Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
later centuries La Mancha has been thought
of primarily as the home of fictional charac-
ters rather than real people.
of labor from 1931 to 1933 but was forced
to resign after the elections of 1934 brought
an upsurge of right-wing activity. Active in
Socialist politics, he helped to create the
alliance of parties of the Left that led to the
victory of the Popular Front in 1936. His
presence as prime minister of the republic
in this regime was a major precipitating fac-
tor in the uprising launched by F
RANCISCO
F
RANCO
and associated factions in July
1936. An internal power struggle in the
Republican government forced Largo
Caballero's resignation in 1937, and the
deteriorating military situation during the
last period of the S
PANISH
CIVIL
WAR
made
it impossible for him to play an effective
public role thereafter. Like many support-
ers of the republic, Largo Caballero found
refuge in France at the end of the war in
1939, but he was taken prisoner by the
German invaders of that country in 1940.
A notorious symbol of “international Bol-
shevism,” Largo Caballero remained a cap-
tive of the Nazis until 1945 and died shortly
after his release.
La Plata, Viceroyalty of
This Spanish viceroyalty in South America
was created in 1775 as part of an evolving
reorganization of the vast Viceroyalty of
P
ERU
that had begun with the creation of
the Viceroyalty of N
EW
G
RANADA
in 1718-
40. The patterns of international trade and
intracolonial management, as well as an
enhanced appreciation of geographical fac-
tors, led to the grouping of P
ARAGUAY
, U
RU
-
GUAY
, and what is now B
OLIVIA
(then Upper
Peru) with the greater part of what is now
A
RGENTINA
under a viceroy based at Buenos
Aires. By the time that city was attacked by
British forces in 1806-07, the Napoleonic
Wars in Europe and the decline in colonial
loyalty to Spain were already eroding the
political stability of the viceroyalty. The
porteños
(residents of Buenos Aires) regarded
their successful repulse of the British forces
as a vindication of their rising self-confi-
dence and independent spirit. The end of
Spanish colonial rule soon followed, and
the components of the Viceroyalty of La
Plata went their separate ways.
Larra, Mariano José de
(1809-1837)
Spanish essayist
Larra belonged to an
afrancesado
family, one
which supported the intrusive regime of
J
OSEPH
I (Joseph Bonaparte) and its French
influence on Spanish life. His father was a
court physician in M
ADRID
until the fall of
his patron obliged him to move to France.
The young Larra received his early educa-
tion there and imbibed the liberal ideas that
contrasted so strongly with those of the
restored B
OURBON
regime in Spain. Even
after the Larra family returned to their
homeland both father and son were the
objects of suspicion and discrimination, and
Largo Caballero, Francisco
(1869-1946)
Spanish statesman
Originally a stone mason, Largo Caballero
became active in the Socialist Party in 1894
and by 1925 was leader of its trade union
confederation. He cooperated with the roy-
alist dictatorship of M
IGUEL
P
RIMO
DE
R
IVERA
but supported the proclamation of the Sec-
ond Republic in 1931. He served as minister
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