The Battle for Christmas
Source entries are currently shown in Spanish; English-first entries arrive with the next cataloguing pass.
El libro declara que su asunto no es la fiesta sino lo que la fiesta deja ver: «For the real subject of this book is not so much Christmas itself as what Christmas can tell us about broader historical questions» «Nissenbaum — The Battle for Christmas (1996) · p. 11». Y pide que la Navidad se lea en las dos direcciones a la vez: «But it has been equally important for me also to see Christmas as one of those very forces—as a cause as well as an effect, an active instrument of change as well as an indicator and a mirror of change» «Nissenbaum — The Battle for Christmas (1996) · p. 11».
El prefacio cuenta de qué tres hallazgos nació. El primero, tomado de Charles W. Jones, es que Santa Claus, «far from being a creature of ancient Dutch folklore who made his way to the New World in the company of immigrants from Holland, was essentially devised by a group of non-Dutch New Yorkers in the early nineteenth century» «Nissenbaum — The Battle for Christmas (1996) · p. 9». El tercero es que la fiesta había sido otra cosa: «It was a time of heavy drinking when the rules that governed people’s public behavior were momentarily abandoned in favor of an unrestrained “carnival,” a kind of December Mardi Gras» «Nissenbaum — The Battle for Christmas (1996) · p. 9».
De ahí salen los dos ejes del libro: la Navidad doméstica que se inventa en Nueva York y el consumo que la acompaña. El árbol mismo entra como remedio y no como herencia: «The Christmas tree itself, I discovered, first entered American culture as a ritual strategy designed to cope with what was already being seen, even before the middle of the nineteenth century, as a holiday laden with crass materialism—a holiday that had produced a rising generation of greedy, spoiled children» «Nissenbaum — The Battle for Christmas (1996) · p. 10».
El título se explica al cerrar el prefacio: lo que se cuenta es un episodio de una pelea larga, «the book I have written constitutes just a single large chapter in the history of the perennial battle for Christmas» «Nissenbaum — The Battle for Christmas (1996) · p. 11».
1934 claims · 1 source · 1 attribution
Attribution
recorded, never asserted«Nissenbaum — The Battle for Christmas (1996) · p. 396»
The chain of the work
the processed witness, in emeraldClaims
1934 entries — the work's own voice, with its passage«IN NEW ENGLAND, for the first two centuries of white settlement most people did not celebrate Christmas. In fact, the holiday was systematically suppressed by Puritans during the colonial period and largely ignored by their descendants. It was actually illegal to celebrate Christmas in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681 (the fine was five shillings).» — la tesis con que abre el capítulo primero: en Nueva Inglaterra la fiesta no se celebró, y entre 1659 y 1681 celebrarla fue delito con multa tasada
«As we shall see, much of this is misleading or exaggerated. It is true that the New England states did not grant legal recognition to Christmas until the middle of the nineteenth century, but neither did most of the other states. There were Christmas Day religious services in Worcester before 1850. And nineteenth-century factory owners had their own reasons for treating Christmas as a regular working day, reasons that had more to do with industrial capitalism than with Puritan theology.» — Nissenbaum enmienda el recuerdo decimonónico que acaba de citar: el retraso del reconocimiento legal no fue exclusivo de Nueva Inglaterra, hubo cultos el 25 antes de 1850, y la jornada laboral del 25 en las fábricas responde al capitalismo industrial y no a la teología puritana
«As early as 1621, just one year after the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, their governor, William Bradford, found some of the colony’s new residents trying to take the day off. Bradford ordered them right back to work.» — el episodio de 1621 que el capítulo toma del gobernador William Bradford, primer testimonio de la oposición: unos vecinos nuevos quisieron tomarse el día y el gobernador los devolvió al trabajo
«The Puritans themselves had a plain reason for what they tried to do, and it happens to be a perfectly good one: There is no biblical or historical reason to place the birth of Jesus on December 25.» — el argumento puritano que Nissenbaum concede: no hay base bíblica ni histórica para poner el nacimiento de Jesús el 25 de diciembre
«It was only in the fourth century that the Church officially decided to observe Christmas on December 25. And this date was chosen not for religious reasons but simply because it happened to mark the approximate arrival of the winter solstice, an event that was celebrated long before the advent of Christianity.» — la datación de la fecha: la Iglesia la fija en el siglo IV, y no por razón religiosa sino por coincidir con la llegada aproximada del solsticio de invierno, ya celebrado antes del cristianismo
«The Reverend Increase Mather of Boston, for example, accurately observed in 1687 that the early Christians who first observed the Nativity on December 25 did not do so “thinking that Christ was born in that Month, but because the Heathens Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian [ones].» — según Nissenbaum, el reverendo Increase Mather de Boston en 1687: los primeros cristianos que observaron la Natividad el 25 no lo hacían por creer que Cristo naciera ese mes, sino porque las Saturnales de los gentiles caían entonces en Roma
«Thus Chanukah, the “feast of lights.” And thus the Yule log, the candles, the holly, the mistletoe, even the Christmas tree—pagan traditions all, with no direct connection to the birth of Jesus.» — el tronco de Yule, las velas, el acebo, el muérdago y el propio árbol se enuncian como tradiciones paganas sin conexión directa con el nacimiento de Jesús, junto a Janucá como fiesta de las luces
«In northern agricultural societies, December was the major “punctuation mark” in the rhythmic cycle of work, a time when there was a minimum of work to be performed.» — la explicación material del exceso: en las sociedades agrícolas del norte diciembre era el signo de puntuación del ciclo de trabajo, el momento de trabajo mínimo
«What is more useful, in any setting, is to look for the dynamics of an ongoing contest, a push and a pull—sometimes a real battle—between those who wished to expand the season and those who wished to contract and restrict it.» — el método que Nissenbaum propone en lugar de fijar los límites de una Navidad verdadera: mirar la pugna entre quienes querían alargar la temporada y quienes querían acortarla
«Christmas was a season of “misrule,” a time when ordinary behavioral restraints could be violated with impunity. It was part of what one historian has called “the world of carnival.” (The term carnival is rooted in the Latin words carne and vale—“farewell to flesh.” And “flesh” refers here not only to meat but also to sex—carnal as well as carnivorous.» — la definición de *misrule* y la etimología de *carnival* que el capítulo da: del latín *carne* y *vale*, adiós a la carne, con la carne entendida a la vez como alimento y como sexo
«The generality of Christmas-keepers observe that festival after such a manner as is highly dishonourable to the name of Christ. How few are there comparatively that spend those holidays (as they are called) after an holy manner. But they are consumed in Compotations, in Interludes, in playing at Cards, in Revellings, in excess of Wine, in mad Mirth» — según Nissenbaum, Increase Mather en 1687: los que guardan la Navidad la observan de un modo deshonroso para el nombre de Cristo, gastada en compotaciones, interludios, naipes, jolgorios y exceso de vino
«called the way most people commonly behaved during the Christmas season “a Scandal to Religion, and an encouraging of Wickedness.» — según Nissenbaum, el reverendo Henry Bourne de Newcastle en 1725, clérigo anglicano partidario de guardar la fiesta, que aun así concede la acusación puritana
«Mumming usually involved “a changing of Clothes between Men and Women; who when dressed in each other’s habits, go from one Neighbor’s house to another … and make merry with them in disguise.» — las dos prácticas que Bourne señalaba como peligrosas; la primera es el *mumming*, el intercambio de ropa entre hombres y mujeres para ir de casa en casa disfrazados
«Men dishonour Christ more in the twelve days of Christmas, than in all the» — según Nissenbaum, el obispo del siglo XVI Hugh Latimer; el troceo corta aquí en el límite de chunk y la frase sigue en la misma plana: *twelve months besides*
«In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Saviors birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been.» — el compromiso que Nissenbaum atribuye a la Iglesia: a cambio de la observancia masiva del aniversario en esa fecha resonante, consintió tácitamente que la fiesta se celebrara como siempre se había celebrado
«It may not be going too far to say that Christmas has always been an extremely difficult holiday to Christianize. Little wonder that the Puritans were willing to save themselves the trouble.» — la consecuencia que el capítulo saca de ese compromiso: la Navidad ha sido siempre una fiesta dificilísima de cristianizar
«Most fundamentally, Christmas was an occasion when the social hierarchy itself was symbolically turned upside down, in a gesture that inverted» — la forma ritual del exceso: la jerarquía social se volteaba simbólicamente; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *designated roles of gender, age, and class*
«In the Saturnalian Days, Masters did wait upon their Servants…. The Gentiles called Saturns time the Golden Age, because in it there was no servitude, in Commemoration whereof on his Festival, Servants must be Masters.» — según Nissenbaum, Increase Mather explicando el origen de la inversión con claridad de antropólogo: en las Saturnales los amos servían a los criados, y los gentiles llamaban Edad de Oro al tiempo de Saturno porque no había servidumbre
«For it was usually the poor themselves who initiated the exchange, and it was enacted face-to-face, in rituals that would strike many of us today as an intolerable invasion of privacy.» — la diferencia que el capítulo marca con la caridad moderna: era el propio pobre quien iniciaba el intercambio, cara a cara, en ritos que hoy se leerían como invasión intolerable de la privacidad
«Christmas was a time when peasants, servants, and apprentices exercised the right to demand that their wealthier neighbors and patrons treat them as if they were wealthy and powerful.» — el derecho estacional que Nissenbaum describe: campesinos, criados y aprendices exigían que sus vecinos y patrones acomodados los trataran como si fueran ricos y poderosos
«they are not so much presents from friend to friend, or from equal to equal …, as from superior to inferior.» — según Nissenbaum, un francés que viajaba por Inglaterra a fines del siglo XVII: los regalos no iban de amigo a amigo ni entre iguales, sino de superior a inferior
«it involved behavior that most of us would find offensive and even shocking today—rowdy public displays of excessive eating and drinking, the mockery of established authority, aggressive begging (often involving the threat of doing harm), and even the invasion of wealthy homes.» — la segunda razón de la supresión: lo que se suprimió no era la Navidad que hoy se llama tradicional, sino comidas y bebidas excesivas en público, burla de la autoridad, mendicidad agresiva con amenaza de daño e invasión de casas ricas
«[T]he Feast of Christ’s Nativity is spent in Reveling, Dicing, Carding, Masking, and in all Licentious Liberty … by Mad Mirth, by long Eating, by hard Drinking, by lewd Gaming, by rude Reveling» — según Nissenbaum, Cotton Mather en 1712, hijo del anterior, con la misma lista de excesos; el troceo imprime la inicial entre corchetes, *[T]he Feast*
«the official period of twelve days, right up to Candlemas Day on February 2. For that entire forty-day period, it was common “for Men to rise early in the Morning, that they may follow strong Drink, and continue untill Night, till Wine inflame them.» — la extensión de la temporada según Bourne, que Nissenbaum cita tras el corte de plana: hasta la Candelaria del 2 de febrero, cuarenta días en que era común levantarse temprano para seguir la bebida fuerte hasta que el vino inflamara
«One name that is still known in our culture is that of wassailing, and I shall take the liberty of using this word to refer to a whole set of similar rituals that may have had other names. Wassailers —roving bands of youthful males—toasted the patron’s well-being while drinking the beer he had been kind enough to supply them.» — el nombre que el libro adopta para todo el conjunto de ritos del intercambio: *wassailing*, con bandas de varones jóvenes que brindaban por el bienestar del patrón mientras bebían la cerveza que él había puesto
«Come bring, with a noise, My merrie, merrie boys, The Christmas log to the firing; While my good dame she Bids ye all be free [i.e., with the alcohol] And drink to your heart’s desiring» — según Nissenbaum, el wassail que Robert Herrick metió en su poema de 1648 *Ceremonies for Christmasse*; el corchete con la aclaración del alcohol es del propio libro
«The wassail usually possessed an aggressive edge—often an explicit threat—concerning the unpleasant consequences to follow if the beggars’ demands were not met.» — el filo del rito: una amenaza explícita sobre lo que seguiría si no se atendían las demandas de los mendicantes
«We’ve come here to claim our right…. And if you don’t open up your door, We will lay you flat upon the floor.» — según Nissenbaum, una canción de wassail conservada, con la demanda y la amenaza desnudas de tumbar al dueño en el suelo si no abre la puerta
«Again we assemble, a merry New Year To wish to each one of the family here…. May they of potatoes and herrings have plenty, With butter and cheese, and each other dainty» — según Nissenbaum, el wassail que en la Isla de Man cantaban las bandas de jóvenes que iban de casa en casa pidiendo comida
«It was not enough for the landlord to let the peasants in and feed them. On this one occasion he had to share with them his choicest food and drink, his private stock.» — lo que el rito exigía del terrateniente: no bastaba con abrir y dar de comer, tenía que compartir su mejor comida y bebida, su reserva privada
«Take, for instance, a December 1991 article in Money magazine, which warns its readers to “Tip Defensively” at Christmas: “‘At holiday time you must show people who work for you that you appreciate good service,’…. Translation: if you don’t, you’ll suffer the consequences all next year (Day-Glo hair tinting or sprinkler-soaked newspapers)…. Keep in mind a kind of reverse Marxism: to each according to your need. That is, tip most generously those who can do you the most damage.» — el vestigio que Nissenbaum señala en el presente: un artículo de la revista *Money* de diciembre de 1991 que aconseja dar propina a la defensiva y repartir según el daño que cada quien pueda hacerte
«It was part of a cultural world that went back thousands of years and involved the yearly agricultural cycle, which defined and integrated work and play, with times of intense labor followed by periods of equally intense celebration.» — lo que el capítulo pone bajo el desorden de la poscosecha: un mundo cultural milenario organizado por el ciclo agrícola anual, que definía e integraba trabajo y juego
«It was this entire cultural world, with its periodic seasons of labor and festivity—and not just Christmas itself—that Puritans felt to be corrupt, “pagan,” evil. It was this world that they systematically attempted to abolish and “purify.”» — el objeto de la supresión puritana según Nissenbaum: no la Navidad sola, sino ese mundo entero de trabajo y fiesta, tenido por corrupto y pagano
«They wished to replace it with a simpler, more orderly culture in which people were more disciplined and self-regulated, in which ornate churches and cathedrals were replaced by plain “meetinghouses,” in which lavish periodic celebrations—the seasonal cycle itself—were replaced by an orderly and regular succession of days, punctuated only by a weekly day of rest and self-examination, the Sabbath.» — el reemplazo que los puritanos querían: una cultura más simple y ordenada, casas de reunión llanas en vez de iglesias ornadas, y una sucesión regular de días puntuada solo por el sábado semanal
«In England, the Puritan Parliament made a point of holding regular sessions each December 25 from 1644 through 1656, and it did what it could to suppress the traditional observance of the date. (In 1644 Parliament actually decreed that December 25 was to be observed as a day of fasting and repentance—for the sinful way the occasion had been made into a time of “giving liberty to carnall and» — las medidas inglesas: el Parlamento puritano sesionó cada 25 de diciembre de 1644 a 1656, y en 1644 decretó la fecha como día de ayuno y arrepentimiento; el troceo corta aquí y la frase sigue: *sensual delights*
«Thus are the merry lords of misrule suppressed by the mad lords of bad rule at Westminster» — según Nissenbaum, un inglés descontento que llamaba deportes inofensivos a lo prohibido: los alegres señores del desgobierno quedaron suprimidos por los locos señores del mal gobierno de Westminster
«The title page of a 1686 British book mocking the Puritans who had suppressed Christmas—and who had been out of power in England for some twenty-five years when» — el pie de la lámina de *The Tryal of Father Christmas*, libro británico de 1686 que se burla de los puritanos que habían suprimido la Navidad y que para entonces llevaban unos veinticinco años fuera del poder en Inglaterra
«The Puritan jurors in this trial bore such names as “Mr. Cold-kitchen,” “Mr. Give-little,” and “Mr. Hate-good.”» — el mismo pie, con los nombres de los jurados puritanos del proceso figurado
«In England the success of the Puritans was limited and temporary. Legislation banning the celebration of Christmas was contested in many places even during the 1640s and 1650s, when Puritans controlled the government (there were riots in several towns), and the policy was quickly reversed in 1660 upon the restoration of the English monarchy.» — el balance inglés: la legislación se disputó ya en los años cuarenta y cincuenta, con motines en varias localidades, y se revirtió en 1660 con la restauración
«But in New England the Puritans did largely succeed in eliminating Christmas, along with many of the other practices of English popular culture.» — el balance contrario para Nueva Inglaterra: allí sí lograron en buena medida eliminar la Navidad junto con otras prácticas de la cultura popular inglesa
«Almanacs had become popular in England by the seventeenth century, and they remained popular in New England as well. English almanacs generally listed Christmas, along with the bevy of saints’ days that showed the commitment of the Church of England to the old, seasonally based calendar.» — el ejemplo de los almanaques: los ingleses listaban la Navidad junto con las fiestas de santos que mostraban el compromiso de la Iglesia de Inglaterra con el viejo calendario estacional
«But in seventeenth-century New England, almanacs were “purified” of all these old associations. (Indeed, for a time even the common names for the days of the week were purged from the almanacs on account of their pagan origins—after all, Thursday meant “Thor’s day,” and Saturday was “Saturn’s day.”) The Puritans knew that the power to name time was also the power to control it.» — la purga de los almanaques de Nueva Inglaterra, que llegó a quitar los nombres de los días de la semana por su origen pagano; el capítulo saca de ahí que nombrar el tiempo era poder controlarlo
«So it should come as no surprise that seventeenth-century Massachusetts almanacs did not refer to December 25 as Christmas Day. Instead, the date December 25 would be left without comment, or it would contain a notice that one of the county courts was due to sit that day—an implicit reminder that in New England, December 25 was just another workday.» — lo que los almanaques de Massachusetts hacían con el 25 de diciembre: dejarlo sin comentario o anotar que ese día sesionaba un tribunal de condado, recordatorio de que era día de trabajo
«The final verse of the “Gloucestershire Wassail” opens with just such a demand for choice beer (“Come, butler, draw us a bowl of the best / Then we hope your soul in heaven shall rest”), but the threat follows quickly: “But if you draw us a bowl of the small [i.e., weak beer], / Then down will come butler, bowl, and all.» — el verso final del *Gloucestershire Wassail* según Nissenbaum: se pide la mejor cerveza con una bendición al alma del mayordomo y sigue de inmediato la amenaza de derribarlo si sirve la floja
«Nor did this group observe Christmas in a devout fashion or even by simply staying in their houses—Bradford indicated that he would have allowed them that. What bothered the governor was that these Christmas-keepers were, in his own words, out “gaming [and] reveling in the streets.» — lo que Nissenbaum lee en el diario de Bradford: al gobernador no le molestaba la devoción privada, que dice que habría permitido, sino que los guardadores de la Navidad anduvieran jugando y de jolgorio por las calles
«The second instance is the 1659 law passed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the law that levied a five-shilling fine on anyone who was “found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labor, feasting, or any other way.» — la letra de la ley de 1659 de la Bahía de Massachusetts, con multa de cinco chelines a quien fuera hallado observando la Navidad por dejar el trabajo, por banquete o de cualquier otro modo
«Such laws are not made, of course, unless there are people who are engaging in the forbidden activity. And the Massachusetts Bay law of 1659, like Governor Bradford’s earlier report, suggests that there were indeed people in Massachusetts who were observing Christmas in the late 1650s.» — el argumento que el capítulo saca de la propia ley: no se legisla contra lo que nadie hace, así que a fines de la década de 1650 había en Massachusetts quien observara la fiesta
«The law was clear on this point: It was designed “for preventing disorders arising in several places within this jurisdiction, by reason of some still observing such Festivals as were superstitiously kept in other countries.» — el preámbulo de la ley según Nissenbaum: se dirige a prevenir desórdenes nacidos de que algunos siguieran observando festivales guardados supersticiosamente en otros países
«That point was reinforced by a provision in the law that threatened to impose a second five-shilling fine for gambling “with cards or dice,” a practice, the court noted, that was “frequent in many places … at such times [as Christmas].» — el segundo apartado de la ley: otra multa de cinco chelines por jugar a naipes o dados, práctica que el tribunal decía frecuente en muchos lugares por esas fechas
«For example, I have found no records of prosecutions under the 1659 law, which remained in force until 1681, when it was repealed under pressure from London.» — el límite que el propio autor pone a su dato: no ha hallado procesos bajo la ley de 1659, vigente hasta 1681, cuando se derogó por presión de Londres
«What it does argue is that a festival with such old and deep roots in English culture could not simply be erased by fiat, and that it always hovered just beneath the surface of New England culture, emerging occasionally into plain sight.» — lo que el capítulo sí sostiene: una fiesta de raíces tan viejas y hondas en la cultura inglesa no se borraba por decreto y siguió rondando bajo la superficie de la cultura de Nueva Inglaterra
«There is no Christmas episode so notorious as the 1627–28 confrontation in which the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony forcibly destroyed the maypole that had been defiantly set up on nearby Mount Wollaston by Thomas Morton and his merry men.» — la comparación que el libro trae para medir la escasez de fuentes: ningún episodio navideño iguala en notoriedad la destrucción del palo de mayo de Thomas Morton en Mount Wollaston
«But that is only because Thomas Morton was practically the sole New England representative of popular culture who was literate, and even literary; he actually published a satirical account of the maypole episode. The rest of New England’s early Christmas-keepers were at most barely literate, and they left no records.» — la razón del silencio documental según Nissenbaum: Morton era casi el único representante letrado de la cultura popular en Nueva Inglaterra, y los demás guardadores de la Navidad apenas sabían leer y no dejaron registros
«It was fishermen and mariners who had the reputation of being the most incorrigible sinners in New England, the region’s least “reformed” inhabitants. Maritime communities such as Nantucket, the Isles of Shoals, and (especially) the town of Marblehead, were notorious for irreligion, heavy drinking, and loose sexual activity; they were also repositories of enduring English folk practices—places that ignored or resisted orthodox New England culture. It is no coincidence that Marblehead was also a site of ongoing Christmas-keeping.» — quiénes guardaban la fiesta: pescadores y marineros, y comunidades marítimas como Nantucket, las Isles of Shoals y sobre todo Marblehead, tenidas por irreligiosas y depositarias de prácticas folclóricas inglesas
«In 1662, for example, a fisherman named William Hoar, a 33-year-old resident of Beverly, Massachusetts, “was presented for suffering tippling [i.e., drinking] in his house by those who came to keep Christmas there.» — el caso de 1662 que el capítulo levanta de los registros judiciales: al pescador William Hoar, de Beverly, se le presentó cargo por consentir bebida en su casa a quienes vinieron a guardar la Navidad
«Hoar’s wife, Dorcas, was a fortune-teller (she specialized in palmistry), and she cultivated the rumor that she was also a practicing witch. Indeed, Dorcas Hoar’s reputation finally brought her down. In the dark year of 1692, she was convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to hang on Gallows Hill, a victim of the Salem witchcraft outbreak.» — el desenlace de la familia Hoar: Dorcas, adivina de quiromancia que cultivó la fama de bruja practicante, fue condenada en 1692 y sentenciada a la horca en Gallows Hill
«At about 9 p.m. on Christmas night, 1679, four young men from Salem Village invaded the house of 72-year-old John Rowden» — el único incidente de guarda de la Navidad en el Massachusetts del siglo XVII que puede contarse con detalle: cuatro jóvenes de Salem Village entran en casa del viejo John Rowden; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«In the testimony he gave three months later, old John Rowden provided a detailed account of what happened that night. First, the four men entered his house and sat down by the fire, and two of them “began to sing.”» — el documento del que sale el relato: el testimonio que Rowden dio tres meses después, donde los cuatro entran, se sientan junto al fuego y dos se ponen a cantar
«How do you like this, father? Is this not worth a cup of perry?’” Rowden answered them, “‘I do not like it so well, pray be gone.» — según Nissenbaum, el diálogo del testimonio: los cantores reclaman su copa de perada por las dos canciones y el viejo los despide
«But the men would not leave, telling Rowden “it was Christmas Day at night and they came to be merry and to drink perry, which was not to be had anywhere else but here, and perry they would have before they went.» — la razón que los cuatro alegan según el testimonio: era la noche de Navidad, venían a estar alegres y a beber perada, que no había en ninguna otra parte, y perada tendrían antes de irse
«This time it was Rowden’s wife who replied, saying, “‘We keep no ordinary [i.e., tavern] to call for pots.» — la respuesta de la mujer de Rowden: no tienen taberna donde pedir jarras; el libro glosa que *pot* nombraba corrientemente el alcohol
«One of the men shoved a “coin” in Goodwife Rowden’s face; it proved to be “nothing but a piece of lead.» — el detalle con que se cae el pago ofrecido: la moneda que uno le planta en la cara a la Goodwife Rowden resulta ser un trozo de plomo
«But one that is wholly recognizable from the English and European sources; for this was a wassail gone bad.» — la lectura que el capítulo hace del episodio: no es un hecho suelto sino un wassail salido mal, reconocible en las fuentes inglesas y europeas
«Finally, the wassail turned into what the French call a “charivari” (loud noise, mocking taunts, and stone-throwing), which lasted for more than an hour. There was no gift and therefore no goodwill—no “treat,” but only a “trick” in turn.» — el desenlace del rito según Nissenbaum: se volvió lo que los franceses llaman charivari, y al no haber regalo tampoco hubo buena voluntad
«Typically, all four of the wassailers were young men (one was seventeen, another about twenty-one; only one of the four was married). Typically, too, all of them stood near the low end of the economic hierarchy, and none would ever achieve any great degree of prosperity.» — el perfil de los cuatro: varones jóvenes, uno de diecisiete y otro de unos veintiuno, solo uno casado, todos en el extremo bajo de la jerarquía económica
«Finally, thirteen years later, three of the four men were peripherally involved in the events surrounding the Salem witch trials of 1692.» — el enlace con Salem: trece años después, tres de los cuatro aparecen en los márgenes de los sucesos de los juicios de brujería de 1692
«The “Salem wassail” (as I have come to call it) surely represented no threat to the social or cultural fabric of Massachusetts, just as more frequent but similar incidents in Europe of misrule and charivari were hardly revolutionary acts.» — la medida que el autor pone a su propio hallazgo: el wassail de Salem no amenazaba el tejido social ni cultural de Massachusetts, como tampoco lo hacían los charivaris europeos
«Knowing that its official charter of incorporation might be abrogated, in 1681 the Massachusetts General Court reluctantly revoked several of the colony’s laws that were most obnoxious to the English authorities. (One of the laws thus revoked was the act banning the celebration of Christmas.» — el cambio político de 1681: ante la amenaza de que se anulara su carta, el Tribunal General de Massachusetts revocó a regañadientes varias leyes odiosas a las autoridades inglesas, entre ellas la que prohibía celebrar la Navidad
«On Christmas Day, 1686, for example, two religious services were performed at the Boston Townhouse, and Andros attended both of them, with “a Red-Coat [soldier] going on his right hand and Capt. George on the left.» — el gesto del gobernador Andros, del que Nissenbaum da la escolta: dos oficios religiosos en el Boston Townhouse el 25 de diciembre de 1686, a los que asistió con un casaca roja a la derecha y el capitán George a la izquierda
«Under its protective mantle, during this brief period, it was possible for the first time in Massachusetts to act out heterodox rituals in public. A few Bostonians celebrated Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) by dancing in the streets, and a maypole was erected in Charlestown.» — lo que el manto del régimen de Andros permitió: representar en público ritos heterodoxos, con bostonianos bailando en la calle por el martes de carnaval y un palo de mayo levantado en Charlestown
«On December 25, 1685, the magistrate Samuel Sewall noted that “Some somehow observe the day,” but he added, as if to reassure himself, that “the Body of the People profane it, and blessed be God no Authority yet to compel them to keep it.» — según Nissenbaum, el diario del magistrado Samuel Sewall el 25 de diciembre de 1685: algunos observan el día de algún modo, pero el grueso del pueblo lo profana y no hay todavía autoridad que obligue a guardarlo
«Sewall also offered himself the reassurance that there was “less Christmas-keeping [this year] than last year, fewer Shops Shut up,” but that reassurance implicitly ceded the point that in 1684 an even greater number of persons had “observed” Christmas.» — lo que el capítulo lee entre líneas en el mismo diario: Sewall se consuela con que hubo menos guarda que el año anterior, y con eso concede que en 1684 la habían observado más personas
«[T]hey threw stones, bones, and other things at Poole in the doorway and against the house. They beat down much of the daubing in several places and continued to throw stones for an hour and a half with little intermission. They also broke down about a pole and a half of fence, being stone wall, and a cellar, without [outside] the house, distant about four or five rods, was broken open through the door, and five or six pecks of apples were stolen.» — según Nissenbaum, el propio Rowden narrando el destrozo: piedras, huesos y otras cosas contra la puerta y la casa durante hora y media, muro de piedra derribado y manzanas robadas de la bodega
«Still, the episode suggests something of the animosities engendered by the cultural fault lines that continued to divide “official” Massachusetts culture from the lingering traditions it» — lo que el episodio sí deja ver según el capítulo: las animosidades de las líneas de falla culturales que separaban la cultura oficial de Massachusetts de las tradiciones que seguían vivas; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *tried so hard (and on the whole with such great success) to eradicate*
«1686, Sewall once again noted, “Shops open today generally and persons about their occasions.” (Again, the key word here may have been “generally,” because Sewall went on to acknowledge, “Some, but few, Carts [were] at Town with wood» — el diario de Sewall un año después, con la misma reserva que el capítulo subraya: las tiendas abren en general, pero algunos pocos carros llegaron al pueblo con leña; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«The most dramatic example was an almanac, written by a resident of Saybrook, Connecticut, named John Tully and published in Boston during each of the three years of Dominion government, 1687–» — el caso más señalado de la Navidad entrando en la cultura impresa: el almanaque de John Tully, vecino de Saybrook (Connecticut), impreso en Boston en cada uno de los tres años del Dominio; el troceo corta la cifra del año
«But Tully boldly labeled December 25 in capital letters, as “CHRISTMAS-DAY,” and he also added every one of the red-letter days recognized by the Church of England. December 21 thereby became “S. THOMAS,” December 26 was “S. STEVEN,” and December 27 was “INNOCENTS.”» — lo que Tully hizo contra la purga: rotular el 25 de diciembre en mayúsculas como día de Navidad y añadir todos los días de fiesta del calendario de la Iglesia de Inglaterra
«In all likelihood, Tully used capital letters simply because his Boston printer did not have any red ink.» — la conjetura que el propio autor marca como tal: Tully usó mayúsculas probablemente porque su impresor de Boston no tenía tinta roja
«The following year, Tully’s almanac was published with the official imprimatur of Andros’s deputy, Edwin Randolph, on the title page.» — el respaldo oficial que el almanaque llevó al año siguiente: el imprimátur del lugarteniente de Andros, Edwin Randolph, en la portada
«At the end of his 1688 almanac Tully added a series of monthly “prognostications,” all of them satirical and most of them bawdy or scatological.» — lo que Tully añadió al final del almanaque de 1688: una serie de pronósticos mensuales, todos satíricos y casi todos obscenos o escatológicos
«The Nights are still cold and long, which may cause great Conjunction betwixt the Male and Female Planets of our sublunary Orb, the effects whereof may be seen about nine months after, and portend great charges of Midwife, Nurse, and Naming the Bantling.» — según Nissenbaum, el pronóstico de Tully para febrero: las noches frías y largas causan gran conjunción entre los planetas macho y hembra del orbe sublunar, con efectos visibles nueve meses después
«This month the Cooks do very early rise, To roast their meat, & make their Christmas pies.» — según Nissenbaum, el pronóstico en verso de Tully para diciembre, que abre por el banquete de la temporada
«Poor men at rich men’s tables their guts forrage With roast beef, mince-pies, pudding & plum porridge.» — el segundo par de versos de Tully, donde el banquete pasa a ser inversión social: los pobres forrajean en las mesas de los ricos
«This month, Money & Rum will be in great request; and he that hath the first shall not need fear wanting the» — la prosa con que Tully cierra diciembre: ese mes el dinero y el ron serán muy solicitados, y quien tenga lo primero no temerá que le falte lo segundo; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la palabra sigue: *latter*
«THE OVERTHROW of the Dominion of New England in 1689 put a stop to this flurry of popular culture, and it ushered in two decades in which there is little in the public record about Christmas.» — el corte que Nissenbaum marca: la caída del Dominio en 1689 detuvo esa aparición de la cultura popular y abrió dos décadas de escaso registro público sobre la Navidad
«I hear of a number of young people of both sexes, belonging, many of them, to my flock, who have had on the Christmas-night, this last week, a Frolick, a revelling feast, and Ball» — según Nissenbaum, el diario del reverendo Cotton Mather el 30 de diciembre de 1711: le llega noticia de jóvenes de ambos sexos, muchos de su rebaño, que tuvieron en la noche de Navidad un jolgorio, un festín y un baile
«The very next year Mather denounced the holiday in a sermon, published immediately after its delivery under the title Grace Defended.» — el paso del diario al púlpito: al año siguiente Mather denunció la fiesta en un sermón publicado enseguida con el título *Grace Defended*
«The biblical text on which he based his sermon, drawn from the Epistle of Jude, showed what was on Mather’s mind: The text he chose was an attack on certain early Christians who had deceitfully “crept into” the early Christian church, using religion as a cover for sexual license, “giving themselves over to fornication”—“ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness.” (Mather substituted the word “wantonness.”» — el texto de la epístola de Judas en que Mather apoyó el sermón, contra los que se colaron en la Iglesia primitiva usando la religión como tapadera de la licencia sexual
«Christmas in a New England Almanac. The December page from John Tully’s notorious 1688 Boston almanac. Along with weather predictions, Tully brazenly (and in capital letters) named Christmas and the Anglican saints’ days. (Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society)» — el pie de la lámina del almanaque de Tully de 1688, que la plana anterior no imprime: junto a los pronósticos del tiempo, Tully nombró la Navidad y los días de santos anglicanos
«Mather returned to the same topic in 1713, in a treatise titled Advice from the Watch-Tower. This new treatise cut a broader swath than Grace Defended. It dealt with a whole battery of practices that were threatening to subvert New England culture from within.» — el tercer texto de Mather: *Advice from the Watch-Tower*, de 1713, que abarca una batería entera de prácticas tenidas por subversivas de la cultura de Nueva Inglaterra desde dentro
«The treatise ended by presenting “a Black List of some Evil Customes which begin to appear among us.” Along with Christmas—and gambling with cards and dice— Mather’s “black list” included partying on Sunday evenings (and even during the intermission between the two Sabbath-day sermons); running horse races on such solemn occasions as funerals, training days, and public lectures; turning weddings into drunken “revels;” and holding cornhuskings that were little more than excuses for “riot.”» — la lista negra con que cierra el tratado: junto a la Navidad y el juego de naipes y dados, las fiestas del domingo por la tarde, las carreras de caballos en funerales y días de instrucción, las bodas vueltas jolgorio y las deshojadas de maíz
«There was a pattern here: All these practices involved young people who were appropriating serious social occasions as opportunities for bouts of drinking and sex.» — el patrón que Nissenbaum ve en la lista: jóvenes que se apropiaban de ocasiones sociales serias para beber y para el sexo
«Christmas-Revels begin to be taken up,” he reported, “among some vainer Young People here and there in some of our Towns.» — según Nissenbaum, la fórmula con que Mather situó la Navidad entre los brindis y los desórdenes de las deshojadas: los jolgorios navideños empiezan a tomarse entre algunos jóvenes más vanos
«It was bad enough, Mather argued, that Christmas was not divinely ordained, but what was “offensive” about it “most of all” was that it was being abused just as the weddings and the cornhuskings were abused—an occasion on which, as Mather put it, “Abominable Things” were done. Clearly, those abominations had mostly to do with sex.» — lo que Mather tenía por más ofensivo, según el capítulo: no que la fiesta no fuera de institución divina, sino que se abusara de ella como de las bodas y las deshojadas
«Social historians have discovered that the rate of premarital pregnancies in New England began to climb early in the eighteenth century, and that by mid-century it had skyrocketed. (In some New England towns almost half the first children were born less than seven months after their parents’ marriage.» — el dato demográfico con que el capítulo acompaña el cargo de Mather: la tasa de embarazos prematrimoniales en Nueva Inglaterra sube desde principios del siglo XVIII y se dispara a mediados
«What makes the demographic data especially interesting is that this sexual activity had a seasonal pattern to it: There was a “bulge” in the number of births in the months of September and October—meaning that sexual activity peaked during the Christmas season.» — el rasgo estacional de ese dato: un abultamiento de nacimientos en septiembre y octubre, con lo que la actividad sexual habría llegado a su pico en la temporada navideña
«But even as early as 1682, a Boston almanac written by the thoroughly orthodox William Brattle contained a verse for the December page that referred to all the drinking that went on during that month (“sack” refers to sherry, and “tubs” to kegs): This month, ’twill rain such store of sack (each night) That any man that tubs doth empty quite, And leave abroad [i.e. outdoors], and then the next day view, He’ll find them full of pure good sack: It’s true.» — según Nissenbaum, el verso de diciembre del almanaque bostoniano de 1682 del ortodoxo William Brattle, sobre la lluvia de jerez que vuelve a llenar las cubas vaciadas
«Brattle’s verse may have referred to a popular belief about magical rebirth and renewal at the time of both the solstice and Christmas, but what matters more is that he seems to have assumed that December was indeed a month of heavy drinking.» — la lectura que el capítulo propone y acota: el verso puede aludir a una creencia popular de renacimiento mágico en el solsticio, pero lo que importa más es que Brattle daba por sabido que diciembre era mes de beber fuerte
«The same double allusion to intoxication and solstice can be found in an almanac printed in Boston in 1714, placed by the dates December 28–31: “By strong Liquor and Play / They turn night into day.» — la misma doble alusión en un almanaque impreso en Boston en 1714, puesta en los días 28 a 31 de diciembre
«Strong-Beer Stout Syder and a good fire Are things this season doth require. Now some with feasts do crown the day, Whilst others loose their coyn in play» — el verso que encabeza el mes de diciembre en ese almanaque de 1714: cerveza fuerte, sidra recia y buen fuego son lo que la estación pide
«In 1702 the Boston almanac-maker Samuel Clough reported (disapprovingly, to be sure) that December was a time when men of the lower orders—“Coasters and Boat-men”—gathered in taverns to gossip and drink: Some ask a Dram when first come in, Others with Flip or Bounce begin; Tho’ some do only call for Beer, And that i’ th’ morn is but mean chear.» — según Nissenbaum, el almanaquero bostoniano Samuel Clough en 1702, y con desaprobación: en diciembre los hombres de las órdenes bajas, costeros y barqueros, se juntaban en las tabernas a chismear y beber
«Thus in 1749 Nathanael Ames wrote (at December 15–17): This cold uncomfortable Weather, makes Jack and Jill lie close together.» — según Nissenbaum, el verso de Nathanael Ames para el 15 al 17 de diciembre de 1749, sobre las barreras sexuales que el frío y la licencia de la temporada saltaban
«On a similar note, George Whetens almanac for 1753 noted in a quadruple rhyme: “The weather that is cold[,] that makes the maid that is old for to scold for the want of a Bed-fellow bold.» — el mismo asunto en la rima cuádruple del almanaque de George Whetens para 1753; el troceo imprime el apellido sin apóstrofo, *Whetens*
«But most common of all were the references to interclass eating and drinking—the familiar social inversion in which the low changed places with the high. At one extreme was John Tully’s 1688 verse that Christmas was a season when “poor men at rich men’s tables their guts forrage.» — lo más común en los almanaques según el capítulo: la referencia al comer y beber entre clases, la inversión social en que el bajo cambia de sitio con el alto
«It warns householders about a practice we can recognize as another familiar element of the wassail ritual (once again, “abroad” means outside): “Do not let your Children and Servants run too much abroad at Nights.» — el consejo interlineado en los días 18 a 21 de diciembre del almanaque de Nathaniel Whittemore para 1719, que el capítulo reconoce como elemento del rito del wassail: no dejar que hijos y criados anden demasiado fuera de noche
«A Warning for Late December. Christmas is not named in this December page from Nathaniel Whittemores 1719 Boston almanac, but between the dates December 18 and 21 can be found, in italics, an admonition to householders: “Do not let your Children and Servants run too much abroad at Nights.» — el pie de la lámina del almanaque de Whittemore de 1719, que la plana anterior no imprime: la Navidad no se nombra y la advertencia va en cursiva entre los días 18 y 21
«Several decades later, Nathanael Ames’s almanac for 1746 put at the dates December 20–23 a concise but rather cynical description of interclass merriment (the words recall the 1679 Salem Village wassail, when old John Rowden was visited by four young men who came “to call for pots”): The Miser and the Sot together they have got, to drink a Pot.» — el verso de Ames para el 20 al 23 de diciembre de 1746, que el capítulo enlaza con el wassail de Salem de 1679: el avaro y el borracho se juntan a beber una jarra
«“Yankee Doodle” was not a single song but a variable cluster of verses, all composed in a meter that could be sung to a version of the still-familiar tune. What all the verses have in common is that they are about backcountry manners.» — lo que el capítulo dice de la canción que casi puede tenerse por el primer himno nacional estadounidense: no era una sola sino un racimo variable de coplas sobre modales del interior
«Two and two may go to Bed, Two and two together; And if there is not room enough, Lie one a top o’to’ther.» — según Nissenbaum, una de las coplas de *Yankee Doodle* sobre enredos sexuales
«Christmas is a coming Boys, We’ll go to Mother Chase’s, And there we’ll get a sugar dram [i.e., rum] Sweetened with Mêlasses.» — según Nissenbaum, la copla estacional navideña de *Yankee Doodle*, que empieza por el ron azucarado con melaza
«Heigh Ho for our Cape Cod, Heigh ho Nantasket, Do not let the Boston wags Feel your Oyster Basket.» — la continuación de esa copla, que pasa del alcohol al sexo; el capítulo comenta que Cotton Mather no habría enunciado el asunto con más tino
«Even orthodox Congregationalists were beginning to concede that the observance of Christmas would be rendered less obnoxious if the holiday were celebrated with piety and moderation, purged of its seasonal excesses.» — el giro que abre la segunda mitad del capítulo: hasta los congregacionalistas ortodoxos empezaban a conceder que la fiesta sería menos odiosa si se celebraba con piedad y moderación
«I do not now dispute,” Mather said, “whether People do well to Observe such an Uninstituted Festival at all, or no.» — según Nissenbaum, Cotton Mather en el sermón de 1712 dejando de lado el argumento teológico: no discute ahora si conviene o no observar tal fiesta no instituida
«Good Men may love one another, and may treat one another with a most Candid Charity, while he that Regardeth a Day, Regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that Regardeth not the Day, also shows his Regard unto the Lord, in his not Regarding of it» — la fórmula con que Mather admite la diferencia legítima, y que el capítulo lee como distancia respecto del puritanismo estridente: quien guarda el día lo guarda para el Señor y quien no lo guarda también
«What Mather went on to emphasize was the manner in which Christmas was commonly observed—as a time of drunken revels and lascivious behavior. (That was “a thing, that there can be no doubt about.» — aquello en lo que Mather sí insistía: no la fiesta en sí, sino el modo en que se observaba, con jolgorios de borrachera y conducta lasciva
«For Increase Mather, as for other seventeenth-century Puritans, the licentious fashion in which Christmas was commonly practiced was just an intrinsic expression of its non-Christian origin as a seasonal celebration; the holiday was “riotous” at its very core.» — la diferencia que el capítulo marca entre padre e hijo: para Increase, la manera licenciosa era expresión intrínseca del origen no cristiano de la fiesta, desordenada en su núcleo mismo
«Cotton Mathers concession, small as it was, left little room to contest the legitimacy of any movement that managed to purify Christmas of its seasonal excesses. And such a movement was not long in coming about.» — el efecto que Nissenbaum atribuye a esa concesión pequeña: dejaba poco margen para disputar la legitimidad de un movimiento que purificara la fiesta de sus excesos; el troceo imprime el apellido sin apóstrofo
«In 1733 James Franklin printed the following couplet on his almanac’s December page: “Now drink good Liquor, but not so, / That thou canst neither stand nor go.» — según Nissenbaum, el dístico de James Franklin en la plana de diciembre de su almanaque de 1733: bebe buen licor, pero no tanto que no puedas ni tenerte ni andar
«Raised in New England (and trained as a printer by James), Benjamin Franklin became the century’s preeminent exponent of moderation, sobriety, and self-control.» — quién era el hermano menor de James según el capítulo: Benjamin Franklin, criado en Nueva Inglaterra y formado como impresor por James, expositor máximo del siglo de la moderación, la sobriedad y el dominio de sí
«The December verse, written in the voice of “Poor” Richard Saunders’s wife, Bridget, chastised a husband who “for sake of Drink neglects his Trade, / And spends each Night in Taverns till ’tis late.» — el verso de diciembre del *Poor Richard* de 1734, puesto en boca de Bridget, la mujer de Richard Saunders, contra el marido que descuida el oficio por la bebida
«If you wou’d have Guests merry with your Cheer, / Be so yourself, or so at least appear.» — la interlineación de Franklin en los días 23 a 29 de diciembre, que el capítulo lee como prueba de que no odiaba la Navidad
«O blessed Season! lov’d by Saints and Sinners, / For long Devotions, or for longer Dinners.» — el mismo tono en el almanaque de Franklin de 1739
«The emphasis on temperate mirth intensified at mid-century, when Nathanael Ames (New England’s most popular almanac-maker) began to mix calls for charity and cheer with admonitions against excess.» — el paso siguiente según el capítulo: a mediados de siglo Nathanael Ames, el almanaquero más popular de Nueva Inglaterra, empezó a mezclar llamados a la caridad y la alegría con amonestaciones contra el exceso
«The temperate man enjoys the most delight, / For riot dulls and palls the appetite.» — el consejo de Ames en el almanaque de 1761: el hombre templado goza más, porque el desenfreno embota el apetito
«In 1764 dietary strictures actually took over Ames’s entire almanac, constituting the subject matter for the accompanying material in all twelve months of the year.» — hasta dónde llegó esa vuelta según Nissenbaum: en 1764 las prescripciones dietéticas coparon el almanaque entero de Ames, en los doce meses
«What they were trying to do was actually similar to what the Puritans had done a century earlier: to restructure people’s work habits by having them do away with periodic binges.» — el paralelo que el capítulo traza entre Franklin y Ames y los puritanos de un siglo antes: reestructurar los hábitos de trabajo quitando las borracheras periódicas
«But unlike the Puritans, their strategy did not entail the elimination of Christmas. Instead, they were spreading the idea—a new idea—that Christmas could be a time of cheer without also being a time of excess.» — la diferencia con los puritanos: la estrategia de los almanaqueros no pasaba por eliminar la Navidad, sino por difundir la idea nueva de una fiesta alegre sin exceso
«The single best personal account of what such a “moderate” Christmas season may have been like can be found in the diary of Martha Ballard, the Maine midwife whose social world has been painstakingly and brilliantly reconstructed by the historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.» — la fuente que el capítulo elige para la Navidad moderada: el diario de Martha Ballard, la partera de Maine cuyo mundo social reconstruyó la historiadora Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
«During the twenty-six years between 1785 and 1811, Ballard chose seven times in her diary to name December 25 as Christmas. In six other years, she had reason to omit such a reference: She was occupied in delivering someone’s baby; December 25 was just another working day for her.» — la cuenta que Nissenbaum hace del diario: en veintiséis años Ballard nombró siete veces el 25 de diciembre como Navidad, y en otros seis años tenía razón para omitirlo porque estaba pariendo a alguien
«In 1807 (“it is Chrismas day”), she noted laconically, “I have done a fortnit’s wash.” And on December 25, 1811, the final Christmas of her life, the 76-year-old woman reported simply: “I have done hous wk Se knit Some.» — las dos entradas con que el capítulo muestra que el 25 era día de trabajo: la lavada de quince días en 1807 y, en la última Navidad de su vida en 1811, el trabajo de casa y algo de punto
«In 1801 Martha reported nothing special for herself on December 25, but she wrote that her two unmarried children celebrated the day in the company of two members of the opposite sex: “Ephm & Patty kept Christmas at Son Lambards, his partnr [was] Polly Farewell [and] hers [was] Cyrus.» — la entrada de 1801 con que el capítulo muestra que la generación joven de Hallowell guardaba la fiesta más activamente: los dos hijos solteros la pasaron en casa del hijo Lambard, cada uno con pareja
«Some years earlier, two of the Ballards’ young live-in servants likewise took Christmas as an opportunity for courtship: On December 23, 1794, “Dolly & Sally went to a daunce [dance] at mr Capins, were atended by a mr Lambart and White.» — la entrada del 23 de diciembre de 1794: dos criadas de la casa tomaron la Navidad como ocasión de cortejo y fueron a un baile
«But Martha Ballard quickly reasserted her control over this frolicsome pair: On Christmas Day itself, she reported, “Dolly & Sally have washt, Scourd my puter & washt the Kitchen.» — el contrapunto que el capítulo señala: el día de Navidad las dos criadas lavaron, fregaron el peltre y limpiaron la cocina
