1: Early Years: Distant Spain
Abstract || 2: Oxford >>
The writings of a humanist are
basically his intellectual history. Hence this personal note. I was born in Torquay,
England in 1911, and as a child I wandered around the shores on its beautiful bay during
World War 1. Navy vessels came and went~ and I clearly remember arrival of a destroyer
different from the ones I was used to; it was American. The United States had just entered
the war, and I became conscious of the existence of that distant land, never dreaming that
I would make my home there. Some wives of interned Germans were billeted with us; they
were kind people, and we became very fond of them. At the same time I saw young English
soldiers going off to fight the Hun; I recall how one kindly helped me across a busy
street. Then, at the railway station, I would see Red Cross trains arrive, full of young
English soldiers with all kinds of ugly wounds. I became aware of the tragic absurdity of
such international "relations."
Staring at the sea had made me conscious of the world beyond the horizon, and I saw
another aspect of the sea when we moved to the then great port of Southampton. Majestic
liners came from and went to America, the outposts of empire, and other even more exotic
countries. Every day I walked past the monument to the "Titanic." The docks were
full of all kinds of strange people, among them swarthy people who spoke an odd language.
They were "dagoes" —from "Diego"— i.e. Spaniards. Diego, or
Santiago, is one of the most common Spanish names, since Saint James is the patron saint
of Spain. Later I was to wander the length of the Way to Santiago, but at the time I
simply thought Dagoes were odd people. At school I studied Spanish, which was regarded as
a rather second-class language as compared with French (for culture) and German (for
science and theology).
My family moved to Winchester, where I haunted the great cathedral where Philip II of
Spain, the Devil of the South, married bloody Mary Tudor. The chantry of Bishop Gardiner,
in the gaunt counter-reformation style of El Escorial, contrasted with the more lovely
ones of earlier bishops, notably that of William of Wykham. One of my first publications
was a detailed account of the marriage, based on the conflicting versions of chronicles
and historians. I realized that history comes in different colors and shades.
Philip II’s ambition was to rule the world. This grand design triggered the fear and
hatred which Spain inspired in much of Europe. We were proud of Sir Francis Drake, whose
victory over the Armada was celebrated in a monument in Plymouth, near where I was born.
Later I became familiar with La Dragonlea, the
Spanish epic about "El Drac"-the Dragon (Drake!)—the monster feared by the
Spaniards. This is a splendid example of a historical figure seen from opposing sides. Had
the Armada won, how different the history of the world would have been, to borrow Pascal's
phrase about Cleopatra's nose.
Spain was seen as obscurantist, backward, and ignorant. The Anglican priest of our church,
a scholarly individual, dismayed that I was studying Spanish, said "Spain has no
literature." He thus echoed the nasty remark of Montesquieu that Don Quixote "is the only one of their books
which is good, because it shows how ridiculous all the others are." Speaking with
pity rather than malice, he did not even mention Don
Quixote, which enjoyed immense popularity in England.
Already in school I was attracted by the Spanish novels of the nineteenth century, and
they had a profound influence on my attitude
toward Spain, since I came to appreciate Spaniards as humans.
However, in the history classes the historic antipathy toward Spain was apparent. The
totally negative attitude toward Spain´s role in the world, which was general in Europe
at the time, permeated the textbooks. Later, in the United States, I found that the common
view among even professors was that the English came to settle in the New World, while the
Spaniards came simply to exploit the lands they conquered, looting them of gold and
exploiting or exterminating the Indians. This disregarded the magnificent cities the
Spaniards built in America and the work of the missionaries who protected and educated the
Indians. All this is what Spaniards call la leyenda negra, the black legend. It reappeared in the 1992 celebrations of the
discovery of America, which were largely counterproductive.
It was a shock to me to find that in Spain textbooks gave a quite different version of
history, which had formed the outlook of Spaniards from their childhood. This is a
worldwide problem; it creates misunderstandings which fuel hatreds which easily explode in
wars. Hence the importance of international
efforts to create a common version of history, which would be fair to all nations. It is an almost impossible task. The latest
example is the opposition in Japan to mention in textbooks of the Japanese atrocities in
China.
Abstract || 2: Oxford >>
