The two Spains
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The two Spains (Spanish: las dos Españas) is a phrase from a short poem by Spanish poet Antonio Machado. The phrase, referring to the left-right political divisions that later led to the Spanish Civil War, originated in a short, untitled poem, number LIII of his Proverbios y Cantares[1] (Proverbs and Songs).
Antonio Machado himself is an example of this split. While he wrote a poem to honor the Communist General Enrique Líster[2], his brother Manuel Machado dedicated another poem to the saber of the rebel Generalissimo Francisco Franco.
The idea of a divided Spain, each half antagonistic to the other half, dates back at least to 19th-century Spanish satirist Mariano José de Larra, who, in his article "All Souls' Day 1836" ["Día de difuntos de 1836"] wrote "Here lies half of Spain. It died of the other half.[3]" Later, philosopher Miguel de Unamuno, Machado's contemporary, developed the idea through the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau struggling for dominance in their mother's womb, as in the article "Rebeca" (1914), which may pre-date Machado's quatrain. But historians trace the idea still further back, to the 17th and 18th centuries and the formation of the Spanish character.[4][5]
[edit] References
- ^ Proverbios y Cantares, LIII, Antonio Machado.
- ^ A Líster, jefe en los ejércitos del Ebro, Antonio Machado, June 1938.
- ^ El Día de Difuntos de 1836: Fígaro en el cementerio, Mariano José de Larra, El Español, Nº 368, 2nd November 1836.
- ^ Ramón Menéndez Pidal, "The Two Spains," in "The Spaniards in Their History," transl. Walter Starkie. New York: Norton, 1966, pp. 102-43.
- ^ Fidelino de Figueiredo, "As Duas Espanhas" (1932).
