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The modern sport and Unamuno Jesús Castañón Rodríguez III The sporting work by Miguel de Unamuno is made up of 25 compositions in all, which are written between 1893 and 1934. It is composed of a story about the pelota restoration atmosphere- Un partido de pelota (1893)-, the essay El “jiu-jitsu” in Bilbao (1908), the poem “Al aeroplano” (1915), the correspondence with Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui- “Carta de Unamuno a guisa de prólogo” (1926), for the novel Chiripi- and twenty-one press articles with varied subject: “Rousseau en Iturrigorri” (1907), “Sobre el ajedrez” (1912), “Recuerdos entre montañas” (1915), “Deporte y Literatura” (1915), “Juego limpio” (1917), “Ludendorff, el jugador” (1920), “Patriotismo y optimismo” (1920), “Carta a jóvenes chilenos” (1921), “Del deporte activo y del contemplativo” (1922), Andanzas y visiones españolas(1922), “Intelectualismo y deportismo”(1923), “Boy-scouts y foot-ballistas” (1923), “Sobre el desarrollo adquirido por el football en España” (1924) and “¡Pasto y deportes!” (1924), “El desdén con el desdén”, “Mozalbetería” (1932), “Mozalbetes anárquicos” (1932), “Juventud de violencia” (1933), “Puerilidades nacionalistas “ (1933), “ Comentarios de las armas y las letras” (1934) and “ Gorros rojos y gorros gualdos” (1934). A thematic analysis, in chronological order , gives a clear complete picture about his reflection based on the games, the modern sport. Un partido de pelota (1893) is a story which is in his book De mi país. Descripciones, relatos y artículos de costumbres, in which he shows a sports page or chronicle based on a pelota a ble match contended with the couples Indalecio Sarasqueta “Chiquito de Eibar” and Vicente Elícegui- from Rentería- against Francisco Alberdi “Baltasar” and Juan José Eceiza “Mardura”, from Azpeitia, in the pelota court of Abando (Bilbao). He tells the customs and manners atmosphere of the players, of the 12 pelotas made by Modesto Sainz- from Pamplona- and of the crowd comparing it with the bullfighting public festivities atmosphere, before, during and after the sporting show. Unamuno reads this sports page or chronicle in the society El sitio de Bilbao, he reproduces it in the magazine Euskalherria and he compiles or includes it in his book El Nervión (17). “Rousseau en Iturrigorri” is an article- published in La Baskonia, from Buenos Aires, in 1907-where Unamuno explains his relationship with sport since he was a child. He remembers the children’s times when he waited for the bullfight atmosphere in August and enjoyed the races in the estuary and evokes his youthful criticism of the sporting and bullfighting worlds as a personal sign of anti-town planning. Moreover, he also throws into relief that he likes gymnastics because it has been medical therapy in the improvement of his problems based on the narrowness of his chest, of his thoracic box, scarce stamina to put up with the physical fatigue and the courage of muscles and sinews, thanks to the long walks and the ascents of the Archanda, Arraiz or Arnótegui mountains. El “jiu-jitsu” in Bilbao forms a whole of reflections like an essay about the Japanese style show in 1908. “Sobre el ajedrez” is included in Contra esto y aquello” (1912). It shows the memories of a visit to the casino from Guernica in order to watch a chess game. In it, he explains the madness of chess he suffers in his youth due to the fact of having a fine purpose, being a cultured person, favoring intelligentsia and being an educational person because he had to develop gifts of observation, order and foresight. But, in a second moment, he criticizes it because it is a game of chance and also based on a bet which is not worth it if it can’t begin the intimate and free conversation or the exchange of ideas and if it can’t teach to learn to make use of chance in life as a school of practical psychology. In “Recuerdos entre montañas”- article which appears in La Esfera, from Madrid , in 1915- he thinks about the Rousseau’s ideas based on hatred for the civilization in order to aspire to life of nature. And he also exalts the state of mind and the soul’s crease he feels among mountains: the happiness of the sunny and open Archanda mountain, the deep melancholy between the Arnótegui and Pagazarri mountains, the hollows of spirit when he passes the hollows from Buya, the happiness when he lies down the trees from the Pagazarri mountain and the peace when he ascends the summits of the Oiz, Udala, Amboto and Sollube mountains. In the article “Deporte y Literatura”- published in 1915, in Nuevo Mundo- he takes again the subject based on his active practice of mountaineering in order to compare it with the exhibitionism of the professional sport he wants to combat with. In the poem “Al aeroplano”, he considers this means a gadget, an angel without wings which capers about in search of “the Don Quixote’s faith”. In “Juego limpio”-which appears in 1917 in Nuevo Mundo -he carries out a comment about an article based on the English Army’s officer, Sir Carlos Waldstein in