Un romántico en contra del liberalismo exaltado: el caso de Estanislao de Cosca Vayo

It is known that the novelist Estanislao de CoscaVayo, like other romantics, professed a liberal ideology; however, in his newspaper El Constitucional (1836) he wrote some texts full of suspicion towards other liberals, especially those who returned from exile. Vayo always defends freedom, but just if it is obtained without resorting to violence, and he condemns the most extreme attitudes of some people of his faction, whom he partly blames for the repressions during the ominous decade. These same ideas could already be seen in his novel Los expatriados o Zulema and Gazul (1834), which narrates the expulsion of the muslims from the city of Valencia by the King Jaime, an expatriation presented as an unjust fact; however, the narrator, far from supporting any violent rebellion, is mainly inclined to defend the peaceful path, and he considers that no radicalization is lawful for whatever reasons it may have. Therefore, this novel can be interpreted as a political gesture, as a warning to liberals who were returning from exile, in order to renounce their most radical positions in favour of forgiveness and reconciliation.