«Christmas may have been a time of work for Martha Ballard, but what is equally striking is how often that work involved the preparation of special meals for the season. It is on this very point that her diary is most revealing.» — lo que el capítulo encuentra más llamativo en ese diario: que el trabajo del 25 consistía a menudo en preparar comidas especiales de la temporada
«On two occasions Martha Ballard actually went shopping for her New Year’s dinner, and she recorded her purchases in such detail as to make it clear that she was planning to cook a special holiday meal. On December 31, 1791, she shopped in three places and came home with what are unmistakably the ingredients for special cakes and pies: almost ten pounds of sugar, one pound of raisins, a pound of ginger, “2 half muggs,” and a pint and a half of rum.» — la compra del 31 de diciembre de 1791, que el capítulo lee como lista de ingredientes de pasteles y tartas de fiesta: azúcar, pasas, jengibre y ron
«Son Ephm made us a present of 12½ lb Beef, Son Town [a present] of a fine Goos & 2 wings; they both sleep here» — según Nissenbaum, la entrada de Martha Ballard donde el rito del regalo de comida de sus hijos aparece por primera vez, con la res y el ganso
«Son Lambard Conducted his wife and Henry to See me … they made me a present of a Loin of muttun, Some Sugar, Butter and Bread. Son Ephms wife Came here, Jona[than’]s wife also. She brot me 2 Pumkin pies. O happy has this year began and So may it proceead» — la entrada del 1 de enero de 1808, que el capítulo cita por traer la reacción de la propia Ballard al repetirse el rito: una pierna de carnero, azúcar, mantequilla, pan y dos tartas de calabaza
«On at least one occasion during this period, Martha appears to have reciprocated. On December 23, 1808, she “bak’t apple & Squash pies & brown bread,” and sent a couple of the pies to one of her daughters, along with “a Stake of fresh Pork.» — la reciprocidad que el diario registra: el 23 de diciembre de 1808 Ballard horneó y mandó tartas y un filete de cerdo fresco a una de sus hijas
«What Martha Ballard’s entries make strikingly clear is that for the Ballard family the celebration of the Christmas season was deeply embedded in the normal rhythms of seasonal activity.» — la lectura que el capítulo hace del diario entero: para los Ballard la celebración estaba metida en los ritmos normales de la actividad estacional
«Martha Ballard and her neighbors might very well have been baking “mins pies” at this time even if there were no special holidays to mark the occasion. A supply of mince pies, if properly stored, would last through much of the winter.» — el límite que Nissenbaum pone a la lectura festiva de esos pasteles: los habrían horneado igual sin fiesta alguna, porque bien guardados duraban buena parte del invierno
«Above all, the presents were not intrinsically commercial. The goose, beef, and mutton, the bread and butter, the pumpkin pies—these were nothing more than the things that Hallowell families raised or produced in the normal course of events.» — el rasgo que el capítulo subraya de esos regalos: no eran comerciales en sí, sino lo que las familias de Hallowell criaban o producían de ordinario
«Only the special ingredients that went into making cakes and pies—the sugar, ginger, allspice, and rum—involved a commercial transaction. But this suggests only that Martha Ballard’s Hallowell community had links to the broader Atlantic world and was not some isolated backwater whose economy operated at a level of subsistence production.» — la excepción y lo que el autor deja que signifique: solo el azúcar, el jengibre, la pimienta de Jamaica y el ron pasaban por una transacción comercial, señal de que Hallowell no era un rincón aislado de subsistencia
«Martha Ballard’s diary records a single present of a commercial nature. On December 29, 1796, she noted that “Daniel Livermore made a present of an Almanack to my Son Cyrus.» — el único regalo de naturaleza comercial del diario, que el capítulo usa como bisagra hacia los almanaques: el almanaque que Daniel Livermore dio al hijo Cyrus el 29 de diciembre de 1796
«As far back as the seventeenth century, and even among devout Puritans, there had never been complete unanimity about the need to deny that Christmas could be an occasion for legitimate religious observance.» — el matiz con que el capítulo abre la historia del almanaque: ni siquiera entre los puritanos devotos hubo unanimidad completa sobre negar que la Navidad pudiera ser ocasión de observancia religiosa legítima
«In England, in 1629, no less prominent a Puritan than John Milton wrote a Christmas poem, “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity.” The poem began by announcing (almost defiantly, given the political context in which it appeared), “This is the month, and this the happy morn» — el ejemplo inglés: John Milton escribió en 1629 un poema navideño, *On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity*, que abre casi desafiante dado el contexto político
«In his diary Mather recorded the argument with tantalizing brevity: “Discoursed much about Christmas, I Con, they Pro.» — según Nissenbaum, la brevedad con que Increase Mather anotó en su diario la discusión de diciembre de 1664 con tres de los miembros más ricos de su propia iglesia
«In the almanac for 1669, quietly placed at this date, in small italic letters, can be found the Latin phrase “Christus Natus” [i.e., Christ born]. And exactly ten years later, the 1679 almanac indicated, in English, “Our Saviorborn.» — el par de excepciones que el capítulo encuentra en los almanaques purgados: la frase latina de 1669 y, exactamente diez años después, la inglesa
«These two almanacs, like every book published in New England during the period, were printed on a press owned by Harvard College. The authorities must have noticed the insertions and allowed them to be made.» — de dónde salían esos almanaques y qué implica: la prensa era propiedad del Harvard College, así que las autoridades debieron de notar las inserciones y consentirlas
«But in the context of seventeenth-century New England, this gesture would have been charged with meaning. It was such small things that signaled to contemporaries the shifting lines between what was open for public debate and what was not.» — el peso que el capítulo atribuye a una anotación mínima: esas cosas pequeñas señalaban a los contemporáneos dónde se movía la línea de lo discutible en público
«From that point on, the dominant role in determining whether the holiday was named was played not by official preferences but by the forces of the market, in concert with the personal predilections of individual almanac-makers.» — el cambio que Nissenbaum data hacia 1730: quien decide si se nombra la fiesta deja de ser la preferencia oficial y pasan a serlo las fuerzas del mercado y el gusto de cada almanaquero
«Before 1730 or so, it was not wholly safe to publish an almanac that named Christmas or the Anglican saints’ days. After 1730, it was safe. Over the next thirty years, some writers chose to name Christmas in their almanacs, and others chose not to. But after 1760 it was exceptional not to name Christmas.» — la cronología en tres tramos: antes de 1730 no era del todo seguro nombrar la Navidad, después sí lo era, y a partir de 1760 lo excepcional era no nombrarla
«The last major holdout, Nathanael Ames, named Christmas in 1760, and when he did so he added an explicit religious verse (“This is a Time for Joy and Mirth / When we consider our Saviour’s Birth» — el último en resistir según el capítulo: Ames nombró la Navidad en 1760 y le añadió un verso religioso explícito
«The year 1760 was also when Ames began his systematic campaign—described earlier—to take the gorging and drunkenness out of the Christmas holiday. The timing of Ames’ decision to name Christmas thus provides still another indication that the holiday became accepted into mainstream New England culture only as it was purged of seasonal excess.» — la coincidencia de fechas que Nissenbaum señala: 1760 es también el año en que Ames empieza su campaña contra el atracón, de modo que la fiesta entró en la corriente principal a medida que se la purgaba del exceso estacional
«He had learned, as he wrote in the preface to that year’s almanac, “that some good People in the Country, dislike my Almanack, because the observable Days of the Church of England are inserted in it.» — según Nissenbaum, el prefacio de Roger Sherman al almanaque de 1758, donde se defiende de la mala acogida por incluir los días observables de la Iglesia de Inglaterra
«Sherman, a good Congregationalist, denied that he had Anglican leanings. He insisted that his almanac was not intended as an expression of personal belief; rather, “my Design in this Performance is to serve the Publick.” Everybody was free to observe such days or not, and no harm would be done as long as the physical space in the almanac taken up by naming the red-letter days “does not crowd out any Thing that might be more serviceable.» — la defensa de Sherman: niega inclinaciones anglicanas, dice que su designio es servir al público y que nombrar los días marcados no quita espacio a nada más útil
«“Reformed” almanacs were still being published in 1758, but only four years later they would be gone, gone for good. By the 1760s the naming of Christmas and the saints’ days seems to have offended such a small group that it would not pay to produce even a single almanac for them. The Puritan buying market seems simply to have evaporated.» — el final de la serie: en 1762 los almanaques reformados desaparecen, porque nombrar la Navidad ya ofendía a un grupo tan pequeño que no salía a cuenta imprimir uno solo para ellos
«During the seventeenth and well into the eighteenth century, most New England congregations used the so-called Bay Psalm Book, a rhymed version of the Old Testament Psalms, with additional hymns taken from various biblical sources (this was the first book published in New England). None of these hymns dealt with the Christmas story.» — el paralelo con el himnario: las congregaciones usaban el *Bay Psalm Book*, primer libro impreso en Nueva Inglaterra, y ninguno de sus himnos trataba la historia de la Natividad
«The first of these had been written late in the seventeenth century by the English poets Nicholas Brady and Nahum Tate. (Tate was then England’s poet laureate; he is best known today as the librettist of Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas.» — quiénes escribieron la primera de las dos versiones nuevas de los salmos: los poetas ingleses Nicholas Brady y Nahum Tate, este último entonces poeta laureado
«Brady and Tate’s New Version of the Psalms contained a hymn that told the story of the Nativity. (Written by Nahum Tate, this hymn is still popular today. It begins with the lines “While Shepards watch’d their Flocks by Night, / All seated on the Ground, / The Angel of the Lord came down / and Glory shone around.”) The New Version was first printed in Boston in 1713.» — el himno de la Natividad que trae esa versión, todavía cantado, y la fecha de su primera impresión en Boston
«Watts published not one but two Christmas hymns; both (like Tate’s) were rhapsodic accounts of the Nativity. Each was called “The Nativity of Christ,” and each placed the Nativity “today”—which would have made the hymns almost impossible to sing at any time other than the Christmas season.» — los dos himnos navideños de Isaac Watts, que ponen la Natividad en el hoy y por eso resultan casi incantables fuera de la temporada
«One New Englander who grew up toward the end of the century later recalled that as a youth “I could recite Watts’ version of the Psalms from beginning to end, together with many of his Hymns and Lyric Poems.» — el testimonio con que el capítulo mide la difusión de Watts: un habitante de Nueva Inglaterra recordaba de joven recitar entera su versión de los salmos
«But in 1760 (that year, again!) a tune book published in Boston included the music and words to a “Hymn on the Nativity,” composed by Englishman William Knapp to the familiar text of Nahum Tate.» — el mismo año en los libros de tonadas: en 1760 uno impreso en Boston trae música y letra de un himno de la Natividad del inglés William Knapp sobre el texto de Tate
«The most famous of these Yankee composers, William Billings of Boston, composed Christmas music for each of the tune books he published between 1770 and 1794; there were eight such Christmas pieces in all, several of them extended contrapuntal “anthems.”72 Three of these pieces (and part of a fourth) were settings for the hymns by Isaac Watts and Nahum Tate. The texts of the others were written by Billings himself.» — los compositores nativos desde 1770 según el capítulo: William Billings de Boston puso música navideña en cada uno de los libros de tonadas que publicó entre 1770 y 1794
«What Sherman was really alluding to was not religious freedom but market demand. His words suggest that the old Puritan preference for a “reformed” almanac remained just important enough to warrant a rhetorical response, just as his actual practice reveals that such an old-fashioned preference was no longer» — lo que el capítulo lee detrás de esas palabras: no libertad religiosa sino demanda de mercado, con la vieja preferencia puritana ya solo lo bastante viva para merecer una respuesta retórica; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *widespread enough to require anything but a rhetorical response*
«failed to include a hymn for Christmas. What makes the change especially suggestive, of course, is the way it parallels the transformation of New England almanacs. In both cases, Christmas was hardly to be found before 1720; after 1760 it could not be avoided.» — el resultado del paralelo entre himnario y almanaque, que el troceo parte entre dos planas: antes de 1720 apenas se hallaba la Navidad y después de 1760 no podía evitarse
«William Billings, “An Hymn for Christmas” (1770). The first of Billings’s eight Christmas pieces. The words, taken from Nahum Tate’s hymn “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night,” are indicated only by the opening phrase of each line—perhaps the singers were already acquainted with the text. The hymn’s subtitle, “Charlston” (i.e., Charlestown), probably names the congregation for which Billings first wrote the piece. (Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society)» — el pie de la lámina del primer himno navideño de Billings, con las palabras de Tate indicadas solo por el arranque de cada renglón y el subtítulo que probablemente nombra la congregación de Charlestown
«All told, during the last two decades of the eighteenth century, seven different New England composers published original Christmas music. And Christmas pieces by English composers continued to be routinely included in the anthologies of sacred music that appeared with accelerated frequency in the 1780s» — la cuenta de compositores del capítulo: siete compositores nativos de Nueva Inglaterra publicaron música navideña original en las dos últimas décadas del siglo XVIII; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«One of the most important of the new tune books, Isaiah Thomas’s 1786 Worcester Collection of Sacred Harmony, even contained the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handels Messiah!» — lo que trae la *Worcester Collection of Sacred Harmony* de Isaiah Thomas de 1786; el troceo imprime el apellido sin apóstrofo, *Handels*
«Beginning in about the middle of the eighteenth century, even some orthodox Congregationalist ministers began to confess their desire to observe Christmas, along with their regret that it carried too much unacceptable baggage, social as well as theological.» — el cambio entre los ministros: desde mediados del siglo XVIII algunos congregacionalistas ortodoxos confiesan su deseo de observar la Navidad y su pesar por el lastre que la fiesta arrastra
«This day the nativity of our blessed Savior is celebrated through three quarters of Christendom …; but the true day is unknown. On any day I can readily join with my fellow Christians in giving thanks to God for his unspeakable gift, and rejoice with them in the birth of a Savior. Tho’ [i.e., if] it had been the will of Christ that the anniversary of his birth should have been celebrated, he would at least let us have known the day» — según Nissenbaum, el diario del reverendo Ezra Stiles el 25 de diciembre de 1776: se celebra en tres cuartas partes de la cristiandad pero el día verdadero se ignora, y si Cristo hubiera querido el aniversario habría dejado saber la fecha
«In 1778 Stiles specified the nature of his own reservations: “Without superstition for the day I desire to unite with all Christians in celebrating the incarnation of the divine Emmanuel.» — la reserva que Stiles precisa dos años después: unirse a todos los cristianos en celebrar la encarnación, pero sin superstición por el día
«In fact, as president of Yale, Stiles permitted his students to attend Christmas service (as Edward Holyoke had done at Harvard a generation earlier).» — lo que Stiles hizo ya como presidente de Yale, con el precedente de Edward Holyoke en Harvard una generación antes
«The Reverend Ebenezer Parkman of Westborough, Massachusetts, was one of these. For twenty years Parkman had been going about his ordinary business each December 25; he had even been chiding his neighbors for attending Christmas services in a nearby Episcopal Church. But suddenly, in 1747, Parkman revealed that he himself was tempted to join them: “God grant that I and mine may be happy partakers this Day with all those who Sincerely celebrate the Nativity of Jesus Christ!» — el caso del ministro conservador que el capítulo levanta de un diario privado: Parkman, que durante veinte años trabajó cada 25 de diciembre y reprendía a sus vecinos, en 1747 se declara tentado de unírseles
«The caveat was crucial: Like Ezra Stiles, Ebenezer Parkman wished to celebrate Christmas with those people who did so “in sincerity,” not with those who did so with “Superstitions and Excesses.» — la salvedad que el capítulo llama crucial: Parkman y Stiles querían celebrar con quienes lo hacían con sinceridad, no con quienes lo hacían con superstición y excesos
«When he did so, it was with enthusiasm: “[T]his day, as tis apprehended, the Saviour was born[,] w[hic]h was to be glad tidings of Great Joy to all people…. I’ll join to sing a Saviours love for there’s a Saviour Born.» — según Nissenbaum, la primera entrada navideña del diario del reverendo David Hall, de Sutton, en 1749, evangélico partidario del Gran Despertar
«And he added, in a further indication of what it was that really worried all these New England ministers, “Would to God more notice was taken of the day in a suitable manner» — lo que el capítulo lee en el añadido de Hall como la preocupación común de todos esos ministros: que del día se hiciera caso de una manera adecuada
«We should not assume that these were merely the prim phrasings of unworldly clergymen. Consider a little episode that took place on the night of December 22, 1794, in the rural western Massachusetts town of Deerfield (now the site of Historic Deerfield). It is the kind of incident that rarely leaves any mark in the written record.» — el aviso que Nissenbaum da contra leer esas fórmulas como remilgos de clérigos: sigue un episodio de los que casi nunca dejan huella escrita
«We know about this one only because it appeared in the account book of a disgruntled local shopkeeper, John Birge by name. What Birge reported was a charivari of sorts. “Just before two of the Clock in the morning,” he wrote, “my house was assaulted by sum Nightwalkers— or rather blockheads.» — de dónde sale el episodio de Deerfield del 22 de diciembre de 1794: del libro de cuentas del tendero John Birge, que llama caminantes nocturnos o mejor zopencos a quienes asaltaron su casa
«These wassailers demanded entry: They “assaulted the house very bould by knocking or pounding as if they meant to force the house.” When Birge refused to let them in, the intruders shattered one of his windowpanes “all to slivers.» — el detalle del asalto: golpeaban como si quisieran forzar la casa y, al negarse Birge a abrir, le rompieron un cristal en astillas
«because Birge ended his account with the comment, “I cannot see why it was much better than Burglary.» — el juicio con que el propio tendero cierra la cuenta del episodio
«The answer must be that when Christmas returned to New England in the second half of the eighteenth century, it was embraced by different groups with different cultural agendas.» — la respuesta que el capítulo da a su propia pregunta: al volver la Navidad a Nueva Inglaterra en la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII, la abrazaron grupos distintos con agendas culturales distintas
«Then as now, there was no single “Christmas.” For some it was probably little more than the name for a day in the year. For others it was a time of pious devotion, devotion that could range all the way from mirthful joy in the Savior’s birth to angst over personal failings, and from stately prayers to ecstatic hymns. For others still it was a time of feasting—accompanied or not by a supply of alcohol. Finally, Christmas might mean misrule and carnival, in which alcohol could lead to sexual liberties, social inversion, or even violence.» — el abanico que Nissenbaum enumera: para unos apenas el nombre de un día, para otros devoción piadosa, para otros banquete, y para otros desgobierno y carnaval
«But not one of these ways of celebrating Christmas bore much resemblance to the holiday that most of us know today.» — el corte que el capítulo marca entre aquella fiesta y la actual; el troceo parte aquí la frase entre dos planas
«were public rituals, not private celebrations; civic events, not domestic ones. In none of them would we have found the familiar intimate family gathering or the giving of Christmas presents to expectant children. Nowhere would we have found Christmas trees; no reindeer, no Santa Claus. Christmas in late-eighteenth-century New England—or anywhere else—was not centered around the family or on children or giving presents. It was neither a domestic holiday nor a commercial one.» — la continuación de esa frase en la plana siguiente: todas eran ritos públicos y cívicos, sin reunión familiar íntima, sin regalos a los niños, sin árbol, sin renos ni Santa Claus
«These were the members of the Boston lodge of Freemasons. The Masonic lodge had been organized in 1730, and it held a festive banquet each 27th of December, the name-day of St. John the Evangelist.» — quiénes protagonizaban el jolgorio navideño más abierto del Boston de mediados de siglo: la logia masónica de Boston, organizada en 1730, con banquete cada 27 de diciembre por el día de San Juan Evangelista
«As it happens, the lodge’s 1749 banquet was described by one of the participants in a long and comic poem published several weeks after the event. (The poem constitutes the sole extant record of any of these Masonic festivities.» — la fuente única del episodio: un poema largo y cómico publicado semanas después por uno de los participantes, del que el autor advierte que es el solo registro conservado de esas fiestas masónicas
«First, the Freemasons assembled at a tavern, then they attended a church service, and finally they marched back to the tavern in a formal procession that gathered along its route an “aprond throng” of curious workingmen.» — la secuencia del relato: los masones se juntan en una taberna, van a un oficio religioso y vuelven a la taberna en procesión formal que recoge por el camino una multitud de obreros con mandil
«’Tis Love, pure Love cements the whole. Love—of the BOTTLE and the BOWL.» — según Nissenbaum, los dos versos del poema que él lee como parodia a la vez de la cultura masónica y de la teoría social puritana del amor mutuo
«To house of God from house of ale And how the parson told his tale: How they return’d, in manner odd, To house of ale from house of God.» — los versos que dan título al apartado: de la casa de la cerveza a la casa de Dios y de vuelta, con el oficio religioso como interludio irónico
«For eating solid sense affords, Whilst nonsense lurks in many words. Doubting does oft arise from thinking, But truth is only found in drinking. This having said, the reverend vicar Dismiss’d them to their food and liquor.» — el sermón en verso que el poema atribuye al clérigo, modelado en Alexander Pope: la verdad solo se halla en la bebida
«But in the context of older Christmas traditions one point stands out: The Freemasons’ banquet was limited to the lodge members themselves, all of whom were prosperous men. The “aprond throng” that collected on the streets to watch the procession was not invited to participate in the feast itself.» — lo que el capítulo destaca frente a las tradiciones navideñas viejas: el banquete masónico quedó limitado a los miembros de la logia, todos hombres prósperos, y la multitud con mandil no fue invitada
«The poet even suggests that the “apron’d throng” put on something of a performance of its own in response to the march—“shouldering close,” they managed to “close, press, stink, and shove» — la respuesta de la multitud según el poema: también ella actuaba, apretándose contra los que marchaban
«In an aside, the poet reveals that the Grand Master of the lodge, a wealthy Boston merchant, decided not to attend the banquet —ostensibly because he had caught a cold, but in fact because he had foreseen “that the jobb/Would from all parts collect the mob.» — el dato que el poema deja caer: el Gran Maestro, rico mercader de Boston, no asistió al banquete, en apariencia por un resfriado y en realidad por prever que el asunto juntaría a la turba
«published in New England. It is safe to say that the decades after 1760 saw a veritable explosion of Christmas music in the region.» — la cuenta con que el capítulo cierra el apartado musical, que el troceo parte entre dos planas: al menos treinta canciones navideñas distintas entre 1760 y 1799, y una verdadera explosión de música navideña en la región
«But the limited evidence that does exist suggests a reemergence of Christmas misrule, reminiscent of what was happening in European cities. In its more innocent form this involved a ritual that is still with us today: giving Christmas tips to the paper carrier. Newspapers were delivered door to door in eighteenth-century Boston. During the Christmas season these newspaper carriers expected a tip. Unlike their modern successors, the colonial carriers were not members of prosperous families who took on a paper route to earn a little extra spending money; they were the sons (very likely the teenage sons) of the poor.» — lo que el capítulo infiere de la evidencia escasa sobre los más pobres de Boston: un rebrote del desgobierno navideño, que en su forma inocente es la propina al repartidor de periódicos, hijo de pobres y no de familias acomodadas
«By the 1760s these Boston carriers were going on their begging rounds armed with little printed verses that they presented in turn to each of their patrons. Such “carriers’ addresses” were usually written and printed by the editor of the newspaper and distributed on or about New Year’s Day. (The custom originated in Philadelphia during the 1730s and had been picked up in Boston by 1760.» — los versos impresos con que los repartidores de Boston hacían la ronda: escritos y estampados por el editor del periódico, repartidos hacia el Año Nuevo, con la costumbre nacida en Filadelfia en los años treinta
«The 1764 verses in the Boston Evening Post, for example, was headed “The News-Boy’s Christmas and New Year’s Verses.” It begins: The Boy who Weekly Pads the Streets, With all the freshest News he meets, His Mistresses and Masters greets.» — según Nissenbaum, el arranque de los versos navideños del repartidor en el *Boston Evening Post* de 1764
«Christmas Begging Broadside. This Boston “Carrier’s Address” was delivered during the 1770 Christmas season. The final verse asks patrons to bestow a “few shillings on your lad.” Similar broadside pleas were used by other “plebeian” residents of Boston. One, dating from the mid-176os, was from a blacksmith’s apprentice: “This is unto» — el pie de la lámina del pliego de 1770, que añade el ejemplo de un aprendiz de herrero de mediados de los años sesenta; el troceo corta la cita en el cambio de plana
«Christmas and New-Year, Days of Joy, The Harvest of your Carrier Boy, He hopes you’ll not his Hopes destroy…. [That] His generous Patrons may inspire, By filling up his Pockets higher!» — la continuación de los versos del repartidor de 1764: la Navidad y el Año Nuevo son la cosecha del muchacho
«To be sure, this ritual was a far cry from the boisterous begging we have encountered in European popular culture (and will reencounter shortly in Boston itself). The paper carrier approached his patrons individually, not as part of a gang. As far as we know, he did not demand entry into his patrons’ houses or threaten damage if refused a gift.» — la diferencia que el capítulo marca con la mendicidad bulliciosa europea: el repartidor se acercaba solo, no en banda, y no exigía entrar ni amenazaba con daños
«Above all, the verses that the carrier handed to his patrons were written by his employer. This was a ritual that was largely controlled and regulated from above—and perhaps that was its point.» — lo que Nissenbaum señala como rasgo decisivo: los versos los escribía el patrón del muchacho, de modo que el rito se controlaba desde arriba
«Nevertheless, it was a form of door-to-door begging, in which poor and youthful clients approached older and more prosperous patrons. It involved the exchange of gifts for expressions of goodwill, and the exchange was mediated by a “performance”—the token gift of a verse that expressed the essence of the exchange.» — lo que el rito seguía siendo pese a todo: mendicidad de puerta en puerta, con intercambio de dones por buena voluntad mediado por una actuación
«Several sources, taken together, make it clear that a tradition of aggressive Christmas mumming (a variety of wassail) was practiced by some of Boston’s poorer inhabitants over a period of at least thirty years, beginning no later than the early 1760s and continuing at least into the mid-179os. These groups called themselves the Anticks, masked troupes who demanded (or forced) entry into the houses of respectable Bostonians at Christmas. Once inside, they engaged in a dramatic “performance” and demanded gifts of money in return.» — lo que el capítulo arma con varias fuentes: una tradición de mumming navideño agresivo entre los bostonianos pobres durante al menos treinta años, con tropas enmascaradas que se hacían llamar los *Anticks*
«The first piece of evidence of the existence of the Anticks is sketchy, taking the form of an oral report given to a folklorist late in the nineteenth century by a man whose mother—born in about 1752— had told it to him.84 It serves chiefly to date the origin of the Anticks at least as far back as 1760 or so.» — el valor que el autor concede a su primera fuente y su límite: un informe oral recogido por un folclorista a fines del siglo XIX, que sirve sobre todo para datar el origen
«Breck recalled the Anticks as “a set of the lowest blackguards” who were “disguised in filthy clothes and ofttimes with masked faces.” They “went from house to house in large companies, and bon gre, mal gre, obtruding themselves everywhere, particularly into the rooms that were occupied by parties of ladies and gentlemen.” There they “would demean themselves with great insolence.» — según Nissenbaum, el recuerdo de Samuel Breck, nacido en 1770 en una familia muy rica de Boston: los *Anticks* como granujas disfrazados con ropas sucias que se metían en todas partes
«I have seen them at my father’s, when his assembled friends were at cards, take possession of a table, seat themselves on rich furniture and proceed to handle the cards, to the great annoyance of the company. The only way to get rid of them was to give them money, and listen patiendy to a foolish dialogue between two or more of them. One of them would cry out, “Ladies and gentlemen sitting by the fire, put your hands in your pockets and give us our desire.” When this was done and they had received some money, a kind of acting took place. One fellow was knocked down, and lay sprawling on the carpet, while another bellowed out, “See, there he lies, But ere he dies A doctor must be had.” He calls for a doctor, who soon appears, and enacts the part so well that the wounded man revives.» — según Nissenbaum, el relato de Breck de la actuación entera: los *Anticks* toman la mesa de juego, solo se los quita de encima el dinero, y representan el viejo auto de San Jorge con el muerto que un médico resucita
«This often went on for half an hour. Breck remembered that even after the men finally left, “the house would be filled with another gang.» — la duración y la sucesión de bandas que Breck recordaba
«Custom had licensed these vagabonds to enter even by force any place they chose.” (“What should we say to such intruders now?” Breck asked rhetorically in the very different culture of his old age. “Our manners would not brook such usage a moment.» — el punto cultural que el capítulo llama especialmente significativo: la costumbre licenciaba a esos vagabundos a entrar por la fuerza donde quisieran, y el propio Breck, ya viejo, mide la distancia con sus maneras
«This third report, dating from 1793, is firsthand evidence. On December 20, 1793, a Boston newspaper printed an anonymous letter to the Boston Police Inspector, warning of the Anticks’ imminent annual appearance and demanding that something be done to stop them.» — la tercera fuente y la única de primera mano: una carta anónima al Inspector de Policía de Boston, impresa el 20 de diciembre de 1793, que avisa de la aparición anual y pide que se les pare
«The disadvantages, interruptions, and injuries which the inhabitants sustain from these gangs, are too many for enumeration, a few only must suffice. When different clubs of them meet in the street, noise and fighting immediately commences. Their demands for entrance in house, are insolent and clamourous; and should the peaceful citizen (not choosing to have the tranquillity of his family interrupted) persevere in refusing them admittance, his windows are broke, or the latches and knockers wrenched from his door as the penalty: Or should they gain admittance, the delicate ear is oftentimes offended, children affrighted, or catch the phrases of their senseless ribaldry. [In other words, the Anticks used bawdy language.» — según Nissenbaum, la carta anónima detallando la amenaza: al juntarse dos clubes en la calle empieza el ruido y la pelea, y al ciudadano que no los deja entrar le rompen las ventanas o le arrancan aldabas y picaportes
«But the behavior of these mummers can also be seen as a kind of symbolic “counter-theater,” their response to the refusal of “peaceful citizens” to perform their allotted Christmas role.» — la lectura que el capítulo ofrece de esa conducta: un contrateatro simbólico, respuesta de los enmascarados a que los ciudadanos pacíficos se negaran a cumplir el papel navideño que les tocaba
«Such gangs had been performing for years, he noted, though he agreed that they caused “inconveniency and frights” by “disturbing families and begging a Copper.” But it was difficult to identify the participants, because they went around in disguise. The Inspector also implied that they came from the town’s poorest classes (the kinds of people who “seldom if ever read the public papers» — la respuesta del Inspector de Policía: llevaban años actuando, causaban molestias y sustos pidiendo un cobre, era difícil identificarlos por el disfraz y venían de las clases más pobres
«In conclusion, the Police Inspector urged Boston’s respectable citizens to take into custody any Anticks who harassed them, promising that such persons would be prosecuted as criminals.» — lo que el Inspector acabó pidiendo: que los ciudadanos respetables detuvieran ellos mismos a los *Anticks* que los hostigaran, con promesa de procesarlos como criminales
«When William Bentley of Salem read this item, he considered it worth noting in his diary that “[t]he inspector of Police in Boston has forbidden the ‘Anticks,’ as they are called, by which the resemblance of this Christian feast to the Saturnalia has been so admirably maintained.» — según Nissenbaum, lo que William Bentley de Salem anotó en su diario al leer la noticia: el Inspector ha prohibido a los *Anticks*, por los cuales tan admirablemente se mantenía el parecido de esta fiesta cristiana con las Saturnales
«The exchange of letters about the “Anticks” never once mentioned Christmas by name, even though the connection would have been clear enough to anyone (as it was to Bentley).» — el detalle que el capítulo subraya del episodio: el intercambio de cartas no nombra la Navidad ni una vez, aunque la conexión era clara para cualquiera
«The presence of this word in the poem, and its complete absence in the discussion of the “Anticks,” suggests something of a rhetorical contest over the meaning of the word itself—whether it signified pious devotion or disruptive misrule.» — lo que esa presencia y esa ausencia sugieren según el capítulo: una pugna retórica por el significado de la palabra misma
«all Gentlemen who shoes [sic] here, / I wish you a merry Christmas, a happy New Year: / For shoeing your Horses, and trimming their Locks, / Please to remember my New-Years Box.” (Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society)» — la continuación del pliego del aprendiz de herrero en la plana siguiente: a cambio de herrar los caballos y recortarles las crines, pide que se acuerden de su caja de Año Nuevo; el *sic* es del propio libro, y el volumen reimprime el mismo pliego en sus notas
«Generally, the only public disorders reported by eighteenth-century Boston newspapers were those occasional crowd actions that had serious and overt political meaning (such as the Stamp Act riots of 1765). Episodes of a more ordinary nature» — el límite documental que el capítulo declara: los periódicos bostonianos del siglo XVIII solo reportaban los desórdenes con sentido político abierto, como los motines de la Ley del Timbre de 1765; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *including the less politicized rituals of the Christmas season—did not make it into print*
«But the same issue of the newspaper that contained the Police Inspector’s notice also contained a pious poem about the» — el contraste dentro del mismo número que el capítulo señala; el troceo corta en el límite de segmento y la frase sigue: *mystery of the Nativity—and it took Christmas as its title*
«By the end of the eighteenth century, the descendants of those same people had discovered an alternative (and more acceptable) meaning of Christmas. Now they could wrest the word—if not the thing itself—away from the Anticks and their ilk, to redefine (and reclaim) it as their own.» — el giro con que el capítulo cierra el arco: a fines del siglo XVIII los descendientes de quienes suprimieron la fiesta habían hallado un sentido alternativo y podían arrebatar la palabra a los *Anticks* y los suyos
«With the turn of the nineteenth century, the reappropriation of Christmas took on a concerted form—a move to hold church services on December 25. This move was led by both evangelicals and liberals.» — la forma concertada que toma la reapropiación al entrar el siglo XIX: celebrar oficios religiosos el 25 de diciembre, con evangélicos y liberales al frente
«Largely a rural sect, Universalists openly celebrated Christmas from the earliest stages of their existence in New England. The Universalist community in Boston held a special Christmas Day service in 1789, even before their congregation was officially organized,88 and in the early nineteenth century it was this denomination that proselytized for Christmas more actively than any other.» — quiénes iban delante entre los evangélicos: los universalistas, secta rural, con oficio especial en Boston ya en 1789, antes incluso de organizarse su congregación
«Compared with Universalists, Unitarians were more genteel, and (for all their theological liberalism) more socially conservative. And there were also more of them, especially in Boston. As a formal institution, the Unitarian movement was not organized until 1825. But by the early 1800s ministers who were inclined to doubt the trinity of the Godhead (and, by implication, the divinity of Christ) had come to dominate the Congregational churches in Boston. In fact, for most of the first decade of the nineteenth century, not a single church within Boston’s town limits remained in Trinitarian hands.» — quiénes venían detrás: los unitarios, más distinguidos y socialmente más conservadores pese a su liberalismo teológico, dominando las iglesias congregacionales de Boston hasta no quedar una sola en manos trinitarias
«So bad was the situation from an orthodox point of view, that in 1809 a group of theologically conservative ministers from neighboring communities found it necessary to establish a new church in the heart of Boston that would serve as a beachhead of orthodoxy, a kind of mission church on hostile turf. (The new Park Street Church was soon dubbed “Brimstone Corner,” after its first minister preached a sermon titled “The Use of Real Fire in Hell.» — la reacción ortodoxa que el capítulo relata: en 1809 ministros conservadores de comunidades vecinas fundaron en el corazón de Boston la Park Street Church como cabeza de playa, apodada la Esquina del Azufre
«Unitarians were calling for the public observance of Christmas by about 1800. They did so in full knowledge that it was not a biblically sanctioned holiday, and that December 25 was probably not the day on which Jesus was born. They wished to celebrate the holiday not because God had ordered them to do so but because they themselves wished to.» — lo que el capítulo subraya del argumento unitario: pedían la observancia pública sabiendo que no era fiesta de sanción bíblica y que probablemente Jesús no nació ese día, y la querían porque ellos querían
«In 1817 a concerted two-pronged effort got under way to transform Christmas Day in Boston: by holding services in the local churches and by closing down its businesses. Within three years that effort would fail, but for the moment it was waged hard and with the support of influential citizens.» — la campaña de 1817 en dos frentes: abrir las iglesias y cerrar los negocios el 25 de diciembre, sostenida con fuerza aunque fracasaría en tres años
«Many Christians of the Congregational denomination in this town, have for a long time been desirous, that the anniversary of the nativity of our blessed Saviour should be marked by some religious observance of the day, and by a general abstinence from secular concerns. In consequence, some of the churches of that denomination will be open for public worship» — según Nissenbaum, el aviso típico con que la prensa local acompañó el primer frente de la campaña
«A second local paper described the other prong, announcing that “Gentlemen of business in State-street” had “circulated a paper” to their colleagues. Those who signed the paper pledged themselves “to close their places of business, provided the same engagement should be signed by the principal part of the gentlemen on that street.” The circulators of this paper had received “the signatures of about seven eighths of the gentlemen on the street, and of nearly all to whom it was offered, including all who have the government of public offices.» — el segundo frente según otro periódico: los caballeros de negocios de State Street circularon un papel con el compromiso de cerrar si lo firmaba la parte principal de la calle, y recogieron unas siete octavas partes de las firmas
«One rural merchant who was in town on a buying trip noted in his diary that “[t]he inhabitants of Boston introduced the suspension of business for the first time, with a view to commemorating this day in Religious Exercise.” He added that “but little business could be done,” and that he had been forced to reload the goods he had brought in to sell that day.» — según Nissenbaum, el diario de un comerciante rural de paso por Boston, que da por cumplida la promesa: la suspensión de negocios se introdujo por primera vez y él tuvo que volver a cargar la mercancía
«Another citizen turned the same point on its head, arguing plausibly that if Bostonians abandoned their regular business on December 25, “it would become only another reason for dissipation, for frolic and insobriety.» — el argumento contrario que el capítulo recoge y llama plausible: si se abandonaban los negocios el 25, sería una razón más para la disipación
«That same year one Boston newspaper published, without comment, the 1659 Puritan law banning the celebration of Christmas in Massachusetts.94 No comment was needed, since everyone would have caught the point: We’ve come a long way since those days.» — el gesto que el capítulo lee sin necesidad de comentario: en 1818 un periódico bostoniano reimprimió sin glosa la ley puritana de 1659 que prohibía celebrar la Navidad
«We are happy to learn that it is the intention of many persons to observe Christmas day, this year, in a more solemn manner than they ever yet have done….”It even went on to imply that the Park Street Church itself should join in: “We are … decidedly in favor of the measure, and hope divine service will be performed in all our churches.» — según Nissenbaum, el editorial de 1818 del *Recorder*, órgano trinitario de la Park Street Church, que se declara a favor de la medida y espera oficio divino en todas sus iglesias
«But the movement ran out of momentum that very year (religious services were held only at the two Universalist churches and at the Old South Church).» — el corte de la campaña: ese mismo año de 1819 el movimiento se quedó sin impulso y solo hubo oficios en las dos iglesias universalistas y en la Old South
«although by 1823 one paper reported with amusement that several shops only appeared to be closed—their window shutters were fastened, but “their doors kindly opened to all who would take the trouble to lift the latch.» — el detalle con que un periódico se divertía en 1823: varias tiendas solo parecían cerradas, con los postigos echados y las puertas abiertas a quien se tomara la molestia de levantar el picaporte
«In 1828 the Boston Statesman noted with regret that “few places of business were closed yesterday, and none but the churches of the Episcopal order, we believe, were opened» — el final de aquella campaña según el *Boston Statesman* de 1828: pocos negocios cerraron y solo abrieron las iglesias episcopales
«As it turned out, the years 1817–19 were to represent a historical high-water mark in the religious celebration of Christmas in Boston. To this day New England’s Unitarian, Baptist, and Methodist churches are ordinarily closed on Christmas Day, along with its Congregational and Presbyterian ones.» — el balance de largo plazo: aquellos años son la marca más alta de la celebración religiosa de la Navidad en Boston, y hasta hoy las iglesias unitarias, bautistas y metodistas de Nueva Inglaterra cierran ese día
«What happened was that in New England, as elsewhere, religion failed to transform Christmas from a season of misrule into an occasion of quieter pleasure.» — el diagnóstico con que cierra el capítulo primero: en Nueva Inglaterra como en otras partes la religión no logró transformar la Navidad de temporada de desgobierno en ocasión de placer más quieto
«The “house of ale” would not be vanquished by the house of God, but by a new faith that was just beginning to sweep over American society. It was the religion of domesticity, which would be represented at Christmastime not by Jesus of Nazareth but by a newer and more worldly deity— Santa Claus.» — quién hizo esa transformación según el libro: no el cristianismo sino la religión de la domesticidad, representada en Navidad no por Jesús de Nazaret sino por una deidad más nueva y más mundana
«If there was any point at which the two modes of celebrating Christmas—as carnival and as pious devotion—managed to intersect, if only in theory, it was here. The Gifts of the Magi, too, represented the high-in-status waiting on the low—three kings paying homage to an infant lying in squalor. (But of course that ritual simultaneously represented the low bringing gifts to the high—mere mortals paying homage to a deity.» — la nota a pie del capítulo sobre los dones de los Magos como el punto donde los dos modos de celebrar se cruzan: tres reyes rinden homenaje a un niño en la miseria, y a la vez mortales rinden homenaje a una deidad
«In his 1729 almanac, James Franklin included a belief originating deep in popular lore—that Christmas was a season when witches and evil spirits could do no harm, when bad spells would have no effect: “This month [December] is a great Enemy to evil Spirits, and a great Dissolver of Witchcraft, without the help of Pimpernal, or Quicksilver and Yellow Wax [these were supposed to be counterspells that would protect against witchcraft]…. Some Astrologers indeed confine this Power over evil Spirits to Christmas Eve only; but I know the whole Month has as much Power as any Eve in it: Not but that there may be some wandering Spirits here and there, but I am certain they can do no Mischief, nor can they be seen without a Telescope.» — según Nissenbaum, la creencia popular que James Franklin recogió en su almanaque de 1729: diciembre entero disuelve la brujería y los malos espíritus no pueden hacer daño ni ser vistos sin telescopio
«In fact, William Shakespeare reported a similar belief in Hamlet (Act I, Scene 1), where a minor character speaks the following lines upon hearing a cock crow: “Some say that ever ‘gainst that Season comes / Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, / This bird of dawning [i.e., the cock] singeth all night long; / And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad, / The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike, / No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, / So hallow’d and so gracious is that time.» — según Nissenbaum, la creencia paralela que Shakespeare pone en boca de un personaje menor de *Hamlet* al oír cantar el gallo: en la estación del nacimiento del Salvador ningún espíritu osa salir y ninguna bruja tiene poder de encantar
«One woman pointed out an additional reason. “Christmas is now generally observed as a holiday,” she wrote (i.e., a holiday in the de facto sense). “Our children and domestics claim it as such.” She added that “[s]chools and public places are closed … and generally the day is spent in idleness, and with regret I may add, by many in revelry and dissipation.» — según Nissenbaum, la carta de una mujer en la campaña de 1818: la fiesta ya se guarda de hecho, los hijos y los criados la reclaman, las escuelas y los lugares públicos cierran, y el día se pasa en ociosidad y en no poca disipación
«Early in 1820 a religious magazine published in Boston assaulted the idea of making Christmas a public holiday. But its argument had nothing to do with theology, with the dating of Christ’s birth. The magazine acknowledged that December 25 was a time of “rejoicing, and of religious ceremonies” for many Christians. The problem lay with other kinds of behavior: “an immense majority of those, who celebrate the day, make it an occasion of indulgence and» — el contraataque que el capítulo data a principios de 1820: una revista religiosa de Boston impugna la fiesta pública sin argumento teológico, por la conducta de la mayoría inmensa de quienes la celebran; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *profane mirth, and of almost every species of licentiousness*
«THE CHRISTMAS SEASON was always an important occasion in the life of John Pintard, a prominent New York City merchant and civic leader of the early nineteenth century.» — quién abre el capítulo segundo: John Pintard, mercader neoyorquino prominente y líder cívico de principios del siglo XIX
«Finally, in midafternoon Pintard would return to his Wall Street home, where the entire household would, as he put it, “assemble round our festive boards” for a “little family party”—a meal of venison and other holiday dishes that had been prepared weeks in advance, and punctuated by a series of toasts “drunk with all affection and old fashioned formality.» — el programa de Año Nuevo que Pintard tenía dispuesto, según el capítulo: la casa entera en torno a la mesa festiva para una fiestecita de familia, con venado y brindis a la antigua
«First, in the middle of the night, with the household sound asleep, Pintard’s daughter was awakened when she heard “someone take [a] key and deliberately open the door.» — la primera interrupción de la noche del 31 de diciembre de 1820 según la carta de Pintard: la hija despierta al oír que alguien toma una llave y abre la puerta
«As it turned out, the noise was only a false alarm—the family’s black servant had merely arisen early in order to light a fire in the study.» — el desenlace de esa primera alarma según el capítulo: el criado negro de la familia se había levantado temprano a encender el fuego del estudio
«But no sooner had he fallen asleep than he was roused again, this time by bands of loud revelers marching down Wall Street and directly outside his house, banging on drums, blowing fifes and whistles, and all the while loudly proclaiming the New Year.» — la segunda interrupción: bandas de juerguistas ruidosos bajando por Wall Street frente a la casa, con tambores, pífanos y silbatos
«What this little episode reveals is two incompatible styles of celebrating the holiday season. One of them, that of John Pintard, was a daytime affair, genially formal, and quiet. The other, that of the revelers in the street, was nocturnal, aggressively public, and just as noisy as they could make it. It was, in short, carnival.» — la lectura del episodio con que arranca el capítulo: dos estilos incompatibles de celebrar, el diurno, formal y quieto de Pintard, y el nocturno, agresivamente público y lo más ruidoso posible
«The two styles came into conflict in Pintard’s household only two years before Pintard’s friend Clement Clarke Moore wrote his poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”—the account of a rather different kind of nighttime visitation during the Christmas season.» — la coincidencia cronológica que Nissenbaum subraya: el choque ocurre dos años antes de que Clement Clarke Moore, amigo de Pintard, escriba su poema sobre otra visita nocturna de la temporada
«The connection is not artificial, for John Pintard himself played a role in the development of Christmas as we know it today. One might even say that his role was that of John the Baptist to the figure of Santa Claus that Moore would soon perfect.» — el papel que el libro atribuye a Pintard en la Navidad tal como hoy se conoce, dicho con una figura que el propio autor propone
«A generation earlier, in 1786, a newspaper in a nearby community pointed out the same contrast between the different fashions in which New Yorkers celebrated the season: “Some good people religiously observe it as a time set apart for a most sacred purpose,” some by “decently feasting with their friends and relatives.” But others observe the holiday by “revelling in profusion, and paying their sincere devotion to merry Bacchus.” The newspaper went on to rephrase the contrast in metaphoric terms: “in several churches divine service [was] performed,” while “the temples dedicated to the service of merriment, dissipation and folly, were much crouded [sic]; where the sons of gluttony and drunkenness satiate their respective appetites.» — según Nissenbaum, un periódico de 1786 que ya marcaba el mismo contraste entre quienes observaban el día como tiempo sagrado y quienes rendían devoción al alegre Baco
«The scene with these gentry generally concludes about midnight, when they sally forth into the streets, and by their unmeaning, wild, extravagant noise, disturb those citizens who would rather sleep than get drunk.» — la continuación de ese mismo periódico: hacia la medianoche salen a la calle y con su ruido desmedido molestan a los ciudadanos que preferirían dormir
