Ernesto Giménez Caballero

Ernesto Giménez Caballero (born Madrid, August 2 1899 - died Madrid, May 14 1988), also known as Gecé, was a Spanish writer, film director, diplomat and pioneer of fascism in the country.

Educated at the Complutense University of Madrid and to doctorate level at the University of Strasbourg he initially espoused a moderate socialism but, influenced by José Ortega y Gasset's critique of democracy, he became a nationalist in the vein of Miguel de Unamuno. [Philip Rees, "Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890", p. 148] He performed military service in Spanish Morocco, although his 1923 book on his experience, "Notas Marruecas de un Soldado", which demonstrated influence from Charles Maurras, caused such outrage amongst the generals that he was imprisoned for a time before being pardoned by Miguel Primo de Rivera. [Ress, op cit]

As literary critic for "El Sol" he went to Italy in 1928 and struck up friendships with Giuseppe Bottai, Giovanni Gentile, Curzio Malaparte and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, all of which convinced him of fascism. Having had already made a name for himself as an aesthetic writer, he announced his conversion to fascism in 1929 in an article in "La Gaceta Literaria", a journal he had founded in 1927. [Rees, op cit] Dubbed the "Spanish d'Annunzio", his conversion saw him cut off from Spain's high culture (which was liberal-dominated) to become what he described as "a literary Robinson Crusoe". [Stanley G. Payne, "A History of Fascism: 1914-1945", London: Routledge, 2001, pp. 256-8]

Being married to an Italian, Giménez Caballero's fascism was largely derived from the Italian model of fascism whilst also including an international dimension in which he saw fascism as the future of the Latin Roman Catholic world. [Payne, op cit, p. 258] By this token he had no time for Nazism, which he saw as too Protestant and northern and even foresaw war between fascism and Nazism for a time. [Payne, op cit] Writing extensively about the decadence of modern society and fascism his book "Genio de España" (1932) called for a re-establishment of the Spanish Empire to its former glory under a Mussolini-led Latin union. [Rees, op cit] His follow-up "La Nueva Catolicidad" under lined his commitment to Roman Catholicism in his fascism. Despite his Catholic faith, he felt certain admiration for the Jewish people, perhaps caused by a sense of ambiguity towards the Sephardim, whom he saw as "Spaniards without a Fatherland" [ [http://www.filosofia.org/ave/001/a018.htm "Ernesto Giménez Caballero 1899-1988"] in "Filosofia.org, Proyecto Filosofía en español"] .

Caballero decalred his support for the plans of Ramiro Ledesma Ramos and became involved in hisJuntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista. However the writer was no political organiser and generally left control of the movement to Ledesma. [Payne, op cit] He went on to join the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS and served on the council of the movement. However he was at odds with many of the ideas of José Antonio Primo de Rivera and was expelled from the Falange in 1936 after he began to work with Juan March Ordinas in the Partido Español de Patrones y Empresarios. [Rees, op cit] Later readmitted to the Falange, he fled to Italy during the Spanish Civil War but from abroad encouraged Francisco Franco to merge the Falangists with the Carlists. He was rewarded for his encouragement with the post of Vice-Secretary for National Education in Franco's inaugural cabinet. [Rees, op cit]

One of the most bizarre Giménez Caballero's actions was perhaps his unsuccessful attempt to marry Primo de Rivera's sister, Pilar, to Adolf Hitler, as a way to "soften" and "catholicise" the latter. [Francisco Umbral: [http://www.elpais.com/articulo/opinion/Ramon/vanguardias/elpepiopi/19850805elpepiopi_7/Tes/ "Ramon y las vanguardias"] ,"El País", 5 Augut 1985]

After the Spanish Civil War he would spend most of his time abroad, holding positions in the Spanish embassies in Paraguay and Brazil before being appointed ambassador to Paraguay in 1958, a position he held for 14 years. In later life he would continue as a writer, winning his final writing prize, Premio Espejo de España, for his work "Retratos españoles (bastante parecidos)" in 1985 whilst also directing a series of documentary films.

External links

* [http://www.filosofia.org/ave/001/a018.htm Biography and written works]
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