Mariano Jose de Larra

Mariano José de Larra y Sánchez de Castro (Madrid, March 24, 1809–ibid., February 13, 1837) was a Spanish writer, journalist, and politician. Along with Espronceda, Bécquer, José Zorrilla and Rosalía de Castro, he is considered the highest level of Spanish literary Romanticism.

Journalist, satirical and literary critic, and costumbrista writer, he published more than two hundred articles in the press over eight years. He thus promoted the development of the essay genre. He wrote under the pseudonyms Figaro, the Duende, Bachiller and the Talking Poor. According to Iris M. Zavala, Larra represents "Democratic Romanticism in action." Far from being complacent in the outpourings of sentiment, Figaro places Spain at the center of his critical and satirical work. His work must be understood in the context of the Cortes recently born after the ominous decade (1823-1833), and the first Carlist war (1833-1840). After Larra's suicide at the age of twenty-seven, José Zorrilla read an elegy at his funeral with which he became known.

Larra's ideas have their origin in the Spanish Enlightenment, especially in José Cadalso, and they proved to be very influential in the subsequent generation of '98. In 1901 some of the representatives of that generation such as Azorín, Unamuno and Baroja they brought a wreath of flowers to his grave, a tribute that meant his rediscovery and the identification of the group with the thought of Larra and his concern for Spain.

Biography

Mariano José de Larra was born on March 24, 1809 in Madrid, on Calle de Segovia, where the old Casa de la Moneda was located. His grandfather, Antonio Crispín de Larra y Morán de Navia, worked there, his parents were Mariano de Larra y Langelot and his second wife, María de los Dolores Sánchez de Castro. His father, who was a doctor, was a Frenchman who had held the position of military surgeon in the Josephan army during the War of Independence, so in 1813, when the future author was four years old, his family had to leave the country. following King José I Bonaparte and going into exile, first in Bordeaux and then in Paris. Thanks to the amnesty decreed by Ferdinand VII, the family was able to return to Spain in 1818 and settled in Madrid, where his father became personal physician to the Infante Don Francisco de Paula, one of King Ferdinand's brothers.

Larra continued the studies begun in France in Madrid, and followed his father in the posts he occupied in different parts of Spain (Corella, 1822-1823; Cáceres, 1823-1824; Aranda de Duero, 1824 onwards). In 1824 he settled in Valladolid to study at the university. Although he did not appear for any examination that course, in October 1825 he passed all the subjects. The cause of his non-presence in the exams may be due to a "mysterious event" that completely altered his character.It has subsequently been claimed that he fell in love with a woman much older than him, who turned out to be his father's lover. of the. After attending the October exams, he left his studies in Valladolid and returned to Madrid (1825).

Busto de Larra at Calle de Bailén in Madrid.

He continued his studies and in 1827 joined the Royalist Volunteers, a paramilitary body made up of fervent absolutists, known for their participation in the repression against the liberals. At the time he begins to write poetry, mainly odes and satires.

However, it will be satirical journalism that brings Larra to light. At the age of nineteen, in 1828 Larra published a monthly brochure called El duende satirico del día. It will be a series of five notebooks in the vein of the essay magazines inaugurated in England at the beginning of the XVIII century with The Spectator, by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, and which in Spain represent The Speculative Goblin of Civil Life, The Thinker and The Censor, dedicated to the criticism of the society of his time. Larra would sign with the pseudonym el Duende. In this publication, the satirical genius that Larra would later display begins to be glimpsed. Larra is not, however, an opponent of the absolutist regime (he continues to belong to the Royalist Volunteers), but rather a journalist who, through satire, criticizes the social and political situation of the moment.^{[citation required]}

Larra is not alone, but is part of a group of restless and dissatisfied young people who meet in a café on Calle del Príncipe, in Madrid. The gathering is baptized as "El Parnasillo", and is frequented by Ventura de la Vega, Juan González de la Pezuela, Miguel Ortiz, Juan Bautista Alonso or Bretón de los Herreros. In December 1828, Larra had a confrontation in a cafe with José María de Carnerero, director of the Correo Literario y Mercantil , whom "El duende" had criticized in its last issues. Carnerero goes to the authorities, who close the publication. However, Larra had already achieved a certain reputation as an acute observer of customs and the cultural, social and political reality of the moment.^{[citation required]}

On August 13, 1829, he married Josefa Wetoret Velasco in the church of San Sebastián in Madrid. The marriage was unfortunate and would end in separation a few years later; They did, however, have three children: Luis Mariano de Larra, who was a famous zarzuela librettist, including El barberillo de Lavapiés, and Adela and Baldomera, who were five and four years old, respectively, when Larra left. he committed suicide in 1837. Adela was the lover of Amadeo de Saboya and Baldomera married the king's doctor, Carlos de Montemar, who, when Amadeo resigned from the throne, emigrated to America and left his wife with small children in Madrid; Baldomera she dedicated herself to banking and was one of the creators of the so-called pyramid scheme, for which she was sentenced to prison; She ended her days in Argentina, at the beginning of the XX century.