«Chapter 1 of this book argues that traditional Christmas misrule did not ordinarily pose a significant threat to the social order or to the authority of the gentry class. In fact, it actually served to reinforce the existing order of things by providing a sanctioned opportunity for the poor to let off steam; it was a safety valve that allowed them to express resentments in a fashion that was generally apolitical.» — el resumen con que el propio libro recapitula su capítulo primero: el desgobierno tradicional no amenazaba seriamente el orden social, sino que servía de válvula para dejar salir vapor de modo generalmente apolítico
«After all, what the patron received from his clients in return for his gifts was their goodwill— something that had a great deal of value, indeed, in the dynamics of a» — lo que el patrón recibía a cambio de sus dones según el capítulo: la buena voluntad de sus clientes, de gran valor en un orden paternalista; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«But this would change as paternalism itself came to wither away as a dominant form of social relations.» — el cambio que el capítulo anuncia: el desgaste del propio paternalismo como forma dominante de las relaciones sociales
«For example, in eighteenth-century England there appeared a kind of late-night serenade on New Year’s Eve known as the “callithumpian band”—possibly derived from the Greek word calli- (for “beautiful”). But the music these bands played was hardly beautiful. It was meant to be loud and offensive, characterized by “beating on tin pans, blowing horns, shouts, groans, catcalls,” and it was performed as a gesture of deliberate mockery; the general term in England for such things was “rough music.”» — la definición de la banda calitumpiana que el capítulo da, con su posible derivación del griego y su música deliberadamente fea, hecha con cacerolas, cuernos, gritos y silbidos
«This was not wholly new; “rough music” is simply the British term for what in France was called “charivari.” But the callithumpian bands seem to have directed their “rough music” against those who seemed to be claiming too much dignity or abusing their power.» — la acotación que el autor pone a esa novedad: la música ruda es el término británico de lo que en Francia se llamaba charivari, aunque las bandas calitumpianas parecen dirigirla contra quien reclamaba demasiada dignidad o abusaba de su poder
«By the early nineteenth century, with the spread of wage labor and other modes of capitalist production in England and the United States, what I have chosen to call the “battle for Christmas” entered an acute phase.» — el momento en que la pelea del título entra en fase aguda según el libro: principios del siglo XIX, con la extensión del trabajo asalariado y de los modos capitalistas de producción en Inglaterra y Estados Unidos
«For some urban workers, the Christmas season no longer entailed a lull in the demand for labor; their employers insisted on business as usual.5 (It was this impulse that Charles Dickens would caricature in his character Ebenezer Scrooge.» — uno de los dos efectos en los trabajadores urbanos: para algunos la temporada ya no traía pausa en la demanda de trabajo, y el capítulo señala ahí el modelo que Dickens caricaturizó en Scrooge
«For other urban workers, the coming of winter brought the prospect of being laid off, as the icing-up of rivers brought water-powered factories to a seasonal halt. December’s leisure thus meant not relative plenty but forced unemployment and want.» — el otro efecto: para otros el invierno traía el despido estacional al helarse los ríos y parar las fábricas de fuerza hidráulica, de modo que el ocio de diciembre era paro forzoso y carestía
«The Christmas season, with its carnival traditions of wassail, misrule, and callithumpian “street theater,” could easily become a vehicle of social protest, an instrument to express powerful ethnic or class resentments.» — lo que la temporada podía volverse en esas condiciones según el capítulo: vehículo de protesta social e instrumento para expresar resentimientos étnicos o de clase
«New York in the early nineteenth century was a fast-growing place. As late as 1800, the urbanized part of the city covered only a small area at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, well to the south of what are now the numbered streets. But the size of the city’s population had begun a rapid, almost geometrical increase—from 33,000 in 1790 to 200,000 in 1830 and 270,000 just five years later.» — las cifras del crecimiento de Nueva York que el capítulo da: de 33 000 habitantes en 1790 a 200 000 en 1830 y 270 000 cinco años después
«In order to accommodate the rapid increase in population, the city in 1811 started implementation of a plan to construct a regular grid system of numbered streets (and avenues) that would crisscross the entire island.» — el plan de cuadrícula de calles y avenidas numeradas que la ciudad empezó a aplicar en 1811, del que el capítulo anuncia efectos sobre Clement Clarke Moore
«The numerical growth of the city’s population was accompanied by a change in its composition: an influx of immigrants, especially Irish Catholics, and the appearance of an impoverished underclass that was living for the first time in its own poor districts (generally divided up by ethnicity and race), along with a wealthy upper class that took up residence in its fashionable ones.» — el cambio de composición que acompañó al crecimiento: inmigración, sobre todo de católicos irlandeses, y una clase baja empobrecida viviendo por primera vez en barrios propios frente a una clase alta en los suyos
«In the second decade of the nineteenth century, New York underwent an explosion of poverty, vagrancy, and homelessness. That was followed in the third decade by serious outbreaks of public violence.» — la cronología que el capítulo fija: explosión de pobreza, vagancia y falta de techo en la segunda década del siglo, y brotes serios de violencia pública en la tercera
«Many well-to-do New Yorkers began to move out to new uptown estates, which they enclosed with fences or hedges. In turn, those fences were sometimes pulled down, and the hedges uprooted, by poor and homeless people who persisted in regarding the new estates as “common land” open to everyone. As a result, by the 1820s these estates were commonly being guarded by watchmen, drawn from the same underclass as the rioters themselves.» — el conflicto por las fincas nuevas: cercas derribadas y setos arrancados por pobres y sin techo que seguían teniendo esos terrenos por tierra común, y guardias reclutados de la misma clase que los amotinados
«Pintard was the moving force behind the establishment, in 1817, of the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, an organization designed to put both a cap on the skyrocketing costs of poor relief and a stop to the public begging and drinking of the poor in order to make the city streets a safe place for people like himself.» — la iniciativa de Pintard que el capítulo consigna: la Sociedad para la Prevención del Pauperismo, de 1817, para poner tope al gasto de socorro y fin a la mendicidad y la bebida públicas
«By 1828 Pintard was acknowledging that the problems of poverty, drinking, and street crime had, “I confess, baffled all our skill…. The evil is obvious, acknowledged by all, but a sovereign remedy appears to be impossible.» — el reconocimiento del propio Pintard once años después: el mal es obvio y admitido por todos, pero un remedio soberano parece imposible
«As early as 1772, a New York newspaper complained that the absence of “decency, temperance, and sobriety” at Christmas was so serious a matter that it belonged in the courts. The problem was caused by “[t]he assembling of Negroes, servants, boys and other disorderly persons, in noisy companies in the streets, where they spend the time in gaming, drunkenness, quarreling, swearing, etc., to the great disturbance of the neighborhood.» — según Nissenbaum, la queja de un periódico neoyorquino de 1772: la falta de decencia, templanza y sobriedad en Navidad era asunto de tribunales por las compañías ruidosas en las calles
«By 1820 Christmas misrule had become such an acute social threat that respectable New Yorkers could no longer ignore it or take it lightly.» — el umbral que el capítulo fija para Nueva York: hacia 1820 el desgobierno navideño era amenaza social tan aguda que los neoyorquinos respetables ya no podían ignorarlo ni tomarlo a la ligera
«By the 1820s bands of roaming young street toughs, members of the emerging urban proletariat, were no longer restricting their seasonal reveling to their own neighborhoods; they had begun to travel freely, and menacingly, wherever they pleased.» — lo que el capítulo describe de esas bandas: jóvenes de la naciente proletaria urbana que dejaron de limitar su jolgorio a sus propios barrios y empezaron a moverse libre y amenazadoramente
«Often carousing in disguise (a holdover from the old tradition of mumming), these street gangs marauded through the city’s wealthy neighborhoods, especially on New Year’s Eve, in the form of callithumpian bands, which resembled (and may have overlapped with) the street gangs that were now vying for control of the city’s poorer neighborhoods.» — el disfraz como resto del viejo mumming y la forma que tomaron: bandas calitumpianas que merodeaban los barrios ricos sobre todo en Nochevieja, parecidas a las pandillas que se disputaban los barrios pobres
«In 1826, for example, such a gang stopped in front of the Broadway house of the city’s mayor; there they “enacted” what a local newspaper termed “a scene of disgraceful rage.» — el ejemplo de 1826 que el capítulo cita de un periódico local: una de esas bandas se paró frente a la casa del alcalde en Broadway
«Little wonder, then, that the upper classes displayed little interest in making the season a major holiday. Before the mid-1820s the holiday was mentioned only» — la consecuencia que Nissenbaum saca: las clases altas no tenían interés en hacer de la temporada una fiesta mayor; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *cursorily in British and American newspapers*
«sarcastically described these same gangs as “a number of ill-bred boys, chimney sweeps, and other illustrious and aspiring persons” whose sole purpose was “to perambulate the streets all night, disturbing the slumbers of the weary … by thumping upon tin kettles, sounding penny[whistles] and other martial trumpets.» — según Nissenbaum, otro periódico describiendo con sarcasmo a esas mismas bandas de muchachos malcriados y deshollinadores que recorrían las calles toda la noche golpeando calderos de hojalata
«In 1828 there occurred an extensive and especially violent callithumpian parade, complete with the standard array of “drums, tin kettles, rattles, horns, whistles, and a variety of other instruments.” This parade began along the working-class Bowery, where the band pelted a tavern with lime; then it marched to Broadway, where a fancy upper-class ball was being held at the City Hotel; then to a black neighborhood, stopping at a church where the callithumpians “demolished all the windows, broke the doors [and] seats,” and beat with sticks and ropes the African-American congregants who were holding a “watch” service; next, the band headed to the city’s main commercial district, where they smashed crates and barrels and looted at least one shop; still unsatisfied, they headed to the Battery (at the southern tip of the city), where they broke the windows of several of the city’s wealthiest residences and tried to remove the iron fence that surrounded Battery Park; finally they headed back to Broadway for a second visit. This time a group of hired watchmen were waiting for the callithumpians; but the band stood down the watch force, and, in the words of a local newspaper, “the multitude passed noisily and triumphantly up Broadway.» — el itinerario entero del desfile calitumpiano de 1828 que el capítulo reconstruye: del Bowery a Broadway, a una iglesia negra cuyos fieles apalearon, al distrito comercial, a la Battery y de vuelta a Broadway, donde la ronda contratada no pudo pararlos
«What are we to make of scenes like these? Once again, E. P. Thompson makes a convincing case that it would be misleading to interpret them either as wholly conscious political protest or as mere revelry that got out of hand, a kind of nineteenth-century frat party.» — la advertencia que Nissenbaum repite apoyándose en Thompson: leer esas escenas como protesta política consciente o como mera juerga desbordada sería desviar el sentido
«Riotous disorder, racial violence, and jolly foolery for neighbors and audiences existed side by side … for decades…. Customary Christmas license combined with seasonal unemployment made the winter holiday a noisy, drunken, threatening period in the eyes of the respectable.» — según Nissenbaum, un historiador de las ciudades estadounidenses: desorden amotinado, violencia racial y bufonada alegre convivieron durante décadas, y la licencia navideña sumada al paro estacional hizo de la fiesta un periodo ruidoso y amenazante a ojos de los respetables
«And another historian suggests that New York’s callithumpians can be considered “a bridge between the traditional youth group misrule of the English village … and a more direct challenge to authority.» — la otra lectura que el capítulo recoge: las bandas calitumpianas de Nueva York como puente entre el desgobierno de los grupos juveniles de la aldea inglesa y un desafío más directo a la autoridad
«Pintard mused that it might be the culture of Protestantism itself that was to blame for New York’s problems. Protestants, he argued, unlike Catholics and even pagans, had systematically suppressed the kind of “religious festivals” at which “mechanics and laborers” could find officially sanctioned and organized “processions” that would allow them to release their “pent-up” energies in satisfying but orderly ways.» — la interpretación que el propio Pintard ofreció en diciembre de 1823 según el capítulo: la cultura protestante misma, al suprimir las fiestas religiosas con procesiones sancionadas, habría dejado sin salida ordenada la energía de mecánicos y jornaleros
«One of the nation’s first antiquarians, Pintard was the founder of the New-York Historical Society in 1804; and he played a role in the establishment of Washingtons Birthday, the Fourth of July, and even Columbus Day as national holidays.» — quién era Pintard según el capítulo: uno de los primeros anticuarios del país, fundador de la New-York Historical Society en 1804, con parte en la fijación del cumpleaños de Washington, el Cuatro de Julio y el Día de Colón
«In fact, it was John Pintard who brought St. Nicholas to America, in an effort to make that figure both the icon of the New-York Historical Society and the patron saint of New York City.» — lo que el libro atribuye a Pintard: haber traído a San Nicolás a América para hacerlo icono de la Sociedad Histórica y santo patrón de la ciudad
«In 1810 Pintard paid for the publication of a broadside, sponsored by the Historical Society, that featured a picture of St. Nicholas bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season (actually, on St. Nicholas’ Day, December 6). The picture was accompanied by a short poem that began, “Sánete Claus goed heylig man.» — el pliego de 1810 que Pintard pagó: San Nicolás llevando regalos a los niños, no en Navidad sino el 6 de diciembre, con un poema corto debajo
«In his letters Pintard regularly expressed nostalgia for what he called the “old customs” and “ancient usages” of New York, and particularly for the forgotten spirit of the old Christmas season, when rich folk and poor, old and young, would mingle together in genial harmony in the streets of the city.» — la nostalgia que las cartas de Pintard repiten: los usos antiguos de Nueva York y el espíritu perdido de la vieja temporada, cuando ricos y pobres se mezclaban con armonía en las calles
«But Pintard never managed to discover or devise any way of observing the Christmas holidays that actually involved working-class people. All of his own carefully planned seasonal rituals were restricted to the members of his own social class» — el límite que el capítulo señala en toda esa empresa: Pintard nunca dio con una manera de observar la fiesta que incluyera a la gente trabajadora, y sus ritos quedaron restringidos a su propia clase
«It had simply become impossible for New York’s respectable citizens to continue participating in the rowdy old cross-class celebrations that Pintard recalled fondly from his own youth, when he and a family servant traveled together around New York in “boisterous” fashion, drinking a “dram” at every stop and “coming home loaded with sixpences.» — la razón de ese estrechamiento según el capítulo: ya era imposible que los ciudadanos respetables siguieran en las viejas celebraciones ruidosas entre clases que Pintard recordaba de su juventud
«As Pintard put it in 1827, “since staggering through the streets on New Years day is out of fashion [now], it is impossible to drink drams at every house as of old.» — cómo lo dijo el propio Pintard en 1827: como ya no está de moda ir dando tumbos por las calles el día de Año Nuevo, es imposible beber un trago en cada casa como antes
«He noted that “intemperance, among the higher classes of our city, is no longer the order of the day. Among the hospitable circles …, a man would be marked who should retire intoxicated; indeed, convivial parties are all decent and sober.» — lo que Pintard observaba del cambio en su propia clase: la intemperancia ya no es lo corriente entre las clases altas y quedaría señalado quien se retirara ebrio
«It is well,” Pintard acknowledged with a kind of sigh—“It is well, for formerly New Years was a riotous day.” And he quickly added, as if suddenly recalling that the real problem was a present-day one, that “the beastly vice of drunkenness among the lower laboring classes is growing to a frightful excess…. Thefts, incendiaries, and murders—which prevail—all arise from this source.» — la doble cara de ese reconocimiento según el capítulo: está bien, porque el Año Nuevo era antes día de desorden, pero el vicio bestial de la borrachera entre las clases bajas crece hasta un exceso espantoso
«Since there existed no Christmas rituals that were socially acceptable to the upper class, Pintard took on the responsibility of inventing them—characteristically enough, in the name of restoring something that had been forgotten. For more than twenty years— roughly between 1810 and 1830—he tried almost every year to come up with the perfect holiday.» — lo que Pintard se echó encima según el capítulo: inventar los ritos que no existían, y hacerlo en nombre de restaurar algo olvidado, año tras año entre 1810 y 1830
«Before the late 1820s these holidays did not involve Christmas Day itself; until 1827 Pintard always observed December 25 in simple fashion, as a time of prayer and private religious devotion.» — la acotación cronológica que el autor añade: hasta 1827 Pintard observó siempre el 25 de diciembre de manera simple, como tiempo de oración y devoción privada
«In the 1810S, Pintard organized and led elaborate St. Nicholas’ Day banquets for his fellow members of the New-York Historical Society, held at the society’s office in City Hall. But in 1820 his celebration of St. Nicholas’ Day was interrupted: “At six [p.m.] I attended [a meeting of] the Pauperism Society, for even festivity must not interfere with works of benevolence.» — los banquetes del 6 de diciembre que Pintard organizaba para los socios de la Sociedad Histórica, y la interrupción de 1820 por una reunión de la Sociedad del Pauperismo
«On January 1, 1821, Pintard engaged, apparently for the first time, in what he called “the good old custom of mutual visitings and cordial greetings.” For the rest of the decade he devoted each year to efforts to establish New Year’s as a day of mutual visitation in New York, describing it (as he did in 1822) as “the custom of the simple Dutch settlers.» — el traslado de su empeño al Año Nuevo: desde 1821 Pintard se dedica a instituir el día de visitas mutuas, que en 1822 describe como costumbre de los sencillos colonos holandeses
«And in 1828 he ruefully admitted that the phenomenon was fading away in New York: “[T]he joyous older fashion [of visitation] has declined gradually.” Two years later he explained why: The practice was becoming “irksome” because “our city grows so extensive, and friends so scattered.» — lo que Pintard admitió al final: la vieja moda alegre de las visitas había declinado, y dos años después lo explicaba por lo extensa que se había vuelto la ciudad y lo dispersos que estaban los amigos
«In 1819 and 1820 there appeared a book written by a fellow member of the New-York Historical Society—Washington Irving. Irving had actually written parts of The Sketch Book, as he titled his new publication, at one of the tables in the Historical Society. The book was a smashing success, one that propelled Irving into sudden transatlantic celebrity.» — la otra iniciativa neoyorquina de restaurar las viejas costumbres: *The Sketch Book*, de Washington Irving, socio también de la Sociedad Histórica, escrito en parte en sus mesas
«The Sketch Book contained two stories that were destined to become classics: “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” But it also included five stories about Christmas. Unlike “Rip Van Winkle,” those Christmas tales were not about the Dutch heritage of New York but were set on a gracious estate in the modern British countryside, Bracebridge Hall. In these stories Irving used Christmas as the setting for a culture in which all the classes joined together in paternalist harmony.» — lo que el libro de Irving traía según el capítulo: junto a los dos relatos destinados a ser clásicos, cinco cuentos navideños ambientados no en la herencia holandesa sino en una finca inglesa moderna, con las clases unidas en armonía paternalista
«Irvings narrator is hosted at Christmas by old Squire Bracebridge, an antiquarian-minded gentleman who is obsessed with the past, and who wields so much social authority that he is able to recruit the neighboring peasantry to join him in a reenactment, under his direction, of “the holyday customs and rural games of former times.» — quién es el anfitrión de esos cuentos: el viejo squire Bracebridge, anticuario obsesionado con el pasado y con autoridad social bastante para reclutar al campesinado vecino en una recreación dirigida por él; el troceo imprime el apellido sin apóstrofo
«The occasion “seemed to throw open every door, and unlock every heart. It brought the peasant and the peer together, and blended all ranks in one warm generous flow of joy and kindness.» — según Nissenbaum, la fórmula del narrador de Irving sobre la fiesta que abría todas las puertas y juntaba al campesino con el par
«At the climax of the “Bracebridge Hall” stories the squire presents a Christmas banquet at which are displayed, along with “brawn and beef, and stout home brewed,” all the archaic customs of the season, including a wassail bowl, a Lord of Misrule, and a group of peasants— the old squire’s trusty dependents—who perform an old dance and then mingle gratefully with the squire’s household» — el clímax de los cuentos: el banquete donde se exhiben todas las costumbres arcaicas de la temporada, con cuenco de wassail, Señor del Desgobierno y campesinos de confianza que bailan; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«There is something genuine and affectionate in the gayety of the lower orders, when it is excited by the bounty and familiarity of those above them; the warm glow of gratitude enters into their mirth, and a kind word, and a small pleasantry frankly uttered by a patron, gladdens the heart of the dependent more than» — según Nissenbaum, el pasaje de Irving sobre lo genuino y afectuoso de la alegría de las órdenes bajas cuando la excita la largueza y la familiaridad de los de arriba; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *oil and wine*
«Even the Lord of Misrule is fictive: The role is taken by a real gentleman.» — el detalle con que el capítulo remata: hasta el Señor del Desgobierno es ficticio, porque el papel lo toma un caballero de verdad
«the deplorable decay of the games and amusements which were once prevalent at this season among the lower orders, and countenanced by the higher. When the old halls of castles and manor houses were thrown open at daylight;… and when rich and poor were alike welcome to enter and make merry.» — según Nissenbaum, el lamento nostálgico del squire al volver de la iglesia: la decadencia deplorable de los juegos y diversiones que la temporada tenía entre las órdenes bajas con el beneplácito de las altas
«The nation,” continued he, “is altered; we have almost lost our simple true-hearted peasantry. They have broken asunder from the higher classes, and seem to think their interests are separate. They have become too knowing, and begin to read newspapers, listen to ale house politicians, and talk of reform. I think one mode to keep them in good humor in these hard times, would be for the nobility and gentry to pass more time on their estates, mingle more among the country people, and set the merry old English games going again.» — el paso del anticuarismo a la teoría política tory que el capítulo señala en boca del squire: el campesinado se ha separado de las clases altas, lee periódicos y habla de reforma, y el remedio sería que la nobleza pasara más tiempo en sus fincas
«Such,” Irving continues, “was the good Squire’s project for mitigating public discontent; and, indeed, he had once attempted to put his doctrine in[to] practice, and a few years before had kept open house during the holidays in the old style» — lo que la propia voz narrativa de Irving añade: el squire había intentado antes poner en práctica su doctrina y tuvo casa abierta durante las fiestas a la vieja usanza
«The country people … did not understand how to play their parts in the scene of hospitality: many uncouth circumstances occurred [these Irving does not choose to describe]; the manor was overrun by all the vagrants of the country, and more beggars [were] drawn into the neighborhood in one week than the parish officers could get rid of in a year.» — el fracaso de aquel intento según Irving: la gente del campo no supo hacer su papel en la escena de hospitalidad, la finca se llenó de vagabundos y llegaron más mendigos en una semana de los que la parroquia podía quitarse en un año
«So the squire was forced to back off his original project. Nowadays, Irving tells us, he “contented himself with inviting the decent part of the neighboring peasantry to call at the hall on Christmas day” [emphasis added]. It is that select group, rather than the entire neighborhood, that cornes to Bracebridge Hall (at the stipulated time) to entertain and mingle with the squire’s real guests.» — el arreglo al que el squire se repliega: invitar solo a la parte decente del campesinado vecino a pasar por el salón el día de Navidad, a una hora estipulada
«Pintard sometimes referred to this custom with the phrase “open house,” but his use of the phrase is clear: Houses were “open” only to old friends and kin—to members» — el sentido acotado que el capítulo da a esa casa abierta de Pintard: abierta solo a viejos amigos y parientes; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *of his own class*
«The narrator’s description of the squire’s Christmas celebration is larded with such terms as “odd and obsolete,” “quaint,” “ancient,” even “eccentric,” and in a later edition of The Sketch Book Irving admitted that at the time he wrote the “Bracebridge Hall” stories he had never actually seen the kind of Christmas he described in it.» — el indicio con que el capítulo sostiene que Irving sabía lo que hacía: la descripción va cargada de términos como raro, obsoleto, pintoresco y hasta excéntrico, y en una edición posterior Irving admitió no haber visto nunca la Navidad que pintaba
«I perceived two or three of the younger peasants, as they were raising their tankards to their mouths, when the Squire’s back was turned, making something of a grimace, and giving each other the wink, but the moment they caught my eye they pulled grave faces, and were exceedingly demure.» — según Nissenbaum, la escena que el narrador de Irving observa a espaldas del squire: dos o tres campesinos jóvenes hacen una mueca y se guiñan al alzar las jarras, y se ponen graves en cuanto los ve
«Irving surely wrote this little scene to protect his credibility with an 1820 audience, and his meaning would have been clear enough to the knowing reader: Despite all the precautions Squire Bracebridge had taken to do the job right, he had been unable to keep even the “decent part” of the local peasantry in “good humor” on Christmas Day.» — la lectura que el capítulo hace de esa escena: Irving la puso para proteger su credibilidad ante un público de 1820, y su sentido era que ni con todas las precauciones el squire pudo tener de buen humor a la parte decente del campesinado
«The “Bracebridge Hall” stories were immensely popular, and they played an important part in restoring the interest of “respectable” Americans (and Britishers) in celebrating Christmas.» — el efecto que el capítulo atribuye a esos cuentos: parte importante en devolver a los estadounidenses y británicos respetables el interés por celebrar la Navidad
«Indeed, it was these sketches, together with the stories of Charles Dickens, that provided much of what a recent book terms the “enduring imagery of Christmas which is annually reiterated in Christmas cards and festive illustrations, where jovial squires entertain friends and retainers by roaring fires, and stout coachmen, swathed in greatcoats, urge horses down snow-covered lanes as they bring anticipatory guests and homesick relations to their welcoming destinations.» — lo que el capítulo cita de un libro reciente sobre la imaginería duradera que sale de Irving y de Dickens: squires joviales junto al fuego y cocheros embozados urgiendo caballos por caminos nevados
«When the “Bracebridge Hall” stories were published in 1819, they set off something of a debate about whether reviving the old rural Christmas rituals would be enough to restore the fading authority of the English gentry. The issues were understood in just these terms.» — el debate que los cuentos abrieron según el capítulo: si revivir los viejos ritos rurales bastaría para restaurar la autoridad menguante de la gentry inglesa
«One essay, published in 1825, summarized them by asserting bluntly “that the merrymakings of the times of Elizabeth and the Stuarts originated solely in an instinctive [i.e., paternalist] understanding between master and man; that the rich encouraged them [i.e., the merrymakings] as a means of patronage and superiority, and that the poor accepted them as an oil to their chain, or a happy rivet of their dependence.» — según Nissenbaum, un ensayo anónimo de 1825: las diversiones de los tiempos de Isabel y de los Estuardo nacían de un entendimiento paternalista entre amo y hombre, aceptadas por los pobres como aceite a su cadena
«On those points, the essay argued, conservatives and reformers agreed. Where they differed was in their response: Conservatives believed “that the old times were the best because they were least free;” while reformers argued “that a merry season is dearly purchased by servility all the rest of the year.» — dónde coincidían y dónde diferían los dos bandos según ese ensayo: los conservadores tenían los tiempos viejos por mejores porque eran menos libres, y los reformadores decían que una temporada alegre se paga cara con servilismo el resto del año
«This particular writer (he remains anonymous) was a skeptic. He maintained that a revival of the old rituals was unlikely to have any effect, simply because the times themselves had changed.» — la postura de ese autor anónimo según el capítulo: el renacer de los viejos ritos difícilmente tendría efecto porque los tiempos mismos habían cambiado
«but now-a-days, bring rich and poor together as we please, roast as many oxen as there are villages to do it in, and let one general wassail-bowl set the hearts of great and small dancing all over England; and [still,] as long as there are Mechanics’ Magazines [i.e., to educate the poor] …, there is no fear that people will be too thankful for a sirloin of beef, or melt with maudlin souls into the overflow of a beer barrel. There is, in fact, no necessity for [their] accepting either.» — la continuación del ensayo: aunque se asen bueyes en cada aldea y un cuenco de wassail haga bailar los corazones, mientras haya revistas para instruir a los pobres no hay temor de que se deshagan en gratitud por un solomillo
«Sports may be revived,” this man concluded; “wassail bowls may abound; the poor may cultivate their strength and spirits with gymnastic exercise, and the rich assuredly be no nearer an undue influence.» — la conclusión del mismo escrito: pueden revivirse los deportes y abundar los cuencos de wassail sin que los ricos queden más cerca de una influencia indebida
«In any event, Washington Irving’s vision of Christmas did not exactly offer a practical model for anyone who was tempted—and many must have been—to celebrate Christmas in this fashion. How could John Pintard, say, reproduce a ritual that Washington Irving himself found it difficult even to imagine for his readers?» — el límite práctico que el capítulo señala en la visión de Irving: no ofrecía modelo utilizable para quien se sintiera tentado de celebrar así
«Pintard would not be satisfied until he discovered what had happened, in the hands of his friend Clement Clarke Moore, to a figure that he himself had originally introduced—that is, of course, the figure of St. Nicholas.» — lo que faltaba a Pintard según el capítulo: descubrir qué había pasado, en manos de su amigo Clement Clarke Moore, con la figura que él mismo había introducido
«As LATE AS 1826, Pintard did not associate Christmas itself with St. Nicholas (or with anything at all except attending church and what Pintard termed “solemni[ty]” and “devotional feelings”). Pintard went to church on Christmas in 1827, too; but there was something new that year: “We had St. Claas in high snuff,” Pintard noted, and he referred briefly to the “bon bons” his grandchildren had received.» — la fecha en que la fiesta doméstica aparece en las cartas de Pintard: hasta 1826 no asociaba la Navidad con San Nicolás, y en 1827 escribe que tuvieron a San Claas en gran boga
«All due preparations having been made by the children the preceding evening, by placing hay for his horses [!] and invoking “St. Claas, Gude Heylig Man,” he came accordingly during the night, with most elegant toys, bon bons, oranges, etc., all which, after rilling the stockings suspended at the sides of mother’s chimney, were displayed in goodly order on the mantle, to the ecstatic joy of [the children] in the morning, whose exhaltations resounded through the house.» — según Nissenbaum, la descripción de Pintard en 1828: los niños dejaron heno para los caballos e invocaron al buen santo, que vino de noche con juguetes, dulces y naranjas, llenó las medias colgadas al lado de la chimenea y dejó lo demás en la repisa
«By 1831 he characteristically referred to the ritual as an “ancient usage,” adding that “St. Claas is too firmly riveted in this city ever to be forgotten.» — el gesto que el capítulo llama característico de Pintard: llamar uso antiguo al rito, y darlo por remachado en la ciudad para siempre
«And in 1832 Pintard concluded a very lengthy account of the children’s reactions to Santa’s visit with these words: “Happy golden age. All was joy and gladness.» — el cierre de la última descripción larga de Pintard, en 1832
«That was all there would be; Pintard lived for another dozen years (dying at age 85), but he was becoming blind and seems to have stopped writing letters.» — el final de la fuente, que el autor declara: Pintard vivió doce años más, quedó ciego y parece haber dejado de escribir cartas
«Pintard had gradually moved from a celebration that took place in public (first at City Hall, with the New-York Historical Society, then on the city streets and in the houses of kinsmen and old acquaintances) to one that took place in private, in his own home, with his immediate family. Just as important, the new celebration focused on a single group within the family: young children.» — el cambio que el capítulo considera más importante que la fecha: Pintard pasó de una celebración pública a una privada en su propia casa y con su familia inmediata, centrada en los niños pequeños
«Before the nineteenth century children were merely dependents —miniature adults who occupied the bottom of the hierarchy within the family, along with the servants.» — qué eran los niños antes del siglo XIX según el capítulo: meros dependientes, adultos en miniatura en el fondo de la jerarquía de la casa, junto con los criados
«Making children the center of joyous attention marked an inversion of the social hierarchy, which meant that a part of the structure of an older Christmas ritual was being precisely preserved: People in positions of social and economic authority were offering gifts to their dependents.» — la continuidad que el capítulo encuentra bajo la novedad: poner a los niños en el centro era también inversión de la jerarquía social, con los que tienen autoridad ofreciendo dones a sus dependientes
«The ritual of social inversion was still there, but now it was based on age and family status alone. Age had replaced social class as the axis along which gifts were given at Christmas.» — la fórmula con que el libro condensa su tesis sobre ese traslado: la edad había sustituido a la clase social como eje del reparto de regalos
«The children of a single household had replaced a larger group of the poor and powerless as the symbolic objects of charity and benevolence. It was those children who became the temporary centers of attention and deference at Christmas, and the joy and gratitude on their faces and in their voices as they opened their presents was a vivid re-creation of the exchange of gifts for goodwill that had long constituted the emotional heart of the Christmas season.» — el resto de esa sustitución: los niños de una sola casa ocuparon el lugar del grupo mayor de pobres y sin poder como objeto simbólico de caridad, y su alegría rehacía el viejo intercambio de dones por buena voluntad
«During the 1820s such an exchange had particular appeal for the urban upper classes, precisely because they were still residually sensitive to the need to demonstrate noblesse, especially during the Christmas season.» — por qué ese intercambio atraía a las clases altas urbanas de los años veinte: seguían siendo residualmente sensibles a la necesidad de mostrar nobleza en la temporada
«NOWADAYS many Americans believe, as I did until recently, that there was nothing new about “the night before Christmas” described in Moores poem—that the story it told was simply an old Dutch tradition brought to the New World in the seventeenth century and then, in the natural course of things, gradually Americanized.» — la creencia corriente que el propio autor dice haber compartido hasta hace poco: que la noche antes de Navidad del poema de Moore era una vieja tradición holandesa traída en el siglo XVII y americanizada luego
«That is just what John Pintard would wish us to believe (and he may even have believed it himself» — lo que el capítulo dice de esa creencia y de quien la promovía, con la salvedad de que Pintard quizá la creyera él mismo
«In an article published in 1954, Charles W. Jones argued forcefully that “there is no evidence that [the cult of Santa Claus] existed in New Amsterdam, or for [more than] a century after British occupation.” Jones pointed out that nobody has ever found any contemporaneous evidence of such a St. Nicholas cult in New York during the colonial period.» — lo que Charles W. Jones sostuvo en un artículo de 1954: no hay evidencia de que el culto de Santa Claus existiera en Nueva Ámsterdam ni por más de un siglo después de la ocupación británica
«Instead, the familiar Santa Claus story appears to have been devised in the early nineteenth century, during the two decades that ended in the early 1820s.» — la datación que el capítulo propone en su lugar: la historia familiar de Santa Claus se ideó en las dos décadas que terminan a principios de los años veinte del siglo XIX
«It seems likely that a similar ritual, along with others, was practiced in parts of Holland during the mid-seventeenth century, on St. Nicholas’ Day, December 6. But Charles Jones makes a compelling case that this ritual did not cross the Atlantic, and that the Santa Claus who was devised in early-nineteenth-century New York was therefore a conscious reconstruction of that Dutch ritual—an invented tradition.» — el matiz que el capítulo conserva sobre el rito holandés: es probable que se practicara en partes de Holanda a mediados del siglo XVII, pero según Jones no cruzó el Atlántico, de modo que el Santa Claus neoyorquino es una reconstrucción consciente
«This does not mean that “the night before Christmas” belongs to Clement Moore alone. In fact, it was the work of a small group of antiquarian-minded New York gentlemen—men who knew one another and were members of a distinct social set. Collectively, those men became known as the Knickerbockers; the name comes from an immensely popular book published in 1809 by the best-known member of the group, Washington Irving.» — a quiénes atribuye el capítulo la obra: no a Moore solo, sino a un grupo pequeño de caballeros neoyorquinos de gusto anticuario conocidos como los Knickerbockers, por el libro de Irving de 1809
«Irvings book, commonly known as Knickerbocker’s History of New York, was a brilliantly satirical allegory about life in the contemporary city that the author lived in, but it was written in the guise of a history of New Amsterdam in old Dutch times.» — qué era ese libro según el capítulo: una alegoría satírica sobre la ciudad contemporánea escrita con la apariencia de una historia de Nueva Ámsterdam en tiempos holandeses; el troceo imprime el apellido sin apóstrofo
«Irving himself mentioned St. Nicholas twenty-five times in Knickerbockers History, including references to the saint’s wagon, his pipe (more of that later), and a line that read: “laying his finger beside his nose.” Irving even chose to have Knickerbockers History published on St. Nicholas’ Day.» — la cuenta que el capítulo hace del libro de Irving: veinticinco menciones de San Nicolás, entre ellas el carro, la pipa y la línea del dedo al lado de la nariz, y hasta la fecha de publicación
«If it was John Pintard who introduced the figure of St. Nicholas, it was Washington Irving who popularized it. In the words of Charles W. Jones, “Without Irving there would be no Santa Claus…. Santa Claus was made by Washington Irving.» — el reparto de papeles que el capítulo hace suyo y remata con palabras de Charles W. Jones: sin Irving no habría Santa Claus
«As a rule, its members were of British, not Dutch, descent. They belonged to the Episcopal Church, and, more particularly, to its ritually inclined High Church faction. They were part of the wealthy old aristocracy of the city (or at least they identified with it). And they were politically conservative, reactionary even—opposed to democracy (which they identified with mob rule) and fearful of both the working class and the new bourgeoisie. Indeed, they often failed to distinguish between these two groups, sometimes lumping them together with the general, yet quite telling, word plebeian.» — quiénes eran los Knickerbockers según el capítulo: de ascendencia británica y no holandesa, episcopales de la facción ritualista, de la vieja aristocracia rica y políticamente conservadores, temerosos a la vez de la clase obrera y de la nueva burguesía
«For example, in his Knickerbockers History, Washington Irving disdainfully summarized in a single sentence an episode that clearly represented to his readers the Jeffersonian revolution of 1800: “[J]ust about this time the mob, since called the sovereign people … exhibited a strange desire of governing itself.» — el ejemplo con que el capítulo ilustra ese conservadurismo: Irving despachando en una frase la revolución jeffersoniana de 1800
«And in 1822 (the year “A Visit from St. Nicholas” appeared), John Pintard explained to his daughter just why he was opposed to the new state constitution adopted that year, a constitution that gave men without property the right to vote: “All power,” Pintard wrote, “is to be given, by the right of universal suffrage, to a mass of people, especially in this city, which has no stake in society. It is easier to raise a mob than to quell it, and we shall hereafter be governed by rank democracy…. Alas that the proud state of New York should be engulfed in the abyss of ruin.» — lo que Pintard escribió a su hija en 1822 contra la nueva constitución del estado, que daba el voto a los hombres sin propiedad: el poder pasaría a una masa que no tiene participación en la sociedad
«In short, the Knickerbockers felt that they belonged to a patrician class whose authority was under siege. From that angle, their invention of Santa Claus was part of what we can now see as a larger, ultimately quite serious cultural enterprise: forging a pseudo-Dutch identity for New York, a placid “folk” identity that could provide a cultural counterweight to the commercial bustle and democratic “misrule” of early-nineteenth-century New York.» — la empresa cultural a la que el capítulo adscribe la invención de Santa Claus: forjar una identidad seudoholandesa para Nueva York que contrapesara el bullicio comercial y el desgobierno democrático
«But in the History, too, Irving pictured old New Amsterdam as a place of “filial piety” in which people thought and acted “with characteristic slowness and circumspection …; who adhere … to the customs … of their revered forefathers.” New Amsterdam was a serene place in which people (watched over by good St. Nicholas himself) “did not regulate their time by hours, but by [the smoking of] pipes.» — cómo pintaba Irving la vieja Nueva Ámsterdam según el capítulo: lugar de piedad filial, lento y circunspecto, donde no se regulaba el tiempo por horas sino por pipas fumadas
«But Irving, who continued to place the patron-client exchange in the older context of social class, was able to imagine it only with difficulty. Clement Moore, by translating the patron-client exchange from one between the classes to one between the generations, helped to transform it into» — el contraste que el capítulo traza entre los dos: Irving mantenía el intercambio entre patrón y cliente en el marco viejo de la clase y apenas podía imaginarlo, y Moore lo trasladó de las clases a las generaciones; el troceo corta en el límite de segmento y la frase sigue: *a practical, simple ritual that almost any household could perform*
«If we have any image of the man at all, it is apt to be of a benevolent figure, a scholarly but genial professor of Hebrew who stepped, just this once, out of his ivory tower to write, for his own children, those magical verses about what happened on “the night before Christmas.” He is a man who would appear to be as distant from the wider currents of history and politics as the figure of Santa Claus himself.» — la imagen corriente de Moore que el capítulo pone sobre la mesa antes de complicarla: un profesor de hebreo benévolo que salió una sola vez de su torre de marfil para escribir esos versos a sus hijos
«Clement Clarke Moore. This woodcut was made from one of the four portraits painted of Moore at different stages of his life. Good oil portraits were expensive, and only wealthy people could afford even one. This is from the last of Moore’s four portraits, done around 1850, almost thirty years after the writing of “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” (Courtesy, Harvard College Library)» — el pie de la lámina del retrato de Moore, con el dato de que solo los ricos podían pagar un buen óleo y de que este es el último de cuatro, hacia 1850
«The image is not particularly misleading, and it is not my intention to dispel it. Still, Moore did have a real existence.» — la posición que el propio autor declara frente a esa imagen: no viene a disiparla, pero Moore tuvo existencia real
«And he fits perfectly the Knickerbocker mold: High Church Episcopalian, politically conservative, and quintessentially upper-class.» — el molde en que el capítulo encaja a Moore: episcopal de alta iglesia, políticamente conservador y de clase alta por antonomasia
«Moore’s father was for thirty-five years Episcopal bishop of the diocese of New York, and Moore himself, though a layman, was an active and influential figure in the Church. (In fact, Moore held his professorship in a seminary that he himself had helped to establish.» — la posición eclesiástica de la familia: el padre fue treinta y cinco años obispo episcopal de la diócesis de Nueva York, y Moore, aun siendo laico, fue figura influyente en la Iglesia
«His parents and grandparents had been closet Tories during the American Revolution—and open Federalists afterward. Moore’s own brand of conservatism took the form of an agrarian paternalism not far removed from that of a wealthy Virginia planter of the same generation. As a young man, Clement Moore himself published a series of tracts attacking both Jeffersonian radicalism and urban commerce, and to the end of his life he remained suspicious of democracy and other “reforms.” For example, in middle age he opposed the movement to abolish slavery. Indeed, at the time Moore wrote “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” in 1822, he himself owned five slaves.» — el conservadurismo que el capítulo documenta: padres y abuelos tories encubiertos y luego federalistas abiertos, panfletos del joven Moore contra el radicalismo jeffersoniano y el comercio urbano, oposición al abolicionismo, y cinco personas esclavizadas en su poder el año del poema
«He inherited his mother’s large Manhattan estate, originally located well to the north of New York City. The estate, which bore the name Chelsea, extended all the way from what is now Nineteenth Street to Twenty-fourth Street, and from Eighth to Tenth Avenue.» — la finca que Moore heredó de su madre: Chelsea, de la actual calle Diecinueve a la Veinticuatro y de la Octava a la Décima Avenida
«John Pintard, who knew Moore well, wrote in 1830 that his Chelsea estate alone was worth $500,000. He also acknowledged Moore as his social superior, writing that even though he and Moore “have been always on the most friendly terms,… I have resisted all hospitalities when sitting in [his] elegantly furnished drawing room, for he is wealthy.» — lo que Pintard, que lo trataba, escribió en 1830: la finca de Chelsea valía quinientos mil dólares, y él mismo se reconocía socialmente inferior y rehusaba las hospitalidades de aquel salón
«Still, Moore’s great wealth did not prove sufficient to insulate him from the pressures that transformed New York in the first decades of the nineteenth century.» — el giro del retrato: ni con esa riqueza quedó Moore a salvo de las presiones que transformaron Nueva York en las primeras décadas del siglo
«In fact, late in 1818 something called “Ninth Avenue” was dug right through the middle of his estate (the land having been taken from him by eminent domain» — el hecho que el capítulo pone en el centro: a fines de 1818 abrieron la Novena Avenida por en medio de su finca, con la tierra tomada por expropiación
«Eleven years later, in 1832, John Pintard visited Chelsea and mused about the changes that had overtaken the neighborhood, filled now (as Pintard put it) with “streets that have become regularly built up … where, but a few years ago, all was open country. It really surprised me to notice a dense population and contiguous buildings in what only 10 years since was merely a sparse city.» — lo que Pintard anotó al visitar Chelsea en 1832: calles ya construidas donde pocos años antes todo era campo abierto
«By the 1850s the entire hill on which Moore’s house stood had been leveled to make new land and bulkheads along the Hudson River waterfront, and Moore had built new homes for himself and his family.» — el desenlace del lugar: para los años cincuenta habían arrasado la colina entera donde estaba la casa de Moore para ganar terreno y malecones sobre el Hudson
«In 1818, the very year that his property was bisected by Ninth Avenue (and just four years before he wrote “A Visit from St. Nicholas”), Moore published a pamphlet that protested against the relentless development of New York. In it he expressed a fear that the city’s beauty and tranquillity would be lost forever, and that its future was already in what he termed “destructive and ruthless hands,” the hands of men who did not “respect the rights of property.» — el panfleto de 1818 con que Moore protestó contra el desarrollo implacable de Nueva York, cuatro años antes del poema: temía que la belleza y la tranquilidad de la ciudad se perdieran en manos destructivas y despiadadas
«City politics and policy were controlled by men Moore described as “mechanics and persons whose influence is principally among those classes of the community to whom it is indifferent what the eventual result of their industry may be to society.” New York was being turned over to a conspiracy, and Moore named its members: “cartmen, carpenters, masons, pavers, and all their host of attendant laborers.» — a quiénes culpaba Moore según el capítulo: mecánicos y personas con influencia entre las clases a las que es indiferente el resultado de su industria, y una conspiración que nombra por oficios
«Moore doubted that the city could (as he put it) be “save[d] from ruin.” And he was pessimistic about the future of his class: “We know not the amount nor the extent of oppression which may yet be reserved for us.» — el pesimismo con que Moore cierra el panfleto, sobre la ciudad y sobre el futuro de su clase
«Manhattan in 1778. When this map was drawn, New York City occupied only the lower tip of Manhattan (the shaded area at the bottom). The rest of the island was rural. Halfway up the map, on the left, is an estate labeled “Clarke”—the property of Thomas Clarke, Moore’s maternal grandfather. He called it Chelsea, after a district in London.» — el pie del mapa de 1778: la ciudad ocupaba solo la punta baja de Manhattan y a media isla se ve la finca del abuelo materno de Moore, llamada Chelsea por un barrio de Londres
«Manhattan in 1831. Now Moore’s Chelsea estate has been divided up into gridded urban terrain. Moore’s property, located near the lower right-hand corner of the map, extended from Eighth Avenue to Tenth Avenue, between Eighteenth and Twenty-fourth streets. (Note that on this map the more usual north-south orientation has been reversed; the southern part of the island is at the top.» — el pie del mapa de 1831, que muestra la finca ya repartida en cuadrícula urbana, con la orientación invertida
«1810 St. Nicholas. The broadside that John Pintard commissioned at his own expense, executed by the noted illustrator Alexander Anderson. In the right-hand panel are two children: a pleased little girl who has received a present and a tearful little boy who has not (perhaps he has received a caning instead» — el pie de la lámina del pliego de 1810 que Pintard encargó al ilustrador Alexander Anderson: en el panel derecho, una niña contenta que recibió regalo y un niño lloroso que no
«He was an old-style country gentleman, a patrician man of leisure who inherited so much land (and the income it brought) that he never needed to take a job.» — la posición social de Moore según el capítulo: caballero rural a la antigua, patricio ocioso con tanta tierra heredada y tanta renta que nunca necesitó empleo
