Alfonso Reyes, Hispanist Praxis, and the Critique of Transatlantic Reason

Abstract

Mexican writer and intellectual Alfonso Reyes has historically enjoyed a strong reputation as a Hispanist. He was one of the first Latin American intellectuals to engage Spain in the 20th century, becoming close to figures such as José Ortega y Gasset in the 1920, as well as a privileged reader of Góngora in the Spanish American context. Later on, Reyes was a crucial figure in allowing the Spanish Exile in Mexico to integrate to the tissue of Mexico’s cultural field. The affinities that Reyes had with his Spanish counterparts have obscured the fact that, alongside his Hispanism, he also was a strong critic of the idea of Spain as the center of Spanish-language culture and the false symmetry between Spain and Latin America as equal parts of an equation. Using his highly critical Vísperas de España as a departing point, the proposed paper will argue that Reyes was in fact “Provincializing Spain”, to borrow Dipesh Chakrabarty’s expression, that is challenging the status of Spain as the Transatlantic metropolis and questioning the supposed spiritual unity between Spain and Latin America posed by intellectuals at the time.