Excerpts from selected Katharine Lee Bates texts

By Alberto Egea Fernández-Montesinos

One of our preconceived ideas went to wreck at the very outset on the industry of the Basque provinces. The lazy Spaniard has passed into a proverb. The round world knows his portrait -that broad sombrero, romantic cloak, and tilted cigarette. But the laborious Spaniard can no longer be ignored [...] Having re-formed our concept of a Spaniard to admit the elements of natural vigor and determined diligence….

Source: Bates, K. Lee, 1900, Spanish Highways and Byways, London, The Macmillan Company, pp. 2-11.

There are «advanced women» in Spain, the most eminent being Emelia [sic] Pardo Bazán, novelist, lecturer, editor, who advocates for women equal educational and political privileges with men, but who has not yet succeeded in opening the doors. The voice of Spanish women, nevertheless, is sometimes heard by Spanish statesmen, as when delegation after delegation of senoras who had relatives held as prisoners by the Filipinos invaded the senate-house with petitions until they could no longer be ignored.

Source: Bates, K. Lee, 1900, Spanish Highways and Byways, London, The Macmillan Company, p. 359.

The streets of Madrid, too, have a curious fascination. In the morning hours there is the picturesque confusion of the market. The donkeys are unladen here, there, and everywhere, and the sidewalks and squares promptly dotted over with bright little heaps of delicious Toledo cherries, Valencian apricots, Murcian lemons, and all the greens of the season. The peasant women, squatted among their lettuces and cucumbers, seem much more interested in gossiping with their neighbors than in securing customers. Babies tumble about, crushing the pinks and roses, and cabmen good-naturedly pick their way as best they can among these various vegetable and human obstacles.

Source: Bates, K. Lee, 1900, Spanish Highways and Byways, London, The Macmillan Company, pp. 186-187.