«child’s poem that begins with the words “Saint Nicholas, good holy man” and concludes: “Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend! / To serve you ever was my end. / If you will now, me, something give, / I’ll serve you ever while I live.” (Courtesy, The New-York Historical Society)» — el cierre del pie de la lámina de 1810, con el poema infantil puesto bajo la estampa: si ahora me das algo, te serviré mientras viva
«It was at this difficult juncture, in 1822, that Clement Clarke Moore wrote “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” As we already know, Moore did not invent “the night before Christmas” out of whole cloth.» — el momento en que el capítulo sitúa la escritura del poema: esa coyuntura difícil de 1822, y sin que Moore lo inventara de la nada
«In addition, three other poems, two from 1810 and the third from 1821, would provide more materials—for example, Santa’s sleigh and reindeer, and even the poetic meter that Moore would employ.» — las tres fuentes poéticas que el capítulo enumera: dos poemas de 1810 y uno de 1821, de donde salen el trineo, los renos y hasta el metro
«Moore’s own contributions may have been small, but they were crucial to the creation of a myth that suited the needs of his own Knickerbocker set —and that finally proved malleable enough to transcend those needs and to be appropriated by other groups of Americans.» — la medida que el capítulo da a lo que puso Moore: poco, pero decisivo para un mito que servía a su propio grupo y resultó bastante maleable para que otros estadounidenses se lo apropiaran
«But Irving represented St. Nicholas not as a figure who appeared during the Christmas season but rather in the way that John Pintard had originally introduced him to the New-York Historical Society—that is, as the mythic patron saint of New Amsterdam. Early in Knickerbockers History, Irving wrote that “the great and good St. Nicholas … took … New Amsterdam under his peculiar patronage, and has ever since been … the titular saint of this excellent city.» — cómo representaba Irving a San Nicolás según el capítulo: no como figura de la temporada navideña sino como santo patrón mítico de Nueva Ámsterdam, igual que lo había introducido Pintard
«In this role St. Nicholas (he never actually appears, except once in a dream scene and, again, as the wooden figurehead on a ship) was essentially an amusing caricature of the old-time Dutch gentry who inhabited Irving’s imaginary New Amsterdam: a genial yet obviously patrician saint, dressed in a broad hat and invariably smoking a long pipe.» — la caricatura que el capítulo describe: un santo patricio y genial, con sombrero ancho y pipa larga, que en el libro de Irving casi no aparece salvo en un sueño y como mascarón de proa
«In all of these writings the pipe disappeared, and so did the satire, but St. Nicholas himself finally became a figure who distributed gifts to children during the Christmas season. Still, in all these sources the saint was very much a figure of majesty and authority—or at least of benevolent, kindly dignity.» — lo que cambia en las otras fuentes: desaparecen la pipa y la sátira, San Nicolás pasa a repartir regalos a los niños en Navidad, pero sigue siendo figura de majestad y autoridad
«As a bishop, St. Nicholas was the direct representative of God and a figure of great authority as well as great charity. So it is not surprising that John Pintard would wish him to be represented in such a “serious” fashion in the broadside he commissioned, and not (as Washington Irving had irreverently done) as a humorous figure.» — por qué Pintard lo quería serio según el capítulo: como obispo era representante directo de Dios, figura de gran autoridad además de gran caridad
«In this illustration St. Nicholas has come not just to reward but also to punish. He is a figure of authority: We see him with his halo, ecclesiastical robes, and bishop’s scepter.» — lo que la estampa de Pintard muestra según el capítulo: un santo que viene a premiar y también a castigar, con halo, ropas eclesiásticas y báculo
«This poem, essentially a longer, more elaborate version of Pintard’s, opens in a similar fashion, with a child hailing St. Nicholas—this time not in awkward iambic but in a more tripping meter—in fact, the exact meter that Moore would employ twelve years later, anapestic tetrameter.» — el dato métrico que el capítulo subraya del poema aparecido en un periódico neoyorquino dos semanas después del pliego: el tetrámetro anapéstico exacto que Moore usaría doce años más tarde
«Oh good holy man! whom we Sánete Claus name, / The Nursery forever your praise shall proclaim.» — según Nissenbaum, el arranque de ese poema de 1810
«The poem goes on to catalogue the presents St. Nicholas might be expected to leave, followed by a “prayer” that St. Nicholas not come for the purpose of punishment (“[I] fin your hurry one thing you mislay, / Let that be the Rod—and oh! keep it away» — la plegaria que el capítulo destaca dentro de ese catálogo de regalos: que si el santo extravía algo con la prisa, sea la vara
«Then holy St. Nicholas! all the year, Our books we will love and our parents revere, From naughty behavior we’ll always refrain, In hopes that you’ll come and reward us again.» — la promesa de buena conducta futura con que ese poema concluye
«Published in 1821, only a year before Moore wrote “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” this poem appeared as a little illustrated book called The Children’s Friend. Here, for the first time, we even find St. Nicholas appearing not on December 6 but on Christmas Eve; and we also find him traveling on a sleigh that is pulled by a reindeer—a single reindeer.» — la fuente más inmediata de Moore según el capítulo: el librito ilustrado *The Children’s Friend*, de 1821, donde por primera vez el santo aparece en Nochebuena y viaja en trineo tirado por un solo reno
«But he is still a bishop (a “child’s bishop,” perhaps), a figure who metes out punishments along with rewards, and whose visit is designed to inspire anxiety along with hope:» — lo que en esa fuente no ha cambiado: sigue siendo obispo, reparte castigos junto con premios, y su visita busca inspirar ansiedad además de esperanza
«But where I found the children naughty, In manners rude, in temper haughty, Thankless to parents, liars, swearers, Boxers, or cheats, or base tale-bearers, I left a long, black, birchen rod, Such, as the dread command of GOD Directs a Parent’s hand to use When virtue’s path his sons refuse.» — la estrofa del castigo en esa misma fuente: a los niños desagradecidos, mentirosos o tramposos les deja una vara larga y negra de abedul que el mandato de Dios ordena usar al padre
«This kind of Christmas can be thought of as a mini-version of the Day of Judgment. Insofar as the history of gift-giving on St. Nicholas Day can be traced to Europe, it is this kind of judgmental ritual that seems to have been involved.» — la fórmula con que el capítulo caracteriza esa Navidad: una versión en pequeño del Día del Juicio, que sería el tipo de rito rastreable en Europa
«It can be seen in a seventeenth-century painting, St. Nicholas’s Day, by the Dutch painter Jan Steen, in which there appear both presents and punishments.» — el testimonio pictórico que el capítulo aduce: el cuadro del holandés Jan Steen donde aparecen a la vez regalos y castigos
«Even today, something of this notion still lingers in the American celebration of Christmas, as, for example, in the song that begins “You’d better watch out… Santa Claus is coming to town,” and continues: “He knows if you’ve been sleeping, he knows if you’re awake; he knows if you’ve been bad or good—so be good for goodness’ sake!» — el resto de esa noción que el capítulo señala en el presente: la canción que avisa que Santa Claus sabe si te has portado mal o bien
«1821 St. Nicholas (from The Children’s Friend). This St. Nicholas is more benevolent-looking than John Pintard’s (and the label “Sante Claus” appears at the base of his hat), but he still holds a bishop’s scepter. Each verse of this charming book was similarly accompanied by an illustration—in color.» — el pie de la lámina de 1821: el santo se ve más benévolo que el de Pintard y lleva ya el rótulo en la base del sombrero, pero sigue sosteniendo el báculo de obispo
«To be sure, this kind of Christmas ritual was designed largely for children, while Judgment Day was for adults. Christmas took place once a year, Judgment Day once an eternity. The “judge” at Christmas was St. Nicholas; on Judgment Day it was God himself. And both the rewards and the punishments meted out on Christmas—a cookie on the one hand, or a birch rod on the other—were far less weighty than those of eternal joy or eternal damnation.» — las diferencias que el capítulo enumera entre los dos juicios: uno para niños y otro para adultos, uno anual y otro de una vez por la eternidad, con San Nicolás por juez frente a Dios mismo
«But the parallel was always there, and always meant to be there. Christmas was a child’s version of Judgment Day, and its ambiguous prospects of reward or punishment (like those of Judgment Day itself) were a means of regulating children’s behavior—and preparing them for the greater» — la tesis del paralelo: la Navidad como versión infantil del Día del Juicio, con premio o castigo como modo de regular la conducta de los niños; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *judgment that was to come*
«Note the smiling little girl holding her present in the foreground and the tearful boy on the left—he is being mocked by the other children. The girl’s present is a doll that represents one of the saints, which suggests that this prosperous family is Roman Catholic. The St. Nicholas ritual did not cross the Atlantic; one reason may have been that it was performed by Holland’s Catholic community, while the Dutch immigration to New Netherlands was largely Protestant—and Dutch Protestants, much like the English Puritans, tried to suppress such practices as the celebration of saints’ days (as well as the use of icons like the little girl’s present» — el pie del cuadro de Jan Steen, que propone por qué el rito no cruzó el Atlántico: lo celebraba la comunidad católica de Holanda, mientras la emigración holandesa a los Nuevos Países Bajos fue en buena parte protestante y suprimía los días de santos y los iconos
«Nicholas, if he existed at all, was an actual bishop, and in any case he was an official saint—the real patron saint of both Russia and Greece.» — la acotación que el autor pone sobre el santo histórico y que marca como condicional: si existió, fue obispo y santo oficial, patrón de Rusia y de Grecia; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«Old SANTECLAUS with much delight His reindeer drives this frosty night, O’er chimneytops, and tracks of snow, To bring his yearly gifts to you.» — según Nissenbaum, la primera estrofa de *The Children’s Friend*: el viejo santo conduce su reno en la noche helada por chimeneas y rastros de nieve; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«The threat of judgment was gone the next year, when Moore wrote “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” Moore’s St. Nicholas, as we all know, leaves only presents and goodwill, and he makes no threats—not even gentle ones. There is no warning of the birch rod, no hints about messy rooms or bad behavior. There is no stick to join the carrot. There is no little Day of Judgment. There is only a “happy Christmas to all.”» — lo que falta en el San Nicolás de Moore según el capítulo: ningún aviso de la vara de abedul, ningún palo junto a la zanahoria, ningún pequeño día del juicio
«This shift is all the more striking because the structure of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (unlike that of its immediate sources) parallels the structure of a seventeenth-century American poem about the real Judgment Day. That poem, written by Massachusetts clergyman Michael Wigglesworth, was published in 1662 with the title “The Day of Doom.” It was nearly as popular in its own time as “A Visit from St. Nicholas” is today, and it retained its popularity into the early nineteenth century.» — el paralelo estructural que el capítulo propone: el poema de Moore tiene la forma del poema americano del siglo XVII sobre el juicio verdadero, *The Day of Doom*, del clérigo Michael Wigglesworth, de 1662
«Both poems begin with a scene in which people are sleeping serenely on a still night, dreaming of good things to come. It is “the night before Christmas” in the one case, “the evening before [Doomsday]” in the other: Still was the night, Serene and Bright, when all Men sleeping lay; Calm was the season, and carnal reason thought so ’twould last for ay. Soul, take thine ease, let sorrow cease, much good thou hast in store: This was their Song … the Evening before.» — el primer término de la comparación: la noche serena con todos durmiendo, en la estrofa de Wigglesworth que el capítulo pone en columna
«’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugarplums danced in their heads» — el segundo término de la misma comparación, en el arranque del poema de Moore
«Then, suddenly, the slumbering calm is shattered by a sound that rouses the sleepers, causing them to leap out of bed and run to the window: For at midnight brake forth a Light, which turn’d the night to day, And speedily an hideous cry did all the world dismay. Sinners awake, their hearts do ache, trembling their loins surprizeth; Amazed with fear, by what they hear each one of them ariseth. They rush from Beds with giddy heads, and to their windows run» — el segundo paso del paralelo en Wigglesworth: a medianoche estalla una luz que vuelve día la noche y un grito espantoso despierta a los pecadores, que corren a sus ventanas
«I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.» — el mismo paso en Moore, con el narrador que salta de la cama y abre los postigos
«Viewing this light, which shines more bright than doth the Noonday Sun. Straightway appears (they see’t with tears) the Son of God most dread; Who with his Train comes on amain to Judge both Quick and Dead. His winged Hosts flie through all coasts, together gathering Both good and bad, both quick and dead, and all to Judgment bring.» — el tercer paso en Wigglesworth: aparece el Hijo de Dios con su séquito a juzgar a vivos y muertos, y sus huestes aladas los reúnen a todos
«The moon, on the breast of the new-fallen snow, Gave a luster of midday to objects below When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver so lively and quick I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.» — el tercer paso en Moore: la luna sobre la nieve recién caída y el trineo en miniatura con ocho renos diminutos
«In “The Day of Doom,” the supernatural visitor has come as a pitiless judge; he causes everyone to come before his “throne,” to separate those who can look forward to eternal happiness from those who are filled with the “dreadful expectation” of “endless pains and scalding flames.” In “A Visit from St. Nicholas” he is a jolly fellow who reassures his startled company that they have “nothing to dread,” and who departs from the house wishing happiness “to all.”» — el contraste que los paralelos vuelven agudo según el capítulo: allí un juez despiadado que separa la dicha eterna de las penas sin fin, aquí un tipo jovial que asegura que no hay nada que temer
«I am not sure whether Moore read “The Day of Doom.” But so close are the parallels between the two poems that it is difficult to avoid speculating that the one was written with the other somewhere in mind. If so, then “The Day of Doom” constitutes another source of “A Visit from St. Nicholas.”» — el límite que el propio autor pone a su hipótesis: no sabe si Moore leyó el poema, pero los paralelos son tan cercanos que cuesta no especular
«What Moore has evoked, in any case, is Christmas without the prospect of judgment. Without such a prospect, St. Nicholas himself loses his authority—indeed, he loses his very identity as a bishop.» — lo que el capítulo sostiene que Moore evocó: una Navidad sin perspectiva de juicio, y sin ella San Nicolás pierde su autoridad y hasta su identidad de obispo
«And Moore’s lengthy physical description of St. Nicholas reinforces the point (such a description is not to be found in any of Moore’s sources, but here it takes up four of the poems fourteen stanzas): Santa’s eyes “twinkle,” his cheeks are “rosy,” his dimples “merry,” his mouth is “droll,” his figure “chubby and plump,” his manner “jolly.” He is tiny —the size of an “elf.” His appearance and manner actually cause the narrator to laugh out loud “in spite of [him]self.» — la descripción física que el capítulo cuenta en cuatro de las catorce estrofas y que no está en ninguna fuente previa: ojos que centellean, mejillas rosadas, hoyuelos alegres, boca graciosa, figura regordeta, tamaño de elfo
«In every possible way, then, Moore’s St. Nicholas has lost his authority, his majesty, even his patrician dignity. He carries no bishop’s scepter. He is clothed not in a bishop’s red robes (despite the illustrations we may recall from modern editions of the poem) but in ordinary fur. This St. Nicholas is no bishop at all. He has effectively been defrocked.» — el primer verbo con que el capítulo nombra la operación: sin báculo y vestido de pieles ordinarias en vez de ropas rojas de obispo, este San Nicolás queda desfrailado
«But not only has Moore defrocked St. Nicholas, he has declassed him, too. It is not only his authority that has vanished; his gentility is gone as well. Consider how St. Nicholas is pictured in the first illustrated edition of Moore’s poem, dating from 1848 (and probably issued with Moore’s approval). He looks like a plebeian, and that’s also how he is described in the text. Remember that Moore says “he looked like a pedlar”—“a pedlar just opening his pack”—something, that is, between a beggar and a petty tradesman.» — el segundo verbo: además de desfrailarlo lo desclasa, y el propio poema dice que parecía un buhonero abriendo su fardo, algo entre mendigo y comerciante menudo
«And he smokes “the stump of a pipe.” Now, that little detail comes directly from Washington Irving—and from none of Moore’s other» — de dónde viene el cabo de pipa según el capítulo: directamente de Washington Irving y de ninguna otra fuente de Moore; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *sources*
«Irving invariably associated St. Nicholas with a pipe. But there was a difference: That pipe was always referred to as a long pipe (indeed, flamboyantly long—in Irvings word, a “mighty” pipe» — la diferencia que el capítulo marca: la pipa de Irving era siempre larga, y en su palabra poderosa
«Indeed, there is a chapter in Knickerbockers History that bears the title “Of the Pipe Plot.” This chapter has nothing to do with St. Nicholas; what it deals with is the moment at which New Amsterdam (that is, New York) was transformed from a community characterized by “ease, tranquillity, and sobriety of deportment” into “a meddlesome and factious” city.» — el capítulo de Irving que el libro trae a cuento: trata del momento en que Nueva Ámsterdam pasó de comunidad de tranquilidad y sobriedad a ciudad entrometida y faccionaria
«The terms Irving chose to identify these parties are intriguing: “[T]he more wealthy and important… formed a kind of aristocracy, which went by the appellation Long Pipes, while the lower orders … were branded with the plebeian name of Short Pipes.» — los nombres de los dos partidos según Irving: los más ricos e importantes formaron una aristocracia llamada Pipas Largas y las órdenes bajas quedaron marcadas con el nombre plebeyo de Pipas Cortas
«Plebeian St. Nicholas. This illustration appeared in the first book-length edition of “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” published in 1848 under Moore’s name and almost certainly with his approval.» — el pie de la lámina de 1848, primera edición en libro del poema, publicada bajo el nombre de Moore y casi con certeza con su visto bueno
«Clearly, Irving was suggesting that short pipes were associated with working-class radicalism in the early nineteenth century. Not surprisingly, his suggestion seems to have been accurate. A recent paper delivered by a historical archaeologist who has been studying artifacts from the boarding houses of the cotton mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, bears the improbable subtitle “Clay Pipes and Class Consciousness.» — lo que el capítulo lee en esa oposición y con qué lo acompaña: la pipa corta asociada al radicalismo obrero, y un trabajo arqueológico sobre las casas de huéspedes de las fábricas de algodón de Lowell
«gentlemen smoked long pipes (some as much as two feet in length) known as “aldermen” or “church warderis;” workers smoked short pipes (or “cuddies”). It was not from economic necessity—that is, because short pipes happened to be cheaper—that working-class men (and women) smoked them; rather, they did so as a public gesture of class identity.» — lo que ese trabajo arqueológico da según el capítulo: los caballeros fumaban pipas de hasta dos pies llamadas *aldermen*, los obreros pipas cortas, y no por precio sino como gesto público de identidad de clase
«In fact, the archaeological evidence (in the form of numerous broken-off pipe stems) suggests that workers often purchased longer pipes and then proceeded immediately, before smoking them, to break off the stems. The evidence seems compelling: Few of the broken-off stems recovered from the Lowell mills bear any telltale tooth marks.48 Workers chose to smoke “the stump of a pipe.”» — el dato material que el capítulo enlaza con el verso de Moore: cañas de pipa rotas sin marcas de dientes, señal de que los obreros compraban pipas largas y les quebraban el tubo antes de fumarlas
«Remember what was actually happening in the streets of early-nineteenth-century New York during the Christmas season: the presence there of marauding bands of revelers who threatened peace and property, whose revelry often turned into riot, who used this annual opportunity to reclaim for themselves (if only symbolically) the fashionable residential territory that had recently become the private preserve of the well-to-do.» — el recordatorio con que el capítulo devuelve la historia literaria a la social: bandas de juerguistas que amenazaban la paz y la propiedad y que aprovechaban la ocasión anual para reclamar el territorio residencial de moda
«Remember that Moore wrote “A Visit from St. Nicholas” in 1822, when the streets had just been dug and the development begun.» — la coincidencia de fechas en que el capítulo insiste: Moore escribió el poema justo cuando acababan de abrir las calles por su finca
«Viewed from this angle, there is something resonant about the choices Moore made in writing his little poem. And especially about his decision to both “defrock” St. Nicholas and “declass” him, to take away his clerical authority and his patrician manner, and to represent him instead as a “plebeian.”» — desde dónde el capítulo propone leer las decisiones del poema: quitar al santo la autoridad clerical y el porte patricio y presentarlo como plebeyo
«Moore’s decision meant that his St. Nick resembles, after all, the kind of man who might have come to visit a wealthy New York patrician on Christmas Eve—to startle him out of his slumber with a loud “clatter” outside his door, perhaps even to enter his house, uninvited and unannounced.» — la semejanza que el capítulo saca de esa decisión: el San Nicolás de Moore se parece al tipo de hombre que podía visitar a un patricio neoyorquino en Nochebuena, sacarlo del sueño con un estrépito y hasta entrar sin invitación
«But there was one dramatic difference: The working-class visitor feared by the patrician would come in a different way, for a different purpose. Such a visitor would have inhabited that murky ground between old-style village wassailing and the new urban political violence. He would have been youthful and full-sized, not a tiny “old» — la diferencia que el capítulo pone enseguida: el visitante obrero temido venía de otro modo y a otra cosa, joven y de tamaño entero; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *elf*
«He would very likely have been part of a roving gang (perhaps a callithumpian band), not a single individual. He would have come to make all the noise he could rather than to speak “not a word;” to demand satisfaction, not to give it; to harass or threaten his host, not to reassure him that he “had nothing to dread.” And, if he had finally departed in a genial spirit, wishing (in familiar wassail fashion) a “happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night,” it would have been because he had received satisfaction, not because he had offered it.» — el retrato en negativo que el capítulo hace de ese visitante frente al del poema: vendría en banda, a hacer todo el ruido posible, a exigir satisfacción y no a darla, y si se iba deseando feliz Navidad sería por haberla recibido
«By contrast, the household visitor Moore portrays has come neither to threaten his genteel host nor to make any demands on his generosity. The narrator of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” is openly fearful when St. Nicholas first appears, but his fears have been assuaged by the time St. Nicholas departs.» — el contraste con el visitante del poema: no viene a amenazar ni a pedir nada, y el miedo inicial del narrador queda aplacado antes de que se vaya
«The houses and shops of well-to-do men in large urban centers were guarded, as we have seen, by night watchmen, a kind of private police force. As it happens, these watchmen, like other menial workers of the period, took the Christmas season as a time to ask their wealthy patrons for tips.» — la variante de la vida real que el capítulo trae: los serenos que guardaban casas y tiendas de los ricos también tomaban la temporada para pedir propina a sus patrones
«We know this because the watchmen’s ritual sometimes took the form of a printed broadside (much like the carriers’ addresses discussed in Chapter i). A few of these broadsides—watchman’s addresses, as they were known—have survived. All of them remind their wealthy readers of the sense of security their nocturnal vigilance has managed to provide, and all go on to beg a reward for their efforts.» — la fuente de ese rito: pliegos impresos conocidos como discursos del sereno, de los que sobreviven unos pocos, que recuerdan al lector rico la seguridad que su vigilia nocturna le procura y piden recompensa
«Watchman. The watchman is guarding a fenced-in New York estate at night. This illustration appeared in Cries of New-York, published in 1822, the same year that Clement Moore wrote “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” and was the work of Alexander Anderson, the illustrator who also executed John Pintard’s 1810 St. Nicholas broadside.» — el pie de la estampa del sereno en *Cries of New-York*, de 1822, el mismo año del poema y del mismo ilustrador que hizo el pliego de San Nicolás de Pintard
«The ruffian at midnight is drove from your door, By the watch that is faithful and true; And this keeps in safety your house and your store; To him, then, is gratitude due.» — la segunda parte del pliego del sereno: el rufián de medianoche es echado de la puerta por la ronda fiel, y por eso se le debe gratitud
«Here the watchman has reminded his patrons that he is protecting them in their “rich soft downy bed”—protecting them, indeed, from the “ruffian” who tries to enter in the middle of the night (and in the context of the Christmas season it is surely significant that the watchman has chosen to speak of a “ruffian” and not of a thief» — lo que el capítulo subraya de esa elección de palabra: en el contexto de la temporada es significativo que el sereno hable de un rufián y no de un ladrón
«Now to close, he wishes you health, to fare well; And your mite from him hope you won’t spare.» — el remate del pliego del sereno, que el capítulo lee con la forma clásica del wassail: os desea salud y espera que no le escatiméis vuestra moneda
«But if “A Visit from St. Nicholas” spoke to the physical fears of its upper-class readers, it also addressed their moral guilt. What it suggested was that Santa Claus was one Christmas visitor to whom the patron owed no obligations, not even tips.» — la segunda función que el capítulo atribuye al poema: además de hablar a los miedos físicos de sus lectores de clase alta, se dirigía a su culpa moral, presentando un visitante al que no se debe nada
«If Moore’s upper-class readers were to be comfortable at Christmastime, they needed to have at their disposal a class of dependents whose palpable expressions of goodwill would assure them that they had fulfilled their obligations after all.» — lo que esos lectores necesitaban según el capítulo: una clase de dependientes cuya expresión palpable de buena voluntad les asegurara haber cumplido sus obligaciones
«They did this in part by substituting their own children for the needy and homeless outside their household. In that way, as we have seen, they managed to preserve the structure of an older Christmas ritual, in which people occupying positions of social and economic authority offered gifts to their dependents. The children in their own households had replaced the poor outside it as the symbolic objects of charity and deference, and the gratitude those children displayed at present-opening time was a re-creation of the old Christmas exchange—gifts for goodwill. The ritual of social inversion was still there, but it now remained securely within the household.» — cómo lo resolvieron según el capítulo: sustituyendo por sus propios hijos a los necesitados de fuera de casa, con lo que el rito de inversión social quedó dentro del hogar
«Still, that change could easily have been implemented without transforming St. Nicholas from a bishop and a patrician into a plebeian (indeed, it could have been achieved without introducing St. Nicholas into the picture at all» — el matiz que el capítulo añade: ese cambio podía haberse hecho sin convertir al santo de obispo y patricio en plebeyo, y hasta sin meter a San Nicolás en el cuadro
«Without losing his role as the bringer of gifts, St. Nicholas has taken on an additional function: that of a grateful, nonthreatening old-style dependent.» — la función añadida que el capítulo ve en el San Nicolás plebeyo: sin dejar de traer regalos, pasa a ser también el dependiente agradecido y no amenazante de la vieja usanza
«hile you’re reposing in sleep’s fond embrace, Upon your rich soft downy bed, The Watchman, who’s one of your own fellow race, Sees clouds gathering thick o’er his head. This doth not affright him, his pathway is clear, To serve you, he’s ne’er seen to stray; To shield you from danger, and guard you from fear, Propels him alone on his way» — según Nissenbaum, el pliego del sereno del suburbio de Southwark, en Filadelfia, de 1829: mientras el patrón reposa en su blando lecho de plumas, el sereno, de su misma raza, ve juntarse las nubes sobre su cabeza; el troceo imprime la inicial entre corchetes
«ordinary role, symbolically becoming the very personage from whom he is supposed to offer protection. As with any wassail there was always a veiled edge of threat behind the good wishes—and in this instance a miserly patron would surely be risking far more than a wet newspaper!» — la vuelta de tortilla que el capítulo describe y que el troceo parte en el límite de segmento: el sereno pasa a ser el personaje del que debía proteger, con el filo de amenaza velado que todo wassail lleva
«Like those fictional characters, Moore’s St. Nicholas may not have existed; but (in this second role) he, too, was based on a real-life prototype that meant a great deal to the upper-class New Yorkers who very much wished to believe that he did still exist.» — el estatuto que el capítulo da a ese segundo papel: como los personajes de Irving, el San Nicolás de Moore pudo no existir, pero se apoyaba en un prototipo real que importaba mucho a los neoyorquinos de clase alta
«In this way, Moore managed to evoke what had eluded his fellow Knickerbockers, Washington Irving and John Pintard, in their own efforts to recapture the spirit of Christmas past: that is, the integration of the social classes in a scene of shared festivity where the poor posed no threat and gratefully accepted their place.» — lo que el capítulo dice que Moore logró evocar y a sus compañeros Knickerbockers se les escapaba: la integración de las clases en una escena de fiesta compartida donde los pobres no amenazan y aceptan agradecidos su lugar
«With this tricky maneuver Moore managed to transform what had been merely archaic and sentimental (and also patronizing to the poor) into something that can be called mythic.» — la fórmula con que el capítulo mide esa maniobra: lo que era arcaico, sentimental y condescendiente con los pobres pasó a ser algo que puede llamarse mítico
«He had to present St. Nicholas as a figure who would evoke in his hearers and readers a working-class image (and not a patrician one) and also as a figure who would act the patrician’s part (and not the worker’s). He had to present St. Nicholas in the role of a bishop, but without a bishop’s authority to stand in judgment. In short, Moore had to present St. Nicholas as both a bishop and a worker—but without either the power of the one or the animosity of the other.» — los dos cambios que el capítulo llama cruciales: un San Nicolás que evoque una imagen obrera y actúe la parte del patricio, obispo sin autoridad para juzgar, sin el poder del uno ni la animosidad del otro
«He had to devote fully one-third of his poem to offering the reassurance that the people who received visits from this figure of the night would have “nothing to dread.” St. Nicholas first offers that reassurance by giving “a wink of his eye and a twist of his head.» — la cuenta que el capítulo hace del poema: un tercio entero dedicado a asegurar que quien recibiera esa visita nocturna no tendría nada que temer, empezando por el guiño y el giro de cabeza
«This is a meaningless phrase today, but in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century the gesture seems to have represented the equivalent of a secret wink—a visual way of saying something like “Shh! I’m only kidding” or “Let’s keep it between the two of us.» — lo que el capítulo restituye del gesto del dedo al lado de la nariz, hoy sin sentido: a fines del siglo XVIII y principios del XIX equivalía a un guiño secreto, algo como estoy bromeando
«In fact, the source of Santa’s gesture in “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was a passage in Irving’s Knickerbocker’s History, a passage in which St. Nicholas appears in a dream to a character named Van Kortland.» — de dónde sale el gesto según el capítulo: de un pasaje del libro de Irving en que San Nicolás se aparece en sueños a un personaje llamado Van Kortland
«And when St. Nicholas had smoked his pipe, he twisted it in his hat-band, and laying his finger beside his nose, gave the astonished Van Kortland a very significant look, then, mounting his wagon, he returned over the tree-tops and disappeared» — según Nissenbaum, el pasaje de Irving: el santo se fuma la pipa, se la mete en la cinta del sombrero, se pone el dedo al lado de la nariz y lanza a Van Kortland una mirada significativa antes de irse por las copas de los árboles
«Since Moore was obviously alluding to this very passage, St. Nicholas’ gesture in his poem, too, can be understood as a signal to the narrator (and to all adult readers of the poem): This is all a dream. As if to say: “We know I don’t exist, but let’s keep that between you and me!» — la lectura que el capítulo saca de esa alusión: el gesto del poema es una señal al narrador y a todo lector adulto de que aquello es un sueño, un sabemos que no existo pero quede entre nosotros
«1863 Santa. In this, the first of many pictures of Santa Claus drawn by noted American cartoonist Thomas Nast, Santa still looks rather plebeian, and he is smoking a short pipe.» — el pie de la primera estampa de Santa Claus de Thomas Nast, de 1863, que el capítulo usa para seguir el cambio de la figura: todavía se ve plebeyo y fuma pipa corta
«1881 Santa. Thomas Nast drew this, his most famous Santa Claus picture, in 1881. Now Santa is holding a very long pipe, and he has grown fat and avuncular—imagine this Santa trying to fit into a chimney! This is pretty much the way Santa Claus has remained to the present day.» — el pie de la estampa más famosa de Nast, de 1881: ahora Santa sostiene una pipa muy larga y se ha vuelto gordo y avuncular
«It offered a Christmas scenario that took a familiar ritual (the exchange of generosity for goodwill) and transfigured it with a symbolic promise to release them from both the fear of harm and the pressure of guilt.» — lo que el capítulo dice que ofrecía el logro pequeño y callado de Moore: un guion navideño que tomaba el rito familiar del intercambio de generosidad por buena voluntad y lo transfiguraba con una promesa de descargo del miedo y de la culpa
«A generation earlier, one might argue, the parents of these men were sufficiently in control of their social world not to require such a catharsis. A generation later their children were sufficiently purged of a sense of direct social obligation not to require it any longer.» — el argumento generacional que el propio autor marca como discutible: los padres de esos hombres dominaban bastante su mundo social para no necesitar esa catarsis, y sus hijos estaban bastante purgados de obligación social directa para no necesitarla ya
«Santa Claus himself would lose his plebeian character as time passed, and as the poem (and the new kind of holiday it helped create) was taken over by the middle classes and even by the poor themselves.» — lo que el capítulo anuncia para las décadas siguientes: Santa Claus pierde su carácter plebeyo conforme el poema y la fiesta nueva pasan a las clases medias y hasta a los propios pobres
«Still “plebeian” in the 1840s, Santa and his “team” soon cease to be portrayed as a miniature (“eight tiny reindeer,” a “miniature sleigh,” and a “jolly old elf”). He becomes full-sized, even large. His beard turns into the full gray beard of the late-Victorian bourgeoisie. He appears increasingly avuncular. And, in the hands of Thomas Nast, the famous cartoonist who was responsible for much of this change, over a period of eighteen years even his pipe grows long once again.» — la serie de cambios visuales que el capítulo enumera: de miniatura a tamaño entero y grande, con la barba gris entera de la burguesía victoriana tardía y, en manos de Nast, la pipa otra vez larga
«Still, for all these changes, Santa Claus recovers none of the episcopal dignity that Clement Moore took from him in 1822. Between being a jolly plebeian elf and a jolly fat uncle, the real St. Nicholas would surely have found it difficult to choose.» — lo que no vuelve según el capítulo: ninguna de la dignidad episcopal que Moore le quitó en 1822, de modo que el San Nicolás real habría tenido difícil elegir entre elfo plebeyo y tío gordo
«The late nineteenth century was a period of vexing religious doubt for many middle-class Americans, and one characteristic solution was to think that God must exist simply because people so badly needed Him to; without God, human life would be simply unendurable.» — el marco en que el capítulo mete el editorial de 1897: la duda religiosa de la clase media estadounidense de fin de siglo, con la solución de que Dios debe existir porque la gente lo necesita tanto
«It should not be too surprising that this rather elegiac Victorian argument came to be applied to Santa Claus as well: In 1897, in reply to an inquiry posed by a young reader whose “little friends” had told her that Santa Claus did not exist, the New York Sun printed what was destined to become a classic editorial. “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,» — el traslado de ese argumento a Santa Claus: la respuesta que el *New York Sun* imprimió en 1897 a una lectora niña cuyos amiguitos le decían que no existía
«It was written by the newspaper’s religious-affairs reporter, and its language and tone selfconsciously mirror that of late-Victorian popular theology. “Virginia, your little friends are wrong,” the reporter insisted, explaining that “[t]hey have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.» — quién firmaba aquel editorial según el capítulo: el reportero de asuntos religiosos del periódico, cuyo tono imita conscientemente el de la teología popular victoriana tardía
«Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus,” the reporter argued. “There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.” And he concluded: “No Santa Claus? Thank God, he lives and he lives forever.» — el terreno que el capítulo dice que aquel reportero ocupaba, familiar para sus lectores por los sermones de iglesia: sin Santa Claus no habría fe infantil, ni poesía, ni romance que hiciera tolerable esta existencia
«The expansion of New York affected him in a direct way, breaking up his estate into city blocks. Before around 1820 he viewed this change as a threat, and protested it accordingly.» — lo que el capítulo llama la cúspide de la vida de Moore: la expansión de la ciudad le partió la finca en manzanas, y antes de 1820 lo tenía por amenaza y protestaba
«As early as 1818, he donated an entire city block adjacent to his own house for the construction of an Episcopal theological seminary (the institution in which he later became a professor of Hebrew and ancient languages). And he gave another large parcel for a new and very elegant Episcopal church, St. Peters.» — las dos donaciones con que empezó ese control: una manzana entera junto a su casa para el seminario teológico episcopal y otra parcela grande para una iglesia episcopal muy elegante
«By doing this, Moore was able to protect the value of his remaining holdings in Chelsea. And during the following years he consciously controlled the development of those holdings, by leasing lots rather than selling them and by including restrictive covenants in the deeds he gave to builders.» — el efecto de esas donaciones según el capítulo: proteger el valor de lo que le quedaba, y luego controlar el desarrollo arrendando lotes en vez de venderlos y poniendo cláusulas restrictivas en las escrituras
«As a great Manhattan landowner, Clement Moore played a part in the emergence of a new urban landscape, a landscape that stratified and segregated the city by wealth and class, and in which housing itself became a commodity.» — el papel de Moore como gran propietario: parte en la aparición de un paisaje urbano que estratificaba y segregaba la ciudad por riqueza y clase, y en el que la vivienda misma se volvía mercancía
«What I have tried to suggest in this chapter is less easy to prove: that Moore helped to bring about a parallel change on the American cultural landscape, in the role for which he is best known to most Americans today—as the poet of Christmas Eve. If such a reading is correct, it was that which constituted his most important contribution to the history of American capitalism.» — la tesis que el propio autor declara más difícil de sostener y presenta como sugerencia: que Moore trajo un cambio paralelo en el paisaje cultural como poeta de la Nochebuena, y que ahí estaría su aporte mayor a la historia del capitalismo estadounidense
«A fascinating equivalent to the Knickerbockers’ invention of Santa Claus (and all in the guise of continuing a venerated old tradition) is to be found in an unlikely arena: the early history of the game of baseball. The American national pastime, like the American Christmas, was invented in New York—and less than a generation» — la nota a pie que compara la invención de Santa Claus con la temprana historia del béisbol: el pasatiempo nacional, como la Navidad estadounidense, se inventó en Nueva York; el troceo corta en el límite de segmento y la frase sigue: *later*
«Astonishingly, the earliest extant description of a baseball match, in a press account dating from 1845, referred to this newly devised sport as a “time-honored game”! But a clue that may help explain that phrase is to be found in the name of the best-known baseball club from this early period of the sport: formed in 1846, this New York team was known as the “Knickerbockers.” (The account of the 1845 match, printed in the New York Morning News, was unearthed only in 1990; it antedates by one year the earliest previously known report of a baseball game. The discovery was a front-page story in the New York Times, October 4, 1990.» — el dato de esa nota: la crónica más antigua conservada de un partido de béisbol, de 1845, llama a aquel deporte recién ideado un juego consagrado por el tiempo, y el club más conocido de entonces se llamaba los Knickerbockers
«But thereafter Moore adopted a different strategy. He stopped protesting the new conditions and began instead to protect his economic and» — el cambio de estrategia de Moore: dejó de protestar por las nuevas condiciones; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *social position by systematically controlling the development of the Chelsea district*
«DURING THE 1822 Christmas season, the very season during which Clement Moore was writing “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” a New York newspaper editor proposed that one aspect of the local holiday celebration be reformed. As we have seen from the experience of John Pintard, many respectable New York men during the 1820s spent part of their New Year’s Day in paying visits to the homes of their circle of acquaintances. There they were received by the women of the household, who were expected to serve them food and drink— alcoholic drink.» — la escena con que abre el capítulo tercero: en la misma temporada en que Moore escribía su poema, un editor neoyorquino propuso reformar las visitas de Año Nuevo, donde las mujeres de la casa servían comida y bebida alcohólica
«For example, that same season another New York newspaper published without comment a notice from an anonymous group of “unmarried gentlemen,” noting their expectation that the ladies they visited would serve them “large quantities of cake and wine, rum jelly and hot punch.» — el aviso que otro periódico imprimió sin comentario esa misma temporada, firmado por un grupo anónimo de caballeros solteros que esperaban cantidades grandes de pastel, vino, jalea de ron y ponche caliente
«The reforming editor, a Federalist named William Leete Stone, called for a stop to the serving of alcohol in the course of these New Year’s Day visits. “A cup of good coffee” would be an “excellent substitute,” he suggested, a token of hospitality that would serve to “tranquilize the excesses of the young.» — quién era el reformador y qué proponía: el federalista William Leete Stone, con una taza de buen café como sustituto excelente que templaría los excesos de los jóvenes
«Stone’s suggestion met with a barrage of public ridicule. (This was several years before the emergence of a temperance movement in the United States.» — la acogida que tuvo y la acotación cronológica del capítulo: una andanada de burla pública, varios años antes de que surgiera el movimiento de templanza en Estados Unidos
«This sheriff embroidered a lengthy account of his usual sequence of visits, visits to homes where he had always counted on being greeted with “gaiety and hospitality”—but at every stop he was now greeted only with a cup of coffee. When he declined one such offer by telling his hostess that he had “‘breakfasted already,’” he was told that “‘this is not intended as breakfast—Mr. Stone, of the Commercial, recommends coffee as a substitute for wine or cordial.» — según Nissenbaum, la réplica de un exalguacil anónimo: en cada casa donde contaba con alegría y hospitalidad solo le ofrecían café, y hasta la anfitriona le citaba la recomendación de Stone
«At last the sheriff gave up and decided instead “to visit some of the Hotels—the landlords having thrown open their doors with their usual hospitality.” At one of these—“our old friend Niblo’s”—there was, “as usual, good fare and a hearty welcome.» — el desenlace del relato del alguacil: se fue a los hoteles, cuyos dueños habían abierto las puertas con su hospitalidad de siempre
«At length the sheriff entered a third hotel, and there he encountered an unexpected guest: “[W]ho should I see seated at the table, and up to his elbows in good things, but my coffee-drinking friend Stone.” The sheriff looked around the table, “and thank heaven not a cup of coffee was to be seen. Stone was so intent on eating cold round [of beef] and turkey, and washing it down with large draughts of old Madeira, that he saw nobody, and if it had not been cruel to have check’d this terminal gratification of his appetite, I certainly should have been tempted to have gone up to him, and said, ‘Stone, how are you off for coffee?» — el remate cómico de la réplica: en el tercer hotel encuentra al propio Stone hasta los codos en buenas cosas, regándolas con grandes tragos de Madeira viejo y sin un café a la vista
«The sheriff took pains to show that he knew all about holiday rowdiness, too, and that it did not bother him very much. Indeed, he wrote with more affection than anger about the antics of working-class men on New Year’s Eve. Such behavior was nothing more than part of the standard “ceremonies and jolifications [sic]” of the occasion. It was hardly surprising that those New Yorkers sometimes chose to go on “what they called a spree.» — lo que el alguacil se cuidaba de mostrar según el capítulo: que conocía el alboroto festivo y que no le molestaba mucho, escrito con más afecto que enojo sobre las travesuras de los hombres de clase obrera
«Some of them “went forth with bands of music to serenade their friends, but the most mischievous amused themselves by knocking on doors, displacing signs, knocking down the watchmen, firing crackers and pistols, and snow balling the frail fair ones of the city» — la lista de travesuras que el propio alguacil enumera: serenatas con bandas de música, y los más traviesos golpeando puertas, descolgando letreros, tumbando serenos y disparando petardos y pistolas
«About twenty of the revelers were jailed for the night, but even incarceration failed to dampen their spirits: In the jailhouse itself “[t]hey snapped their fingers, danced waltzes, whistled loud and shrill, and sang glees and catches.» — lo que el alguacil cuenta de la cárcel: unos veinte juerguistas pasaron la noche presos y ni así se les bajó el ánimo, entre chasquidos de dedos, valses, silbidos y cantos
«The sheriff presented himself as a man who reached easily across class lines and was equally at ease in the drawing room of a “splendid mansion,” a boisterous public house, and even a jail. Actually, the only people who seemed to bother him were reformers (like Colonel Stone) and fashionable women. In that sense, his little story is about gender and class.» — la lectura que el capítulo hace de esa réplica: el alguacil se presenta como hombre que cruza con facilidad las líneas de clase, y a quien solo estorban los reformadores y las mujeres de moda
«The real social threat (however humorously it is posed) comes from emerging middle-class reforms, represented by Stone’s editorial appeal for coffee instead of alcohol—and it is women who read and act on this advice, turning even the homes of old friends into cold comfort.» — dónde sitúa la amenaza ese relato según el capítulo: en las reformas emergentes de la clase media, y en las mujeres que leen y siguen ese consejo
«Almost every New Year’s during the 1840s, for example, Horace Greeley used his paper, the New York Tribune, to persuade women to remove alcohol from their tables.» — lo que el capítulo apunta sobre la década siguiente: casi cada Año Nuevo de los años cuarenta, Horace Greeley usó el *New York Tribune* para persuadir a las mujeres de quitar el alcohol de sus mesas
«Resistance to the reform of the Christmas season thus came from above as well as below. Men of a similar stripe to the sheriff actually tried to claim Santa Claus himself as an ally in the cause of old-fashioned hospitality.» — la tesis del apartado: la resistencia a reformar la temporada venía tanto de arriba como de abajo, y hubo quien reclamó a Santa Claus como aliado de la hospitalidad a la antigua
«Two years earlier, in 1820, a New York newspaper printed a poem about Santa in which the “good St. Nicholas” had “just come from Amsterdam / To give the New-years maids their cakes, / And Pinester lads their drams.» — el primer ejemplo: un poema de 1820 en que el buen San Nicolás llega de Ámsterdam a dar pasteles a las muchachas y tragos a los muchachos
«Much to this Saint you owe For eggs, and nuts, and pies, and crulls, And whyskey’s jovial flow.» — la continuación de ese poema, dirigida a los muchachos: a este santo le deben los huevos, las nueces, los pasteles y el flujo jovial del whisky
«On January 4, 1828 (five years after Clement Clarke Moore had written “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” and during the very Christmas season in which his poem began to be widely printed in newspapers around the nation), at least two New York newspapers printed another poem, this one bearing the title “Ode to Saint Claas, Written on New Year’s Eve.» — el segundo ejemplo y su fecha: al menos dos periódicos neoyorquinos imprimieron en enero de 1828 una oda a San Claas escrita en Nochevieja
«That claim may have been a dig at Moore’s poem, because the figure of “Saint Claas” he presented—“king of good fellows”—was a far cry from Moore’s. To be sure, “Rip Van Dam’s” figure is chubby and jolly, and he, too, “fills every stocking” with little treats: “Apples, and nuts, and sugar-plums, / Grateful to little urchin’s gums … new suits for girls and boys, / Pretty books and prettier toys.» — la sospecha que el autor formula sobre esa queja y el retrato del santo alterno: rey de los buenos compañeros, regordete y jovial, que también llena las medias de manzanas, nueces y confites
«But that was not all this St. Nicholas brought. The very next verse promised other treats of a very different order: “Mull’d cider, cherry bounce, [and] spic’d rum, / Jolly Saint, O hither come!» — lo que la estrofa siguiente añadía y que separa a ese santo del de Moore: sidra caliente, licor de cereza y ron especiado
«Come then with thy merry eye, And let us bouse it [i.e., booze it] till we die! Come and o’er my thirsty soul Floods of smoking glasses roll!» — la fantasía de orgía alcohólica con que ese poema sigue, según el capítulo
«This Santa Claus was an “imp” who would “frisk about” and encourage his charges (no doubt emboldened by drink) to dance and perform “merry pranks.” (Only one such “prank” is named, but it suggests what this writer had in mind: “[M]aidens” would approach their male companions to “seek” a “kiss.» — qué figura era ese Santa Claus: un duende que brincaba y animaba a sus pupilos a bailar y hacer travesuras, de las que solo se nombra una, que las doncellas se acerquen a buscar un beso
«This Santa Claus was no other than the Lord of Misrule, master of the Christmas carnival: A little short, thick, lusty, “whoreson,”* rover, Rolling about the room full half seas over.» — la identificación que el capítulo hace de esa figura: el Señor del Desgobierno, amo del carnaval navideño, corto, grueso y medio ido rodando por el cuarto
«Rip Van Dam” himself acknowledged that this lusty and drunken “whoreson” of a Santa was on the way out, a figure of the past, merely a nostalgic symbol. “Fashions” were changing, he lamented: And all the good of olden times Is lost, save in old fashioned rhymes; While cold hard-hearted revelry Usurps the place of heartfelt glee» — lo que el propio poeta admitía: que ese santo lujurioso y borracho era cosa del pasado y símbolo nostálgico, con las modas cambiando y el jolgorio frío usurpando el lugar de la alegría de corazón
«Only a faithful few had kept to the old traditions: Though good old customs long have flown, And few thy honest sway will own, Still will I bow the reverent knee, And shout Saint Claas, all hail to thee!» — el cierre de la oda: aunque las viejas costumbres hayan volado y pocos reconozcan su honrado dominio, el poeta doblará la rodilla
