Virile Peoples and the Spanish Gentleman’s Burden: Virility as a National Issue in the Spanish “regeneracionismo” (1890s-1910s)

Abstract

During the last decade of the nineteenth century, Spanish elites articulated a discourse of crisis and change known as “regeneracionismo”. It argued that it was essential to radically transform Spanish politics and society. The aim was to succeed in international competition and the way to do so consisted in interiorizing the virtues of “modern civilization,” and merge them with what were considered as traditional strengths of Spanish character, while leaving aside the vices of the two. In this sense, the “regeneracionsimo” was part of a transnational discourse of progress and decadence, fueled by the spread of nationalism and by the struggle to define and embody the criteria of modern civilization. In this text I argue that Spanish regenerationist discourse identified the “national question” as a question of virility and sought the solutions to this evil in the recovery of virility by means of moral regeneration.