Customs

We explain what costumbrismo is, its historical context, its themes and characteristics. In addition, literary costumbrismo, pictorial costumbrismo and the authors of the movement.

What is customs?

Costumbrismo was a artistic movement, mainly pictorial and literary, that set out to reflect the traditions and everyday forms typical of a region or country such as its traditional folklore or its ritual practices.

This current emerged in the 19th century as a derivation of nationalist aesthetic ideals and nostalgia for the traditions promoted by Romanticism, in response to the advance of the Industrial Revolution, which threatened to supplant the folkloric and traditional legacy of the rural past.

Unlike realism and naturalism, costumbrismo did not set out to represent reality with claims of objectivity, but rather recover the cultural legacy in a picturesque, colorful and passionate way. The costumbristas thus sought to build a local identity and generate a sense of belonging in the midst of the historical transition from the rural world to the urban world.

Costumbrismo was present in the art and literature of several Spanish-speaking countries, especially in Spain during the reign of Isabel II, but also in the nascent republics of the American continent that sought to define their local identity.

Historical context of customs

Costumbrismo was born as an idea in the 18th century, through creators such as the Spanish playwright Ramón de la Cruz (1731-1794) and his comedy of manners, or the painter Francisco de Goya (1746-1828) with his famous Cartons painted between 1775 and 1792, which represented fair scenes or village amusements. However, had its peak in 19th century Spain, a particularly turbulent and complicated period of great changes in the country.

Agricultural modernization, a product of The Industrial Revolution and the triumph of bourgeoisie As a ruling class, it was transforming the reality of Europe, while in Spain the old absolutist monarchy collapsed and was replaced by a constitutional and parliamentary monarchy. This move to a new form of government was marked by internal tensions and deep instability. This situation, added to Spain's agricultural spirit, prevented the country from industrializing on a par with the countries of Protestant Europe.

All this happened in the middle of a climate of defeat after the loss of the colonies american with the bloody wars of independence that began in the region at the beginning of the 19th century. What followed was a period of political-social tensions that led to the fall of the monarchy and the declaration of the First Spanish Republic in 1873, which ended a year later with a conservative coup d'état. These processes led to a dictatorship and the subsequent Bourbon Restoration at the end of the 19th century. Political conflicts persisted until the 20th century and were the basis of the Spanish civil war.

The costumbristas left testimony of this society that was in the midst of transition between a rural and colonialist life and an industrial world with new political paradigms.

Themes and characteristics of customs

The main themes and characteristics of costumbrista art were the following:

• It showed rural and peasant life. The customs of the countryside were presented in an idealized way, although there was also a critical view regarding the living conditions of the peasants. Rituals, family and traditional culture were recurring themes.
• It represented the life of the cities. Urban everyday life was presented as a modern environment, but also frivolous and corrupt. The city's characters such as priests, teachers, landowners and politicians were archetypes that served to denounce social situations through humor and satire.
• It portrayed the meeting between the countryside and the city. This theme was usually presented with a nostalgic and critical view of the modern urban world, which was seen as a threat to the traditions of the rural past.
• used language regionalist. Puns, proverbs, expressions, dialects and other forms of regional speech were often used to bring the language closer to popular and local forms.
• He exalted dances, rituals, parties and ceremonies. Costumbrismo gave a predominant place to traditional festivals and songs, as well as to the legends and superstitions of the popular imagination.

Literary manners

In literature, costumbrismo set out to portray traditional popular life, and to do so it used three main genres:

• customs pictures. Also called articles of customs, they were small literary and journalistic texts that were usually published in newspapers and magazines in order to entertain or educate. In them, the traditions and folklore of the rural world were described in a picturesque and colorful way.
• Novel costumbrista. Also called a novel of customs, it used to explore local popular scenes from a descriptive approach, without ideological arguments or social criticism. This type of text often had meeting points with the social novel of naturalism.
• Comedy costumbrista. It was the theatrical variant of costumbrismo. It consisted of the light, often funny, representation of everyday scenes of rural life, or of bourgeois life with parodic or ironic intentions. He sought to confront and amuse the public with a clumsy and humorous version of his own customs.

pictorial customs

Pictorial customs developed at the same time as literary customs. He was interested in showing the customs and local context of his time in a more entertaining, familiar and festive way than realism.