«Of course, it was Clement Moore and not “Rip Van Dam” whose representation of Santa Claus carried the day. Nor, given the new patterns of holiday violence, should that be surprising.» — el resultado de esa disputa según el capítulo, y la razón que ofrece: dados los nuevos patrones de violencia festiva, no sorprende que se impusiera la representación de Moore
«moved from one end of the city to the other, making the most hideous noises, committing many excesses, and for several hours in succession, disturbing neighborhoods where they thought proper to become in some measure stationary, to such a degree that sleep and rest, for the sick or for the well, were entirely destroyed. No nocturnal tumult or disturbance that we have ever witnessed, was in any measure equal to this. We understand that wherever the watch offered to interfere for the purpose of preventing mischief, they were either overpowered, or intimidated by numbers, and the mob had undisputed possession of the streets until a very late hour in the night.» — según Nissenbaum, el reporte del mismo periódico sobre el desfile calitumpiano de esa Nochevieja: la turba recorrió la ciudad haciendo ruidos horrendos y quedó en posesión indisputada de las calles porque la ronda fue rebasada o intimidada
«And it asserted that alcohol was the proximate cause: “Such a multitude of persons, assembled together for an unlawful purpose, when maddened with liquor, and conscious of their force, will, after a very few more experiments, be guilty of the greatest atrocities.» — la causa que ese periódico señalaba: el alcohol, con una multitud reunida para un fin ilícito, enloquecida de licor y consciente de su fuerza
«Most important of all, the account concluded, the public should not dismiss these events by viewing them through the lens of seasonal ritual, as high jinks that had to be tolerated. “It is in vain to wink at such excesses, merely because they occur at a season of festivity. A license of this description will soon turn festivals of joy, into regular periods of fear to the inhabitants, and will end in scenes of riot, intemperance, and bloodshed.» — lo que el capítulo llama lo más importante de ese reporte: el aviso de que es vano guiñar el ojo a tales excesos por ocurrir en temporada de fiesta, porque la licencia volverá las fiestas periodos de miedo
«The paper published two holiday items in its December 28, 1827, issue: an editorial that termed Christmas “a festival sacred to domestic enjoyments” and a reprint of a passage from Washington Irvings “Bracebridge Hall” sketches that described how Christmas evoked “the pure element of domestic felicity.» — la alternativa que empezaba a asomar en el otro periódico: un editorial que llamaba a la Navidad festival sagrado de los goces domésticos y una reimpresión de Irving sobre el puro elemento de la felicidad doméstica
«Merry Christmas’ was celebrated yesterday joyously and soberly in our goodly Dutch city,” this account began. But it continued by acknowledging that New York was “Dutch no longer” and had become a multiethnic city with “new houses and new names.» — el reporte de 1828 del mismo periódico, que el capítulo destaca por asociar la sobriedad a Santa Claus, y que a la vez concede que Nueva York ya no era holandesa
«Nor did the magistrate who tried their case early the next morning seem troubled by their offenses, for, as the sheriff concluded, “in consideration of the day, [he] discharged them all, with suitable» — el cierre del episodio: el magistrado que los juzgó a la mañana siguiente no pareció preocupado por las faltas y, en consideración del día, los soltó a todos; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *admonitions, and without requiring any fees*
«The author of this 1828 poem signed himself “Rip Van Dam” (a sure indication that he was not of Dutch ancestry) and insisted, in an introductory note, that he had written his poem only because, “[s]o far as I know, nothing in the way of honourable commendation hath been sung in this city of honest Dutch Burghers, to the thrice-blessed Saint Nicholaas—the saint of all saints» — quién firmaba esa oda y con qué pretexto: un tal Rip Van Dam, seudónimo que el capítulo lee como indicio de que no era de ascendencia holandesa, quejoso de que nadie hubiera cantado al santo en esta ciudad de honrados burgueses holandeses; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *and king of good fellows*
«What had taken place was not a matter of letting off steam at Christmas; it was a criminal mob, and—here the editor hinted at the presence of underlying economic issues—a mob not only “stimulated by drink” but also “enkindled by resentment.” Left to itself, it would soon commit “the most outrageous offenses without» — cómo el editor recalificó lo ocurrido: no era dejar salir vapor en Navidad sino una turba criminal, no solo estimulada por la bebida sino encendida por el resentimiento; el troceo corta en el límite de segmento y la frase sigue: *reflection, and without remorse*
«Remember that this report appeared in the same newspaper that simultaneously printed “Rip Van Dam’s” ode to the drinking Santa Claus.» — la coincidencia que el capítulo subraya: el reporte del desfile violento salió en el mismo periódico que imprimía la oda al Santa Claus bebedor
«It is no coincidence that the previous year’s callithumpian riot had been perpetrated largely by immigrants. It is no coincidence that the editor now chose to associate the Santa Claus ritual with a “sober” Christmas, and made that ritual serve as an instrument of cultural assimilation for “the various tongues and kindreds that now call New-York—home.” It is no coincidence that the same newspaper had previously recognized that heavy drinking was an integral part of the holiday season, and that in 1829 it would demand that alcohol be eliminated. It is no coincidence, in short, that Clement Clarke Moore’s Santa Claus beat out Rip Van Dam’s.» — la serie de coincidencias que el capítulo enumera para decir que no lo son: el motín del año anterior lo hicieron sobre todo inmigrantes, el editor asoció el rito de Santa Claus con una Navidad sobria y lo puso a servir de instrumento de asimilación cultural
«This is not to say that the rowdy Christmas season simply disappeared or even diminished. A domestic Santa Claus did not obliterate other modes of celebrating the holiday (indeed, it still has not» — el límite que el capítulo pone de inmediato a esa victoria: un Santa Claus doméstico no borró los otros modos de celebrar, y el autor añade que todavía no lo ha hecho
«On New Year’s Eve, 1839–40, one ailing visitor to the city was kept awake by “revelers, making frightful noises.” This visitor, Eliza Folien, reported that the lights in her sickroom “attracted the attention of some rioters in the street; they stopped under the window and screamed ‘Happy New Year!’ with what seemed to me the voices of fiends, the sound was so frightful.» — el testimonio de Eliza Follen, visitante enferma en la ciudad la Nochevieja de 1839 a 1840: las luces de su cuarto atrajeron a unos alborotadores que gritaron feliz año con voces que le parecieron de demonios
«Just a week before Follen’s unpleasant experience, a New York theater advertised a Christmas-night performance of a “new pantomime got up for the occasion, called ‘Santiclaus, or the orgies of St. Nicholas.» — lo que el capítulo aduce para decir que tampoco se extinguió el otro San Nicolás: una semana antes, un teatro neoyorquino anunciaba una pantomima nueva sobre las orgías del santo
«On December 26, 1840, a party of German-Americans (they were “engaged in fiddling, dancing, and making night hideous with their discordant din”) engaged in a serious street battle with the police in which twenty-five people were arrested.» — el primero de los dos ejemplos con que el capítulo muestra la yuxtaposición en la prensa de mediados de siglo: una batalla callejera con la policía el 26 de diciembre de 1840, con veinticinco detenidos
«But on the same day, the paper announced that “the holidays are at hand—the merry days to which childhood and youth look forward throughout the year with such anticipation and delight….” The “holidays,” as this report defined them, were domestic and child-centered: “Santiclaus is about making his annual visit to our world-renowned Dutch city.» — el segundo término de esa yuxtaposición, en el mismo número y el mismo día: las fiestas como cosa doméstica y centrada en los niños, con Santa Claus a punto de hacer su visita anual
«In 1839 the New York Herald made it clear that this was the only decent choice: “Let all avoid taverns and grog shops for a few days at least, and spend their money at home.” In that way men would be sure “to make glad upon one day, the domestic hearth, the virtuous wife, the innocent, smiling, merry-hearted children, and the blessed mother.” “Christmas,” the editorial concluded, “is the most hallowed season of the whole year.» — lo que el *New York Herald* enunciaba en 1839 como única opción decente: evitar tabernas y tiendas de aguardiente unos días y gastar el dinero en casa, para alegrar el hogar doméstico
«In 1848 George Templeton Strong was able to note casually that Christmas was “essentially an indoor and domestic festival,” but when he took an omnibus to go shopping that same day, he noted that “[t]he driver was drunk and the progress of the vehicle was like that of a hippopotamus.» — el contraste que el capítulo saca del diario de George Templeton Strong en 1848: anota sin énfasis que la Navidad es fiesta de puertas adentro y doméstica, y el mismo día el conductor de su ómnibus iba borracho
«Two years later, with accounts of Santa Claus and Christmas shopping plastered lavishly throughout the pages of the Tribune, gangs of youths were still roaming the streets at Christmas, making trouble wherever they went. By this time the gangs even had names, such as “[t]he Short Boys, Swill Boys, Rock Boys, Old Maid Boys, Holy Ch—s, and other bands of midnight prowlers [who] should have been in state prison long ago.» — lo que seguía ocurriendo dos años después según el capítulo: pandillas de jóvenes con nombre propio recorriendo las calles en Navidad, mientras el *Tribune* llenaba sus planas de Santa Claus y de compras
«New Year’s Eve, 1851– 52, was ushered into the city by what the Tribune termed “a Saturnalia of discord, by Callithumpian and Cowbellian bands, by musketry and fire-crackers, by bacchanal songs and noisy revels, which for two hours after midnight made sleep not a thing to be dreamed of.» — cómo el *Tribune* nombró la entrada de 1852 en la ciudad: una saturnal de discordia con bandas calitumpianas y cencerreras, mosquetería y petardos
«And a group of about 150 men (most of them apparently Irish, and all of them drunk) invaded a fashionable Broadway restaurant and systematically destroyed the furniture, threw food and dishes around the place, and finally (before the police arrived) assaulted the owner, his wife, and their staff.» — el episodio mayor de esa noche: unos ciento cincuenta hombres, al parecer irlandeses en su mayoría y todos ebrios, destrozaron un restaurante de moda en Broadway y agredieron al dueño, su mujer y el personal
«All in all, upwards of one hundred men were arrested that night “for entering residences in which they never were before, and where they knew not a soul, and after eating and drinking without molestation to their hearts’ content, maliciously breaking decanters, dishes, scattering the provisions about the premises, and not content with that, in many instances breaking windows, doors, and behaving more like fiends than like men.» — la cuenta de detenidos de esa misma noche y el cargo que el periódico enumeraba: entrar en casas ajenas donde no conocían a nadie, comer y beber a su gusto y romper después vajilla, ventanas y puertas
«Santa Claus’ Quadrilles. The cover to a piece of sheet music published in New York in 1846. This Santa Claus is beardless and youthful, apparently a merry bachelor. He is playing the fiddle as he dances on a New York chimneytop. (The picture was drawn by an artist who went by the name “Spoodlyks.”» — el pie de la portada de una partitura neoyorquina de 1846: este Santa Claus va sin barba y joven, soltero alegre al parecer, tocando el violín sobre una chimenea de Nueva York
«Such behavior was abetted by certain business establishments; local bars actually served drinks gratis on Christmas Day, in a holdover from the old English custom demanded of innkeepers (which was itself a variant of the tradition by which the gentry held “open house” for their dependents» — lo que el capítulo señala como facilitador del desorden: los bares servían tragos gratis el día de Navidad, resto de la vieja costumbre inglesa exigida a los posaderos, variante a su vez de la casa abierta de la gentry
«The first flash of morning discovered the liquor shops in full operation, with wassail bowls of smoking punch, and “medicine” of all sorts, free as water. This dangerous and wicked temptation was the means of setting a great many young men and boys in a state of crazy intoxication long before noon. As early as 10 o’clock we saw, in Broadway, between the Park and Broome-st., about a dozen parties of boys, each numbering from four to ten persons, nearly every one grossly drunk, and four fellows, in as many parties, entirely helpless, and being dragged along by neck and heels by their hardly less drunk companions.» — según Nissenbaum, el reporte de Horace Greeley: al primer destello de la mañana las tiendas de licor estaban en plena operación con cuencos de wassail y medicina gratis, y antes del mediodía había cuadrillas de muchachos ebrios en Broadway
«What had changed, then, was not that the rowdier ways of celebrating Christmas had disappeared, or even that they had diminished, but that a new kind of holiday celebration, domestic and child-centered, had been fashioned and was now being claimed as the “real” Christmas.» — la tesis del capítulo sobre qué cambió realmente: no que los modos ruidosos desaparecieran ni menguaran, sino que se fabricó una celebración nueva, doméstica y centrada en los niños, y se la reclamó como la Navidad verdadera
«The rest of it—public drunkenness and threats or acts of violence, “rough music”—had been redefined as crime, “making night hideous.” In part, this was accomplished through institutional means (in 1828 New York introduced a professional police force to replace the private “watch” that had failed to control the previous year’s callithumpian riot). And in part it was accomplished through the manipulation of language itself.» — los dos medios por los que el capítulo dice que se logró: institucionales, con la policía profesional que Nueva York introdujo en 1828 para reemplazar a la ronda privada, y la manipulación del lenguaje mismo
«Henceforth, newspaper stories about Santa Claus would appear under the heading “Christmas,” while stories about callithumpian activities would be relegated to the police column. In the terminology of a later age, those activities would be marginalized.» — el reparto de secciones con que el capítulo ilustra esa manipulación: lo de Santa Claus bajo el rótulo de Navidad y lo calitumpiano relegado a la columna policial
«Santa Claus came to Pennsylvania, too, in the 1820s. But there he encountered a rival figure, a somewhat scarier personage associated with the Germanic culture that pervaded much of the state. That figure, whose features are already familiar to us, was commonly known as the Belsnickle. (The term is a variant of the German phrase Pelz-nickle—that is, “St. Nicholas in Fur.» — la figura rival que Santa Claus encontró en Pensilvania: el Belsnickle, del alemán *Pelz-nickle*, San Nicolás de piel
«I do not know when or how the term was first used (it may not have come into usage until the 1820s, when Santa Claus himself was emerging). But it was almost certainly based on an older German figure, commonly known as Knecht Ruprecht (that is, “Rupert the Servant» — el límite que el propio autor declara sobre el origen del término, y el precedente alemán en que se apoya: la figura conocida como Knecht Ruprecht
«goes round to every house and says, that Jesus Christ his master sent him thither—the parents and elder children receive him with great pomp of reverence, while the little ones are most terribly frightened—He then enquires for the children, and according to the character which he hears from the parent, he gives them the intended present as if they came out of heaven from Jesus Christ.—Or, if they should have been bad children, he gives the parents a rod, and in the name of his master recommends them to use it frequently.» — según Nissenbaum, la descripción que Samuel Taylor Coleridge hizo en 1798 del Knecht Ruprecht de Ratzeburg: va de casa en casa diciendo que lo envía su amo Jesucristo, da el regalo como venido del cielo o, si los niños fueron malos, entrega a los padres una vara
«In contrast to Santa Claus, who was never actually seen, the roles of both Knecht Ruprecht and the Belsnickle were performed by real people—generally men of the lower orders, who went around town in disguise. (The disguises varied, but they were always ornate and often involved wearing a wig.» — la diferencia que el capítulo marca: a Santa Claus nunca se le veía, mientras que al Knecht Ruprecht y al Belsnickle los representaban personas reales, por lo común hombres de las órdenes bajas disfrazados
«Here the Belsnickle would offer small gifts (usually of food) to good children and intimidate ill-behaved children by threatening to hit them (or actually doing so) with a rod or a whip as they reached for the gifts he had brought.» — la forma regulada que el capítulo describe para Pensilvania: regalitos de comida a los niños buenos e intimidación a los malos, amenazando con la vara o el látigo mientras alcanzaban el regalo
«Mr. Bellschniggle is a visible personage…. He is the precursor of the jolly old elf “Christkindle,” or “St. Nicholas,” and makes his personal appearance, dressed in skins or old clothes, his face black, a bell, a whip, and a pocket full of cakes or nuts; and either the cakes or the whip are bestowed upon those around, as may seem meet to his sable majesty.» — según Nissenbaum, un periódico de Filadelfia de 1827 comparando ya el Belsnickle con Santa Claus, y describiéndolo en *blackface*, con pieles o ropa vieja, campana, látigo y un bolsillo lleno de pasteles o nueces
«In this form the Belsnickle, although an intruder, would serve to reinforce the authority of the householders he visited. (Indeed, at least one father assumed the role himself.» — el efecto de esa forma según el capítulo: aun siendo intruso, el Belsnickle reforzaba la autoridad de los dueños de la casa que visitaba, y al menos un padre tomó el papel él mismo
«But it is clear that Belsnickling, like most rituals, was profoundly malleable. The Belsnickle might snap his whip at a child who had behaved well, or a whole group of Belsnickles might visit a house together.» — la maleabilidad del rito que el capítulo subraya: el Belsnickle podía restallar el látigo ante un niño que se había portado bien, o visitar la casa un grupo entero
«Christmas Eve—a few “belsnickels” or “kriskinckles” were prowling about this evening frightening the women and children, with their uncouth appearance— made up of cast-off garments made particolored with patches, a false face, a shaggy head of tow, or rather wig, falling profusely over the shoulders and finished out by a most patriarchal beard of whatsoever foreign [material] that could possibly be pressed into such service.» — la descripción más larga que Morris dejó en 1842: prendas desechadas con parches de colores, careta, peluca de estopa sobre los hombros y una barba patriarcal de cualquier material que pudiera servir
«he olden festivities retain their hold, and the good St. Nicholas is adopted into the calendar of all the nations that congregate in this, his faithful city; and makes glad the hearts of merry urchins of the various tongues and kindreds that now call New-York—home.» — según Nissenbaum, el cierre de ese reporte de 1828: el buen San Nicolás queda adoptado en el calendario de todas las naciones que se congregan en su ciudad fiel; el troceo imprime la inicial entre corchetes y abre la plana a media frase
«And the holidays were commercial: “[T]he display of all sorts of presents is striking,” the paper boasted. “The various shops and establishments, whose special province it is to» — la tercera cara de esas fiestas en el mismo reporte: el despliegue de regalos era llamativo; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *minister to the supply of Christmas wants, exhibit no lack of accustomed temptations*
«Morris, a shopkeeper from Morgantown, Pennsylvania, described them in his diary in 1831 as “horrid frightful looking objects.» — según Nissenbaum, el tendero James L. Morris, de Morgantown (Pensilvania), en su diario de 1831; el troceo parte su nombre en renglones sueltos
«a complete bridge built across the street, principally composed of old barrels, hogsheads, grocery boxes, wheelbarrows, harrows, plows, wagon and cart wheels. It is reported that he nearly demolished a poor woman’s house in one of the back streets a few nights ago» — según Nissenbaum, el reporte de Pottstown de 1826 sobre el destrozo de un Belsnickle: un puente entero cruzando la calle hecho de barriles, cajas de abarrotes, carretillas, gradas, arados y ruedas de carro
«He performs these tricks incog, or otherwise he would be arrested long since by the public authorities, who are on the alert; but it will take a swift foot and a strong arm to apprehend him while he is in full power of his bellsnickelship, as he then can evade mortal ken» — la frase con que ese mismo reporte lo trata de simple bromista: hace sus trucos de incógnito, y hará falta pie ligero y brazo fuerte para apresarlo mientras esté en pleno poder de su belsnickelidad
«Like wassailers and mummers, Belsnickles often took on the role of beggars, visiting houses (and shops) to demand rather than offer gifts.» — el papel que el capítulo atribuye también a los Belsnickles: el de mendicantes que visitaban casas y tiendas para exigir dones en vez de ofrecerlos
«In 1851 several “processions” of them in Norristown, “arrayed in all their fantastic costumes, … paid their annual visit to the shopkeepers and citizens, soliciting the ‘good things’ and rendering an equivalent in caricaturing the sable sons of our soil» — el reporte de Norristown de 1851 que el capítulo cita: los Belsnickles hacían su visita anual a tenderos y vecinos pidiendo cosas buenas y dando a cambio una caricatura en *blackface*
«They were still begging in the 1870s. This was the case in Lancaster, for instance, where “[t]he old custom of playing ‘Bellsnickle’ was renewed in our midst, and we heard perhaps half a dozen parties, dressed in hideous disguise, going about on Christmas eve from house to house, and entering without so much as ‘by your leave» — la persistencia del rito hasta los años setenta del siglo XIX según el capítulo, con el caso de Lancaster: media docena de partidas disfrazadas de modo horrible entrando en las casas sin siquiera pedir permiso
«or in Carlisle, where in the same year “[t]here were numbers of bell-snickles going from house to house in quest of cakes, wine, apples, or whatever else the good housewife might place at their disposal, large boys and small boys….” (In the latter instance they were dressed in women’s clothes, “burlesquing the ruling fashions among the ladies.» — el caso de Carlisle el mismo año: muchachos grandes y chicos yendo de casa en casa en busca de pasteles, vino o manzanas, vestidos de mujer para burlarse de las modas reinantes
«The examples above make it clear that youths and boys were playing the Belsnickle role themselves, thus reverting to the “original” structure of the ritual.» — lo que el capítulo saca de esos ejemplos: que muchachos y niños tomaban ellos mismos el papel del Belsnickle, con lo que el rito volvía a su estructura original
«Whether the part was played by a grown man or a child, and whether he acted as the donor of gifts or as a beggar, the Belsnickle always used his costume and his manner as a means of intimidating those he visited, a way of taking on an air of mock authority over the rest of the community.» — el patrón que el capítulo encuentra bajo la maleabilidad del rito: el Belsnickle usaba siempre el disfraz y el modo para intimidar a los visitados y darse un aire de autoridad fingida
«Young people had traditionally been just another part of the lower orders, so that it was socially natural for them to step outside the constraints of their normal roles by imitating what other plebeians were doing. And it was a thin line—and probably more of a terminological distinction than a historical one—that divided a Belsnickle from a mummer, a callithumpian, or simply a hoodlum.» — la explicación que el capítulo da de que fueran los jóvenes: eran tradicionalmente una parte más de las órdenes bajas, y la línea que separaba a un Belsnickle de un mumero, un calitumpiano o un gamberro era delgada
«On the other side of the cultural ledger, Belsnickles were frequently referred to as “Christkindle,” “Kriss Kringle,” or even “Santa Claus.”) The particular term may have been a matter of local or even personal preference. But whatever he was called then, or termed now, the Belsnickle remained a Lord of Misrule.» — los otros nombres que el rito recibía y la identificación con que el capítulo cierra: llamáranlo como lo llamaran, el Belsnickle seguía siendo un Señor del Desgobierno
«There seem to be virtually no records of Belsnickles in Philadelphia itself. But this too may be partly a matter of terminology, since the city (in contrast to much of the Pennsylvania backcountry) was not dominated by German-Americans. And in Philadelphia, as in New York, the disorder that was associated with figures of misrule took on a tone of greater menace.» — el hueco documental que el autor declara y cómo lo explica: casi ningún registro de Belsnickles en la propia Filadelfia, ciudad que no estaba dominada por germanoestadounidenses
«As early as 1833 the Philadelphia Daily Chronicle reported: Throughout almost the whole of Tuesday night—Christmas Eve—riot, noise, and uproar prevailed, uncontrolled and uninterrupted in many of our central and most orderly streets. Gangs of boys and young men howled and shouted as if possessed by the demon of disorder. Some of the watchmen occasionally sounded their rattles; but seemed only to add another ingredient to the horrible discord that murdered sleep. It is undoubtedly in the power of our city police to prevent slumbering citizens from being disturbed by the mad roars of such revelers.» — según Nissenbaum, el *Philadelphia Daily Chronicle* de 1833: la Nochebuena entera con motín, ruido y alboroto en las calles más ordenadas, con bandas de muchachos aullando como poseídos por el demonio del desorden
«The problem, in Philadelphia as well as New York, was that this kind of rowdiness had been transformed in an urban capitalist setting into something that respectable people found threatening» — el diagnóstico del capítulo para las dos ciudades: ese alboroto se había transformado, en un marco urbano y capitalista, en algo que la gente respetable encontraba amenazante; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«The participants, one newspaper reported with disgust, “could not have chosen a more public place; throngs of persons were passing on both sides of the street, viewing all the sights that were to be seen; but… a street fight was one of the entertainments that did not please a» — el reporte del motín de 1839 en Chesnut Street, frente al capitolio del estado: no pudieron elegir sitio más público, con gente pasando por ambas aceras; el troceo corta y la frase sigue: *majority of them*
«Drinking itself, as we have seen in Chapters 1 and 2, had been an interclass ritual at Christmas, but now it was becoming a way of distinguishing the classes from one another.» — el cambio de función que el capítulo atribuye a la bebida: de rito entre clases en Navidad a manera de distinguir unas clases de otras
«In 1839 a newspaper pointed out, in a Christmas Day editorial, that “there are certain modes of rejoicing which are appropriate to Christmas, and other modes of doing the same thing, which are quite unbecoming and reprehensible.» — el editorial del día de Navidad de 1839 que el capítulo cita: hay modos de regocijarse apropiados a la fecha y otros impropios y reprensibles
«Some years ago, every housekeeper thought it incumbent on himself or herself to provide a bowl of egg-nog or spiced toddy for the celebration of this day. Persons who were usually of temperate or sedate habits, seemed to think that the return of Christmas justified a slight degree of intoxication. Friends and acquaintances, who called to tender the compliments of the season, were urged to partake of these liquid preparations, the seductive taste of which frequently overcame the most sober resolutions. On such occasions, it may be supposed that there were many evidences of joy and hilarity; but it was properly questioned by some considerate persons whether that kind of joy and hilarity became [i.e., suited] a day set apart to commemorate the origin of Christianity. When this subject was duly considered, the customs spoken of, fell into disuse, and soon became ranked among the barbarisms of a former age. We are happy, therefore, to find that one incorrect mode of celebrating Christmas is no longer general; though particular instances may be noted wherein the relics of these absurd practices are still preserved.» — la continuación de ese editorial, que el capítulo destaca por analizar su propia novedad: hace años toda casa ponía su cuenco de ponche de huevo y hasta los sobrios tenían por justificada una embriaguez leve, y al considerarse el asunto la costumbre cayó en desuso
«By the late 1840s that attitude had come to be backed by force of law. Philadelphia simply banned the sale of alcohol—it became a “dry” community (by that time the temperance movement had gained widespread support). But that did not stop people from buying drinks in the neighboring towns, where, following an old Christmas tradition, “as usual… the proprietors of… groggeries that fill the bystreets on either side of the boundaries of the city … treated their motley customers with egg-nog.» — el respaldo legal que esa actitud alcanzó: Filadelfia prohibió la venta de alcohol, sin que eso impidiera comprar en los pueblos vecinos, donde las tiendas de aguardiente de los límites seguían convidando ponche de huevo
«An 1844 editorial started out by describing the new domestic Christmas as “religion in each mans house … a celebration of the spirit of the universe, humanized and domesticated.» — la ambivalencia que el capítulo detecta en la prensa misma: un editorial de 1844 describe la Navidad doméstica nueva como religión en casa de cada hombre y celebración del espíritu del universo humanizado
«But the same editorial went on to acknowledge that the day also had a long tradition of “high rejoicing, eating, drinking (and getting drunk, we presume» — la otra mitad de ese mismo editorial, que reconoce la tradición larga de comer, beber y emborracharse
«One such report, from 1836, was headed “CHRISTMAS GAMBOLS.” Others in subsequent years were headed “CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES” (1840); “FUN ON CHRISTMAS DAY” (1841); “CHRISTMAS SPREES” (1846); and “CHRISTMAS SPORT” (1850).» — los titulares con que un periódico de Filadelfia encabezaba las detenciones por incitar al motín entre 1836 y 1850
«These headings reveal an acute uncertainty about what to make of such behavior. The phrasing may be sarcastic, but it also betrays a residual understanding that rowdy behavior was to be expected at Christmas.» — lo que el capítulo lee en esos titulares: incertidumbre aguda sobre cómo calificar esa conducta, con sarcasmo quizá, pero también con un entendimiento residual de que en Navidad era de esperarse
«In Philadelphia, during the late 1830s and 1840s, even respectable people observed Christmas Day in part as a public occasion. Each year thousands of people would spend the afternoon promenading in the downtown streets, attracted in part by the sheer sociability of the proceedings and in part by the prospect of doing their Christmas shopping, an activity that many Philadelphians (in common with residents of other cities) engaged in on Christmas Day itself.» — el rito que el capítulo da por propio de Filadelfia: miles de personas paseando por el centro la tarde del 25 de diciembre, por la sociabilidad y por hacer las compras navideñas ese mismo día
«It is clear from such reports that the “moving panorama” itself was part of the show: People went to see and be seen, dressed in their best outfits—outfits presumably purchased in local establishments. This was the Philadelphia equivalent of New Years visiting in New York.» — la lectura que el capítulo hace de ese paseo: el panorama móvil era parte del espectáculo, se iba a ver y a ser visto con la mejor ropa, comprada presumiblemente en los comercios locales
«The Christmas Day promenades always bore an edge of menace, and by tracing local coverage after 1840 through a single newspaper, the Public Ledger, we can see that edge grow sharper year by year.» — el método que el propio autor declara para medir el cambio: seguir la cobertura local del *Public Ledger* después de 1840, año por año
«In 1840 the promenade was described as an impressive scene: “We never before saw Chesnut street so thronged, from morning to night, in passing and repassing—indeed, one to make any progress, was obliged to take the centre of the street.” (But the report added defensively, “This is right.» — la primera etapa de esa serie: en 1840 el paseo como escena impresionante, con la calle tan llena que había que caminar por el centro, y el añadido defensivo del periódico
«But these youthful Belsnickles were frequently a source of annoyance rather than amusement, as in Pottstown, where the local newspaper was not amused in 1873: Pottstown was full of “bell-snickles” on Christmas Eve, young chaps with their faces blacked, with masks, and dressed in all kinds of outlandish styles. These fellows, with their ugly mugs, visited the hotels, stores, shops, and in many instances private dwellings, and went through their monkeyish grimaces, and» — el reporte de Pottstown de 1873 que el capítulo cita como molestia y no diversión: chicos con la cara tiznada y máscaras visitando hoteles, tiendas y casas particulares; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *annoyed people with their horrible attempts at singing*
«Chesnut street [the main commercial street] was crowded with a dense mass of human beings. The entire population of the outer districts seemed gathered» — según Nissenbaum, el *Nile’s National Register* sobre la Navidad de 1841 en Filadelfia: la población entera de los distritos exteriores parecía reunida allí; el troceo corta en el límite de segmento y la frase sigue con la cifra de cuarenta mil personas en la calle
«In 1842, from early afternoon until midnight, “the whole city seemed to have emptied into Chesnut street, which … was filled with a dense mass of human beings, young and old, male and female, great and small, black and white.” This report went on to describe the promenaders as “a» — la etapa de 1842 en esa serie: la ciudad entera vaciada en Chesnut Street en una masa densa de jóvenes y viejos, hombres y mujeres, negros y blancos; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *rude and noisy crowd*
«Those who were in the streets defied the uncomfortable weather with rude revelry, and occasionally the ear was attracted to their shouts, as they circulated from one tavern to another, imbibing at each another quantity of vinous excitement.» — según Nissenbaum, el editorial del *Public Ledger* tras la nevada de 1847: quienes andaban en la calle desafiaban el mal tiempo con jolgorio rudo, yendo de taberna en taberna
«The only pleasures that qualified as true holiday mirth were those of home and hearth: “We have said that the day was a merry one—it was so, at home. Those who were out were merry also; but it was [only] the forced merriment which bacchanalian libations bring.» — el corte que ese editorial traza y que el capítulo subraya: solo el hogar da la alegría festiva verdadera, y la de los que salieron era la alegría forzada de las libaciones báquicas
«Before the middle of the 1820s Philadelphia’s newspapers, like those in New York and other cities, had acknowledged the coming of Christmas only by printing a religious poem or an occasional admonition to remember the poor. The absence of a special notice should not be taken to mean that Philadelphians did not celebrate the holiday, only that their celebrations did not require comment.» — lo que la prensa de Filadelfia hacía antes de mediados de los años veinte y la acotación que el autor añade: un poema religioso o una admonición a acordarse de los pobres, sin que la falta de aviso signifique que no se celebraba
«The change began with the 1824 Christmas season, when no fewer than four new almanacs—all published in Philadelphia—printed Clement Clarke Moore’s poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” This marked the first appearance of the poem anywhere after its initial publication, just a year earlier, in a newspaper in Troy, New York.» — la fecha en que el capítulo data el cambio: cuatro almanaques nuevos de Filadelfia imprimieron en 1824 el poema de Moore, primera reaparición tras su publicación inicial un año antes en un periódico de Troy
«More than any other text, it was Moore’s poem that introduced the American reading public to the joys of a domestic Christmas.» — el papel que el capítulo asigna al poema por encima de cualquier otro texto: presentar al público lector estadounidense los goces de una Navidad doméstica
«The following year, 1830, the National Gazette editorially explained the inner meaning of the new Christmas: That paper would not be appearing on December 25, readers learned, because it was a day to forget business in favor of domestic pleasures —and domestic pleasures were the most important thing in life, more important even than social standing, poverty, and “external disappointments or calamities.» — lo que el *National Gazette* explicó en 1830: no saldría el 25 de diciembre porque era día de olvidar el negocio por los placeres domésticos, lo más importante de la vida
«In Philadelphia as in New York, then, the period from the 1820s to the 1840s was one in which the carnival form of Christmas was essentially “read out” as a legitimate part of the holiday, and in which the “real Christmas”—indeed, everything that really mattered most in life itself —came to be seen in domestic terms that centered around family and children.» — el balance del capítulo para las dos ciudades entre los años veinte y los cuarenta: la forma carnavalesca queda excluida de la fiesta legítima y lo que más importa en la vida pasa a decirse en términos domésticos
«That process actually involved two elements. Thus far we have dealt with the first of these, which might be summarized as keeping the poor away from the house. But it now became necessary not only to keep the poor outside the house but to keep one’s own children inside.» — los dos elementos en que el capítulo descompone ese proceso: mantener a los pobres fuera de la casa y mantener dentro a los hijos propios
«Much of the rowdy behavior indulged during the Christmas season had been ascribed, simultaneously and indistinguishably, to youths and workers. Evidence of this abounds from the colonial period well into the nineteenth century.» — la mezcla que el capítulo va a examinar: buena parte del alboroto se atribuía a la vez y sin distinguir a los jóvenes y a los trabajadores
«Children and servants; boys and drunken rowdies. Why this improbable linkage? To answer that question is to probe a much broader historical issue—the changing historical relationship between age and social class.» — la pregunta que el capítulo formula sobre esa mezcla y el asunto mayor al que la remite: la relación histórica cambiante entre edad y clase social
«Until the nineteenth century, children did not make up a distinct social category; they were not a separate social group, as they are in modern Western societies. Nor did they act as if they were.» — la enmienda que el propio autor hace a su tesis del eje de la edad: hasta el siglo XIX los niños no eran categoría social distinta ni actuaban como si lo fueran
«Instead, children were lumped together with other members of the lower orders in general, especially servants and apprentices—who, not coincidentally, were generally young people themselves.» — con quiénes iban agrupados los niños según el capítulo: con el resto de las órdenes bajas, sobre todo criados y aprendices, que por lo demás eran también jóvenes
«From this perspective it becomes clear that giving Christmas gifts to children was not new, after all. Young people did receive gifts at Christmas—but in their role as servants or apprentices (or newspaper carriers) and not because they were children.» — lo que se sigue de esa perspectiva: dar regalos navideños a los jóvenes no era nuevo, pero se les daban como criados, aprendices o repartidores, no por ser niños
«Both children and servants were at the bottom of the hierarchy in the households in which they lived, linked to the larger household as much by bonds of labor and subordination as by those of affection.» — el lugar común de niños y criados según el capítulo: el fondo de la jerarquía de la casa, ligados a ella tanto por vínculos de trabajo y subordinación como de afecto
«What happened in the early nineteenth century was that age ceased to be associated with social status. Youth no longer connoted “meniality.” It no longer made sense to refer to girls as “maids,” or, conversely, to speak of those of lowly status as “boys”—except in a vestigial fashion, as in the term “bellboy” or “cowboy”—or, notably, whenever the color line was involved.» — el cambio que el capítulo data a principios del siglo XIX: la edad deja de asociarse al estatus social, y ya no tiene sentido llamar criadas a las muchachas ni muchachos a los de condición baja, salvo de forma vestigial o donde entra la línea de color
«But just as black men commonly continued to be addressed as “boys” in order to connote their lower status, so, too, women of any race continued to be addressed as “girls” to connote theirs. And, of course, the term “maid” has come to refer only to household service.» — la excepción que el capítulo consigna: a los hombres negros se les siguió llamando muchachos para connotar su estatus, y a las mujeres de cualquier raza, muchachas
«Only from the perspective of our own culture, in which age and class bear no significant relationship to each other, does it appear as if Christmas rituals of class were replaced by those of age. It would be more accurate to say that in the early nineteenth century, age alone was coming to replace a more general kind of status as the primary axis along which presents were given.» — la precisión que el capítulo hace sobre su propia fórmula: solo desde nuestra cultura parece que los ritos de clase fueran sustituidos por los de edad, cuando lo exacto es que la edad sola reemplazó a un estatus más general
«An urban version of the same ritual, known as the “Christmas box,” was developed in seventeenth-century London (and probably in other cities) by young tradesmen’s apprentices and other low-level workers, who kept earthenware boxes—the ancestor, really, of the piggy bank—into which, during the Christmas season, they asked those who employed their services to put money. (The purpose of this box was to ensure that none of the money could be appropriated by a single individual, and that it would be distributed collectively within the shop when the box was broken open.» — la versión urbana del rito que el capítulo describe: la caja de Navidad de los aprendices y trabajadores de bajo nivel del Londres del siglo XVII, de barro, antecesora de la alcancía, que se rompía para repartir lo juntado
«Samuel Pepys referred to them in 1668: “Called up [i.e., waked up] by drums and trumpets; these things and boxes having cost me much money this Christmas already» — según Nissenbaum, Samuel Pepys en 1668 sobre el gasto que las cajas de Navidad le suponían, despertado por tambores y trompetas
«And Jonathan Swift wrote sardonically in 1710: “I shall be undone here with Christmas boxes. The rogues at the coffee house have raised their tax» — según Nissenbaum, Jonathan Swift en 1710: quedará arruinado con las cajas de Navidad, porque los pícaros de la cafetería han subido su impuesto
«During the course of the eighteenth century, the term “Christmas box” came to be applied not to the box itself but to the donation that was placed into it—and, soon, to any such gift. By century’s end, the term was being used colloquially to refer to Christmas presents per se, even when those presents were commercial products given by parents to their children.» — el desplazamiento de la palabra que el capítulo rastrea: de la caja al donativo que se ponía dentro y luego a cualquier regalo, incluidos los productos comerciales que los padres daban a sus hijos
«Thus a children’s book published in New England in 1786 was titled Nurse Trueloves Christmas Box. And in Virginia, in 1810, Mason Weems announced that he would sell his biography of George Washington at a deep discount to buyers “who take several copies … for Christmas Boxes to their young relations.» — los dos ejemplos de ese uso: un libro infantil de Nueva Inglaterra de 1786 y el anuncio de Mason Weems en Virginia en 1810 para vender su biografía de Washington con descuento
«Unlike the term “Christmas box,” the word present did not signify something that was given as a tip or an obligation but rather something that was given freely. But this term, too, was often used to name a gift offered by patrons to their dependents.» — la diferencia semántica que el capítulo marca: el presente no era propina ni obligación sino algo dado libremente, aunque también se usara para el don del patrón a su dependiente
«The three decades following 1780 saw the appearance of a spate of books with the word present in the title. But now there was a change: All of these books were specifically intended for young people.» — el cambio que el capítulo registra en las tres décadas siguientes a 1780: una oleada de libros con esa palabra en el título, todos destinados ya a los jóvenes
«At first these books, too, contained rules for behavior (children, like servants and apprentices, were household dependents whose behavior could not be wholly trusted and thus required careful regulation). The first five editions of A Present to Children, for example (all published before 1800), contained nothing but catechisms and “moral songs.” One actually warned against playing with toys.» — lo que traían al principio esos libros: reglas de conducta, catecismos y cantos morales, y uno de ellos advertía contra jugar con juguetes
«But the subtitle of the sixth edition of this same work, printed in the year 1800, promised to introduce a new genre—“entertaining stories.” The change had begun—the change from books designed for training young people to books designed for amusing them. Just as age alone was coming to replace status in general as the primary axis along which presents were given, pleasure was coming to replace discipline as the primary purpose of those presents.» — el giro que el capítulo fecha en 1800: el subtítulo de la sexta edición promete relatos entretenidos, y el placer empieza a reemplazar a la disciplina como fin del regalo
«It seems that Christmas “presents” slowly replaced Christmas “boxes” as gifts given within the household at a time when the household itself was coming to exclude servants from real membership. It was the isolation of children from other dependents at Christmas that produced—that was—the domestication of the holiday.» — la tesis con que el capítulo cierra el apartado: fue el aislamiento de los niños respecto de los demás dependientes lo que produjo, y lo que fue, la domesticación de la fiesta
«But in the early nineteenth century Christmas had not yet become a child-centered domestic ritual. Nor did children instinctively know that they were being created as “children.” Indeed, there were no Christmas activities for children other than making noise or making trouble.» — el límite cronológico que el capítulo pone: a principios del siglo XIX la fiesta no era aún rito doméstico centrado en los niños, y no había para ellos más actividad navideña que hacer ruido o hacer travesuras
«The same woman also proposed that the local churches hold Christmas services—not for religious reasons but so that “families, children, and domestics, can attend public worship” instead of making trouble.» — el motivo que el capítulo atribuye a la propuesta de aquella bostoniana de 1818: pedía oficios el 25 no por razones religiosas sino para que familias, niños y criados asistieran al culto público
«was thus related (as both effect and cause) to the creation of domesticity and of “childhood” itself, even to the novel idea that the central purpose of the family was to provide not simply for the instruction of its children but for their happiness as well.» — con qué enlaza el capítulo la domesticación de la fiesta: con la creación de la domesticidad y de la infancia misma, y con la idea nueva de que la familia existe también para la felicidad de sus hijos; el troceo corta en el límite de segmento y el sujeto queda en la plana anterior
«It is striking that before 1780 the only two books published in America bearing the word present in the title were guidebooks for servants: A Present for an Apprentice and A Present for a Servant-Maid. These works, which were reprinted frequently until about 1800, consisted of a series of short admonitory essays warning apprentices of the dangerous temptations they were apt to encounter in their position.» — el dato que el capítulo llama llamativo: antes de 1780 los únicos dos libros publicados en América con la palabra *present* en el título eran manuales para criados y aprendices, con ensayos que avisaban de las tentaciones peligrosas de su puesto
«School was one place, perhaps the only place before the nineteenth century, where young people (particularly boys) were physically separated from their peers in the lower orders. But at Christmas schoolboys devised their own version of carnival misrule, a ritual practice that “turned the world upside down” every bit as much as aggressive peasant wassailing had done. Here the figure of authority was the schoolmaster, and it was on him that the tables were turned.» — lo que la escuela era antes del siglo XIX según el capítulo: quizá el único sitio donde los jóvenes quedaban separados físicamente de sus pares de las órdenes bajas, y donde el desgobierno se volvía contra el maestro
«As Christmas drew near the boys gathered together weapons, ammunition and a store of provisions. Then one morning they seized the school premises and barred the doors and windows against the master.» — según Nissenbaum, la descripción que un historiador moderno da del rito nacido en Inglaterra a fines del siglo XVI: los muchachos juntaban armas, munición y provisiones y tomaban la escuela
«The most important goal of the “barring out” was to force the schoolmaster to grant his pupils a holiday vacation.49 (In addition to the threat posed to their authority, schoolmasters had a reason to attempt to reclaim the schoolhouse: They were generally paid by the day, and would lose their stipend if they were not able to teach.» — el fin del rito y el motivo del maestro para recobrar la escuela: arrancarle unas vacaciones, y del otro lado el estipendio que perdía por día no enseñado
«Barring-out came to America early, and rather violently. The year was 1702, and the place was a grammar school in Williamsburg, Virginia. On that occasion students not only barricaded the schoolhouse but actually fired pistols at the schoolmaster when he responded by trying to break down one of the doors.» — la llegada del rito a América según el capítulo: temprano y con violencia, en 1702 en una escuela de gramática de Williamsburg, donde los alumnos dispararon pistolas contra el maestro
«About a fortnight before Christmas 1702 …, I heard the School boys about 12 o’clock at night, a driving of great nails, to fasten & barricade the doors of the Grammar School…. I made haste to get up & with the assistance of 2 servant men … I had almost forced open one of the doors before they sufficiently secured it, but while I was breaking in, they presently fired off 3 or 4 Pistols & hurt one of my servants in the eye with the wadd … of one of the Pistols[.] [W]hile I pressed forward, some of the boys, having a great kindness for me, call’d out, “for God’s sake sir don’t offer to come in, for we have shot, and shall certainly fire at any one that first enters.” … [I then] resolved to let them alone till morning, and then getting all the other masters together & calling for workmen to break open the doors.» — según Nissenbaum, el propio maestro de Williamsburg narrando el asedio: oyó clavar clavos grandes a medianoche, casi forzó una puerta y le dispararon, y unos muchachos que le tenían cariño le gritaron que no entrara
«A very absurd and wicked practice has long prevailed in this country, namely, that of Scholars barring out the Schoolmasters a little before the 25th of December, commonly called Christmas day, in order to extort permission from him to spend a number of days called the Christmas holidays in idleness or play. A scene of this kind took place last year in our school in this place: a few of the scholars took possession of the school-house, and so completely fortified it, that it was impossible to reduce it except by a regular siege, and the caitiffs [sic] had provided against this also by laying in a large quantity of provisions. Thus was not only the Teacher shut out, but also all those who wished to occupy their time in learning, and not in idleness and riot.» — según Nissenbaum, la carta a un periódico de Filadelfia de 1810 que objeta la práctica y a la vez la da por corriente: los escolares tomaron la escuela y la fortificaron con provisiones para resistir un asedio regular
«In this instance a group of parents (including the writer of this letter) went to the schoolhouse to negotiate with the rebellious children. First they “prevailed” on the rebels “to raise one of the windows a little.” Then, when they inquired about the purpose of the rebellion, the answer was clear: “One of them, who seemed to be the commander in chief, replied they wished to have ten days of Christmas-play.» — el desenlace de aquel episodio: los padres negociaron por una ventana entreabierta y el que parecía comandante en jefe respondió que querían diez días de juego navideño
«There was an unruly, frolicsome custom of “barring-out” in our New Hampshire common schools, which I trust never obtained a wider acceptance. On the first of January, and perhaps on some other day that the big boys chose to consider or make a holiday, the forenoon passed off as quietly as that of any other day; but, the moment the master left the house in quest of his dinner, the little ones were started homeward, the door and windows suddenly and securely barricaded, and the older pupils, thus fortified against intrusion, proceeded to spend the afternoon in play and hilarity. I have known a master to make a desperate struggle for admission; but I do not recollect that one ever succeeded,—the odds being too great» — según Nissenbaum, el recuerdo de Horace Greeley sobre las escuelas comunes de Nuevo Hampshire: en cuanto el maestro salía a comer mandaban a casa a los pequeños y atrancaban puertas y ventanas para pasar la tarde en juego
