A book a day: Raquel Peláez: I want and I can’t

Language: español

Year of publication: 2024

Valoración: recommended (even more than that, for interested in the subject)

Clarification for those who read this blog from Spanish -speaking American countries: As the subtitle of this book says, it is about A story of the Pijos de España (And the pijas, it can be added). Now, as our readers of Allende La Mar Ocean, in the Castilian of Spain, the terms “pijo” and, above all, “pija”, do not mean the same as in the Castilian of America -although they may have a similar origin; For us a person pija is someone who tries to appear a superior economic status through the exhibition of external signs of wealth. That is, what, for example, in Mexico they call one or one strawberry and in Argentina Cheto, in addition to other denominations in other countries … also that in recent years, in Spain, the term “Cayetanans” is increasingly booming to refer to the cocks, or at least a certain subtype of them (being others, for example, the pijilocos or the pijipis). In addition to the qualification “pijo/a” it was not imposed until the 80s of the last century; Before, in the last two hundred years of the history of Spain – which are the spoken of in this book – we find gentlemen, modern, chloper, tooline girls, Yeyés …

But let’s not think that this essay is just a more or less frivolón taxonomic fun, a newly wedged costumbrista; On the contrary, its author, who knows the first -hand perch, because it is a journalist who has worked for years in euphemistically known publications as “lifestyle”, makes a true socio -economic, semiotic, historical and even literary and cinematographic dissection -we find, without going further, references to fundamental novels of contemporary Spanish literature: Nothing o Latest afternoons with Teresaalthough too Less than zero, model of those successful Kronen stories novelty- of Pius Hispanicus. Ideologically right -wing pijos, above all, but also on the left: the book also tells us about the importance (in some cases even positive, culturally) of exclusive groups of, in principle, progress, as they were the divine left Barcelona of the Tardofranchism or the beautiful people of the years of the government of Felipe González. Or the hipsters Four days ago (I don’t know if any left), it cannot be said to belong to a leftist movement, but it did denoted a countercultural varnish. All these and other variants of the pijerio (also the proletarian pijos, of which the book does not speak but I attest that exist) have in common what, following the sociologist Thorstein Veblen, Raquel Peláez calls “pecuniary emulation”; concept that crosses the entire essay together with that of “Class dysphoria” (although it applies especially to the aspirational middle class; the real rich, of “old money”, they do not have that problem, I suppose).

Structured in three different parts, but chronologically continuous, the essay, without losing a pleasant tone that helps numerous references to circumstances and characters, sometimes the most popular, despite the fact that they belong to a certain elite (for examplethe Foosting Isabel Preysler), a rigorous chronicle of the transmission of political power, but above all economic, throughout the last two centuries of the history of Spain, from the regency of María Cristina. And, above all, the mechanisms used by those who seek to close to this political and economic power – or symbolic – to mediate or simply imitate the social class to which they aspire to belong. In this way, in the first part, entitled Canexplains the behavior of the elites of the nineteenth century and the restoration, kings and queens included -and, in fact, such as the models to follow -, continuing for the nobility of a lifetime and also that of new wedge, formed by industrialists ennobled and, above all, lined with pasta … in the second part, Wannathe prominence is of the “pacoaristocrats”, who held power during the Francoist dictatorship and its offspring, to end the internationalization of the Spanish pijerio thanks to the so-called Jet-Set Marbellí. Finally, I want and I can’t It tells us about the various mutations of the pijo/a from the tacit pact of non -ostentation of the transition until the present moment, in which they have become a much more conscious and proud subspecies of their alleged class privileges -also more aggressive, as demonstrated Extreme right, emerging right now in Western countries. But, above all, this last part is about hatching, crisis and perhaps definitive decline of the middle class that appeared during the developmental era and consolidated during the years of pre-bubble real estate economic growth.

To put a but to this book, it can be argued that it is presented as “a story of the pijos of Spain”, when, in truth, it basically focuses on the Madrid pijerío (although it is logical, on the other hand, in a state that has tended to centralism as long Chapters However, he barely mentions the knife from other areas of the Spanish territory -except, I must say, in the diorama of shocking testimonies (it is joke) that closes the book -, such as, for example, the always colorful “chapters”, the Valencian fault pijos or the no less picturesque, with their Basque/Spanish nationalist bice, Basque pijerío.

In any case, the reading of this essay is not only fun but revealing and, from aspects that may seem superficial, such as avidity due Where we want to go and what endangers the stability of that course. CONCLUSION: I vividly advise you to read it, now whatin the worst case, I assure you that you will spend a great time.