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output alone. At once profoundly learned
and boldly outspoken, he dominated the
cultural scene of late 19th-century Spain in
a way that no single author or artist could.
The legends of his erudition attribute to
him a mastery of the classics while still a
child and an omnivorous acquisition of
knowledge during his attendance at several
universities that soon outstripped that of
his teachers. After receiving his doctorate
at the University of Madrid in 1874 he
became a member of the faculty and
remained professor of Spanish literature
for several decades.
In dozens of volumes he explored and
analyzed the history and literature of Spain
from medieval times to the present, inte-
grating his findings with the contemporary
culture of the entire Western world. His
personal library of 45,000 volumes was
ultimately added to that of the university's,
symbolically merging his own intellectual
resources into those of the nation.
Menéndez y Pelayo was an ardent Span-
ish patriot and understood this virtue as
being synonymous with his ardent Catholi-
cism; indeed, he held that all Spaniards,
even outspoken anticlericals, were funda-
mentally shaped by their Catholic heritage.
This perception enriched and influenced his
writings, although some critics complained
that it created a profound bias in his work.
Menéndez y Pelayo would, in later years,
admit to a degree of truth in these accusa-
tions, and his later writings are generally
more balanced and objective. He also mod-
erated his combative instincts, which he
admitted had led him to employ excessive
acrimony toward those who failed to agree
with him. It was perhaps inevitable that a
man who combined encyclopedic scholar-
ship with traditional conservative alle-
giances should come into conflict with
reformist and “progressive” intellectuals.
The active career of Menéndez y Pelayo
encompassed a period when Spain was
passing through socioeconomic upheaval,
political disarray, and the collapse of its sur-
viving empire. With so many voices offer-
ing prescriptions for change and demanding
a “new” Spain, Menéndez y Pelayo seemed
to represent an unapologetic champion of
the “old” Spain. At the time of his death the
controversy was still unresolved, and his
writings, as well as his polemics, stood as a
massive heritage for 20th-century Span-
iards to consider as their changing circum-
stances would dictate.
Among the more notable works of Mené-
ndez y Pelayo are
Historia de los heterodoxos
españoles
(History of heterodox Spaniards,
1880),
La ciencia española
(Spanish science,
1880),
Calderón y su teatro
(Calderón and his
theater, 1881),
Historia de las ideas estéticas de
España
(History of Spain's aesthetic ideas,
1883-91), and
Orígines de la novela
(Origins
of the novel, 1905-10).
Mexico
This name was, at various periods, applied
both to the modern country of the same
name and to a vast range of territory
extending far north of the Rio Grande and
encompassing half of the present-day
United States. The central region surround-
ing the modern capital of the country
(Mexico City) was ruled on the eve of the
Spanish conquest by the Aztec Empire. Fol-
lowing the overthrow of that indigenous
regime during the 1520s, the name
Nueva
España
(N
EW
S
PAIN
) was applied to the
entire North American landmass from its
farthest northern territories to the Isthmus
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