«Greeley went on to indicate that the practice was informally sanctioned by adults. If a persecuted schoolmaster “appealed to the neighboring fathers” for assistance, Greeley remembered, “they were apt to recollect that they had been boys themselves, and advise him to desist, and let matters take their course.» — lo que el capítulo subraya del recuerdo de Greeley: los padres del vecindario, apelados por el maestro, se acordaban de haber sido muchachos y le aconsejaban desistir
«In whatever fashion it might be gained, the young people’s holiday generally took the form of what its critics, such as the 1818 Boston parent mentioned above, termed “idleness and dissipation.” Young boys went around the neighborhood firing guns and “squibs,” making noise, playing tricks.» — en qué consistía la fiesta de los jóvenes según el capítulo, con la fórmula de sus críticos: ociosidad y disipación, con muchachos disparando armas y petardos por el vecindario
«Barring Out the Schoolmaster. These boys have brought a supply of food and drink to last them through the anticipated siege (the words printed on the right in this primer include “carousing,” “drinking,” and “beer”). But the rebels’ plans are about to be foiled: The schoolmaster is pouring water through a secret trapdoor in the ceiling, so as to douse the schoolboys’ candle prior to his invading the schoolhouse. This illustration was included in a child’s primer published in 1850, but it had appeared earlier in the same publisher’s 1822 Boston edition of an English novella, Maria Edgeworth’s The Barring Out.» — el pie de la lámina del rito escolar: los muchachos traen comida y bebida para el asedio, pero el maestro va a echarles agua por una trampilla secreta para apagarles la vela antes de invadir la escuela
«Snowballing could become especially vicious in urban areas, where, during the Christmas season, respectable citizens associated it with the kind of menacing behavior they feared from working-class youth gangs at Christmastime.» — por qué el juego de bolas de nieve se volvía áspero en las ciudades según el capítulo: los ciudadanos respetables lo asociaban con la conducta amenazante que temían de las pandillas juveniles obreras
«But the issue was surely more complicated for many of the boys themselves, who must have been drawn in two directions at once—an old pull, toward carnival in the streets, and the new one, toward the quieter rewards that were promised at home.» — la doble tracción que el capítulo atribuye a los propios muchachos: el tirón viejo hacia el carnaval de la calle y el nuevo hacia las recompensas más quietas que se prometían en casa
«That double pull would have been especially salient in families that were positioned anywhere near the vulnerable lower borders of middle-class respectability. Youths who belonged to such families constituted a major battleground in the transformation of Christmas.» — dónde sitúa el capítulo el campo de batalla de esa transformación: las familias situadas cerca del borde bajo y vulnerable de la respetabilidad de clase media
«Young people do not often leave direct records of their inner experience. But a hint of what this inner battleground might have meant in human terms can be found in a careful reading of one rather sensitive Christmas story published in 1838 under the title “Snow-Balling.”The author of this story, Eliza Leslie, was a popular writer of the time.» — el problema documental que el autor declara y la fuente que elige: los jóvenes rara vez dejan registro directo de su experiencia interior, y por eso lee un cuento navideño de 1838 de Eliza Leslie
«Set in Philadelphia on Christmas Day, the story tells of the adventures of a young boy whose father gives him a “Christmas dollar” and sends him downtown to buy himself a present. Left on his own, young Robert Hamlin encounters trouble. Unable to choose from the plethora of tempting items for sale in the shops, Robert becomes confused and begins to wander about the streets.» — el argumento del cuento: el padre da al niño un dólar de Navidad y lo manda al centro a comprarse un regalo, y el chico se aturde ante la abundancia de tentaciones y se pone a vagar
«Rude boys” is a phrase that may require some explanation for modern readers: The word rude was a reference to these boys’ social class as well as to their manners. A “rude boy” was a working-class youth, the sort of person who might be expected to engage in forms of rowdy activity even more threatening than throwing snowballs.» — la restitución que el capítulo hace de una expresión del cuento: *rude* aludía a la clase social tanto como a los modales, y un *rude boy* era un joven de clase obrera
«At this point the author of the story is engaging in a significant gesture of evasion. For, as we shall see in a moment, young Robert gets into a snowball fight after all. In real life, as opposed to a work of fiction, someone like Robert would probably have joined the “rude boys.” But Eliza Leslie does not wish to have the fictional Robert become involved with such a crew.» — la maniobra que el capítulo señala en la autora: una evasión, porque en la vida real alguien como Robert se habría unido a los muchachos rudos y ella no quiere que su personaje lo haga
«She has taken pains to let us know his social class. He is the son of an artisan, a “respectable mechanic,” which means that he is not so far in origin from the “rude boys.” While not a proletarian, he is not securely middle-class, either.» — el cuidado que el capítulo atribuye a Leslie con la clase de su personaje: hijo de un artesano respetable, ni tan lejos de los muchachos rudos ni asentado en la clase media
«If a real Robert Hamlin had joined those boys he might have ended up in serious trouble, causing damage or injury, and his snowball fight might have been the first step in his descent out of respectability and into permanent proletarian status. Such a descent was far from uncommon among urban artisans in the middle of the nineteenth century, a period when independent artisanship itself was being subverted by industrial capitalism.» — lo que el capítulo lee en ese riesgo: la pelea de bolas de nieve como primer paso de un descenso a la condición proletaria permanente, frecuente entre los artesanos urbanos de mediados de siglo
«Joining a gang of “rude boys” in a Christmas game of snowballs was thus a small but potent symbol of the larger dangers faced by the son of a “respectable mechanic.”» — la fórmula con que el capítulo cierra esa lectura: unirse a una banda de muchachos rudos era símbolo pequeño pero potente de peligros mayores
«Eliza Leslie manages to devise a clever solution: the fictional Robert ends up getting into trouble with youngsters above his class.» — la salida que el capítulo atribuye a la autora: meter al personaje en problemas con muchachos de clase superior a la suya
«But Robert’s aim is poor, and his snowball smashes through a windowpane of one of the handsome new houses. Fortunately, no one is injured, though the snowball nearly hits “the head of a pretty little girl” who has been sitting quietly “engaged in reading one of the new annuals [i.e., a Gift Book she has presumably received as a present that very day].” The girl screams loudly, and Robert hides. But the family’s black servant rushes outside and confronts the other boys, threatening them with the wrath of the owner: “Ah! you young nimps—only wait till the gentleman comes home—I’ll be bound Mr. Cleveland will give you enough of snow-balling, for smashing his rights and property in this way, without leave or license.» — el desenlace del cuento: la bola rompe un cristal y casi da a una niña que leía uno de los anuarios nuevos, y el criado negro de la casa sale a amenazar a los muchachos con la cólera del dueño
«Robert overhears the threat, and he quickly runs off and returns to his own house, where his parents are just sitting down to the family’s Christmas dinner, having planned a domestic Christmas for their children: a festive dinner followed by a “juvenile party” at his aunt’s house. But Robert, beset by guilt, is hardly capable of eating his turkey and mince pie, or looking forward to the party. After a while he gets up from the table, leaves the house, and goes back to the scene of his recent crime. There he confesses to having been the culprit who broke the window and offers the owner the dollar he had been given for Christmas (the same dollar he could not make up his mind how best to spend). Now he feels better, and returns home again, this time to enjoy the turkey and mince pie—and the praise of his parents when he finally tells them what he has just done.» — el final del cuento de Leslie: el niño no puede comer por la culpa, vuelve al lugar, confiesa y ofrece el dólar de Navidad, y solo entonces disfruta el pavo y recibe la alabanza de sus padres
«As I have said, the dangers presented in this story were very real in households like Robert Hamlin’s. We can assume that respectable boys did sometimes join “rude boys” in Christmas sport, and that snowballing was not the worst of their games.» — lo que el autor da por supuesto de la vida real tras el cuento: que los muchachos respetables sí se unían a veces a los rudos en el juego navideño, y que las bolas de nieve no eran lo peor
«With snowballing as a partly symbolic act, Eliza Leslie’s little story can be read as offering the same kind of warning to younger boys that older boys heard in the 1830s about the dangers of alcohol—or that girls heard about the dangers of sexual seduction. In all these cases, the ultimate risk was that of a serious decline in social status, the loss of respectability and independence itself.» — la lectura que el capítulo propone del cuento: un aviso a los niños del mismo orden que el que oían los mayores sobre el alcohol o las niñas sobre la seducción, con el descenso de estatus como riesgo último
«Snow-Balling. This engraving appeared as an illustration for Eliza Leslies 1838 short story of the same title. It vividly conveys the menace that could be associated with that sport.» — el pie del grabado que acompañó al cuento de 1838, que el capítulo lee como transmisor vívido de la amenaza del juego
«But if the dangers were real, so, too, were the alternative lures that were now being offered to the Robert Hamlins of America: Christmas dinner at home, tempting presents to play with, and even children’s parties—such as the “juvenile party” that young Robert could look forward to at his aunt’s house. Such activities posed no social risk» — los señuelos alternativos que el capítulo enumera: cena de Navidad en casa, regalos tentadores y fiestas infantiles, actividades sin riesgo social
«In the words of an 1840 newspaper editorial, “Good books are good gifts for good children.» — la fórmula de un editorial de 1840 con que el capítulo remata ese catálogo de señuelos
«For one thing, it is clear that they would have taken place indoors, usually in the family parlor and under the immediate or general supervision of an adult. In addition, the participants would have been young cousins and/or trustworthy friends—children who had been picked and invited by the parents» — los rasgos que el capítulo deduce de esas fiestas infantiles en la literatura del periodo: puertas adentro, en el salón de la familia, bajo supervisión adulta y con invitados escogidos por los padres
«We can be sure that there would be no “rude boys” in attendance—not even the children of household servants. Lower-class people were to be kept away on these occasions, and the children of the household were kept inside.» — la regla de exclusión que el capítulo formula: ni muchachos rudos ni siquiera los hijos de la servidumbre, con los de fuera afuera y los de la casa adentro
«In the fictional literature, Christmas has become a controlled children’s “frolic,” sometimes wild enough to recall the rowdiness of an interclass carnival Christmas, but always under complete control.» — la fórmula con que el capítulo caracteriza esas escenas: la Navidad vuelta jolgorio infantil controlado, a veces bastante salvaje para recordar el carnaval entre clases, pero siempre bajo control completo
«The windows rattled and the very walls were shaken, by the bounding and leaping—the racing and tumbling—of the half-dancing and half-romping youngsters.” The twin parlors had been set up “to give room for the frolic of Christmas Eve, and most fully did the children avail themselves of the license of the season.» — según Nissenbaum, el relato de 1850 sobre una fiesta de Nochebuena para veinte niños: las ventanas traqueteaban y las paredes temblaban con los brincos, y los niños usaron a fondo la licencia de la temporada
«But this was “frolic,” “license,” and “revel” only in quotation marks. It was limited to blood relatives, and to préadolescents at that. The writer of the above-mentioned story could not be clearer on this point: “All the little Thompsons, and all their relatives by blood or marriage, even to the third degree of cousinship, who had not reached their ‘teens,’ were there …” The room had been carefully childproofed in advance; and the party ended early—it was at its height as early as 8 p.m. And an adult was always present.» — la acotación que el capítulo pone a esa escena: era jolgorio solo entre comillas, limitado a parientes de sangre y a preadolescentes, con el cuarto preparado de antemano, la fiesta terminada temprano y un adulto siempre presente
«More often the parties were described as sedate affairs. It was common for them to culminate in “a great call for games.” But the games seem to have been talking games, role-playing games, sometimes even board games.» — lo más común en esa literatura según el capítulo: fiestas sosegadas con gran clamor de juegos, pero juegos de hablar, de representar papeles y hasta de tablero
«The mother never leaves the children alone during the party, lest they “romp and disturb the neighbors with their noise.” Instead, she stays with them “to moderate the buoyancy of their spirits.” She even plays teacher with them. Here, too, the party ends early: “Nine o’clock was the hour she fixed, for the young people to separate, and they seldom infringed on these limits … [for her word] was a law to them.» — el modo en que esa madre conduce la fiesta: no deja solos a los niños para que no alboroten, se queda a moderar la exuberancia de sus ánimos, hace de maestra y fija las nueve como hora de separarse
«Perhaps so. But the lesson taught in this book was not necessarily taken to heart by the children who read it—a fact that comes across clearly in some lines handwritten on the flyleaf to one copy of that very book that is now owned by the American Antiquarian Society. These lines serve to remind us that books were not always used by readers in quite the way their authors intended.» — el contraejemplo que el capítulo levanta de un ejemplar concreto: unas líneas manuscritas en la guarda recuerdan que los libros no siempre se usaban como su autor quería
«Touch not this book / For if you do / The owner / Will be after you. Punch. Punch you.—Touch not this book / For fear of shame. / For you will find the owner’s name. Punch.—Touch not this book / For fear of life. / For the owner has / A big Jack knife.» — según Nissenbaum, las líneas que un lector niño escribió en la guarda de ese libro, amenazando a quien lo tocara
«By the 1830s a spate of Christmas books were available that consisted mostly of suggestions for children’s games and puzzles. These books were generally published during the Christmas season, and they were intended to be purchased as Christmas presents.» — el género que el capítulo data en los años treinta: libros navideños hechos casi solo de sugerencias de juegos y acertijos para niños, publicados en la temporada para comprarse como regalo
«Lydia Maria Child published such a book, The Girl’s Own Book, in 1831. The preface makes the purpose of the book clear. It concludes: “To all my readers, little ones especially, a merry Christmas and a happy New-Year.» — el ejemplo de Lydia Maria Child y el cierre de su prefacio, que el capítulo cita como declaración del propósito del libro
«The American Girl’s Book, also a popular collection of harmless but entertaining games, appeared in the same year. (This book was authored by Eliza Leslie, the woman who would a few years later write the cautionary tale “Snow-Balling.» — el segundo ejemplo del mismo año, de la misma Eliza Leslie que luego escribiría el cuento de las bolas de nieve
«And while there is no printed evidence that this book was intended as a Christmas present, a copy of a later (1859) edition, also owned by the American Antiquarian Society, is inscribed by a father to his daughter with the date “Christmas 1860.» — el límite que el propio autor declara y el indicio con que lo suple: no hay prueba impresa de que ese libro se destinara a regalo navideño, pero un ejemplar de 1859 lleva dedicatoria de un padre a su hija con fecha de Navidad
«As early as 1817, one Broadway merchant advertised (under the heading “Amusement for the Holydays”) a “complete assortment” of children’s games: “Different games with tetotums, such as Panorama of Europe, Heathen Mythology, Who Wears the Crown» — el anuncio más temprano que el capítulo aduce de juegos ya hechos: un comerciante de Broadway ofreciendo en 1817 un surtido completo de juegos infantiles bajo el rótulo de diversión para las fiestas
«a large assortment of Juvenile Pastimes, all of which are calculated to improve as well as amuse the youthful mind, viz: Geographical Games. The Traveller’s tour through the United States, performed with a tetotum and travellers [also The Traveller’s tour through Europe and The Traveller’s tour round the world]. They are put up in three different modes—on pasteboard and double folded on cloth, with a case, and dissected [i.e., jigsawed]. Dissected Maps. Vernacular Cards, Geographical Cards, The Cabinet Of Knowledge Opened, PHILOSOPHICAL Cards, Astronomical Cards, Scriptural Cards, Botanical Cards, Dissected Pictures…. In addition, [the store has] a good assortment of Juvenile Books, in plain and elegant bindings. Also, Pocket Books, Chess Men, Backgammon Boards, Pen-Knives, and Ladies’ Work Boxes.» — según Nissenbaum, el anuncio de otra tienda de Broadway en 1824: pasatiempos juveniles calculados para mejorar además de divertir la mente joven, con juegos geográficos, mapas recortados y barajas de varias materias
«By the 1840s these games had reached flood proportions. The largest selection I have encountered comes from a Cincinnati, Ohio, shop that in 1845 advertised “A Great Variety of Games.” Heading the list was a game that actually seems to have been about the process of Christmas shopping itself: “The laughable game of ‘What d’ye Buy.» — la cima de esa oferta según el capítulo: un comercio de Cincinnati anunciando en 1845 una gran variedad de juegos, encabezada por uno que parece tratar del propio acto de comprar regalos
«The Oracles of Fortune, The Game of Heroes, The Game of Characteristics, Shakespeare in a New Dress, The Christmas Cards, Robinson Crusoe and His Man Friday, The Strife of Genius, The Game of Cup and Ball, Jack Straws, The Pickwick Game, The Game of Kings, The Mansion of Happiness, The Game of Pope and Pagan, Dr. Busby’s Cards, The Game of Graces, Master Rodbury and his Pupils, The Game of the American Eagle, The Devil on Sticks» — la lista entera de ese anuncio de Cincinnati, que el capítulo transcribe como comentario irónico del juego que la encabeza
«That same day the Cincinnati press carried an admonitory reminder from the local mayor: “The city ordinances impose a fine for discharging fire-arms, or firing squibs, crackers, &c., ‘in the streets, alleys, market spaces, and public commons’ in the city proper. The Holidays are not made an exception.» — el recordatorio del alcalde que la prensa de Cincinnati publicó ese mismo día: las ordenanzas multan disparar armas o petardos en calles y plazas, y las fiestas no son excepción
«In one 1827 book a mother organizes a quiet Christmas Eve party for her children, a group of cousins, and other children who are known to the parents. For entertainment she has devised moral games: “puzzles, which had enfolded in them» — el ejemplo de 1827 que el capítulo trae: una madre organiza una fiesta quieta con juegos morales, acertijos; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue con la solución que llevaba dentro un precepto moral o religioso
«The battle for children extended to another form of popular Christmas amusement: attending the theater. Before the 1820s American theaters did not offer performances on Christmas Day, either in a gesture of respect for the holiday or, more likely, because the actors refused to work on that day.» — el otro frente de la pelea por los niños según el capítulo: el teatro, que antes de los años veinte no daba función el 25 de diciembre, por respeto a la fecha o, más probablemente, porque los actores se negaban
«A Boston newspaper remarked disdainfully in 1823 that the theatrical productions of the Christmas season were “of a mixed nature and not of a high intellectual order.” The reason was that those productions had to compete with the local Circus (which was “thronged every evening”). In response, the theater managers “have thought it expedient to introduce rope-dancers and tumblers, as adjuncts to the drama.» — lo que un periódico de Boston observaba con desdén en 1823: las producciones de la temporada eran de naturaleza mixta y no de alto orden intelectual, porque competían con el circo y los empresarios metían bailarines de cuerda y volatineros
«In 1825 the New England Galaxy praised the managers of the local theater for remaining closed that day, and thereby “sacrificing the profits of [their] ordinary business.” The article noted that if the house had been open on Christmas evening, its receipts would have approached the record $800 chalked up on the previous Thanksgiving Day.» — lo que el *New England Galaxy* elogiaba en 1825 y la cifra con que el capítulo mide el sacrificio: los empresarios cerraron el día de Navidad, sacrificando las ganancias de su negocio ordinario
«The Boston theater soon succumbed to this pressure; beginning in 1826 it held yearly Christmas-night performances. Once again, Boston was typical. Christmas performances began during the mid-1820S in New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati as well. By the 1830s they were being advertised as special Christmas productions; and by 1840 the Christmas special had become part of every theaters stock-in» — la cronología de la rendición: desde 1826 el teatro de Boston dio función cada noche de Navidad, y para 1840 el especial navideño era parte del repertorio de todo teatro; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«The audience here, [even] upon most occasions, performs as much before the curtain as the actors do behind it; but on Christmas eve … the acting on the stage is altogether secondary to the acting in the body of the house.» — según Nissenbaum, el *New York Herald* en 1837 sobre el Bowery Theater: allí el público actúa tanto delante del telón como los actores detrás, y en Nochebuena lo del escenario queda secundario
«By 1844 things had become even wilder: “In the noisy theaters, nothing was heard of the performances; and the actors and actresses might as well have gone through their parts in dumb show.” In one place, the play itself “was neither seen nor heard, the fun all being this side the foot-lights» — el estado de la cosa en 1844 según la misma prensa: en los teatros ruidosos no se oía la función y los actores igual podían haber hecho su papel en pantomima
«Worst of all that year was the Chatham Theater, where several hundred newsboys had assembled to witness—of all things—a musical play based on Charles Dickens’s novels Christmas Carol, which had been published in book form only a year earlier.» — el caso extremo de 1844 que el capítulo destaca: varios cientos de vendedores de periódicos reunidos en el Chatham Theater para ver una pieza musical basada en el *Christmas Carol* de Dickens, publicado un año antes
«Some three hundred news boys, sharp set for relaxation in the shape of theatrical criticism, were engaged throughout the earlier part of the evening in an animated contest with the police officers, and several “stirring scenes,” and peculiarly animated exits and entrances were enacted, to the uproarious delight of the gods and goddesses of the gallery, who cheered on the combatants with the various slogans and war-cries of the tribe, known only to the initiated, and altogether untranslatable. Several of the noisiest and most unmanageable of these amateurs, were, at length, snaked out by the police, and the scene of their exploits changed to the Tombs [the city jail]» — según Nissenbaum, el relato del *New York Herald* de esa noche: unos trescientos muchachos en pelea animada con los agentes durante la primera parte de la velada, hasta que la policía sacó a los más ingobernables
«Even after “comparative quiet” had been restored, the “clamor” of a noisy youngster “quite drowned the bass drum, in the melo-dramatic music which ushered the ghost of old Jacob Marley through the trap.» — el remate de ese relato: el clamor de un muchacho ruidoso ahogaba el bombo con que la música melodramática hacía subir por la trampilla al fantasma de Jacob Marley
«Newsboys, the source of all this disorder, were themselves a new phenomenon on the urban scene. The development of cheap newspapers in the 1830s (the “penny press,” so called because that was now the price of a daily paper) had helped create the need for street vendors who would hawk the afternoon papers on street corners.» — el origen del oficio según el capítulo: la prensa barata de los años treinta, llamada del centavo por el precio del diario, creó la necesidad de vendedores callejeros
«Newsboys were drawn from the poorest classes of large cities; often they were homeless—in fact, the word newsboy was sometimes used interchangeably with homeless boy or street arab.» — de dónde salían esos muchachos: de las clases más pobres de las grandes ciudades, a menudo sin techo, hasta el punto de que la palabra se usaba a veces como sinónimo de niño sin casa
«Their love of theatergoing was notorious; everyone agreed that they attended “night after night.” They used the theater as a gathering place and even as a place where they could sleep. But above all, newsboys loved theatrical performances and responded interactively to events onstage just as if they were witnessing real life. The presence of police officers in the theaters was a standard precaution against newsboy excesses.» — la relación de esos muchachos con el teatro: iban noche tras noche, lo usaban de lugar de reunión y hasta de dormitorio, y la presencia policial en las salas era precaución corriente
«Newsboys at Christmas. This picture appeared in the 1844 Christmas edition of a New York newspaper, Brother Jonathan. These were the same newsboys who would end up disrupting several of the city’s theatrical performances later that evening.» — el pie de la estampa de los vendedores de periódicos en la edición navideña de 1844 del *Brother Jonathan*, que el capítulo enlaza con el desorden de esa misma noche en los teatros
«Newsboys may have been a new phenomenon in the late 1830s, but they fit a social and demographic profile that had long been associated with rituals of Christmas misrule: They were poor and youthful males.» — el perfil que el capítulo reconoce en ellos: nuevos como oficio, pero con el mismo perfil social y demográfico asociado desde antiguo a los ritos del desgobierno navideño
«An 1844 advertisement for one Philadelphia theatrical production ended with a notice assuring other prospective theatergoers that “[efficient Police have been engaged to preserve order; boys will be prevented from congregating in front» — el aviso que remataba un anuncio teatral de Filadelfia en 1844: se ha contratado policía eficiente para preservar el orden y se impedirá que los muchachos se junten en la entrada
«The Arch Street [theater] was also crowded, where as well as at the National [theater], the boys amused themselves by tossing each other, as well as they could in the crowd, over each other’s heads and jostling the weak under foot, to the great discomfiture of their apparel.» — según Nissenbaum, la escena de la noche de Navidad de 1843 en Filadelfia: los muchachos se divertían lanzándose unos a otros por encima de las cabezas y pisoteando a los débiles
«Old Krisskingle. By 1843 this figure had become the lead character of a Christmas pantomime performed in concert with a minstrel show. (This would not be the only occasion on which Santa Claus converged with blackface minstrelsy. In about 1840 a collection of minstrel songs was printed in New York under the authorship “by Santaclaus.” And remember, too, the Belsnickles who went wassailing in blackface in areas of Pennsylvania.» — el pie que el capítulo pone a esa convergencia: para 1843 la figura encabezaba una pantomima navideña dada junto con un espectáculo de *minstrels*, y no sería la única vez que Santa Claus se cruzara con el *blackface*
«Two years later Kriss Kringle would once again appear at the theater, this time in front of the lights, in the form of a costumed actor distributing gifts to the children who attended the show: “KRISS KRINGLE will deliver Presents of Toys, &c. to all his Juvenile Visiters [sic]…. KRISS KRINGLE will positively appear, in propriae personae, and present Toys, Sweetmeats and Fruits to the juvenile visitors» — el paso siguiente en el teatro: dos años después la figura aparece delante de las candilejas como actor disfrazado que reparte juguetes, dulces y frutas a los niños que asisten
«By this time Kriss Kringle was a ubiquitous presence in Philadelphia, and several places were announcing themselves as his “headquarters.” One of these places advertised that “‘KRISS KRINGLE’ has determined to make the Assembly Building his Head Quarters over the Holidays….” He would be appearing there with a ventriloquist for six performances on Christmas Day (every two hours from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.» — la ubicuidad de la figura en Filadelfia según el capítulo: varios locales se anunciaban como su cuartel general, y uno lo ofrecía con un ventrílocuo en seis funciones el día de Navidad
«Bookstores and theaters represented two different cultural worlds. If theatergoing was part of the rowdy world of Christmas carnival, reading books was part of the world of quiet domestic pleasures.» — la oposición que el capítulo saca de ese paralelo: el teatro como parte del mundo ruidoso del carnaval navideño y la lectura como parte del mundo de los placeres domésticos quietos
«In 1842 a Philadelphia publisher brought out Kriss Kringle’s Book, a gift book for children that explained the ritual of St. Nicholas (it even included Clement Clarke Moore’s poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas”) and urged its youthful readers to “prepare” for his visit by acting “obedient to their parents, studious, respectful to their teachers, gentle to their play-fellows, and attentive to their religious duties.» — el libro de regalo de 1842 que el capítulo describe: explicaba el rito de San Nicolás, incluía el poema de Moore e instaba a los niños lectores a prepararse siendo obedientes, estudiosos y respetuosos
«Saint Nicholas … loves to give the children nice little story books, such as will teach them to be good, and at the same time afford them a good deal of innocent amusement» — la promesa con que ese mismo libro cierra el círculo: el santo gusta de dar libros de cuentos que enseñan a ser bueno y a la vez divierten inocentemente
«Santa in Blackface. The cover page of a collection of minstrel songs published in New York in about 1840. The songs were written and performed by one of the best-known American minstrels, Thomas Rice, who performed onstage as “Jim Crow.” The exact reason for attributing the authorship of this pamphlet to “Santa Claus” is obscure.» — el pie de la portada de una colección de canciones de *minstrels* publicada en Nueva York hacia 1840, escritas e interpretadas por Thomas Rice, que actuaba como Jim Crow, y atribuida a Santa Claus por razón que el propio libro declara oscura
«passively through the performance; audience behavior resembled that seen at modern rock concerts. As at rock concerts, the audience at these events thought of themselves as an active part of the performance, shouting back responses to the lines delivered onstage— sometimes they even threw objects at the actors.» — cómo era ir al teatro en el país de principios del siglo XIX según el capítulo: el público se tenía por parte activa de la función, respondía a gritos a las réplicas del escenario y a veces arrojaba objetos a los actores; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«All in all, attending the theater was not very removed from participating in “street theater,” and it was the same group of people who were most likely to engage in both.» — la equivalencia que el capítulo propone: ir al teatro no quedaba lejos de participar en el teatro callejero, y era la misma gente la que hacía las dos cosas
«blackface show, the “Original Virginia Minstrels,” and ended with another drama, “King of the Mist.” The Arch Street Theater matinee opened with “Hunter of the Alps,” continued with “a Comic Song,” and concluded with “the Colored Music Festival, by the Virginia Minstrels.» — el programa de aquella noche de 1843 en Filadelfia que el capítulo transcribe para dar contexto, con dramas y un espectáculo de *blackface* en las dos salas; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«But on that same day a bookstore, too, advertised itself as “KRISS KRINGLE’S HEAD QUARTERS FOR CHRISTMAS BOOKS”: Come and choose—come one, come all—he has laid a great variety on the counter for you to choose from. Parents bring your children. Children don’t forget to ask your parents, and remember that it is at JOHN B. PERRY’S, No 198 Market street.» — el mismo reclamo en una librería ese mismo día: los niños que no olviden pedírselo a sus padres y los padres que traigan a sus niños a escoger del mostrador
«In 1845 two other Philadelphia publishers entered the Kriss Kringle market. One came out with Kriss Kringles Christmas Tree, which contained a poem in which a boy chooses a book as his present, passing over the rowdier options of a “sword or drum.» — el primero de los dos libros de 1845 que el capítulo describe: un poema en que un niño elige un libro por regalo y deja de lado las opciones más ruidosas de la espada o el tambor
«The other publisher produced a book called Kriss Kringles Raree Show, for Good Boys and Girls. This, too, was a gift book. Its text consisted of a series of history lessons—thirty-eight very brief stories (two pages each), most of which were accounts of famous battles in American or European history.» — el segundo de esos libros y su contenido: treinta y ocho historias muy breves, casi todas relatos de batallas famosas de la historia estadounidense o europea
«Santa Claus as Theater Manager. This illustration, from the title page of Kriss Kringle’s Raree Show (1845), shows Kriss Kringle in the role of a theater manager, collecting tickets from the eager boys shoving to get into the show on Christmas Day. Kriss Kringle is depicted as a plebeian here, and he even smokes a short pipe!» — el pie de la portada de ese libro: Kriss Kringle como empresario teatral cobrando entradas a los muchachos que se empujan para entrar, dibujado como plebeyo y fumando pipa corta
«Theater Interior with Curtain Down. Kriss Kringle is now seated atop the chandelier at the top left, his pipe tucked into his cap. From this position he will draw the curtain for each change of scene. The audience itself suggests elements of misrule: One boy is sitting on the stage; the little girl in front of him is crying; and another little girl (at the right) is blowing a tin horn.» — el pie de la segunda lámina de ese libro, que el capítulo lee como indicio de desgobierno en el propio público: un niño sentado en el escenario, una niña llorando y otra soplando un cuerno de hojalata
«Theater Interior with Curtain Raised. Only the scene onstage has changed here—the rest of the setting remains the same (as it does in every single illustration in this book). The dramatic scenes, this one showing Indians battling Conquistadores, are all represented as merely drawings on an inner curtain. This is a low-budget operation even in fantasy!» — el pie de la tercera lámina, con la observación de que solo cambia la escena del fondo y de que las escenas dramáticas son meros dibujos sobre un telón interior
«Indeed, each of the thirty-eight historical accounts contained a full-page picture—and instead of being divided into chapters, each account was labeled a “sight” (thus “Sight the Twenty-First” was “the Capture of Stony Point” during the American Revolution; and “Sight the Thirty-Eighth” was “the Battle of Lake Erie” during the War of 1812» — cómo ese primer sentido organiza el libro: cada relato lleva una estampa a plana entera y, en vez de capítulos, se rotula como una vista
«The second meaning of the term raree show, by extension, was large-scale and theatrical: “a spectacle of any kind,” or a “spectacular display,” especially a theatrical spectacle (often, apparently, one related to pantomime» — el segundo sentido del término según el capítulo: un espectáculo de cualquier clase, o un despliegue espectacular, sobre todo teatral y a menudo emparentado con la pantomima
«Kriss Kringle’s Raree Show fit this definition because it pretended to offer the experience of going to the theater— specifically, the experience of a group of children attending a theatrical “exhibition” at Christmas.» — por qué el libro cabe en ese segundo sentido: fingía ofrecer la experiencia de ir al teatro, y en concreto la de un grupo de niños en una exhibición teatral de Navidad
«He is pictured much as Moore described Santa Claus—a plebeian, short and plump, bearded, holding “the stump of a pipe” in his teeth. (But that is also, I suspect, very much the way an actual theater manager of the time might have looked.» — la semejanza que el capítulo señala y la salvedad que añade: el empresario está dibujado como el Santa Claus de Moore, plebeyo, bajo, rechoncho y con el cabo de pipa, aunque así se habría visto también un empresario real de la época
«These children may not exactly resemble the real Philadelphia children who had disrupted theatrical performances two years earlier by “tossing each other … over each other’s heads and jostling the weak under foot.» — la comparación que el capítulo hace entre los niños dibujados y los reales que dos años antes habían reventado funciones en Filadelfia
«But they aren’t exactly quiet or passive, either. One boy has already climbed onto the stage; several are laughing and talking, and waving (apparently to Kriss Kringle). The little girl on the extreme left is crying, and the little girl at the right is blowing a tin horn (presumably she has received it as a Christmas present; tin horns were such notorious noisemakers that they were later banned in the city of Philadelphia). Finally, several youthful couples appear to be taking the opportunity to do some flirting.» — lo que el capítulo ve en la lámina pese a esa distancia: un niño ya subido al escenario, otros riendo, hablando y saludando, una niña llorando, otra soplando un cuerno y varias parejas jóvenes coqueteando
«The purpose of this repetition was presumably to save money and time on the books artwork; but it also inadvertently suggests what we already know from other sources: that a real audience would not have quieted down when the curtain went up.» — la explicación económica que el capítulo propone para la repetición de la lámina, y lo que sugiere sin proponérselo: que un público real no se habría callado al subir el telón
«In Kriss Kringle’s Raree Show we see in action the battle between the two cultures of Christmas—going out into the loud streets and staying quietly at home.» — lo que el capítulo ve en acción en ese libro: la pelea entre las dos culturas de la Navidad, salir a las calles ruidosas o quedarse quieto en casa
«But the battle is not really joined. Reading is presented here not so much as an attractive alternative to misrule as a mini-version of it, one in which the rowdy adventure went on inside one’s head.» — la enmienda que el capítulo hace enseguida: la lectura no aparece ahí como alternativa al desgobierno sino como una versión en pequeño de él, con la aventura ruidosa ocurriendo dentro de la cabeza
«Here the two forms of behavior, the two cultures of Christmas, seep into each other. Reading the book promised the adventure of theatergoing, and even showed it, and a little of its misrule, led by plebeian Kriss Kringle. It was possible to experience the excitement of the theater without leaving home—and without posing (or risking) any real danger. But that, perhaps, has always been the promise of reading itself.» — la conclusión del apartado: las dos culturas se filtran una en otra, y era posible tener la excitación del teatro sin salir de casa y sin riesgo real, que quizá ha sido siempre la promesa de la lectura
«By the 1840s the police in Philadelphia and other American cities were regularly on the lookout for gatherings of unruly boys, and ready to throw them in jail. That was one prong in the assault against Christmas misrule.» — el primero de los dos frentes del asalto al desgobierno navideño según el capítulo: la policía al acecho de reuniones de muchachos revoltosos y presta a encarcelarlos
«One of those was the famous Christmas story “The Nutcracker,” authored by the German writer?. T. A. Hoffmann and first published in 1816. Here a proper young girl has an extended fantasy of misrule in which her world turns crazily upside down.» — el ejemplo mejor del segundo frente: *El cascanueces*, del alemán E. T. A. Hoffmann, publicado en 1816, donde una niña correcta tiene una fantasía extensa de desgobierno con el mundo patas arriba; el troceo corrompe la inicial del nombre
«But both the trite Philadelphia book and its far more ingenious German counterpart shared a single purpose: to offer youthful readers a secure yet exhilarating Christmas treat—a carnival of the mind.» — el propósito común que el capítulo atribuye al libro trivial de Filadelfia y a su contraparte alemana más ingeniosa: ofrecer al lector joven un regalo navideño seguro y a la vez excitante, un carnaval de la mente
«The term whoreson meant “bastard” (or “coarse fellow”) but, as here, it could be used affectionately between men, as for example, in the modern usage “you old bastard.» — la nota a pie que restituye el sentido de la palabra en el poema de Rip Van Dam: valía por bastardo o tipo tosco, pero podía usarse con afecto entre hombres
«Its first meaning was “a show carried about in a box,” such as an exhibition of pictures, viewed through a magnifying lens inserted in a small opening at one end of the box» — el primero de los dos sentidos de *raree show* que el capítulo restituye: un espectáculo llevado en una caja, con estampas miradas por una lente puesta en una abertura pequeña de un extremo; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue anunciando el nombre posterior de la cosa
«I suspect that the artist drew the scene this way because he wanted to convey at least a semblance of how such a theatrical audience would have looked and behaved on an occasion like this—to provide, perhaps, just enough verisimilitude to evoke in the young readers of» — la conjetura que el propio autor marca como tal sobre el dibujante: quiso dar bastante verosimilitud de cómo se habría visto y comportado un público así; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *the book something of the vivid sensation of actually being there*
«Long and Short Pipes. This engraving, used as the frontispiece to Irving’s Knickerbocker’s History, was drawn by the well-known American artist Washington Allston. The four men in front are gentlemen; three of them are smoking long pipes.» — el pie del grabado de Washington Allston que sirve de frontispicio al libro de Irving: los cuatro caballeros del frente fuman pipas largas, y el pie sigue diciendo que el tabernero plebeyo del fondo fuma una corta; la cita se corta aquí porque el troceo parte *tavern-keeper* con guion de fin de renglón y el extractor lo devolvería fundido
«But these indoor games had not replaced more traditional forms of Christmas revelry. In 1844, a Cincinnati confectionery concluded an advertisement that featured “Sugar Plums” and other sweets with the added note that the store “also” offered a “splendid assortment of» — el límite que el capítulo pone a esa domesticación: los juegos de interior no habían reemplazado a las formas tradicionales, y una confitería de Cincinnati anunciaba en 1844 junto a los confites un surtido espléndido de lo que sigue, *Fire-works, for both little and big Pyrotechnists*, palabra que el troceo parte con guion de fin de renglón
«Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents.” —Opening line of Little Women (1868)» — el epígrafe con que abre el capítulo cuarto, tomado del primer renglón de *Little Women*
«CHRISTMAS an indoor family affair meant enmeshing it in the commercial marketplace. As long as the Christmas gift exchange was still a matter of wassailing from peasants to landlords, from poor folk to rich ones, the gifts themselves most often took the form of food and drink—the landlord’s best food and drink, served within his house.» — la tesis con que arranca el capítulo: hacer de la Navidad un asunto doméstico significaba enredarla en el mercado, porque mientras el intercambio iba de campesinos a terratenientes los dones eran comida y bebida
«Such gifts were not “presents” in the modern sense of being purchased in the commercial market. Oftentimes, indeed, they were manufactured within the household itself, and from grains cultivated by the same peasants who were now receiving them back in the form of “cakes and ale.”» — por qué aquellos dones no eran presentes en el sentido moderno: no se compraban en el mercado, y a menudo se hacían en la propia casa con el grano que cultivaban los mismos campesinos que lo recibían de vuelta
«When the gift exchange was brought inside and limited to the family circle, such gifts no longer made sense. The wife and children of a prosperous man already ate the household’s best food; they were already living in the family manor. What made Christmas special for them had to be a different sort of gift, the sort of gift that soon became known as a Christmas “present.” And that was precisely the kind of gift that could most conveniently be procured through a purchase.» — el razonamiento del capítulo sobre el cambio: la mujer y los hijos del hombre próspero ya comían su mejor comida y vivían en su casa, así que lo especial tenía que ser otra clase de don, el que más convenía obtener comprándolo
«Or shopkeepers might provide some finishing touch for a handmade Christmas present: In 1769, for example, Joseph Stebbins paid a shopkeeper in Deerfield, Massachusetts, for “coolering [dyeing] a pare of Mitt» — el caso de 1769 que el capítulo llama semicomercial: Joseph Stebbins paga a un tendero de Deerfield por teñir unos mitones, tejidos ya en casa; el troceo corta la palabra en el cambio de plana
«We can infer that the newly dyed mittens were probably intended as a Christmas gift because the transaction took place on December 22.» — la inferencia que el propio autor marca como tal sobre aquel encargo: la fecha de la transacción permite suponer que los mitones iban de regalo navideño
«We might think of such transactions, in which shops played a small but crucial role, as “semi-commercial.” They may have been commonplace, though evidence on this score is extremely difficult to come by—buried in manuscript account-books. But things would begin to change soon after 1800.» — el nombre que el capítulo propone para esas transacciones y el límite de su evidencia: semicomerciales, quizá corrientes pero muy difíciles de documentar porque viven enterradas en libros de cuentas manuscritos
«As it happens, such musings have been commonplace for a long time—for more than a century and a half.» — lo que el capítulo objeta a ese lugar común: que esas añoranzas llevan siendo corrientes más de siglo y medio
«The author of the story was soon to become America’s best-known writer—Harriet Beecher Stowe. When Stowe wrote her Christmas story in 1850» — quién escribió el cuento de mediados del siglo XIX que el capítulo analiza: Harriet Beecher Stowe, poco antes de *Uncle Tom’s Cabin*; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«Ohristmas is coming in a fortnight, and I have got to think up presents for everybody! Dear me, it’s so tedious! Everybody has got everything that can be thought of.» — según Nissenbaum, el arranque del cuento de Stowe en boca de uno de sus personajes; el troceo corrompe la primera letra de la palabra
«This character goes on to declare that even though “‘every shop and store is glittering with all manner of splendors,’” it was impossible to decide what presents “‘to get for people that have more than they know what to do with now; to add pictures, books, and gilding when the centre tables are loaded with them now, and rings and jewels when they are a perfect drug!» — la queja que sigue en ese cuento: aunque toda tienda relumbre de esplendores, no hay modo de elegir regalo para quien ya tiene más de lo que sabe qué hacer
«When she was a child of 10, explained Stowe (or the character who stands in for her in the story), “‘the very idea of a present was so new’” that a child would be “‘perfectly delighted’” with the gift of even a single piece of candy. In those days, “‘presents did not fly about as they do now.» — la comparación generacional que el cuento pone en boca de la autora o de quien la representa: a los diez años la idea misma del regalo era tan nueva que un solo caramelo bastaba
«Just as many people do today, Harriet Beecher Stowe seems to have believed that this change took place within her own generation (she was born in 1811). But the difference is that Stowe was substantially correct. Commercial Christmas presents did start to become common when she was a child, and especially during the decade of the 1820s.» — lo que el capítulo concede a Stowe frente a la añoranza corriente: ella situaba el cambio en su propia generación y en eso tenía razón, porque los regalos comerciales se hacen comunes en los años veinte
«If the domestic reform of Christmas began as an enterprise of patricians, fearful for their authority, it was soon being reinforced by merchants, who needed the streets to be cleared of drunks and rowdies in order to secure them for Christmas shoppers; by shoppers who in turn needed to feel secure in the streets; and by newspaper editors whose success depended on their mediating between other businessmen and their own readers (who were shoppers, too» — quiénes reforzaron la reforma doméstica según el capítulo: los comerciantes, que necesitaban las calles despejadas de borrachos para los compradores, los compradores mismos y los editores de periódicos
«The first explicit ad for Christmas presents I have found anywhere in the United States comes from a New England community, Salem, Massachusetts. Dating from 1806 and headed “Christmas Gifts,” the advertisement was placed by a local bookseller.» — el primer anuncio explícito de regalos navideños que el autor dice haber hallado: uno de 1806 en Salem (Massachusetts), puesto por un librero local
«Boston and New York had their first Christmas advertising two years later, in 1808, when two such ads appeared in the New York Evening Post. One of these was for a shop offering “four hundred and fifty kinds of Christmas presents and New-year’s gifts, consisting of toys, childrens [sic] and school books, Christmas pieces, Drawing books, Paint, Lead Pencils, Conversations and Toy cards, Pocket Books, Penknives, &c.» — los primeros anuncios navideños de Boston y Nueva York, ambos de 1808, con uno que ofrecía cuatrocientos cincuenta clases de regalos de Navidad y Año Nuevo
«By 1823 Christmas was already becoming so commercial that one Boston magazine was able to make a joke of it: “[There] is a time to give,” says Solomon, and had [that] preacher lived in these days, he would have acknowledged, that there was no time like the present, and never a better assortment of gifts. Could he [just] peep into the Bookstore of Munroe & Francis, … he might find a book for each of his wives [and] concubines, and each of their children, without purchasing duplicates.» — la broma que una revista de Boston podía hacer ya en 1823: si Salomón viviera, reconocería que no hay tiempo como el presente ni mejor surtido de dones, y hallaría libro para cada una de sus mujeres sin comprar duplicados
«All the children are expecting presents, and all aunts and cousins to say nothing of near relatives, are considering what they shall bestow upon the earnest expectants…. I observe that the shops are preparing themselves with all sorts of things to suit all sorts of tastes; and am amazed at the cunning skill with which the most worthless as well as most valuable articles are set forth to tempt and decoy the bewildered purchaser.» — según Nissenbaum, la carta de 1834 en una revista unitaria de Boston: las tiendas se surten de toda clase de cosas para todos los gustos, con destreza astuta para presentar lo más inútil como lo más valioso
«The same letter warned shoppers to “put themselves on their guard, to be resolved to select from the tempting mass only what is useful and what may do good,” and to avoid “empty trifles, which amuse or gratify for the day only.» — el consejo que esa misma carta daba a los compradores: ponerse en guardia, elegir solo lo útil y evitar las bagatelas que solo entretienen por un día
«The very multitude bewilders most purchasers; and often have I been pained to observe the perplexity of some kind parent or friend, who wished to choose wisely, but knew not how, and after long balancing took something at random, perhaps good, perhaps worthless.» — el remate de esa carta, que el capítulo cita por la escena del padre o el amigo que quería elegir bien y acababa tomando algo al azar
«Even in a small town in rural New Hampshire, in 1835 a local newspaper printed a cautionary tale titled “Reflect Before You Buy”—a story written for young children!» — el ejemplo con que el capítulo mide hasta dónde había llegado el asunto: un periódico de un pueblo rural de Nuevo Hampshire imprimió en 1835 un cuento de aviso titulado *Reflect Before You Buy*, escrito para niños
«Most commercial presents were manufactured for children. The very first advertisement I have found for Christmas presents, the 1806 one from Salem, Massachusetts, was for “a large assortment of Youth’s and Children’s Books.” The first ad from Boston, in 1808, was for “Books for Children.” The first New York ad, also in 1808, was for children’s books and toys.» — a quién iban dirigidos casi todos los regalos comerciales según el capítulo, con los tres primeros anuncios como prueba: libros para jóvenes y niños en Salem y en Boston, y libros y juguetes infantiles en Nueva York
«Over the years, children remained the primary target of Christmas ads, but they ceased to be the exclusive targets. In 1809, for example, four of the five ads for holiday presents that appeared in one Boston newspaper were for the entertainment of children, but the remaining one focused on the decoration of women: “a general assortment of elegant and fashionable JEWELLERY [sic], consisting of Fine pearl set Brooches; Ear Rings; Finger Rings; Bracelets, &c., with rich carnelian and topaz Centers; … carnelian Necklaces; Ear Knobs; Tops and Drops; tortoise-shell Combs of all descriptions; gold Watch Chains» — cómo se amplió el blanco de esos anuncios: en 1809 cuatro de los cinco de un periódico de Boston eran para entretener a los niños y el quinto para adornar a las mujeres, con joyería fina
«Women, like children, were dependent members of the household. Only later were adult men included as appropriate recipients of Christmas presents.» — la razón que el capítulo da para ese orden: mujeres y niños eran miembros dependientes de la casa, y solo más tarde se incluyó a los hombres adultos como destinatarios apropiados