The Nineteenth Review and where the magazine La Lectura publishes a summary in Spanish language. Firstly, he analyses English officer’s three ideas: the influence of the games and sports in the educational systems of Germany and England, the concept based on fair play with its effects on the human behavior and the modification of the character when it develops in a spontaneous way and a criticism of the German people because of turning the sporting games into gymnastic exercises with an obligatory condition. And he elaborates this criticism because he considers that the game when it becomes a pedagogical aspect and its functions based on entertainment or the fact of relaxing, extending personality are lost in order to become a way of obligatory preparedness for militia which contrasts with the child’s age’s free spirit. And secondly, he criticizes the professionals of sport’s mercenary spirit and he also uses his character of social parasite against the concept gentleman because he is the supporter in the game and professional in the job. “Ludendorff, el jugador” appears in La Nación in 1920 and levels a harsh criticism against the German officer Erich Ludendorff (18), because of leading the conflict of I World War with a spirit of player which shows that there is a useless intelligence and a degradation when he reduces his conducts to the simple instinct. Unamuno rejects the military plans from his book Memorias de guerra:1914-1918, where he represents the conflict like a game of chance and where chance, fortune’s role is very important in this sense and people have to take advantage of this factor. For Unamuno, the extension of this argument based on chance as a social model gives rise to a symptom of collective madness and bewilderment which is against civilization and occasions a violent and catastrophic shock in order to recover. And he comes to the conclusion that he avoids “the sporting and erotic societies” because they are source of boredom and sadness. In “Patriotismo y optimismo” - published in 1920 in El Liberal- he reflects on the concept based on the sport of patriotism or sporting patriotism which lies in having a disciplinary optimism shown externally by means of liturgies, emblems and ceremonies. He criticizes the pedagogy which resorts to the education in the cult of the liturgical and external ceremonies as a way of patriotism Unamuno names “sporting patriotism” or “rag patriotism”. “Carta a jóvenes chilenos”- included in the Chilean magazine Juventud in 1921- is a new incursion in the relationship between sport and exaggeration of patriotism where Unamuno unmasks his average practitioner: the “sportman”. He characterizes it like idle character, who isn’t intellectual, student but not a studious person, a professional of chauvinism and like a representative of the imperialism based on plutocracy and the militaristic aspect who hates intelligence. “Del deporte activo y del contemplativo” is published in 1922 in Nuevo Mundo and it compares the modern sport atmosphere with the classical world and the gladiators. He considers that bodily sport is not a solution to the degeneration of human race and he also regrets that the supporters- the contemplative ¿sport?- don’t devote themselves to the play, game based on ideas, but they fill the days with discussions about football and bullfighting, like he showed in the article “El deporte tauromáquico” (the bullfighting sport). And he finishes his exposition making a harsh criticism against professional of sport’s vanity because this same person doesn’t develop his intellectual facet in order to realize that health can’t be obtained by means of sport, but with a moderate way of life. Andanzas y visiones españolas is a book of landscapes edited in 1922, which includes routes carried out by the author in 1911. For the sporting subject, he throws into relief the recovery of mountaineering and its beneficial effects during the itinerary through the Sierra de Gredos. With the ascent of the Laguna Grande and the Almanzor mountain. In “Intelectualismo y deportismo”- published in La Nación in 1923- he takes again the subject based on the new ways of patriotism in order to attack on sport as reaction against intelligence and the intellectual aspect. This sport fights against the intellectuals who are followers of the imposition of culture and of the criticism of the decadent powers carried out with intelligence and passion. In his opinion, there is an alliance militarism-clericalism-sport against the intellectual aspect which favors a revolutionary state. “Boy-scouts y foot-ballistas” appears in 1923 in the specialized magazine Sports, though it had been already published in 1921 in the Boletín de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza. It is about the education of man and citizen in order to set up the values of the pedagogical games based on discipline and liturgy like the boy-scouts- which is a school based on patriotism- against the amateur football as a young people’s play, game, which is amusing, free, spontaneous, it educates and also people take part, but