During 1830, Larra dedicated himself to translating French plays for the theater manager Juan Grimaldi, at the same time that he began to write his own (in 1831 he would premiere the costumbrista comedy No más mostrador, inspired by in a French vaudeville). That year would be crucial, since he met Dolores Armijo, married to a son of the well-known lawyer Manuel María de Cambronero, with whom he would begin a stormy relationship in 1831 (while still married to Josefa Wetoret, with whom he had his first son, Luis Mariano, in 1830).^{[citation required]}

Larra, in the magazine The Universal Museum (1857).

In 1832 he returned to journalism of social criticism with El Pobrecito Hablandador, in which he wrote under the pseudonym Juan Pérez de Munguía. In El Pobrecito Hablador, Larra shows the Enlightenment and progressive illusion that it is possible to overcome, with the hope of tomorrow, the old Castilianism of a patriotism stagnant in the past. El Pobrecito Habador ceased publication in March 1833, several months after Larra began collaborating with La Revista Española, a liberal-oriented newspaper that was born in November 1832., taking advantage of the fact that the king's illness had left the Government in the hands of Queen María Cristina, opening the hopes of the liberals. Under the pseudonym Fígaro, he would insert literary and political criticism into costumbrista paintings, under the protection of the relaxation sponsored by the death of Fernando VII. Articles such as Come back tomorrow , El castellano viejo , Among which people are we , In this country and Marrying early and badly, among others. Beyond social criticism, Larra attacks the Carlists, committed to the political transformation from absolutism to liberalism and ironically complains about censorship in his article "Las palabras":

I don't know who said that man is naturally bad; great sting by the way! We've never thought this way: man is unhappy for more than they say... As an animal, he speaks and listens; behold, precisely the reason for man's superiority will tell me a naturalist: and, behold, it is precisely that of his inferiority, as I think, that I am more natural than naturalistic... Everything is positive and rational in the private animal of reason. The female does not deceive the male and vice versa, because, as they do not speak, they understand. The strong man does not deceive the weak, for the same reason: at the very sight he flees the second from the first, and this is the order and the only order possible. Give them the use of the word; in the first place they will need an academy to attribute the right to tell them that such or what vocable should not mean what they want, but anything else: they will need wise, therefore, to take care of a long life in talking about how to speak: they will need writers who make binding papers, who will call books, to tell their opinions to others that matter... They'll name things, and call for a robbery, another lie, another murder, they'll get, not to avoid them, but to fill the forests with criminals... Give them you. In the end the use of the word and they will lie: the female the male for love, the great the boy for ambition, the same for rivalry, the poor the rich for fear and envy: they will want government as indispensable thing, and in the class of him they will agree, God lives: these will be let go down because the mande one alone, hobby that I have never been able to understand: those will want to send me a great victory here...

In 1834 he published the historical novel El doncel de Don Enrique el Doliente, whose protagonist is the historical drama Macías, banned by the censorship the previous year and which was opens on September 24. Both are based on the tragic life of the medieval poet Macías and his adulterous love affairs, a plot that reflects in a way the relationship he had with Dolores Armijo. In the summer of 1834, Dolores abandoned him and left Madrid, while separating from his pregnant wife, who gave birth to a girl, Baldomera, after the breakup (the second daughter after Adela, the one they had had in 1832).^{[citation needed]}

In 1835 he undertook a trip to Lisbon, from where he embarked for London and then Paris, before passing through Brussels. In Paris he stayed several months and met Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas. That year he had begun to publish in Madrid a compilation of his articles: Figaro. Collection of dramatic, literary, political and customs articles. Back in Madrid, he worked for the newspaper El Español . At this time, political concerns dominated his writings. Larra initially supports the Mendizábal government, however he begins to criticize it when he observes that the confiscation is detrimental to those most in need. After the fall of the Mendizábal government, he decided to intervene in active politics in favor of the moderates, presenting his candidacy for Ávila on June 18, 1836. It is no coincidence that Dolores Armijo, the protagonist of his tragic passion, lives in Ávila at that time under the tutelage of his uncle Alfonso Carrero, mayor of the city. His participation in politics began after the dissolution of the Cortes, when Larra sent an article to El Español entitled A procurator or the honest intrigue , which was not published. The writer protests the censorship of the Government, and the controversy concludes with an act of deputy cunero as payment for his silence. Ceruti, general secretary of the civil government and main representative in Ávila of his love and political interests, fails in his attempt to reestablish his relations with Dolores; but he created a network of intrigues that led to his electoral victory as a candidate for Ávila, in exchange for concessions to a series of prominent figures in the city, including Dolores' uncle, with a long service record in the Treasury.