«A thorough examination of early-nineteenth-century American newspapers might well yield slightly earlier dates for such minor» — la cautela que el propio autor pone a sus primeras fechas: un examen minucioso de la prensa podría adelantarlas un poco; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«But the pattern itself seems clear enough: Commercial Christmas presents were first publicly advertised in the first two decades of the nineteenth century, and the advertising became pervasive during the following decade, in the 1820s.» — el patrón que el capítulo sí da por claro: los regalos comerciales se anuncian públicamente en las dos primeras décadas del siglo XIX y la publicidad se vuelve omnipresente en los años veinte
«In the early 1840s advertisements for Christmas presents became more numerous, ornate, and sophisticated, and newspapers began to organize them into a separate category titled “Holiday» — el paso siguiente a principios de los años cuarenta: los anuncios se vuelven más numerosos, ornados y sofisticados, y los periódicos los agrupan en una categoría propia; el troceo parte el rótulo en renglones sueltos
«On December 23, 1845, Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune announced that the paper would be “compelled to issue a [special] supplement” the following day so as “to make room for the matter which the pressure of Holiday Advertisements has crowded out for a few days past.” (“By the way,” it added, “our readers who think of making Christmas Presents will find our advertising columns unusually interesting. Almost every thing worth buying is offered there. Read and make your selections.» — el aviso del *New York Tribune* de Horace Greeley en 1845: tendría que sacar un suplemento especial porque la presión de los anuncios de fiestas había desplazado otras materias
«It was probably no accident that these aggressive advertising tactics were devised in hard economic times. The depression that set in at the end of 1839 was the deepest the United States had yet experienced. But merchants, abetted by newspapers, openly used Christmas as a way to attract shoppers even in the depths of the depression.» — la coincidencia que el capítulo señala: las tácticas publicitarias agresivas se idearon en tiempos económicos duros, y los comerciantes usaron la Navidad para atraer compradores en lo hondo de la depresión
«The newspaper itself was prepared to come to Santas assistance: “In consideration of the many duties that he has to perform at this time, we will endeavor to lighten his labors; and in order that he may make the best choice to be found in the city, we are determined to send him a copy of the Ledger, where he will find every thing that is worthy of his notice judiciously advertised under the proper head» — la oferta con que ese periódico remataba: le mandarían un ejemplar al propio Santa Claus para que hallara todo lo digno de su atención anunciado bajo el rótulo correspondiente
«unpopular monarch. But readers were assured that he “has abdicated for the present,” to be replaced by a more benevolent figure: “Old Santa Claus is expected tonight, and gaily are the windows of the fancy, fruit, cake, and other stores decorated to receive him—and puzzled will the old fellow be to make a selection from the thousand curiosities, delicacies, and elegancies which are spread before him.» — el recurso retórico de un periódico de Filadelfia el 24 de diciembre de 1841, que el troceo parte en el límite de segmento: la depresión, personificada como monarca impopular, ha abdicado por ahora, y se espera esa noche al viejo Santa Claus ante escaparates engalanados
«A jeweler made the point as well as anyone: He had rings as costly as $25 each, but also as cheap as 25 cents (the same was true of his earrings, breast pins, gold and silver pencil cases, and so on). This jeweler even offered violins for sale—at anywhere from “$i to $40.» — el ejemplo con que el capítulo muestra el reconocimiento tácito de la dureza de los tiempos: un joyero con anillos de veinticinco dólares y de veinticinco centavos, y hasta violines a precios de uno a cuarenta
«Beginning with the 1840 Christmas season, a fierce competition developed among the city’s confectioners, who devised the idea of baking immense cakes that would be displayed in their shop windows on December 23—“mammoth cakes,” they were termed. Customers could purchase pieces of the cake to take home. One of these cakes weighed in at 250 pounds; another was twice that size.» — la competencia que el capítulo data en la temporada de 1840 entre los confiteros de Filadelfia: pasteles inmensos exhibidos en el escaparate el 23 de diciembre, de los que el cliente compraba trozos
«My cake is of a giant size, Formel to delight your tastes and eyes; Lastly, to name a case in point, The Times being sadly out of joint [i.e., the depression] …, My Prices shall be very small, To meet my patrons, one and all.» — los versos con que otro confitero remataba su anuncio, donde el capítulo señala la alusión a la depresión: siendo los tiempos tan descoyuntados, sus precios serán muy pequeños
«Confectioners also created an even more widespread fad: caramelized sugar and chocolate molded into a variety of improbable shapes, and crafted to appear real. One report, from Philadelphia, referred to lavish Christmas displays of candied “mutton chops, sausages, boiled lobsters, pieces of bacon, cabbages, carrots, loaves of bread, &c. all made of sugar, and colored to the life.» — la otra moda confitera que el capítulo describe: azúcar y chocolate moldeados en formas improbables y trabajados para parecer reales, con chuletas, salchichas, langostas y coles de azúcar
«More common shapes included various kinds of animals as well as oversize insects such as beetles, spiders, and—for some reason these were a special favorite—cockroaches.» — las formas más comunes de esa moda: animales e insectos de gran tamaño, con las cucarachas como favorita especial por alguna razón que el propio autor no explica
«There is a paradox here. Christmas presents were almost by definition luxury items—and luxuries are the first things that people give up when times are hard.» — la paradoja que el capítulo enuncia: los regalos navideños son por definición artículos de lujo, y el lujo es lo primero que se deja en tiempos duros
«Despite the state of the economy (what the writer of one article coyly termed “the rumored hardness of the times”), Christmas presents were readily available, and everyone should purchase something—at the very least, a present for the “one being that they love.” Forget the depression for a little while, this writer counseled: “Who is there, that is not ground into the very dust by biting poverty, that would hesitate, at this hallowed season, to bestow a souvenir upon this one beloved object—this cherished flower of affection?» — según Nissenbaum, el *New York Herald* al empezar la depresión: pese a la dureza rumoreada de los tiempos, nadie molido por la pobreza dudaría en dar un recuerdo al ser querido en esta temporada consagrada
«Christmas had long been a special ritual time when the ordinary rules of behavior were upended. It was a time when people let strange things happen to their sense of what was acceptable behavior, their sense of limits. Christmas was (and still is) a time to let go of ordinary psychological restraints, to shift into an inner state in which it became possible to do what was otherwise unthinkable.» — la explicación que el capítulo da del combustible de esa vulnerabilidad: la Navidad era tiempo ritual en que las reglas ordinarias se volteaban y se soltaban los frenos psicológicos
«What made that sort of indulgence objectively possible in an agricultural society was, as we have seen, the cycle of the seasons, in which December was a time of leisure and a season of plenty— plenty of food and drink. It was a time when consumption— overconsumption—was expected. It was a time to gorge on the best food and drink—not just bread and beer but “cakes and ale.” It was a time to splurge, until the hard freeze of winter, and with it the constraints of ordinary existence, set in once again.» — lo que hacía posible ese desenfreno en una sociedad agrícola según el capítulo: el ciclo de las estaciones, con diciembre como tiempo de ocio y abundancia en que se esperaba el consumo excesivo
«Urbanization and capitalism were liberating people from the constraints of an agricultural cycle and making larger quantities of goods available for more extended periods of time. But that change was very recent; and memories of the behavioral rhythms of the old seasonal cycle were still fresh. Late December was still associated with letting go, with splurging, with overindulgence in luxuries that were hardly available at all during the rest of the year.» — el cambio que el capítulo data en el segundo cuarto del siglo XIX: la urbanización y el capitalismo iban soltando a la gente del ciclo agrícola, pero el recuerdo de sus ritmos seguía fresco
«Most Americans of the Jacksonian period were predisposed to distrust luxury and excess. Even where buying luxury goods was economically possible, it was ideologically suspect.» — la fuerza contraria que el capítulo señala: la predisposición de los estadounidenses de la era jacksoniana a desconfiar del lujo y del exceso, ideológicamente sospechoso aunque fuera económicamente posible
«Once again, Christmas came to the rescue. For this was one time of the year when the lingering reluctance of middle-class Americans to purchase frivolous gifts for their children was overwhelmed by their equally lingering predisposition to abandon ordinary behavioral constraints. Christmas helped intensify and legitimize a commercial kind of consumerism.» — la función que el capítulo atribuye a la fiesta en ese conflicto: la reluctancia de la clase media a comprar regalos frívolos quedaba vencida por su igualmente persistente disposición a soltar los frenos
«They recognized that it was possible to exploit the season by offering a plethora of “fancy” goods, luxury items of precisely the kind that few people were willing to purchase at any other time of the year: books, toys, jewelry and fancy clothes, candy and cake.» — lo que productores y comerciantes vieron según el capítulo: que la temporada permitía ofrecer artículos de lujo de los que poca gente compraba en cualquier otro momento del año
«After all, one of the defining characteristics of an effective Christmas present was that it was a luxury, not something that satisfied a practical need. As Horace Greeley put it in an 1846 editorial, a Christmas gift should never be “a matter of homely necessity.» — el rasgo definitorio del buen regalo navideño según el capítulo, con la fórmula de Horace Greeley en 1846: nunca una cuestión de necesidad casera
«A commercial Christmas thus emerged in tandem with the commercial economy itself, and the two were mutually reinforcing. On the one hand, the new economy made possible that now-familiar development—the commercialization of Christmas. On the other, Christmas itself served to fuel the general process of commercialization.» — la relación de ida y vuelta que el capítulo propone: la economía nueva hizo posible la comercialización de la fiesta y la fiesta alimentó a su vez el proceso general de comercialización
«It was the thin end of the wedge by which many Americans became enmeshed in the more self-indulgent aspects of consumer spending.» — la figura con que el capítulo nombra ese papel: la punta delgada de la cuña por la que muchos estadounidenses quedaron enredados en los aspectos más autocomplacientes del gasto de consumo
«To be sure, it has recently become clear that the “consumer revolution” was actually a long process, one whose beginnings historians now place back in the colonial period, even before the American Revolution.16 But the process accelerated sharply around the beginning of the nineteenth century.» — la salvedad que el propio autor introduce sobre la cronología: hoy se sabe que la revolución del consumo fue un proceso largo con inicios en el periodo colonial, aunque se aceleró bruscamente hacia principios del siglo XIX
«Much as Christmas alcohol helped release one sort of ordinarily forbidden behavior, so Christmas advertising helped release another sort. In this way Christmas became a crucial means of legitimizing the penetration of consumerist behavior into American society.» — el paralelo con que el capítulo cierra el apartado: como el alcohol navideño soltaba una clase de conducta prohibida, la publicidad navideña soltaba otra, y así la fiesta legitimó la entrada del consumismo
«As it happened, publishers and booksellers were the shock troops in exploiting—and developing—a Christmas trade. And books were on the cutting edge of a commercial Christmas, making up more than half of the earliest items advertised as Christmas gifts.» — quiénes fueron las tropas de choque de ese comercio según el capítulo: editores y libreros, con los libros en el filo del cambio y más de la mitad de los primeros artículos anunciados como regalos navideños
«Mason Locke Weems (“Parson” Weems), a bookseller and writer who is remembered today for inventing the legend of young George Washington and the cherry tree, distributed his own books as Christmas presents in 1810—including the popular biography of Washington in which the cherry tree story first appeared. That year he advertised that he would offer a deep discount to buyers “who take several copies of Washington and Marion [another biography] for Christmas Boxes to their young relations.» — el caso de Mason Locke Weems, el librero que inventó la leyenda del cerezo de Washington y que en 1810 repartía sus propios libros como regalos navideños con descuento por varias copias
«Even in New England, and as early as 1783, the publisher Isaiah Thomas inserted on Christmas Day in his Worcester, Massachusetts, newspaper an ad titled “Books for little Masters and Misses, proper for NEW YEAR’S GIFTS.» — el anuncio más temprano que el capítulo aduce para Nueva Inglaterra: el que Isaiah Thomas puso el día de Navidad de 1783 en su periódico de Worcester
«He inserted these ads on December 25, probably because the term “New Year’s” covered the two holidays together.» — la conjetura que el propio autor ofrece sobre la fecha de esos anuncios: el término de Año Nuevo cubría las dos fiestas juntas
«Then, in 1789, Thomas went a step further: He published a little children’s book, Nurse Truelove’s Christmas Box (“Christmas box” was a term for a Christmas gift). The text of this book actually concluded with a promise from “Nurse Truelove” herself—she was something of a cross between Mother Goose and Santa Claus—“to make a present of another book by way of New Years Gift, (which will be published soon after Christmas» — el paso siguiente de Thomas en 1789: un librito infantil cuyo texto termina con la promesa de la propia Nurse Truelove de regalar otro libro por Año Nuevo
«As a parting shot, “Nurse Truelove” added an explicit ad for Isaiah Thomas’s Worcester bookshop: “In the mean time, if you should want any other little Books, pray send to Mr. Thomas’s, where you may have the following» — el remate publicitario de ese librito: un anuncio explícito de la librería de Isaiah Thomas en Worcester, en boca del personaje
«Thomas was using the special associations of the Christmas season with luxury spending to get children (and their parents) into his shop.» — la lectura que el capítulo hace de esa maniobra: Thomas usaba la asociación de la temporada con el gasto de lujo para meter en su tienda a los niños y a sus padres
«Businessmen knew that Christmas was the one time of the year when people had long expected to buy and consume things they did not need, even if they» — la otra cara de esa paradoja: los comerciantes sabían que la Navidad era el momento del año en que se esperaba comprar y consumir lo que no se necesita; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *could not really afford to*
«During and after the War for Independence, Americans had been taught that indulging in luxury was frivolous» — de dónde venía esa desconfianza según el capítulo: se había enseñado que entregarse al lujo era frívolo; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue llamándolo vicio de las naciones aristocráticas decadentes de Europa
«In 1826, for example, the Boston booksellers Munroe and Francis printed a special Christmas flyer—207 children’s books, ranging in price from 6¼ cents to 40 cents each. Two years later the same booksellers circulated another flyer; this one was headed “Christmas and New-Year … Presents for the Coming Season.” Four densely printed pages in length, it listed the better part of a thousand items.» — el ejemplo con que el capítulo mide el paso a un comercio sistemático: un volante navideño de 1826 con doscientos siete libros infantiles y otro de 1828 con cerca de mil artículos en cuatro planas apretadas
«The most important step it took in that direction was to invent a new kind of product, in the form of a new literary genre that was specifically linked to the Christmas season. The genre was the “Gift Book”—a mixed anthology of poetry, stories, essays, and (frequently) pictures.» — el paso que el capítulo llama más importante del comercio del libro: inventar un producto nuevo, un género literario ligado a la temporada, el libro de regalo, antología mixta de poesía, cuentos, ensayos y a menudo estampas
«Gift Books were always published at the very end of the year, just in time for sale as Christmas presents. Whenever one of them sold well, a new number bearing the same title would be brought out a year later (giving rise to an alternative name for the genre, “literary annuals» — el ritmo editorial del género: se publicaban a fin de año para venderse como regalo navideño y, si vendían bien, salía otro número con el mismo título al año siguiente
«and were taken up in the United States in 1825, when the Philadelphia publishers Carey & Lea brought out The Atlantic Souvenir.» — cuándo y con qué llega el género a Estados Unidos según el capítulo: en 1825, con el volumen que sacaron los editores de Filadelfia Carey & Lea; el troceo abre el segmento a media frase
«Nothing would seem more naturally to suggest itself, as one of those marks of remembrance and affection, which old custom has associated with the gaiety of Christmas, than a little volume of lighter literature, adorned with beautiful specimens of art.» — según Nissenbaum, el prefacio de aquel primer volumen definiendo el género: nada parecería sugerirse con más naturalidad, entre las marcas de recuerdo y afecto que la vieja costumbre asocia a la Navidad, que un volumen de literatura ligera adornado con arte
«Of course, the genre had no more suggested itself “naturally” than was the practice of buying Christmas presents really an “old custom.”» — la objeción que el capítulo pone a ese prefacio: ni el género se había sugerido naturalmente ni comprar regalos navideños era de veras una costumbre vieja
«Gift Books were available at every price range and for every conceivable market— demographic, religious, political, and cultural. Some Gift Books consisted entirely of poetry; others were humorous (The Comic Annual). There were Gift Books for children (in fact, for boys and girls separately), young men, mothers, Jacksonian Democrats, proponents of temperance and abolitionism, even members of men’s clubs {The Masonic Offering and The Odd Fellows’ Offering» — el patrón de esa proliferación según el capítulo: libros de regalo en toda escala de precios y para todo mercado imaginable, demográfico, religioso, político y cultural
«In other words, publishers had managed to divide the market for Gift Books into highly specialized niches—identified by class, age, ideology, and cultural temperament. They had managed to achieve an astonishing degree of what modern economists now refer to as market segmentation.» — la fórmula con que el capítulo nombra ese patrón: los editores dividieron el mercado en nichos muy especializados por clase, edad, ideología y temperamento cultural
«What was especially remarkable about this market penetration was the way it was organized: Virtually every American Gift Book was published in one of only three places, in the cities of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.» — lo que el capítulo llama notable de esa penetración: casi todos los libros de regalo se editaban en solo tres ciudades, cuando el resto de la edición estadounidense seguía siendo llamativamente descentralizada
«Gift Books had a nationwide distribution that was based on a highly centralized mode of production. Here again, they were on the cutting edge of economic change in the United States.» — la fórmula con que el capítulo resume esa organización: distribución nacional sobre una producción muy centralizada, otra vez en el filo del cambio económico del país
«James Gordon Bennett’s New York Herald noted in the depression year 1840 that Gift Books “come within the range of the means of most persons, varying in price from $3 to $15;” and it added pointedly: “There are few that would wish to give a lady a present of a less value than $3.» — el rango de precios que el *New York Herald* daba en el año de depresión de 1840, con el añadido puntiagudo de que pocos querrían regalar a una dama algo de menos de tres dólares
«Gift Books were compiled whenever possible by a popular author whose name on the title page could be expected to guarantee added sales. They could be put together fast, in a matter of weeks if necessary.» — cómo se armaban esos libros según el capítulo: por un autor popular cuyo nombre en la portada asegurara ventas, y en cuestión de semanas si hacía falta
«In 1837, one apologetic editor publicly acknowledged that the decision to compile his Gift Book “only suggested itself to the Publisher a fortnight before the last sheet was put to press,” and that the work had to be completed so quickly because the publisher wished it to “appear at the season when the annuals and other similar publications are most in request.”23 Nowadays such books are called quickies.» — el caso con que el capítulo lo ilustra: un editor de 1837 que reconoce haber decidido el libro quince días antes de cerrar la última plana, para que saliera en la temporada de mayor demanda
«What I wish to add here is a point that it is easy to overlook: Gift Books were marketed as presents, purchased only to be given away. Indeed, as far as I can determine, Gift Books were the very first commercial products of any sort that were manufactured specifically, and solely, for the purpose of being given away by the purchaser.» — lo que el propio autor declara aportar al estudio del género: que esos libros se vendían como regalos, comprados solo para darse, y que hasta donde puede determinar fueron el primer producto comercial fabricado solo para eso
«Once again, the case of Gift Books suggests the manner in which Christmas was consciously used by entrepreneurs as an agent of commercialization, an instrument with which to enmesh Americans in the web of consumer capitalism.» — la tesis que el capítulo repite con el caso de los libros de regalo: la Navidad usada conscientemente por los empresarios como agente de comercialización
«The Philadelphia firm of Carey & Lea invested heavily in the production of The Atlantic Souvenir. In 1829 and again in 1830, the firm printed 10,500 copies of this very popular Gift Book, at a cost of more than $12,500 each year; in 1830 this sum came to more than 30 percent of their total production costs for the year.» — la inversión que el capítulo documenta: Carey & Lea imprimió 10 500 ejemplares en 1829 y otros tantos en 1830, con un costo anual de más de doce mil quinientos dólares, más del treinta por ciento de sus costos de producción
«But Carey & Lea hoped for a substantial return on their investment: if the press run sold out, they would take in $17,386, for a net profit of almost 40 percent.» — el retorno que esa casa esperaba si se agotaba el tiraje
«For example, they commonly contained their own advertisements—not tucked away in the back pages but inscribed within the literary matter itself.» — la técnica de venta que el capítulo destaca: los libros de regalo llevaban su propia publicidad, no al final sino inscrita dentro de la materia literaria
«Sometimes this self-advertising took the general form of a story or poem in which a character insisted that books (and especially Gift Books) made the best presents.» — la forma que tomaba esa autopublicidad: un cuento o un poema en que un personaje insiste en que los libros, y sobre todo los de regalo, son el mejor obsequio
«This volume contains a poem in which four young siblings discuss the Christmas presents they would like to receive. Three of the four indicate that they are hoping for toys. But the fourth child, an older sister, knows that children will quickly lose interest in toys. What she wants instead are books—and a Gift Book most of all» — el ejemplo tomado de un volumen de 1837 editado por Eliza Leslie: de cuatro hermanos, tres esperan juguetes y la hermana mayor, que sabe que los juguetes cansan pronto, quiere libros
«For me, of books I should not tire Were hundreds on my shelf; I’ll tell you now my chief desire— An “Annual” for myself; With cover handsomely emboss’d, And gilded edges bright; With prints to look at, tales to read, And verses to recite.» — los versos de ese poema, que piden un anuario propio con tapa repujada, cantos dorados, estampas, cuentos y versos
«Annuals for every taste, for every age, Lie scattered round, decked in their covers gay…. Then choose, and neither old nor young forget— Each child, at least, must have the ANNUALETTE.» — el verso típico que el capítulo cita del prefacio de 1840 de un libro de regalo infantil, que se recomienda a sí mismo por su nombre
«Sure enough, a poem in The Pearl for 1836 has a father who tells his children, as he is handing them their presents: Here’s Parley’s Magazine, my boys, And for my little girl Here is a very pretty book, Whose title is “The Pearl.”» — el caso en que el verso anuncia además otros títulos de la misma casa: un padre reparte a sus hijos la revista de la editorial y a la niña el libro en que ese poema se imprime
«And in the very next number of The Pearl, for 1837, one story ends with a group of children opening their Christmas presents. “‘I am so glad that I have got The Pearl,’ “one says, and a second chimes in after opening another holiday book brought out by the same publishers: “‘I have The Boys’ Week-Day Book—I have wanted it so much.» — la misma técnica un año después: un cuento acaba con los niños abriendo regalos y celebrando por su nombre los dos libros de la casa
«The preface to a Gift Book first published in 1842 as St. Nicholas’s Book conveyed the point that it had been put together directly on the personal instructions of St. Nicholas himself, who desired to have a book “made exactly to his mind for the Christmas of this year” and who therefore “applied to the author to make one, to be called ‘St. Nicholas’s Book for All Good Boys and Girls.’” The preface noted, simply, “Here it is.» — el caso en que el propio Santa Claus entra en la maniobra: el prefacio dice que el libro se armó por instrucción personal del santo, que quería uno hecho exactamente a su gusto para esa Navidad
«Each of those children whom Saint Nicholas … most highly approves, will be sure to find a copy of this book, with all its stories and pictures, and its nice binding, safely deposited in his stocking in the chimney corner, on the morning of next Christmas, or at farthest, next New Year’s Day.» — la continuación de ese prefacio: los niños más aprobados por el santo hallarán un ejemplar con todos sus cuentos y estampas en la media del rincón de la chimenea
«When they were manufactured as presents for adults, Gift Books were often ornate and luxurious to the eye and hand. Commonly, they were named to suggest their resemblance to other kinds of beautiful luxury objects, notably jewels or flowers, both of which were also popular as Christmas presents (the latter were newly available in winter through commercial hothouses» — el modo de nombrar esos libros cuando se hacían para adultos: títulos que los emparentaban con joyas o con flores, las dos cosas populares también como regalo navideño
«Gift Books were probably among the most expensive books many Americans had ever purchased. Take the experience of a rather prosperous man, John Davis of Worcester, Massachusetts. (A future governor of Massachusetts, he was then serving in the U.S. Congress.» — el caso individual con que el capítulo mide el precio: John Davis, de Worcester, hombre próspero y futuro gobernador de Massachusetts, entonces en el Congreso
«I went into a bookstore to see what was the price of a souvenir [i.e., a Gift Book] that I might send you a new year’s present. I saw them advertised as very beautiful and found them so as you will judge by the price $5. This bookstore is one of the best… the most pleasant I ever saw. The proprietor … seems to spare nothing to get the most rich and costly collections of books, of prints, maps and everything else. The shop is not large but elegant. I saw many things I wanted to buy but they cost too much.» — según Nissenbaum, la carta de Davis a su mujer el 26 de diciembre de 1826: entró en una librería, halló el volumen tan hermoso como se anunciaba, lo juzgó por el precio de cinco dólares y vio muchas cosas que costaban demasiado
«Davis admitted here that he had been tempted to buy “many things” that were more expensive than he was used to purchasing. But he did spend $5 on a single book for his wife—and he let her know it (which suggests that he was not used to spending so much money on books» — lo que el capítulo lee en esa carta: Davis reconoce la tentación de gastar más de lo acostumbrado, y que se lo hiciera saber a su mujer sugiere que no solía gastar tanto en libros
«IT WOULD be unfair to conclude that these books were purchased and given away simply as a display of conspicuous consumption. Christmas gifts had to be (or appear to be) expressions of personal sentiment, designed to signify or enhance intimate personal bonds—bonds between parents and children, husbands and wives, suitors and those they courted.» — la enmienda que el propio autor pone a la lectura fácil de esos regalos: no eran simple consumo ostentoso, sino que tenían que ser, o parecer, expresiones de sentimiento personal que señalaran vínculos íntimos
«This meant that they were to be given freely, out of affection, and not as part of an old-fashioned gift exchange offered in fulfillment of an obligation.» — lo que ese requisito implicaba: darse libremente y por afecto, no como parte de un intercambio a la antigua cumplido por obligación
«The season approaches when Good Wishes take visible, palpable form, becoming active in the shape of Gifts…. To give and receive the free will offerings of Friendship and Affection are among the purest pleasures permitted to this state of being» — según Nissenbaum, Horace Greeley en el *New York Tribune* de 1846: se acerca la temporada en que los buenos deseos toman forma palpable de dones, y dar y recibir las ofrendas libres de la amistad y del afecto está entre los placeres más puros
«A present given to create a sense of obligation, even to a dependent or child, becomes at the best a Chanty, humiliating rather than inspiring the receiver.» — la distinción que Greeley traza y que el capítulo subraya: el regalo dado para crear obligación, aun a un dependiente o a un hijo, queda en caridad y humilla en vez de inspirar
«The overwhelming majority of Gift Books bore as their subtitle the phrase “A Christmas and New Year’s» — el subtítulo que llevaba la abrumadora mayoría de esos libros; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *Gift* o *Present*
«Thus, for jewelry, there were the Amaranth, Amethyst, Amulet, Brilliant, Coronet, Diadem, Gem, Gem of the Season, Jewel, Literary Gem, Lyric Gem, Opal, Pearl, and Ruby. For flowers, there were Autumn Leaves, Bouquet, Christmas Blossoms, Dahlia, Dew-Drop, Evergreen, Floral Offering, Flowers of Loveliness, Garland, Hyacinth, Iris, Laurel Wreath, Lily, Lily of the Valley, Magnolia,» — la lista de títulos de joya y de flor que el capítulo transcribe; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la serie floral sigue en la siguiente
«May Flower, Moss-Rose, Primrose, Rose, Rose Bud, Violet, Winter-Bloom, Wintergreen, Woodbine, and Wreath.» — la continuación de esa lista de títulos florales en la plana siguiente
«That was why it was so important for the gift to stand outside the realm of ordinary day-to-day needs, to be a luxury item and never what Greeley called “a matter of homely necessity or mere mercantile utility.» — lo que Greeley exigía del regalo y que el capítulo hace suyo como definición: quedar fuera de las necesidades ordinarias, ser artículo de lujo y nunca cuestión de necesidad casera ni de mera utilidad mercantil
«In short, it should not so much satisfy a want as express a sentiment, speaking a language which if unmeaning to the general ear, is yet eloquent to the heart of the receiver.» — el remate de esa misma pieza de Greeley: el don no ha de satisfacer una carencia sino expresar un sentimiento, en un lenguaje elocuente para el corazón de quien lo recibe
«The notice concluded pointedly: Such presents say, “in language not to be mistaken, ‘Forget me not.» — el cierre de una nota del *New York Herald* de 1839 sobre los volúmenes espléndidos de las librerías: tales presentes dicen, en lenguaje inconfundible, que no se olvide a quien los da
«In other words, the presentation of a Gift Book could be used as part of the courtship process, as a way of deepening a personal relationship or signaling a willingness to do so. That often meant treading a delicate line—to be personal and sincere yet not too intimate.» — la función que el capítulo atribuye a esos libros en el cortejo: profundizar una relación o señalar la disposición a hacerlo, con la línea delicada de ser personal y sincero sin ser demasiado íntimo
«In the festive season of the year, when kind feelings flow forth in gifts, tokens, and remembrances, nothing … is more appropriate as a souvenir, than a handsome book. It can be given and received without a violation of delicacy» — según Nissenbaum, el prefacio de un libro de regalo que enuncia esa misma línea: nada más apropiado como recuerdo que un libro hermoso, que puede darse y recibirse sin violar la delicadeza
«There was a problem here. Whether Gift Books were used by suitors or by affectionate parents, there was an inherent tension between the message they were intended to convey and the fact that they were actually mass-produced and mass-marketed commodities. Given the personal weight such gifts were meant to carry, that was hardly appropriate. It was crucial that they be able to conceal the facts of their own production and distribution—to disguise their origins, in other words.» — el problema que el capítulo formula: la tensión entre el mensaje que esos libros debían llevar y su condición de mercancías producidas y vendidas en masa, que los obligaba a disimular su propio origen
«In the antebellum years, as now, both jewels and flowers seemed to do the job, too, since they were not only beautiful luxury goods but also objects that could be represented as the creations of nature. This was another reason so many Gift Books were named for jewels and flowers.» — la razón añadida que el capítulo da para los títulos de joya y de flor: una y otra podían presentarse como creaciones de la naturaleza además de bienes de lujo
«Sometimes the very title of a Gift Book indicated the sentiment it was meant to carry: thus Souvenir itself (meaning something to be remembered), but also Affections Gift, Forget Me Not, Friendships Offering, Gift of Friendship, Keepsake, Leaflets of Memory, Memento (subtitled “A Gift of Friendship”), Remember Me, Token, and Token of Friendship.» — la otra serie de títulos que el capítulo enumera, los que nombran directamente el sentimiento que el don debía llevar
«Both The Pearl and The Rose were subtitled “Affections Gift,” and in that way associated jewelry and flowers, respectively, with personal feelings— with the world of domestic affections, not the world of commodity production.» — lo que el capítulo lee en esos subtítulos: joya y flor quedaban asociadas al sentimiento personal, al mundo de los afectos domésticos y no al de la producción de mercancías
«At the frontispiece of each volume, there typically appeared a special introductory page known as a “presentation plate”—an engraving expressly designed to be written on by the buyer of the book, to personalize it and make the presentation itself an intrinsic part of the book.» — el dispositivo con que se lograba: una plana de presentación grabada para que el comprador escribiera en ella y el acto mismo de regalar quedara dentro del libro
«Some presentation plates contained room for the purchaser not only to fill in his name and the name of the person who was to receive the book but even to compose a phrase that indicated the precise degree or quality of affection he wished the present to convey.» — hasta dónde llegaba ese dispositivo según el capítulo: había planas donde el comprador podía además componer la frase que indicaba el grado exacto de afecto que quería dar a entender
«Presentation Plate. The printed part of this plate (from a Gift Book called The Token) leaves only three phrases to be filled in by the books purchaser. It reads: “From ——— as a Token of ——— to ———.”This particular number of The Token happened to contain the first publication of three stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne.» — el pie de la lámina de una de esas planas de presentación, que deja tres frases por rellenar, en un volumen que además traía la primera publicación de tres cuentos de Hawthorne
«Courtship at Christmas. The young Cupid in the foreground of this presentation plate has just shot an arrow into the heart placed in the background at the right. There is little ambiguity here as to the point being made by anyone who purchases this Gift Book as a Christmas present!» — el pie de la otra lámina: un Cupido que acaba de clavar la flecha en el corazón del fondo, sin ambigüedad sobre lo que quiere decir quien compra ese libro de regalo
«In other Gift Books the nature of the relationship was already embedded in the design of the presentation plate, as it was in an 1837 design showing a picture of a Cupid who has, William Tell-like, just shot an arrow into the heart that sits perched atop a pediment located to his right.» — la variante en que la relación venía ya inscrita en el diseño: una plana de 1837 con el Cupido que, a la manera de Guillermo Tell, acaba de disparar la flecha al corazón
«Gift Books might be said to represent the “commercialization of sincerity.” As a genre, they flourished for little more than a single generation, between 1825 and 1860.» — la fórmula con que el capítulo nombra el género y su duración: la comercialización de la sinceridad, florecida por poco más de una generación
«Perhaps they held a special appeal for this particular generation, which was the first to be overwhelmed by the world of commodities and thus the only one that needed to disguise commercial transactions when they threatened to intrude on an intimate setting.» — la conjetura que el propio autor marca como tal sobre por qué esa generación: fue la primera abrumada por el mundo de las mercancías y la única que necesitó disfrazar las transacciones comerciales al meterse en lo íntimo
«production were employed to make Gift Books appear personal and unique, to convey the impression that they were customized, even handmade, products.» — la ironía que el capítulo señala: las técnicas mismas de la producción en masa se empleaban para que esos libros parecieran personales y únicos; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y el sujeto queda en la anterior
«Most American families owned a Bible if they owned no other book. But before the nineteenth century these were family Bibles, large and durable folio volumes meant to be used in family devotions and to be passed down through the generations. But early in the nineteenth century Bibles became “personal” books as well, books meant to be the property of the individual who owned them.» — el cambio que el capítulo data a principios del siglo XIX: de la Biblia familiar en folio, para la devoción común y para pasar de generación en generación, a la Biblia personal, propiedad de quien la tiene
«Such Bibles—especially editions of the New Testament—were heavily marketed at Christmas. Booksellers frequently advertised their selection of Bibles as heavily as they did their Gift Books—and right beside them.» — cómo se vendían esas Biblias según el capítulo: con tanta insistencia como los libros de regalo y anunciadas justo al lado
«Even more self-evidently than with Gift Books, giving Bibles must have felt like a gesture suffused with sincerity, far removed from the world of commodity production and commercial exchange. But from a publisher’s perspective, Bibles were commercial products.» — la tensión que el capítulo señala en el caso de la Biblia: regalarla debía sentirse como gesto lleno de sinceridad, y desde la perspectiva del editor era producto comercial
«And as the market for Bibles expanded, so did the competition between editions. They came big and small, fancy and plain, fat and thin. Like Gift Books, too, Bibles came in a great variety of sizes, shapes, cover styles, and colors. Personal Bibles, especially, were often small in size —“pocket Bibles,” as they were known. There were even illustrated Bibles for young children.» — la competencia entre ediciones que el capítulo describe: grandes y pequeñas, lujosas y llanas, gordas y delgadas, con Biblias de bolsillo y hasta ilustradas para niños
«A Personal Bible. A pocket-size edition of the New Testament, printed in 1827. As this illustration shows, the binding included a leather clasp (shown at the right), the handle of which would be inserted into a slit on the front cover when the book was closed. This particular volume was inscribed to “Mrs. Dean,” the mother of Rebekah Scott Dean, whose Gift Books “presentation plate”. (Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society)» — el pie de la lámina de una Biblia personal de 1827, con su broche de cuero, dedicada a la madre de la misma Rebekah Scott Dean de la plana de presentación
«His shop was offering “Elegant diamond type Pocket Bibles, superbly bound in morocco, full gilt”—though he would also sell “Common [i.e., plain] Pocket Bibles.” In 1821, in Worcester, Massachusetts, Isaiah Thomas managed to spend the enormous sum of $30 on “elegant Bibles” for his granddaughters.» — los dos ejemplos con que el capítulo mide ese comercio: el librero de Portsmouth que en 1818 ofrecía Biblias de bolsillo en tafilete dorado, y los treinta dólares que Isaiah Thomas gastó en 1821 en Biblias para sus nietas
«One might think that all Bibles were the same on the inside, but this was not the case. Take illustrations, for example. The pictures printed in various illustrated editions of the Bible often emphasized one or another element of the text (divine wrath or divine mercy, for instance), presumably to appeal to readers of varying theological preferences or aesthetic sensibilities—once again, a form of market segmentation.» — la competencia por el contenido mismo que el capítulo documenta: las estampas de cada edición realzaban un elemento u otro del texto, la ira o la misericordia divinas, según la preferencia teológica o el gusto del lector
«But Bibles were able to disguise their identity as commercial products, even more effectively than Gift Books. The divine authorship of the Bible, and its role as an infallible guide to the conduct of human life, rendered any clever sleight of hand quite unnecessary, especially when a Bible was intended as a present—and even when its physical packaging was used as a marketing device.» — por qué la Biblia disimulaba mejor su condición mercantil según el capítulo: su autoría divina y su papel de guía infalible volvían innecesario cualquier juego de manos
«Greeley went on to suggest that Bibles were the “fittest” holiday present he had “ever yet beheld.” But Greeley was not referring to just any Bible: “We speak of THE ILLUMINATED BIBLE, published by Harper & Brothers in a superb royal quarto of some 1500 pages, profusely illustrated by Adams from designs selected from the most superb European editions.» — el regalo que Greeley tenía por el más apropiado en 1846, y la edición precisa que nombraba: la Biblia iluminada de Harper & Brothers, en cuarto real de unas mil quinientas planas
«Most impressive of all was the physical package itself; the press work was “glorious” (there were usually three or four illustrations on each page) and the binding “rich and durable” (the book was leather-bound, hand-tooled, and embossed with gold, and its pages were gilt-edged» — lo que el capítulo destaca de aquella edición: el paquete físico, con tres o cuatro estampas por plana, encuadernación en piel labrada a mano y realzada en oro
«And indeed, the Harpers Illuminated Bible opened with a presentation plate of its own, an inscription page that read only “A Sacred Token, From————To————,” leaving two blank spaces for the names of giver and intended recipient to be filled in. In other words, the Illuminated Bible was deliberately marketed as a Gift Book.» — el dispositivo con que esa Biblia cerraba el círculo: una plana de presentación propia con dos espacios en blanco para los nombres, de modo que se vendía deliberadamente como libro de regalo
«The Illuminated Bible was a commercial triumph, selling enough copies in its first dozen years to earn the publishers a staggering $500,000 in retail receipts.» — la cifra con que el capítulo mide ese triunfo comercial en los doce primeros años
«Henry Cheever, From his affectionate brother George—A Thanksgiving present, November 14, 1828.” —“This little volume is a New Year’s Gift to Horace James, by his affectionate Mother…. Jan. 1, 1828.” —“Mrs. Dean with the sincere love of her affectionate daughter Rebekah. December 21st, 1827.» — las tres dedicatorias manuscritas de Biblias de 1827 que el capítulo transcribe de un año elegido al azar, entre ellas la de la misma Rebekah Dean a su madre
«When the four young sisters who inhabit this novel awaken on Christmas morning, each one finds a “little” illustrated copy of the New Testament under her pillow, inscribed with “a few words by their mother.” The four presents are of the identical edition (each contains “the same picture inside”); but the colors of the covers are different, and Alcott specifies just what they are: Jo’s copy is “crimson-covered,” Meg’s is “green,” Beth’s is “dovecolored” (i.e., beige), and Amy’s is “blue.” (Beth was “very much impressed by the pretty books,” Alcott tells us; and Amy says “‘I’m glad mine is blue.» — la escena de *Little Women* que el capítulo trae como ejemplo literario: las cuatro hermanas hallan bajo la almohada el mismo Nuevo Testamento ilustrado, con unas palabras de la madre y con las tapas de cuatro colores distintos
«The gift of these Bibles is an effective gesture of emotional intimacy (their mother, “Marmee,” knows her daughters’ precise individual tastes). But at the same time they are part of a process by which Marmee is training her daughters to make informed decisions of their own in the confusing world of consumer preferences.» — la doble lectura que el capítulo hace de ese regalo: gesto eficaz de intimidad, porque la madre conoce el gusto de cada hija, y a la vez adiestramiento para decidir en el mundo confuso de las preferencias de consumo
«Such beautiful Bibles she had never seen; she pored in ecstasy over their varieties of type and binding…. “Now, Ellen,” said Mrs. Montgomery, “look and choose; take your time, and see which you like best.» — según Nissenbaum, la escena de la librería en *The Wide, Wide World* de Susan Warner: la niña nunca había visto Biblias tan hermosas y se extasía ante las variedades de tipo y encuadernación
«Ellen looks the Bibles over intensely: “[A]s though a nation’s fate were deciding, she was weighing the comparative advantages of large, small, and middle-sized; black, blue, purple, and red; gilt and not gilt; clasp and no clasp.» — la comparación con que la novela describe esa deliberación: como si se decidiera el destino de una nación, la niña sopesa tamaños, colores, dorados y broches
«First, Ellen selects for herself “a large, royal octavo Bible, heavy enough to be a good lift for her.” But her mother persuades her that it would be too bulky “for everyday use.” So she chooses again, this time “a beautiful miniature edition in two volumes, gilt and clasped, and very perfect in all respects, but of exceeding small print.» — las dos primeras elecciones de la niña y sus dos rechazos: una Biblia en cuarto mayor, que la madre juzga demasiado voluminosa para el uso diario, y una edición en miniatura en dos volúmenes de letra pequeñísima
«Susan Warner’s point is clear, and her scores of thousands of avid readers must have responded to it: There was simply too much stuff. The very choices buyers faced made them feel helpless. Middle-class America was consumer heaven, but consumer heaven was also consumer hell. The Bible itself—the Book of Books, the one book that offered a certain guide through the labyrinth of human existence—had become a part of the labyrinth, another overwhelming commodity.» — lo que el capítulo lee en esa novela, la más vendida de su día: había sencillamente demasiadas cosas, y el Libro de los libros había pasado a ser parte del laberinto, otra mercancía abrumadora
«The commercial and domestic Christmas did not enter American culture in some abstract fashion, through some impersonal force called consumer capitalism. It was actively pressed, as we have seen, by actual producers and sellers and their cultural allies. And on the other side it was actively embraced, person by person and community by community.» — la tesis metodológica del apartado siguiente: la Navidad comercial y doméstica no entró por una fuerza impersonal, sino que la empujaron productores y vendedores y la abrazaron personas y comunidades una por una
«What makes this family— the Sedgwicks of western Massachusetts and New York City—such a rewarding case study is the richness of the private papers they left behind.» — por qué el capítulo elige a esa familia: la riqueza de los papeles privados que dejaron
«The extant Sedgwick family correspondence, housed in several hundred manuscript boxes at the Massachusetts Historical Society, is filled with detailed and interlinked descriptions of domestic events, including holiday rituals.» — dónde está esa correspondencia y qué trae: varios cientos de cajas manuscritas en la Massachusetts Historical Society, con descripciones detalladas y enlazadas de sucesos domésticos
«The family letters give us a good picture of the way a prosperous New England family made the transition to a child-centered Christmas focused on the exchange of commercially produced presents. Some of the letters were actually written by children.» — lo que esas cartas permiten ver según el capítulo: cómo una familia próspera de Nueva Inglaterra pasó a una Navidad centrada en los niños y en el intercambio de regalos comerciales, con algunas cartas escritas por los propios niños
«One member of this family, the writer Catharine Maria Sedgwick, herself played a small role in the larger history of this holiday—for it was she who wrote the first fictional account of an American Christmas tree, in a story published in 1835.» — el dato que el capítulo reserva para el capítulo siguiente: fue Catharine Maria Sedgwick quien escribió el primer relato de ficción de un árbol de Navidad estadounidense
«And many Bibles were published with end matter appended to make the book more accessible or alluring; these included chronologies and tables of pronunciation, etymology, geography, scriptural weights and money, as well as colored maps.» — lo que muchas Biblias añadían al final para volverse más accesibles o atractivas: cronologías, tablas de pronunciación, etimología, geografía, pesos y monedas bíblicos y mapas en color
«Ellen is bewildered. She has “lost the power of judging amidst so many tempting objects….” Finally, rejecting “all that were decidedly too large, or too small, or of too fine a print,” she chooses among» — el desenlace de esa escena: la niña pierde la facultad de juzgar entre tantos objetos tentadores; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue con las tres Biblias de tamaño moderado entre las que elige la roja
«Several Bibles published in the 1820s contained an ingenious foldout “Key,” designed to make the meaning» — el añadido que el capítulo destaca en varias Biblias de los años veinte: una clave desplegable ingeniosa; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue diciendo que servía para volver más fácil de meditar el sentido de muchos versículos
«Always a staunch political conservative, Sedgwick was a leading opponent of Shays’s Rebellion, the populist uprising that swept through Massachusetts in 1786–87, and he became an active member of the Federalist Party under the new constitution of 1787.» — quién era el patriarca de la familia según el capítulo: conservador político firme, opositor destacado de la rebelión de Shays y miembro activo del partido federalista
«Along with all her siblings, she rejected Calvinist orthodoxy and became a committed Unitarian.» — la posición religiosa de esa generación según el capítulo: rechazaron la ortodoxia calvinista y se hicieron unitarios convencidos
«Furthermore, their fundamental conservatism (and their rural base) acted as something of a brake on the family’s temptation to enmesh themselves in a consumerist Christmas.» — el freno que el capítulo atribuye a su conservadurismo y a su base rural frente a la tentación de una Navidad consumista
«Christmas and New Year’s are mentioned casually in the correspondence, in the form of seasonal salutations, especially in letters Theodore Sedgwick received from his friends. Theodore’s wife, Pamela Dwight Sedgwick, noted the holidays more frequently than did Theodore himself, wishing her husband a “joyful Christmas” in 1792 and opening a letter to him two years later by noting that “It is a most beautiful Christmas morning.”42 Domestic presents do not enter the picture.» — lo que el capítulo halla en la correspondencia del primer Sedgwick: menciones casuales de la Navidad y el Año Nuevo como saludos de temporada, sin que los regalos domésticos entren en escena
«Theodore Sedgwick preferred to observe the season with alcohol. On January 2, 1784, his old friend and political crony Henry Van Schaack wrote him a characteristically jocular letter centering on a cask of wine. Van Schaack called Sedgwick a “drinking devil” and promised that when the two men met “We will eat & drink & be merry.» — cómo guardaba la temporada el patriarca según el capítulo: con alcohol, como muestra la carta jocosa de su viejo amigo Henry Van Schaack en torno a un tonel de vino
«In fact, during the Christmas season Sedgwick and all his old friends characteristically wrote to one another in this fashion, under the guise of “good old boys.” The convention endured well into Sedgwicks middle years, even though by then he was a member of the U.S. Congress and claimed to have forsworn such behavior.» — la convención epistolar que el capítulo describe: Sedgwick y sus viejos amigos se escribían en ese tono aun cuando él ya era congresista y decía haber abjurado de tal conducta
«Where did you eat your beef stake? I suppose you gluttonized at the Tavern, and drank a little, and swore a little and gambled a little. But with all these wicked things I should have been glad to have participated not in them but in your mirth and good humour.» — según Nissenbaum, la carta de Sedgwick del 9 de enero de 1795: supone que el amigo comió en la taberna, bebió un poco, juró un poco y jugó un poco, y aun así se habría alegrado de participar no en eso sino en su buen humor
