it seem that this party had wasted time while in power, which had allowed the left to recover and get reorganized.[47] In late 1935, he was appointed chairperson of the Spanish-English Committee, coinciding with the entry in the board of directors of Henry Chilton, the new British ambassador.[48]

On the occasion of the elections of February 1936, Alcalá-Galiano stated that Spain was facing a dilemma: revolución o contrarrevolución, Patria o Antipatria. [m] Thus, he advocated for:[49]

[L]a unión sagrada de todos los valores auténticamente nacionales frente a la formidable coalición de la Antipatria, dirigida por los agentes de la Internacional revolucionaria (…) para salvar la existencia misma de España (…) [n]

According to Alcalá-Galiano, it had all started with the Pact of San Sebastián, which had led to reparto y despojo de España entre masones, marxistas y separatistas.(…) [o] In turn, he said, this had led to four years of a Republic during which there had been:[49]

[A]tropellos, crímenes, desastres políticos, económicos y sociales... huelgas, atracos y crímenes sociales a granel [coronados por] la revolución de octubre de 1934 con sus 2.500 muertos y sus millares de víctimas, cuyos culpables siguen vivos y algunos de ellos hasta en libertad. [p]

Death

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At the beginning of the Civil War, Alcalá-Galiano was arrested at his home by members of checa number 1 of Radio Comunista and taken to Vallecas with his brother [es], the count of Romilla [es]. They were both executed on 28 July 1936 after having been subjected to a summary trial, due to their fascist ideology.[5]

Works

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  • —— (1908) Impresiones de arte (prologue by Emilia Pardo Bazán) [50]
  • —— (1912) Del Ideal y de la Vida [8][50][51]
  • —— (1914) El Príncipe Iván [50]
  • —— (1915) La Verdad sobre la Guerra. Origen y aspectos del conflicto europeo (with translations into English and French) [50][52]
  • —— (1916) España ante el Conflicto Europeo, 1914–1915 [50][53]
  • —— (1917) Junto al volcán: impresiones del frente occidental [54]
  • —— (1919) El fin de la tragedia: la Entente victoriosa y la España neutral [25]
  • —— (1921) Una voz... en el desierto [55]
  • —— (1926) Fuego y Cenizas [56]
  • —— (1928) Entre dos mundos, seguido de un ensayo sobre la decadencia de Europa [57][58]
  • —— (1933) La caída de un Trono [37][59][60]
  • —— (1934) Renovación Española ante la sociedad.[61]

Notes

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  1. ^ Queen's lady [es]. Married to Jesús Bernaldo de Quirós [es]. Grandmother of Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros y Bernaldo de Quirós and great-grandmother of Iván Espinosa de los Monteros y de Simón.
  2. ^ In his letters, he disagreed with his cousin about the First World War, as the latter argued that Germany, at the time, represented el empuje de juvenil de la conquista y el principio de orden y autoridad en lo político. (English: The youthful drive of conquest and the principle of order and authority in the political sphere.) [13]
  3. ^ English: A cosmopolitan, monarchist, and liberal writer
  4. ^ English: Pro-Allied [individual] by dint of his Maurrassisme
  5. ^ English: [A] blue-blood intellectual with a conservative lineage
  6. ^ In 1922, the name of the title was changed to the simpler Marquis of Castel Bravo.[24]
  7. ^ Regarding fascism, the following articles—all published in ABC—are worthy of note: La "reacción" contra la anarquía (8 November 1922); El fascismo redentor (7 March 1923); De la anarquía a la resurrección (16 March 1923); El triunfo de una dictadura (21 March 1923); Dictadura y revolución (2 June 1923); Ante el golpe de estado (22 September 1923); Renovación política de España. I. Un Gobierno que gobierna (30 September 1923); Italia y España (21 November 1923); La democracia contra el fascismo (10 July 1924); El ocaso de Europa, I (6 August 1924); El ocaso de Europa, II (13 August 1924); Crisis de la civilización (28 August 1924); El comunismo y la revolución (21 November 1924).[29]
  8. ^ English: In Spain, the time has finally come. It has not been as we would have wanted it to be; that is, a Spanish Mussolini, a civil fascism, far from official politics, which would suddenly occupy the ministries, the town halls, and the state offices. But there was no option. Spain, as I said in these columns at the start of this summer, was facing the following dilemma: either we have a dictatorship or a revolution. Unfortunately, in the absence of the dictator that the sane part of the country longed for, the military has had to be the one in charge of realizing the national aspirations.
  9. ^ English: Anti-Semitic writer
  10. ^ English: Judeo-Masonic conspiracy
  11. ^ English: Platonic
  12. ^ English: A theoretical fascism, without violence as a tactical means, is anything but fascism.
  13. ^ English: Either revolution or counterrevolution; either patriotism or anti-patriotism
  14. ^ English: [T]he sacred union of all authentically national values against the formidable coalition of anti-patriotism led by the agents of the revolutionary International (…) in order to save the very existence of Spain itself.
  15. ^ English: The plundering of Spain among Freemasons, Marxists, and separatists
  16. ^ English: Abuse; crime; political, economic, and social debacles… strikes, muggings, and social crime in abundance [topped with] the Revolution of October 1934 with its 2,500 deaths and its thousands of victims, the culprits of which are still alive and some of them are even free.

