Its Culture and Its Ideals 181
or, in brief, to develop the material bases of society, which
it lacked on the eve of independence; but the leaders of
the mind of Spanish America—without ignoring this fact—
are in accord with the idealistic traditions of our culture
and with the romantic and unselfish aspects of our soul.
Besides material development, they proclaimed the cult
of disinterestedness of thought, love of art, faith in the new
spiritual value. These neo-idealistic movements coincide
with the affirmation of national personality in all of our
countries, that is, a nationalism that desires, at one and the
same time, to be nourished by our own traditions and to
enrich and to broaden our life. It is not based on the
hatred of other countries or trust in the military power.
Its aim is to accentuate the national personality by its moral
strength and influence.
The masters of the new ideals in Spanish America agree
among themselves upon the general lines of thought.
There is a mental similarity that may not be explained as a
mere coincidence. It is due rather to the same spiritual
consanguinity. We should observe the same features in
the work of Enrique José Varona in Cuba; Justo Sierra in
Mexico; Carlos Arturo Torres in Colombia; Francisco
Garcia Calderon in Peru; Joaquin Gonsalez and Ricardo
Rojas in Argentina; José Enrique Rodo and Carlos Vaz
Ferreira in Uruguay. All these writers have the same
spiritual plasticity in comprehending thoroughly every
human disquietude, the same devotion to the essential and
eternal framework of our culture, a particular fondness
for the traditions and the soil of the small countries and
enthusiasm for and faith in Spanish America’s destiny as a
spiritual unity.
This movement in response to European currents of