Manuel Gálvez

Manuel Gálvez
Manuel Gálvez
Born	Manuel Gálvez (1882-07-18)18 July 1882 Paraná, Entre Ríos
Died	14 November 1968(1968-11-14) (aged 86) Buenos Aires
Monuments	Bust in Plaza Vicente Lopez, Buenos Aires
Nationality	Argentinian
Education	Law degree (1904)
Alma mater	University of Buenos Aires
Occupation	Inspector of schools
Known for	Writer
Notable work(s)	Nacha Regules (1919), Historia de arrabal (1923), Los caminos de la muerte (1928), El general Quiroga (1932)
Style	Romanticism, Costumbrismo
Religion	Roman Catholic Church

Manuel Gálvez (born 18 July 1882 in Paraná, Entre Ríos – died 14 November 1968 in Buenos Aires) was an Argentine novelist, poet, essayist, historian and biographer.

Early years

Gálvez, a member of one of the leading patrician families of Entre Ríos Province, was educated by the Jesuits before attending the University of Buenos Aires, graduating in 1904 with a law degree.^[1] He was employed as a schools inspector from 1906 to 1931.^[1]

His early political idea were somewhat fluid. At university he had helped to found a highly traditionalist literary review called Ideas but soon after graduation he was involved in liberalism before becoming enamoured of the Spanish Generation of '98.^[1] As such along with the likes of Ricardo Rojas he became part of a Hispanidad movement within Argentine literature that sought closer cultural ties with Spain.^[2]

By widely reading the Hispanidad authors and examining their works for a specifically Argentine audience in his own writing Gálvez has been credited for ensuring the spread of the ideology amongst the country's nationalist intellectuals.^[3] He also emphasised the centrality of the Roman Catholic Church to Argentine identity.^[4]

Nationalism

Between 1906 and 1910 Gálvez became a regular visitor to Spain and these journeys helped to solidify his belief in Hispanidad, as expounded in his 1913 book El Solar de la Raza.^[1] Politically he became associated with the rightist nationalism of the country's upper classes^[5] and indeed claimed in his collection of essays El Diario de Gabriel Quiroga that he was the first genuine Argentine nationalist in history.^[1] He was particularly fixated on the dilution of Argentine culture that he feared was taking place due to what he believed was the influx of Jews, whom he identified with anarchism, Italian peasants, whom he identified with materialism, and international finance, which he believed fuelled decadence and cosmopolitanism.^[1]

He was the first of the nationalist writers to promote Juan Manuel de Rosas as an archetype of Argentine values,^[1] which was later shared by most of his contemporaries.^[1] Gálvez's hero worship of Rosas led him to pen a series of five novels set during his rule, to become joint editor of a journal named after Rosas and to serve as Vice President of the Instituto de Investigaciones Historicas 'Juan Manuel de Rosas'.^[1] The latter group, which came to specialise in historical revisionism about Argentina, had been established in 1938 by Gálvez, Roberto de Laferrère, Carlos Ibarguren, Ernesto Palacio and Rodolfo and Julio Irazusta.^[6]

In 1925 Gálvez adopted Italian fascism as his preferred mode of government, arguing that it was the only way to prevent the weak government that he felt was aiding the growth of his declared enemies of communism, immigration and American imperialism.^[1] He would also look to the example of the Falange, arguing that these fascist groups were the only ones capable of defending religion and tradition from "Satanic" communism.^[7]

He denied charges of anti-Semitism, claiming that he opposed Jewish immigration to Argentina simply because he was anti-immigration rather than anti-Jewish, although he regularly criticised perceived Jewish influence in Argentina and as late as 1962 his novel El Mal Metafisico was criticised for the highly stereotypical portrayal of Jewish characters.^[8] However despite publicly endorsing versions of fascism he always stopped short of full fascism in his writing due to the innate conservatism of his traditionalism and his main political influences were fellow ultra-traditionalists Charles Maurras and Maurice Barrès.^[8]

Writing

A bust of Gálvez in Buenos Aires.

Gálvez was a prolific writer whose works covered a number of styles and genres. As a novelist his works included La sombra del convento, El cántico espiritual, Miércoles Santo, La tragedia de un hombre fuerte, La noche toca a su fin y Cautiverio, La muerte en las calles (1949), Nacha Regules (1919) and Historia de arrabal (1923), the latter two works proving his most widely celebrated.^[9] He was a literary prize winner for both Los caminos de la muerte (1928) and El general Quiroga (1932).^[9] His theatrical works include El hombre de los ojos azules (1928) and Calibán (1943).^[9]

His volume of work increased significantly in the 1950s, as he wrote Tiempo de odio y angustia (1951), Han tocado a degüello (1840–1842) (1951), Bajo la garra anglo-francesa (1953), Y así cayó Don Juan Manuel (1954), Las dos vidas del pobre Napoleón (1954), El uno y la multitud (1955), Tránsito Guzmán (1956), Poemas para la recién llegada (1957), Perdido en su noche (1958), Recuerdos de la vida literaria (1961), Me mataron entre todos (1962) and La locura de ser santo (1967) amongst others.^[9]

His first poetic work was 1907's El enigma interior, followed in 1909 by the similar Sendero de humildad. As an essayist, polemicist and critic he published El solar de la raza (1913), La vida múltiple (1916), Amigos y maestros de mi juventud (1944) and El novelista y las novelas (1959) as well as biographies of such historic figures as Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Hipólito Yrigoyen and Gabriel García Moreno.^[9]

Personal life

He was married to the writer, Delfina Bunge.^[10] He died in 1968 in Buenos Aires.

References