References

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  1. ^ González Cuevas 2001a, p. 127.
  2. ^ Álvarez Chillida 2002, p. 286.
  3. ^ a b Moreno Luzón 2015.
  4. ^ a b González Cuevas 1990, p. 356.
  5. ^ a b Bullón de Mendoza 2000, p. 83.
  6. ^ a b "Castel Bravo, (Marquesado de)". Revista de Historia y de Genealogía Española (in Spanish). Vol. 5, no. 27–28–29. Madrid. May–October 1931. ISSN 0211-2280. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  7. ^ a b Rivera 2009, p. 425.
  8. ^ a b c Nieto 1913.
  9. ^ a b Peiró Martín 2015, p. 102.
  10. ^ a b Rojas Juárez & de Andrés Díaz 2015, p. 287.
  11. ^ a b Ramírez Jerez 2015, p. 754.
  12. ^ Retortillo, Agustín (5 May 1901). "Noticias de sociedad". La Correspondencia de España (in Spanish). Vol. 52, no. 15796. Madrid. p. 5. ISSN 1137-1188. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  13. ^ Gómez Acuña 1999, p. 102.
  14. ^ "Lista de señores socios" (PDF). Ateneo Científico, Literario y Artístico de Madrid (in Spanish). Madrid. 1909. p. 23.
  15. ^ Martínez Ruiz 1915, p. 4.
  16. ^ Peiró Martín 2015, p. 98.
  17. ^ Meaker 1988, p. 30.
  18. ^ Jiménez Torres 2013, p. 1297.
  19. ^ Peiró Martín 2015, pp. 102–103.
  20. ^ a b Hernández Barral 2014, p. 50.
  21. ^ Fuentes Codera 2013, p. 92.
  22. ^ Ruiz-Ocaña Dueñas 2014–2015, p. 40.
  23. ^ "Real decreto rehabilitando a favor de D. Alvaro Alcalá Galiano y Osma, sin perjuicio de tercero de mejor derecho, el Título de Marqués de Castel Bravo del Rivero, para sí, sus hijos y sucesores legítimos" (PDF). Gaceta de Madrid (in Spanish) (145). Madrid: Ministry of Justice (Spain): 512. 25 May 1918.
  24. ^ "Firma del Rey". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 20 June 1922. p. 19. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  25. ^ a b Hernández Barral 2014, p. 51.
  26. ^ a b González Cuevas 2000, p. 226.
  27. ^ Saz Campos 2003, p. 85.
  28. ^ Álvarez Chillida 2002, p. 290.
  29. ^ Peloille 2009.
  30. ^ García 2005, p. 9.
  31. ^ Seco Serrano 1986, p. 195.
  32. ^ Luis Martín 1990, pp. 122–124.
  33. ^ González Calleja 2011, p. 104.
  34. ^ Morodo Leoncio 1978, p. 37.
  35. ^ Dewaele Valderrábano 2009, p. 174.
  36. ^ Rozenberg 2010, p. 111.
  37. ^ a b Martín Gijón 2010, p. 64.
  38. ^ Martín Sánchez 1996, pp. 665–666.
  39. ^ Badía Collados 1983, p. 838.
  40. ^ González Cuevas 1996, pp. 106–107.
  41. ^ González Cuevas 2011, p. 505.
  42. ^ Grégorio 2000.
  43. ^ a b c d González Calleja 2011, p. 207.
  44. ^ a b Narbona 2015.
  45. ^ González Cuevas 2011, pp. 505–507.
  46. ^ Luis Martín 1994, p. 150.
  47. ^ Gil Pecharromán 1984, p. 118.
  48. ^ Ribagorda 2008, p. 277.
  49. ^ a b Viñas 2019, p. 133.
  50. ^ a b c d e García Rico y Cía. (1920). Biblioteca Hispánica. Catálogo de libros españoles o relativos a España, antiguos y modernos, puestos en venta a los precios marcados por García Rico y Compañía Libreros. Suplemento primero (in Spanish). Madrid: Librería Universal de ocasión. p. 9.
  51. ^ P.E.N. (1 April 1913). "Álvaro Alcalá Galiano; Del Ideal y de la Vida. Madrid, MCMXII. Imprenta artística de J. Blass y Compañía, San Mateo, 1". España y América (in Spanish). Vol. 12, no. 7. Madrid. p. 270. ISSN 0211-898X.
  52. ^ Peiró Martín 2015, pp. 101–102.
  53. ^ Tenreiro 1916, pp. 422–425.
  54. ^ Jiménez Torres 2013, p. 1295.
  55. ^ Gómez de Baquero 1921.
  56. ^ Araujo-Costa 1926.
  57. ^ Artola Blanco 2013, pp. 310, 412.
  58. ^ "Correo literario". El Liberal (in Spanish). Vol. L, no. 17192. Madrid. 22 July 1928. p. 2. ISSN 2174-6648.
  59. ^ Royo Villanova 1933, p. 24.
  60. ^ "Crítica y noticias de libros". ABC (in Spanish). Madrid. 8 March 1933. p. 8.
  61. ^ Artola Blanco 2014, pp. 39–45.

Bibliography

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