The theme could be rural or urban. Popular celebrations, street scenes, traditional trades and typical people from each region were portrayed in a realistic and detailed manner. Clothing, accessories and objects, as well as natural and domestic environments, were faithfully and authentically represented.

Faced with the growing foreign influence, which was seen as a threat, the costumbrista painters sought to strengthen the feeling of identity through symbolic representations that exalted the value of the native and the local. This is the case of the Andalusian peasant in Spain, the charro in Mexico or the gaucho in Argentina.

Representatives of customs

Some of the main artists of costumbrismo were:

• Manuel Cabral Aguado Bejarano (1824-1890). He was a Spanish painter, considered one of the main exponents of the Andalusian school and a key figure of costumbrismo in his country.
• Manuel Rodríguez de Guzmán (1818-1867). He was a Spanish painter of manners who began at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Santa Isabel of Hungary and who later formed part of the Andalusian school of manners.
• Juan Rodríguez Jiménez (1765-1830). He was a Spanish painter, known as “the Andalusian Goya”, who began painting religious paintings for the Cathedral of Cádiz. Much of his work is preserved in the Museum of Romanticism, in Madrid.
• Gustave Doré (1832-1883). He was a French painter, sculptor and illustrator, considered one of the greatest illustrators of the 19th century for his representations of famous works of literature, such as Don Quixotethe Divine Comedy or the Bible. He also dedicated his work to paintings of customs and traditional myths and legends.
• Aurélia de Sousa (1866-1922). She was a Chilean-Portuguese painter. His work is characterized by portraying scenes of everyday life with a bold style, both in its aesthetics, which had influences from impressionism and post-impressionism, and in its subject matter. His androgynous self-portraits (of undefined gender) are famous, which challenged the conventions of his time.
• Luis Manuel Urbaneja Achelpohl (1873-1937). He was a prominent Venezuelan writer, considered a pioneer of the modern story in his country. He laid the foundations of criollismo, a costumbrista movement that sought to represent the cultural reality of Latin America, focusing on its ethnic and geographical particularities.
• José María Vergara y Vergara (1831-1872). He was a Colombian writer, journalist and historian who participated in the creation of numerous literary newspapers. In them he disseminated the work of European and also Colombian costumbrista authors, thereby contributing to the formation of a national literature.
• José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi (1776-1827), known as “the Mexican thinker”, was a novelist famous for his work The Sarniento Periquillo (1816). He was also a student of politics, literature, linguistics and historiography. In his literary work, the forms of speech of the time are recorded: student, medical, slum jargon and others.
• Cecilia Böhl de Faber and Ruiz de Larrea (1796-1877). She was a Spanish writer, better known by her male pseudonym Fernán Caballero. His work, focused on rural life, is simple and has educational intentions. It portrays in an idealized way the customs and traditions of the people of Spain, which is why it is considered one of the first folkloristic pens of its country.
• Sofia Ospina de Navarro (1892-1974). She was a Colombian writer and journalist who dedicated her literary work to portraying the customs of the Antioquia society of her time. His work not only rescued and vindicated Antioquian traditions and Paisa culture, but also promoted education and reading. She represented an important reference for women of her time.

References

• Rubio Cremades, E. (sf). Customs. Definition, chronology and its relationship with the novel. Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library. https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/
• Rubio Cremades, E. (2024). Influences of Spanish romantic costumbrismo in the Hispanic American costumbrista collections of the 19th century. Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library. https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/
• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2019). Customs. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/