in fewer occasions. “Sobre el desarrollo adquirido por el football en España” is published in La Nación in 1924 and it shows the idea of the game, play as a mirror of the collective present time. It is a marginal note to a Fabián Vidal’s article in El Mercantil Valenciano about how the boys’ plays imitate adults- in the III Charlistic War (Guerra Carlista where there were followers of the laws which Sir Carlos María Isidro de Borbón and his descendants have quoted to the Spanish Crown) children played the war; with the Restoration, the play was bullfight; and nowadays they play football-. It compares football with tauromachy in order to think critically about several aspects: the Flemish atmosphere which is around the sporting show as a spiritual substitute; the amateur who turns his head into crowd and gets hurt his intelligence; the competitions’ rough county, the competitions’ distinguished area; the professionalism on salary; and the literary quality of the sporting journalism which is scanty, without texts which sing the praises of great players like in the Greek Games. It establishes the difference between game and modern sport- game is serious; sport isn’t- and it considers that the encouragement of the “sportsman” gives rise to a dangerous atmosphere based on the irrational child’s aspect for the people who bring up to date the “¡Pan y toros!” which is transformed into “¡Pan y pelotón!” and “¡Pan y catecismo!”, to the extent of becoming “¡Pasto y deporte!”. “¡Pasto y deportes!” appears in La Nación in 1924 and it is the culmination of the exaggerated atmosphere based on patriotism with the elements which have been stated previously and an attack on the Primo de Rivera’s Military Directive in order to favor this exaltation which, firstly, gives rise to a revolutionary atmosphere and, secondly, favors the unconditional deference based on the authority’s actions carried out by a drowsy citizenship due to the sporting show. The 2nd of December, 1926 in Hendaya, Unamuno writes a letter to Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui as a prologue of the Chiripi novel, which, by means of a complete picture with paintings, scenes of local colors, tells the vicissitudes of Bilbao Club in 1925 and 1926 by means of his forward. In it there are the professionalism’s unlucky intellectual consequences in the people’s degeneration and it also exalts football as a way of social regeneration which attenuates sensuality, moves away from pubs and brothels, gives the body elasticity and supplies the soul optimism. For Unamuno, with the bitterness of the exile, Chiripi is a good reason to cheer the spirit and to evoke the early years in Bilbao, the atmospheres, landscapes and memories in the Campa de Abia, the Abra and Abando. It is a novel which observes the world, its atmospheres, customs and its Basque characters, fellows with little nuances of satire as far as the society is concerned. After his exile, the sporting writings by Miguel de Unamuno adopt different courses and they transform sport into an element which characterizes facts beyond the sporting activity. Firstly it is important “El desdén con el desdén” where he exemplifies the failing of the Spanish behavior based on the fact of scorning or simulating, feigning to scorn what can’t be understood or felt. With an anecdote as spectator of a pelota match in Bilbao, he tells when the game finished, the winner, Chiquito de Eibar, was carried over the people’s shoulders and then taken to the outer part of the peolta court between the crowd’s general enthusiasm and a spectator’s indignation who thought that kind of mass meetings was more suitable for the bullfighting world. Secondly, the football aspect is useful for him because he characterizes the powerful Basque nationalism’s customs and manners component of the thirties characterized in the articles “Puerilidades nacionalistas” and “Gorros rojos y gorros gualdos”, published in Ahora in 1933 and 1934 (19). And finally, during the II Republic, sport characterizes psychologically and socially the growing division and the Spanish society’s confrontation. The poses, attitudes which replace the lack of ideology by sporting manners, the violence as a play without being in the service of an ideal, the violence’s sporting sense, the of rebelliousness and young people who become increasingly childish with divisions into factions are the most recurrent subjects in the articles “Mozalbetería” and “Mozalbetes anárquicos”- published in El Sol in 1932-, “Juventud de violencia”- which appears in El Norte de Castilla in 1933-and “Comentarios de las armas y las letras”- which appears in Ahora in 1934-. NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES NOTES (1)
See CARR, Raymond, España, 1808-1975, Ariel, Barcelona,
1985, pp. 506-513. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES CASTAÑÓN
RODRÍGUEZ, Jesús, “Unamuno y su visión
intelectual del deporte moderno”, Reflexiones lingüísticas
sobre el deporte, Valladolid, 1995, pp. 141-153. Traducción: María Elena Martín Pérez
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