Philosophical collections, translation and censorship

Translations played an important role in introducing new philosophical ideas into Spain from 1850 on, but modern secular philosophy was more often than not in conflict with Catholicism, the dominant power in the symbolic field. Since there was little chance of publishing and publicising such works in the established media, the patrons of these translations had to establish their own publishing houses and book collections. These were used as tools to fight against a system of structural censorship that gave priority to the dominant Catholic ideology. Patricio de Azcárate, who created the first Biblioteca collection, José Perojo, Antonio Zozaya, Ortega y Gasset and Juan Bergua among others organised important collections that were based mainly on translations. Their cultural efforts were driven by a political agenda that was progressive in nature, as they all wanted to modernise Spain economically, socially and politically. As a result, they all suffered different forms of censorship and persecution.