This collaborative effort, edited by two able Hispanists, consists of a series of articles and documents which, together, study this important historical event (Spain had been able to contain the outbreaks which twenty years earlier had been so fundamental for the rest of Europe) in all its complexity; that is to say, in its political, social, economic and literary implications. Its twenty-one “authors”—counting Professor Vicente Lloréns who wrote the “Prologue” that sets the problem in its proper perspectives—cover almost every possible important aspect connected with this Spanish revolution, including the repercussions it had on the two remaining Spanish American colonies, Cuba and Puerto Rico. It is this latter aspect of the book that makes it of interest to the readers of HAHR.
The choice of topics and of competent scholars to deal with them from France, Spain and the United States, leaves nothing to be desired. There is only one conspicuous gap: the absence of a much needed analysis of the articles written by Marx and Engels on various aspects of this historical period which have been conveniently published in one volume under the title Revolución en España (Barcelona, 1960). This lacuna does not affect, however, the usefulness of the book.
Of particular interest to Latin Americanists are the following contributions: “Cádiz, capital revolucionaria, en la encrucijada económica” by Nicolás Sánchez-Albomoz, which gives an excellent analysis of the commercial relations between Cádiz and various Spanish American countries such as Argentina, Mexico, Peru, and the colonies Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines; however, the most interesting article, from the Latin Americanists’ point of view, is the one by Franklin W. Knight which gives us “A Colonial Response to the Glorious Revolution in Spain: the Grito de Yara” that is to say, the movement towards Cuban independence begun by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes with some of his friends on October 10, 1868. It is too bad that a similar account was not included in the case of el grito de Lares, the counterpart movement for independence that nearly one month earlier, on September 18, had started in Puerto Rico. To make up for this failing the editors have included the following documents in an Appendix, all duly introduced by a short account of the facts surrounding this movement written by Professor Iris M. Zavala: “Parte de la Alcaldía de Ponce sobre el grito de Lares,’” and “Proclama del gobernador de Puerto Rico sobre ‘el grito de Lares.’”
Although the materials of interest to Latin Americanists are limited both in quantity and scope, this book deserves to be studied by them for its novel and seminal approach to the study and analysis of important historical events.