Her growing discouragement and disagreement with the course of Spanish society and politics, together with the pain caused by her final separation from Dolores Armijo (Larra had visited her in Ávila in February 1836, without achieving any positive results) were reflected in his latest articles. Perhaps the most notable is The Day of the Dead in 1836 , published in El Español , in which a deep pessimism appeared behind its usual irony.

The pact of the journalist, with clear republican sympathies, with a government formed based on palace intrigues with the Regent and supported by ultra-conservative military elements, was a real personal and political disaster for him. After the events of the riot at the Granja de San Ildefonso, he finds himself among the opposition networks and the retaliation of his former co-religionists. His readership dropped precipitously, and in two letters to Pepita and Dolores he talks about the dangers he runs and shouts "I cannot resist slander and infamy."

Current Larra tomb in the San Justo cemetery in Madrid.

On the night of February 13, 1837, Dolores Armijo, accompanied by her sister-in-law, visited him at his house on Calle de Santa Clara in Madrid, informing him that there was no possibility of an agreement. Hardly had the two women left the house, when Larra decided to end her life by shooting herself in the temple at the age of twenty-seven, devastated by despair and impotence that meant not being able to change her personal situation or that of your country. His body was found by his daughter Adela. ^{[citation needed ]}

The great Figaro was about to have one of the most humiliating post mortems of the time, the mercy burial, had it not been for the Literary Youth, who paid for the burial. And so, his funeral, on the 15th, was comparatively 'multitudinous'. While the corpse was introduced into a niche in the Northern Cemetery in Madrid (located behind the Quevedo roundabout), the then young poet José Zorrilla read an emotional poem dedicated to Larra. In 1842 his remains were transferred to the Sacramental de San Nicolás, which was located on Méndez Álvaro street (Madrid). In May 1902, the remains were transferred again to the Sacramental de San Justo, San Millán and Santa Cruz in Madrid, depositing them in the Pantheon of Illustrious Men of the Association of Spanish Writers and Artists, where tributes have continued to be held in his memory. such as the one that occurred in 2009 to commemorate the bicentennial of the writer's birth, headed by the writer Juan Van-Halen, president of the Association of Spanish Writers and Artists, and Jesús Miranda de Larra, descendant and biographer of Larra.

Meaning

Larra was an eminent writer, with great clarity and vigor in his prose. In this field, it only has precedents such as Quevedo in the XVII century or Feijoo, José Cadalso and Jovellanos in the XVIII. In his articles he combats the organization of the State, attacks absolutism and Carlism, mocks society, and rejects life familiar. The ills of Spain, which he identifies with ignorance, backwardness, lack of education and culture, are the central theme of his critical and satirical work. Dissatisfied with the country and its men, he writes critical articles ( In this country, El castellano viejo, El día de los muertos de 1836, Come back tomorrow...), against the censorship (What cannot be said should not be said), capital punishment (Los barateros or Defiance and the death penalty), against the Carlist pretender (What is your majesty doing in Portugal?) and Carlism (Nobody pass without speaking to the doorman) and against the incorrect use of language (For now, Quasi, The words). He also cultivated the historical novel ( El doncel de don Enrique el Doliente ) and the tragedy ( Macías ).

Larra as a literary character

Subsequent literature has taken Larra as a regular character: Francisco Umbral (Larra, anatomy of a dandy, 1965), Francisco Nieva (Larra's Shadow and Chimera, 1976); Antonio Buero Vallejo (The Detonation, 1977); Juan Eduardo Zúñiga (Flowers of lead, Alfaguara, 1999), as well as the book by Nino Quevedo (Carnival Monday. The last hours of Larra).

Works

• Complete works by D. Mariano José de Larra, Montaner and Simon, Barcelona, main work. (1886)
• Macías: historical drama that shows the love contrary by destiny, which leads to death.
• Don Enrique el Doliente: Historical novel set in the Middle Ages, according to romantic custom. In her Larra takes up the theme of her drama Macías.
• Count Fernán González and the Castile exemption, historical drama set in the independence of Castilla County.