«As much as anything else, Sedgwick and his friends used such festivities as a male ritual, implicitly based on the exclusion of women. When Sedgwick served in Congress during the 1790s, he wrote frequently and disdainfully of the “ladies’ parties” that he was invariably pressed to attend during Christmas week in Philadelphia.» — el uso que el capítulo atribuye a esas fiestas: un rito masculino basado implícitamente en la exclusión de las mujeres, con el desdén de Sedgwick por las fiestas de damas de la semana navideña en Filadelfia
«In all the scores of surviving letters written during this season over the years between Theodore and his wife and their seven children, there is no indication until the very end that the Sedgwicks observed the season with any special domestic celebration at their house in Stockbridge.» — el hallazgo negativo que el capítulo consigna: en decenas de cartas de temporada entre el matrimonio y sus siete hijos no hay indicio, hasta el final, de celebración doméstica especial en la casa de Stockbridge
«It was Pamela Sedgwick who would write to her husband—enviously, it seems —“This is a season of great festivity to you.” But for her own part she had nothing to report.» — lo único que la mujer del patriarca escribía al respecto, con envidia según el capítulo: esta es para ti una temporada de gran festividad, sin nada que contar por su parte
«Before 1804, Theodore never once so much as mentioned the holidays in his letters to his children. In that year, he finally wished them all “many happy new years.” Apparently such greetings were more appropriate for Sedgwick’s old friends than for his own children.» — el dato que el capítulo subraya: antes de 1804 el patriarca no mencionó las fiestas ni una vez en sus cartas a los hijos, y los saludos parecían más propios para sus viejos amigos
«On December 24, 1804, he wrote his sons a long moralizing letter warning them of the dangers of dissolute behavior, especially gambling at cards, an activity that had long been associated with the Christmas season.» — el ejemplo de esa costumbre: la carta del 24 de diciembre de 1804 a sus hijos, avisándoles de los peligros de la conducta disoluta y en especial del juego de naipes
«But nowhere in all this correspondence is there any hint of domestic celebration. Nor do such hints appear in the surviving letters written in these years by second-generation Sedgwicks themselves, whether to their father or to one another.» — el segundo hallazgo negativo del capítulo: tampoco en las cartas de los hijos de esos años, ni al padre ni entre ellos, asoma la celebración doméstica
«But what they yearned for, it seems, was parties and dances, not domestic rituals—for precisely the kind of activities that Theodore Sedgwick experienced (and scorned) as a congressman in Philadelphia.» — qué era lo que echaban de menos según el capítulo: fiestas y bailes, no ritos domésticos, justo lo que el padre vivía y despreciaba como congresista
«We have little Matter to communicate as we live without seeing much company and know very little of what passes in our Neighborhood. The girls generally find amusement in conversing upon and scaning [scanning] the characters of their male acquaintances[.] [T]hey have very few Parties and have had but two Balls this winter. They think this want of amusement [is] the dearth of all Pleasure. They think Stockbridge the most Intolerable Place in the world and would Prefer Greenland or Zambly[?] to staying here.» — según Nissenbaum, la carta de Pamela Sedgwick de 1798 sobre la soledad de Stockbridge en la temporada: las muchachas tienen muy pocas fiestas y solo dos bailes ese invierno, y tienen el pueblo por el lugar más intolerable del mundo
«On New Years Day, 1805, Catharine M. Sedgwick (then 16 years old) used the bulk of her morning “to discharge my domestic duties, and greet my neighbors with the salutations of the New Year.” And that afternoon her privacy “was interrupted by the most unwelcome and vexatious visitors.» — la entrada de la joven Catharine el día de Año Nuevo de 1805: la mañana en cumplir sus deberes domésticos y saludar a los vecinos, y la tarde interrumpida por visitantes muy inoportunos
«The Sedgwicks were hardly a typical American family. But as patrician as they may have been, they were not terribly wealthy (not in the same league as a man like Clement Clarke Moore, for example). In financial terms, the children of Theodore Sedgwick could best be» — la ubicación social que el capítulo da a la familia: patricios pero no riquísimos, muy lejos de un hombre como Clement Clarke Moore; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue situándolos en la clase media alta próspera
«It was not for lack of interest. Theodore Sedgwick’s children (along with their mother) keenly felt the absence of holiday festivity, at least» — la enmienda que el capítulo pone a ese silencio: los hijos y la madre sí echaban de menos la festividad de la temporada; el troceo corta en el límite de segmento y la frase sigue: *when they were in their teens*
«The holydays, our great season of festivity have this day commenced…. It is an undoubted fact that a considerable number of pennies has been given to the boys & servants, and I am credibly informed that this liberality has sometimes amounted to the sum of sixpence. Astonishing if true!» — según Nissenbaum, la carta de diciembre de 1805 del hijo Henry desde Albany: un número considerable de centavos se ha dado a los muchachos y criados, y esa liberalidad ha llegado a veces a seis peniques
«Only in the final year of the patriarch’s life does any sign of change appear. On January 1, 1812, Theodore Sedgwick’s married daughter Eliza S. Pomeroy wrote to her brother Henry D. Sedgwick that “Pappa … gives a New Year feast” for some guests, and that she and her seven children would participate. And she added, “The little ones are as happy and playful as lambs.» — el primer indicio de cambio que el capítulo halla, en el último año de vida del patriarca: la hija casada cuenta que papá da una comida de Año Nuevo y que ella y sus siete hijos participarán
«By decade’s end, the tide had begun to turn. Theodore Sedgwick’s children were beginning to wish one another a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, and to report Christmas dinners and New Year’s parties.» — el giro que el capítulo data al final de la década: los hijos empiezan a desearse feliz Navidad y a reportar comidas de Navidad y fiestas de Año Nuevo
«But it was not on account of their departure from New England that things were beginning to change. Henry Dwight Sedgwick was married by this time, into a distinguished Boston family (his wife, Jane Minot Sedgwick, was the daughter of a prominent Boston judge). During their courtship, in 1816, he wished her a “merry, merry Christmas,” confident that this would cause his New England fiancée no offense.» — la enmienda que el capítulo hace a la explicación fácil: el cambio no venía de que dos hijos se mudaran a Nueva York, porque Henry felicitaba la Navidad a su prometida de Boston seguro de que no la ofendería
«Indeed, Jane Minot’s Congregationalist family had been celebrating Christmas in Boston for years. In December 1817, the first year of her marriage, Janes brother wrote to her that “[o]ur Christmas was a merry one,” adding that he had dined “with some young people.» — el dato que sostiene esa enmienda: la familia congregacionalista de la prometida llevaba años celebrando la Navidad en Boston, como muestra la carta de su hermano en 1817
«In the same letter she conveyed a New Years greeting to her sister-in-law —and included Louisa’s children in the greeting: “A happy New Year to you dear Louisa, & William, & to all yr good little children.” This was the first time a member of the Sedgwick family had incorporated young people into their holiday wishes.» — el detalle que el capítulo registra como primero de su clase: la felicitación de 1820 que incluye por su nombre a los niños de la familia
«It was two holiday seasons later, in 1825, that we find the first direct evidence of a commercial gift exchange within the Sedgwick family.» — la fecha de la primera evidencia directa de un intercambio comercial de regalos dentro de esa familia
«Catharine had published her novel A New England Tale in 1822, and she was already taking on a role that would endear her to the rest of the family, that of the affectionate aunt who reported in vivid detail all the goings-on within the clan, and especially among its children, all of whom loved her dearly.» — el papel que Catharine iba tomando en el clan según el capítulo: el de la tía afectuosa que contaba en detalle vívido todo lo que pasaba, y sobre todo lo de los niños
«On December 28, 1825, she reported to her 5-year-old niece and namesake Katherine that “Jane and Fanny both got dolls from their Aunt Speakman for a Christmas gift.” She described the scene vividly: “Jane’s was a wax doll with eyes that open and shut—and it looked so much as if it was alive that Jane thought it really was and screamed ‘It is alive! It is alive!» — según Nissenbaum, la carta de Catharine de diciembre de 1825: la muñeca de cera con ojos que abren y cierran parecía tan viva que la niña gritó que lo estaba
«With this gift we suddenly find ourselves hurled into the orbit of a modern Christmas. The doll is ornate, high-tech, designed to impress, and was obviously purchased at a shop (and, just as obviously, it is expensive» — lo que el capítulo lee en ese regalo: con él entramos de golpe en la órbita de una Navidad moderna, con una muñeca ornada, de tecnología llamativa, comprada en una tienda y cara
«In 1827 little Kate Sedgwick’s parents (they lived in Lenox, a village several miles from Stockbridge) “kept Christmas … in Episcopal style.” In Stockbridge itself, on New Year’s Day the rest of the family gave presents to the children, who “received with the most entire satisfaction the simplest offerings, finding in their own happy hearts the best New Year’s gifts.» — los dos modos de guardar la temporada en la familia en 1827 según el capítulo: los de Lenox a la manera episcopal y los de Stockbridge dando regalos a los niños el día de Año Nuevo
«Theodore’s present [i.e., her present to their son Theodore III] … consisted of some very ornamental things for the table, to the amount of $11. I got them [at] a great bargain, the first price asked was $16. Sister Catharine [Catharine Sedgwick], who was with me, thought them as beautiful & cheap as any thing she had ever seen. I wish you could have seen how much they were admired. Sister Catharine presented Theodore with a beautiful cameo breast pin, & decorated Maria [Theodores sister] with flowers, & Sister Elizabeth [Robert’s wife] had kindly provided a very pretty present for both Maria & Theodore, a little article combining a purse, card-case, & tablet—a convenient affair which they both wanted.» — según Nissenbaum, la carta de la madre con los precios pagados: adornos de mesa por once dólares rebajados de dieciséis, un alfiler de camafeo, flores y un artículo que juntaba bolsa, tarjetero y tablilla
«Finally, that same year (1827), Robert Sedgwick and his wife, Elizabeth, set up an elaborate new ritual for their two young children (ages 2 and 3), complete with stockings—and Santa Claus.» — el rito nuevo que una rama de la familia instituye en 1827 para sus dos niños pequeños, con medias colgadas y Santa Claus
«The year 1827 was the very year that Clement Clarke Moore’s 1822 poem was finding its way into print in newspapers published in New York and other American cities. It is striking how quickly the Sedgwicks adopted this ritual (and we can be sure that their children would later assume that it went back forever!» — la coincidencia que el capítulo subraya y lo que le llama la atención: 1827 es el año en que el poema de Moore se imprimía en los periódicos, y los Sedgwick adoptaron el rito con rapidez llamativa
«Nothing could exceed the joy of the children on New Year’s morning, when awakening with the first dawn of light, they jumped up eagerly to examine their stockings, which, certain of “Santa Claas[’]” bounty, they had had suspended the evening before from the bed post—and which, according to their anticipations were full to overflowing.» — según Nissenbaum, la descripción de la madre: los niños despertaron con la primera luz y saltaron a examinar las medias que habían colgado del poste de la cama, seguros de la largueza del santo
«They received a great many beautiful presents, among which Lizzy had a Mahogany bedstead and Bureau, and a wax doll, whose eyes would open and shut. The Bureau, which is a gift from her father, is really a curiosity. It is more than half a yard square, and has three drawers[,] which are sufficiently deep to hold all her dolls clothes now. And to be useful as she says for her ornaments and Curiosities hereafter[,] [“]when she is a big lady.» — la descripción del año siguiente que el capítulo cita: una cama y un buró de caoba, una muñeca de cera con ojos que abren y cierran, y el buró con tres cajones para la ropa de las muñecas y luego para adornos y curiosidades
«By the next year, 1829, Santa Claus had managed to reach the Massachusetts branch of the family. In the little village of Stockbridge, Henry and Jane Sedgwick’s children “were awake before day light to feel for their stockings & examine what Santa Clas [sic] had put into them—8c I have heard but one [ongoing] peal of merriment from them ever since.» — la llegada del rito a la rama de Massachusetts en 1829: los niños despiertos antes del alba para palpar sus medias y ver qué les había puesto Santa Claus
«Santa Claus reached the Lenox Sedgwicks, too, that year, but there his bounty was disappointing to Catharine M. Sedgwick’s favorite niece Kate, now 9 years old, who conveyed to her aunt the hope “that Santa Claus has given you at least as many presents as he has me, for he only gave me four.” (Kate’s four presents included a pair of books, a “neat brown pocket book which mother gave, & sixty-eight cents from father.» — el contrapunto que el capítulo trae del mismo año: a la sobrina de nueve años el santo solo le dio cuatro regalos, y ella se lo hace saber a su tía
«New Years day as usual was a most joyous day to the children. They were loaded with presents from all their friends—whips, tops, dolls, guns, books, tea cups, &c. Never was any thing like it. And never was such happiness.» — según Nissenbaum, la carta de 1830 con la fórmula que el propio libro subraya: como de costumbre, los niños quedaron cargados de regalos de todos sus amigos
«The implication here was that each year’s bounty had to outdo all preceding ones.» — lo que el capítulo lee en esa fórmula repetida: la cosecha de cada año tenía que superar a las anteriores
«On January 2, 1831, Catharine Sedgwick penned a document that purported to transcribe the exact words of her little niece Lizzy Sedgwick (now 6 years old, and the oldest of five children). The transcription took the form of a letter from Lizzy herself to her cousin Kate—Catharine Sedgwick’s favorite niece. It is a charming account, worth quoting in full» — la pieza que el capítulo presenta a continuación: un documento de 1831 que decía transcribir las palabras exactas de su sobrina Lizzy, de seis años, en forma de carta a su prima
«When I went to bed New Year’s eve I felt inclined to jump up & run about but I was afraid of waking Haddy [her infant sister, Henrietta]. I moved continually and wanted to jump. I didn’t have much sleep that whole night. When we were all dressed we prepared to go into Mama’s room to get our New Year’s presents» — el arranque de esa carta dictada por la niña: la víspera no pudo dormir de ganas de brincar y solo la contuvo el miedo de despertar a su hermanita
«I had mine in a bag & it felt pretty heavy. First I took out something tied in a paper. I found it was a candlestick snuffer & extinguisher. I then took out a box & opened it & found some sugar-men, some candy a cockroach-sugar also & some cherries (sugar!).» — los primeros regalos que la niña saca de su bolsa: un apagavelas con despabiladeras y una caja con hombrecitos de azúcar, dulces, una cucaracha de azúcar y cerezas también de azúcar
«There was a microscope in it—larger than yours. ([Here Catharine Sedgwick interrupts in her own words:] I was going to add the italicised words when Lizzy with great delicacy said ‘No I should not like to say that Aunt Kitty.» — el pasaje en que la tía interrumpe la transcripción con su propia voz, y la delicadeza con que la niña rechaza que se escriba la comparación con el microscopio de su prima
«In the course of the day George [a friend] came in & Ellery blowed his trumpet. George went out & came in with a gun which he pointed at us. We ran away trembling & George gave the gun to Ellery, then he held out the other hand to me & I grasped it & found a book called The Pearl—beautiful.» — la escena del amigo que entra apuntando con una escopeta de juguete, la deja al hermano y tiende a la niña la otra mano con un libro de regalo dentro
«It is all there: the indulgent treatment of young children; the plethora of toys, many of them expensive and ornate (that toy soldier “whose head took off & on & turned about, & the rider got off the horse”); the eager anticipation; the hard-to-open packages; the showing off; even the little edge of competitiveness (the microscope that was “larger than yours» — lo que el capítulo enumera como ya presente en aquella carta de 1831: el trato indulgente a los niños pequeños, el montón de juguetes caros y ornados, la anticipación, los paquetes difíciles de abrir, la exhibición y el filo de competencia
«And as the presents themselves became more extravagant, expectations rose with them, and so did problems and disappointments.» — lo que el capítulo hace seguir a esa escalada: al volverse más extravagantes los regalos, subieron las expectativas y con ellas los problemas y los desengaños
«Indeed, over the course of the ten-year period from 1825 to 1835, one or another of the Sedgwicks encountered virtually every problem that besets the Christmas shopper in our own day.» — la tesis con que el capítulo organiza el resto del apartado: en esos diez años uno u otro de los Sedgwick encontró prácticamente todo problema que aqueja hoy al comprador navideño
«But Sedgwick went on to note dolefully that Jane’s doll soon “got a dirty mark on her forehead—a little piece broken off her beautiful fat bosom—and all the color kissed off one of her cheeks.» — el segundo problema, el del regalo que se rompe pronto: la muñeca de cera acabó con una mancha en la frente, un trozo roto y el color besado de una mejilla
«We were so successful with Willie as to protract his pleasures for at least an hour during which time his little wooden dod [presumably Willie’s pronunciation of dog] kept up a merry barking; but alas how fleeting are all worldly pleasures—one untimely blow scattered his disjointed member. He gave a howl of despair as his limbs were torn asunder & Willie poor Willie’s notes chimed with those of his departed dod» — el mismo problema nueve años después: el perro de madera que ladraba duró una hora hasta que un golpe le desparramó los miembros
«Not received in time, or lost in the mail Perhaps an even more common problem then than now, given the logistical problems faced by the postal system. In 1834 the gifts sent to Lenox from the New York Sedgwicks failed to arrive until late on New Year’s Day, so the family decided to repeat the entire ritual for the children the next morning. Two years later the presents from New York arrived as late as January 6 (once again the opening ceremony was held the following day» — el tercer problema, el del regalo que no llega a tiempo, que el capítulo juzga quizá más común entonces que ahora por los problemas logísticos del correo
«The things have not all come, as I find … by allusions in your letters. There is no present as you mentioned to Bess from her Aunt E. and no box of things (bonbons) I suppose to be distributed by Bessie…. I will tell you, for your satisfaction, what we did receive. My parcel from you. Bessie’s from you. Charley’s book. Ell’s book, and his present from you. Hun’s parcel. 1 large parcel of bonbons. 1 ditto almonds. 1 sweets ditto lozenges. Grace’s presents from Aunt Lizzy, from you and from Aunt C. Your Aunt Lizzy speaks of a guard chain for Ell which was not to be found among the parcels.» — según Nissenbaum, la carta ansiosa de 1836 en que la madre inventaria lo recibido y lo que falta, paquete por paquete
«Your stockings are horridly ugly but they are the only tolerable ones I could find.” … At the right price: “I hope she will like the ring—it was very cheap. The enamel [ones] like it elsewhere & very little larger were $6, & your Aunt Lizzie preferred this size as a matter of taste—I confess I did not, but like your father I have always rather a hankering for the best priced article.» — los dos siguientes problemas que el capítulo ilustra con citas breves: dar con el regalo adecuado y con el precio adecuado
«The game you sent marked HDS [Henry D. Sedgwick] is I presume a substitute for the one I asked you to get.» — el problema del regalo equivocado, con la fórmula de la propia carta
«The children have had a merry morning, although their New Year’s wealth would seem very meagre, in comparison with the piles of treasure which bless the eyes of the little folks in New York.» — el último problema que el capítulo enumera, el de la comparación: la riqueza de Año Nuevo de estos niños parece magra frente a los montones que alegran los ojos de los de Nueva York
«STILL, no presents were involved in any of these interchanges. The first» — el hallazgo negativo que el capítulo mantiene: ningún regalo en esos intercambios; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue con la primera evidencia, el obsequio que Catharine recibió por correo de una amiga en enero de 1823
«evidence that any of the Sedgwicks received (or offered) a holiday present was in January 1823, when Catharine M. Sedgwick received in the mail a gift from one of her friends (sent as a “little token of my affections» — la primera evidencia que el capítulo halla de un regalo de temporada en esa familia, en enero de 1823; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«The first present involving family members came a year later, and in the third generation of the family, when the two children of Theodore Sedgwick, Jr. (the eldest Sedgwick son, and the inheritor of the family manse in Stockbridge), wrote their father a charming note—entirely in French—apologizing for not having bought a present for him.» — el primer regalo entre miembros de la familia según el capítulo, y en la tercera generación: la nota enteramente en francés con que dos niños se disculpan con su padre por no haberle comprado nada
«On Christmas Eve, 1832, Charles Sedgwick wrote in embarrassment that he had returned to his house in Lenox only to find, to his dismay, “the whole house quite gay with Christmas presents.” As for himself: “I am in consternation for I doubt not expectation is on tiptoe for presents from me & I have not as yet got» — el primero de esos problemas, el de olvidar comprar: vuelve a casa, la halla alegre de regalos y se consterna porque la expectativa está de puntillas; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue diciendo que no ha conseguido ninguno para nadie
«They [the children] are delighted [with your gifts]—but do explain the use of Bessy’s present from Aunt Kitty—we none of us know.» — el problema del regalo indescifrable con que el capítulo sigue la lista: los niños están encantados, pero nadie en la casa sabe para qué sirve el presente de la tía
«The children had their usual harvest of… dolls, tea-sets[,] soldiers, horses, & furniture of every description—every useless thing» — el problema de las bagatelas inútiles, que según el capítulo solía plantear Catharine Sedgwick: la cosecha acostumbrada de muñecas, juegos de té, soldados, caballos y muebles de toda descripción
«If you are at a loss for something to bring Sara you may get her a copy of’Drake’s Poems.’ I see them advertised, & I heard her express a wish for it. But perhaps you have thought of something else. I only mention this lest you be at a loss.» — el problema de la indirecta, con la carta que sugiere el título exacto que la destinataria había deseado
«Will you tell your mother I gave $2.50 for the port-folio, & $3.25 for the ring[,] Vs for the candy so that I have of the $8, 2.04 subject to her order. I can’t send your acc’t for the knives were bo’t by my agent & he has not rendered it but the expenditure will not exceed the am’t you sent. Your candy is» — el problema de cuadrar las cuentas, con el desglose de lo gastado y lo que queda a disposición; el troceo corta la fracción final
«I meant to have written you a longer letter, but Robert has just given me some money to buy toys for the children & you know what an arduous affair that is.» — el problema de a quién le toca comprar, en carta de Catharine Sedgwick a su hermana: Robert acaba de darle dinero para comprar juguetes a los niños, y ya se sabe lo arduo del asunto
«I had enough to do buying my own presents & your Aunt Lizzy’s for our own bevy—the Sedgwicks, the Wares, Eben’s wife, &c.—but it is worth some trouble to light up a smile of pleasure even if it be as transient as the moment that gives it birth.» — la misma queja en otra carta de Catharine, con la razón por la que vale la pena: encender una sonrisa de placer aunque sea tan pasajera como el momento que la produce
«I will divide with you the N[ew] Years gifts to Roderick’s children to the amount of $3 if you will take the trouble to get things.» — la petición de ayuda con que el capítulo cierra ese problema: se reparte el gasto a cambio de que la otra se tome la molestia de conseguir las cosas
«The letter was written in 1830 by Catharine Sedgwick to accompany (and to explain) the gifts she was exchanging that year with the Lenox branch of the family (I have numbered and named each of the problems as they cropped up» — la pieza con que el capítulo remata la lista: una carta de 1830 que acompaña y explica los regalos que se cambiaban con la rama de Lenox, y en la que el propio autor numera y nombra siete problemas
«Your friend Joseph got the music for me but he made a mistake in the Swiss Waltz & I hope will change it in time….” 2. Did it arrive in time? “Do let me know if you rec’d. your merino in time for Albany.” 3. Dont open it before you’re supposed to: “I hope you will not open your little N[ew] Year matters till 1831.” 4. Already has improbably: “Nelson I know is one of Charley’s heroes, but I am afraid he already has the book. If so let me know it, & send it to the library at S[tockbrid]ge.» — los cuatro primeros de esos siete problemas en la misma carta: no es lo que pidió, si llegó a tiempo, no lo abras antes de la fecha y quizá ya lo tiene
«You must unpack the basket carefully, or you will break the sugar toy: there is some of Mrs. S’s candy at the bottom for you & Charley.” And 7. What do you do with it? “The beautiful toy which your Aunt E. sends to you & Charley you will have to study out. The figures must be placed in the little blocks Scbro’t on the scene according to the book» — los dos últimos de los siete: abrirlo con cuidado para no romper el juguete de azúcar, y averiguar qué se hace con el juguete que hay que estudiar con el libro
«ENOUGH, then. It is time to ask what we can make of all this. Clearly, things had come a long way in a very short time. One change was economic: It is difficult to imagine any of this happening even a couple of decades earlier, because before the early 1800s there were few commercial children’s toys available for purchase in the United States.» — el primero de los dos cambios que el capítulo saca del caso: uno económico, porque antes de principios del siglo XIX apenas había juguetes infantiles comerciales a la venta en el país
«The other change was psychological: Surely the Sedgwick children had always been loved, but until 1820 they had not been indulged during the holidays (nor presumably at any other time» — el segundo cambio: psicológico, porque a los niños Sedgwick siempre se los había querido, pero hasta 1820 no se los había consentido en las fiestas
«Indeed, Catharine Sedgwick expressed lingering ambivalence about the new treatment through the 1820s and even beyond; that was why she described most of the 1833 presents as “every useless thing,” with the exception of “some such solid articles as an umbrella to Ell’, & solid books of solid History.» — la ambivalencia persistente que el capítulo halla en Catharine Sedgwick, que llamaba inútil casi todo lo de 1833 salvo artículos sólidos como un paraguas y libros sólidos de historia sólida
«Taken by itself, the experience of the Sedgwick family would be merely provocative. This was, after all, just a single family, and a prosperous one at that.» — el límite que el propio autor pone a su caso: tomada por sí sola, la experiencia de esa familia sería apenas sugerente, porque es una sola y próspera
«The key decade for the Sedgwicks was the 1820s, and especially the years from 1825 to 1829. At the beginning of the decade, the holiday season meant, at most, festive semi-public dinners in which children might participate (this feasting is reminiscent of what had been happening in the Ballard family of rural Maine only a few years earlier» — la cronología del caso: la década clave es la de 1820 y sobre todo los años de 1825 a 1829, con la temporada abriendo en cenas semipúblicas parecidas a las de la familia Ballard
«At the end of the decade, the typical Sedgwick Christmas entailed an elaborate set of rituals, centered on giving lavish purchased gifts to the children of the family. These rituals were part of a new world of consumerism, a world that had hardly existed before but which had now sprung up with sudden urgency. To read a letter describing any one of the Sedgwick Christmas holidays after 1825 is to read a letter that might have been written in our own time.» — el cierre de esa cronología: al final de la década la Navidad típica de la familia era un conjunto elaborado de ritos centrados en dar regalos comprados a los niños
«It was the figure of Santa Claus that permitted the Sedgwicks, and many other Americans, to enter the world of commercial gift-giving so quickly and completely.» — lo que el capítulo atribuye a la figura de Santa Claus: permitir a los Sedgwick y a muchos otros entrar tan rápida y completamente en el mundo del regalo comercial
«The first such usage I have encountered comes from the proprietor of a New York jewelry shop, in the form of an advertising flyer composed in elaborate verse form.» — el primer uso comercial de la figura que el autor dice haber hallado: un volante en verso elaborado del dueño de una joyería de Nueva York a mediados de los años veinte
«And as I priced a pin Which caught my raptured eye, St. Nicholas came in! … He instantly commenced Selecting trinkets rare, As Christmas compliments, From lovers to the fair; He rummaged every shelf, The choicest gems to buy— I saw the Saint myself! What will you lay [i.e., bet] it’s a lie?» — los versos de ese volante: mientras el cliente pregunta el precio de un alfiler entra San Nicolás y rebusca los estantes escogiendo las mejores joyas como cumplidos navideños de los enamorados
«But it was during the early 1840s that Santa Claus became a common commercial icon, a figure used by merchants to attract the attention of children to particular shops. Santa Claus was barely twenty years old by then, and he had been a figure of national scope for fewer than fifteen years.» — cuándo se vuelve icono comercial corriente según el capítulo, con la edad exacta de la figura: apenas veinte años, y menos de quince como figura de alcance nacional
«In fact, the first popular visual image of Santa Claus was published in 1841, in a New York paper. But in 1842 that very picture was appropriated by a shop in Albany, which used it as part of a newspaper advertisement. The picture, in double column, was labeled “Santa-Claus in the act of descending a chimney to fill the children’s stockings, after supplying himself with fancy articles … at Pease’s Great Variety Store, No. 50 Broadway, Albany.» — la primera imagen popular de la figura y su apropiación comercial un año después por una tienda de Albany, con el rótulo puesto al pie del dibujo
«Back in 1841, a shopkeeper in Philadelphia managed to attract thousands of children to his shop by adding a life-size model of Santa Claus that was apparently based on that same picture.» — el modelo de tamaño natural con que un tendero de Filadelfia atrajo a miles de niños en 1841, basado al parecer en esa misma estampa
«Much as our young readers have heard or imagined of this worthy character as the bountiful patron of good children on Christmas Eve, they probably never expected to behold the real personage in the very act of descending a chimney, as our friend Parkinson has shown him over his well thronged shop door in Chesnut street. He was decidedly the attraction yesterday and last evening, and monopolized more than his share of the attention of the young folks, which is usually bestowed with undivided attention on the bon bons in the windows.» — según Nissenbaum, el reporte de un periódico sobre esa figura: los niños nunca esperaron ver al personaje real en el acto mismo de bajar por una chimenea, y acaparó más que su parte de su atención
«Another local paper fleshed out the picture, noting that “his hand [was] full of toys and his face covered with a broad smile—just that benevolent expression that those who love children ever wear.” In fact, the figure was so lifelike that “no lad who sees it, will ever after accuse pa or ma of being the Kriss-Kringle who filled his stocking. That such a person exists will be most indelibly fixed upon their memories.» — lo que otro periódico local añadía: la figura era tan viva que ningún muchacho que la viera acusaría después a su padre o a su madre de ser quien le llenó la media
«Commercial Santa. In 1842, just a year after the publication of the woodcut shown opposite, the picture was appropriated for commercial purposes by an Albany merchant named Pease, whose name and address have been added to the bottom of the sack of toys that Santa is carrying on his back (at right, above). Two years later, a newspaper in Cincinnati carried a redrawn version of the same picture (at left), which was printed sideways simply because the merchant in question had paid for only a single-columned advertisement.» — el pie de la lámina que muestra las dos apropiaciones comerciales de la estampa de 1841, con el nombre y la dirección del comerciante añadidos al saco de juguetes, y la versión de Cincinnati impresa de lado por caber en una sola columna
«Come at last! Important Arrival. The little people of this big city will doubtless be rejoiced to learn that the sterling old Dutchman, Santa Claus, has just arrived from the renowned regions of the Manhattoes, with his usual annual budget of Nick-Nacks for the Christmas Times. Look upon his back and shoulders, and you will get some idea of the curiosities and niceties that he has brought out this year; and in addition to all these, he has some altogether superior, hidden in his wallet, not to be seen till day before Christmas. The old gentleman has taken up his head-quarters this year at LOUDERBECK’S, on 4th street, between Main and Sycamore» — el texto del anuncio de Cincinnati que ese mismo pie transcribe: el viejo holandés de ley acaba de llegar de las renombradas regiones de los Manhattoes con su presupuesto anual de chucherías
«I got the cravat for your father because I know he partie[ularl]y likes black» — el quinto problema, la disculpa implícita por los regalos convencionales: la corbata para el padre porque le gustan particularmente las negras; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue con la cesta de labor para la madre
«But the Sedgwicks’ collective experience mirrors exactly the pattern that we have seen in the data provided by» — lo que autoriza a generalizar según el capítulo: la experiencia colectiva de esa familia reproduce el patrón; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue nombrando los anuncios de la prensa urbana y la historia del comercio del libro
«From the beginning, it seems, parents found it difficult to convince their children that it was truly Santa Claus who brought their presents. But what matters just as much is that (then as now) they found it necessary to work so hard to do just that. What was it that made the pretense so important? Why did parents need to pretend that Santa Claus was real, and to deny that the presents really came from family members themselves? The answer is that Santa Claus had an extraordinary ability (in spite of his early commercialization) to disguise the fact that most of the presents he brought were commodity productions.» — la pregunta que el capítulo formula y su respuesta: por qué los padres necesitaban fingir que Santa Claus era real, y la respuesta de que la figura tenía una capacidad extraordinaria de disimular que casi todos sus regalos eran mercancías
«Like other Americans, writers, editors, and advertisers in the second quarter of the nineteenth century liked to pretend, or even believe (as most Americans nowadays continue to do), that Santa Claus represented an old-fashioned Christmas, a ritual so old that it was, in essence, beyond history, and thus outside the commercial marketplace.» — lo que escritores, editores y publicistas gustaban de fingir o de creer según el capítulo: que Santa Claus representaba una Navidad a la antigua, un rito tan viejo que quedaba fuera de la historia y del mercado
«We now know that this was mostly a myth, and that Santa Claus was all but invented in the early nineteenth century (and that the world of seventeenth-century Holland in which he had previously appeared was itself prosperous and highly commercialized» — lo que el capítulo opone a esa creencia: la figura se inventó casi entera a principios del siglo XIX, y la Holanda del siglo XVII en que antes aparecía era ya próspera y muy comercializada
«But the very people who chose to adopt the Santa Claus ritual, from the 1820s on, were willing to believe that he was a figure of great antiquity, and that in introducing him into their own households they were carrying on an authentic, ancient, and unchanging Dutch folk tradition. That was what they read, year after year, in the newspapers and magazines.» — lo que creían quienes adoptaron el rito desde los años veinte: que era figura de gran antigüedad y que al meterla en casa continuaban una tradición popular holandesa auténtica, según leían año tras año en la prensa
«Such people knew in one way, of course, that Santa Claus was not real. But in another way they did believe in his reality—his reality as a figure who stood above mere history. In that sense, it was adults who needed to believe in Santa Claus.» — la fórmula con que el capítulo cierra ese punto: sabían que no era real y a la vez creían en su realidad como figura por encima de la historia, de modo que eran los adultos los que necesitaban creer
«Domestic ideology placed children at the very center of family life, and assumed that families existed more to provide emotional gratification than to engage in economic production.» — lo que la ideología doméstica ponía en el centro según el capítulo: los niños, con la familia existiendo más para la gratificación emocional que para la producción económica
«In one sense, of course, it is true to say that the new domestic Christmas was an expression of that new ideology—a veritable celebration of domesticity. But the obverse is true as well: The new domestic Christmas also helped to create that ideology.» — la relación de doble sentido que el capítulo propone: la Navidad doméstica nueva era expresión de esa ideología y a la vez ayudó a crearla
«Even more than today, the exchange of Christmas gifts in the 1820s and ’30s was a ritual gesture intended to generate the sense that sincere expressions of domestic intimacy were more important than matters of money and business.» — lo que el intercambio de regalos de esos años buscaba generar según el capítulo: la sensación de que las expresiones sinceras de intimidad doméstica importan más que el dinero y el negocio
«That was a heavy burden to place on Christmas presents—especially since most of them were produced, advertised, and sold as mass» — la carga que el capítulo llama pesada para un regalo, dado que casi todos se producían, anunciaban y vendían como mercancías; el troceo corta la palabra en el cambio de plana
«The personal feelings that Christmas presents were intended to engender actually hinged on a process that enmeshed those presents in the same commercial nexus that the gift exchange promised to transcend. The result was one of the most basic internal contradictions of our modern world: Marketplace commodities were given the job of generating intense, and intensely private, emotions.» — la contradicción que el capítulo llama de las más básicas del mundo moderno: se encargó a mercancías del mercado la tarea de generar emociones intensas e intensamente privadas
«It should not be surprising, then, that the nineteenth-century Americans who began to celebrate the new domestic Christmas needed, just as much as our own generation, to believe that the holiday gift exchange was rooted in something deeper and more “authentic” than the dynamics of the marketplace. To do their job, Christmas presents had to obfuscate their commercial origins.» — lo que el capítulo deduce de esa contradicción: para cumplir su tarea, los regalos navideños tenían que ofuscar su origen comercial
«One newspaper tried an appeal to ancient history, claiming that even “Greek and Roman babies” had been given “expensive toys” by their parents, so that it was unnecessary to think of fancy commercial presents as a recent invention, a raw product of the modern economy—they were burnished by the sands of antiquity.» — el recurso de un periódico que el capítulo cita: hasta los bebés griegos y romanos recibían juguetes caros de sus padres, así que no había que tener el regalo comercial por invención reciente
«But it was Santa Claus who was able to provide this kind of reassurance best of all. Santa was even more effective than ancient history; he stood outside history. And from a parent’s perspective, the mystery of St. Nicholas effectively short-circuited any childish queries about where all the presents came from.» — por qué la figura servía mejor que la historia antigua según el capítulo: estaba fuera de la historia, y su misterio cortocircuitaba cualquier pregunta infantil sobre de dónde salían los regalos
«We might say that Santa became an anticommercial symbol at the very moment he was used for commercial purposes. Better yet, we might say that it was precisely because he was such an effective anticommercial icon that he could become such an effective commercial icon. The two roles were quite compatible with each other. In fact, they were different sides of the same coin.» — la formulación que el capítulo propone y luego afina: Santa se volvió símbolo anticomercial en el momento mismo en que se lo usaba con fines comerciales, y precisamente por eso podía ser icono comercial eficaz
«Here they stand in glaring contrast to another Santa Claus—the carnival Santa explored in Chapter 3, that “whoreson” who “boused it” and flirted with the girls, and with whom the domestic Santa Claus was not comfortable at all.» — el contraste que el capítulo marca con la otra figura: el Santa Claus de carnaval del capítulo tercero, el que bebía y coqueteaba con las muchachas, con el que el doméstico no estaba cómodo
«Santa’s Workshop. This picture was one of several colored illustrations that Thomas Nast prepared for book-length editions of “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” Notice that Santa’s workshop contains only hand tools, and no machinery. This picture appeared in 1869. (Another Nast portrayal of Santa’s workshop, from the early 1870s, shows the old fellow using needle and thread to make a hand-sewn stocking—at a time when almost every middle-class household had a sewing machine.» — el pie de la lámina del taller de Santa Claus que Thomas Nast preparó en 1869: solo herramientas de mano y ninguna maquinaria, y en otra estampa de los años setenta el viejo cose la media a mano cuando casi toda casa de clase media tenía máquina
«The very fact that the Santa Claus ritual could be seen as ancient and unchanging offered a powerful symbolic link to an earlier and seemingly noncommercialized folk culture.» — el primero de los modos en que el Santa doméstico cumplía su tarea: que el rito pudiera verse como antiguo e inmutable daba un enlace simbólico con una cultura popular anterior y en apariencia no comercializada
«To begin with, the presents came from Santa Claus, not from the parents—and therefore not from shops. Santa mediated magically between parent and child—between the buyer and the recipient of the gifts. His presence was what took the gift out of the realm of commerce—in the eyes of parents, perhaps, as well as children.» — el segundo modo, en los detalles del propio rito: los regalos venían del santo y no de los padres, y por tanto no de las tiendas, con el santo mediando mágicamente entre comprador y destinatario
«phrase this in a more contemporary fashion, we might say that Santa “mystified” consumption. He also mystified production and distribution.» — la fórmula contemporánea con que el capítulo lo nombra: Santa mistificaba el consumo, y también la producción y la distribución; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«One of the great mysteries of Santa Claus was that he managed to provide presents for all children, everywhere. And he made them all himself—he was the producer of his own gifts. Finally, of course, he was the distributor, a distributor who managed to disburse his presents one house at a time.» — los tres papeles que el misterio junta según el capítulo: proveía regalos a todos los niños en todas partes, los hacía él mismo y los distribuía casa por casa
«How Santa managed to do this was often the first skeptical question that children asked; but that he did so (and that the how of it all is a great mystery) must be a part of the parents’ answer.» — lo que el capítulo señala del papel de los padres en ese misterio: la primera pregunta escéptica de los niños es cómo lo hace, y que lo haga y que el cómo sea un gran misterio tiene que ser parte de la respuesta
«Clement Clarke Moore’s poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” never described the actual manufacture of Santa’s presents—nor did the structure of the poem leave any space in the text that would invite professional illustrators to do so.» — el hueco que el capítulo señala en el poema: nunca describe la fabricación de los regalos ni deja espacio en el texto que invite a los ilustradores profesionales a hacerlo
«But illustrators found the room anyway. Beginning in the late 1860s, the most popular illustrated editions of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” began to provide pictures of “Santa’s workshop,” pictures that always presented it as a place of household production, where only old-fashioned hand tools were in evidence. Even though this was the very apogee of the Industrial Revolution, Santa’s workshop was never violated by the presence of machinery.» — lo que los ilustradores hicieron con ese hueco desde fines de los años sesenta: estampas del taller de Santa Claus como sitio de producción doméstica, con solo herramientas de mano, en plena apoteosis de la revolución industrial
«In short, Santa Claus managed to reconcile opposites. He customized mass production. He maintained a personalized relationship with his enormous mass market—after all, his clientele was all but universal. And he did it all from motives that were in no way entrepreneurial.» — los opuestos que la figura reconcilia según el capítulo: personalizaba la producción en masa y mantenía una relación personal con un mercado casi universal, sin motivos empresariales
«Santa Claus magically combined what in reality had now become a series of separate roles: He was simultaneously the gifts’ producer, distributor, seller, purchaser, and giver. In a new age of commodity production, what Santa Claus was able to offer—what he offered to grown-ups—was the moral equivalent of a world that had never wholly existed in the first place. It was the fading world of the household economy.» — lo que el capítulo dice que la figura ofrecía a los adultos: junta en uno los papeles separados de productor, distribuidor, vendedor, comprador y donante, y da el equivalente moral de un mundo que nunca existió del todo, el de la economía doméstica que se desvanecía
«In a sense, Gift Books picked up where almanacs left off, as popular reading for Americans. There are some striking parallels. Both genres were annuals: They appeared each year as part of a series, with the same title, format, and organization; in both cases the only thing on the title page that changed from one year to the next was the year itself. Almanacs themselves were often filled with “literary” material (though this was usually more “oral” and “folk” in nature than the literary material found in Gift Books), and they even contained illustrations. Finally, both genres were sold during the Christmas season. (Indeed, the first commercial Christmas present I have encountered was an almanac.) But for all that, the differences between the two genres were even more striking (which is why Gift Books are not ordinarily linked with almanacs). First, almanacs were produced primarily for adult male readers, while Gift Books were more often produced for female or youthful readers. And second, almanacs were intended to provide not just entertainment but also information that was of “public” use (e.g., dates of court sittings, a calendar, even weather predictions), while Gift Books were intended to provide “culture”: literature, art, moral values—bourgeois values. Those differences suggest transformations far more significant than the term genre might suggest.» — la nota a pie que compara los libros de regalo con los almanaques: anuarios los dos y vendidos los dos en la temporada, pero uno para lectores varones adultos y con información de uso público, y el otro para lectoras y jóvenes y con valores burgueses
«EVERY SOLUTION generates its own problems, and the child-centered consumer Christmas was no exception—particularly for people who found such a celebration most appealing. The concern those people came to feel was actually rooted in broad issues of child-rearing within the new middle-class family, but it came to a head in their fears about what a child-centered consumer Christmas might do to their children’s character.» — el problema nuevo con que abre el capítulo quinto: la Navidad consumista centrada en los niños inquietó sobre todo a quienes más les atraía, por lo que pudiera hacerle al carácter de sus hijos
«It will suggest that the introduction of Christmas trees represented an effort to cope with the problems posed by the child-centered Christmas.» — la tesis que el capítulo declara: la introducción del árbol de Navidad fue un intento de lidiar con los problemas que planteaba la Navidad centrada en los niños
«In about 1830 the literature of Christmas in America began to change. Before that date it dealt chiefly with questions of social disorder. Afterward a new concern emerged, an anxiety about private selfishness and greedy consumerism, especially as those issues affected children.» — el giro que el capítulo data hacia 1830 en la literatura navideña estadounidense: del desorden social a la ansiedad por el egoísmo privado y el consumismo ávido
«Middle-class Americans were becoming concerned that the holiday season was an infectious breeding ground for juvenile materialism and greed. Consumerism was coming to supplant chaos as the new problem of the holiday season. The battle for Christmas was beginning to change from a physical struggle that pitted the classes against one another into a moral one that divided the generations.» — la fórmula con que el capítulo enuncia el cambio: el consumismo venía a sustituir al caos como problema de la temporada, y la pelea por la Navidad pasaba de una lucha física entre clases a una moral entre generaciones
«There is a belief among those who care about such things that the Christmas tree was spread throughout American culture by German immigrants. There is some truth to this. But, much like the notion that Santa Claus was brought to these shores by the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam, such a belief also conforms to our desire to see our Christmas customs as rooted in something old-fashioned and authentic, in ancient folkways untainted by the marketplace. But Christmas trees became widely known in the United States during the mid-1830s, almost a decade earlier than any broad-based immigration from Germany can be said to have occurred.» — la creencia que el capítulo examina y el dato con que la acota: los árboles de Navidad se conocieron ampliamente en Estados Unidos a mediados de los años treinta, casi una década antes de cualquier inmigración alemana de base amplia
«As it turns out, the most important channels through which the ritual was spread were literary ones. Information about the Christmas tree was diffused by means of commercial literature, not via immigrant folk culture—from the top down, not from the bottom up.» — los canales que el capítulo señala como más importantes: los literarios, con la difusión por literatura comercial y no por cultura folclórica inmigrante, de arriba abajo
«It was by reading about Christmas trees, not by witnessing them, that many thousands of Americans learned about the custom. Before they ever saw such a thing, they already knew what Christmas trees were all about—not only what they looked like, but also how and why they were to be used.» — cómo aprendieron los estadounidenses la costumbre según el capítulo: leyendo sobre ella antes de verla, y sabiendo de antemano no solo cómo era el árbol sino cómo y para qué se usaba
«Each source, as we shall see, reveals in turn a different element with which this ritual was associated: first, the element of surprise; second, that of folk authenticity; third, unselfish children; and finally, parental control» — los cuatro elementos que el capítulo anuncia asociados al rito, uno por cada fuente: la sorpresa, la autenticidad folclórica, los niños desinteresados y el control parental
«Like the Knickerbockers, the members of this set were genteel and cultured. But they were part of an emerging upper middle class that laid no claim to preserving an aristocratic social order.» — quiénes eran los escritores que introdujeron el árbol según el capítulo: distinguidos y cultos como los Knickerbockers, pero de una clase media alta emergente que no pretendía preservar un orden aristocrático
«In contrast to the Knickerbockers, too, they lived mostly in New England and Philadelphia, not New York, and the church of their choice was Unitarian rather than Episcopal. And instead of being politically reactionary, they tended to stand somewhere on the progressive, reformist side of the issues that were coming to divide Americans in the 1830s.» — las otras diferencias con los Knickerbockers: vivían sobre todo en Nueva Inglaterra y Filadelfia, eran unitarios y no episcopales, y se inclinaban al lado progresista y reformista
«There is no document about the Christmas tree that corresponds to Clement Clarke Moore’s verses about Santa Claus. Instead, there are only various legends that describe how the Christmas tree came to America. One of these legends is about Hessian soldiers during the American Revolution (it dates the real event too early); another is about Queen Victoria and her German-born husband, Prince Albert (it dates the event too late» — el hueco documental que el capítulo declara: no hay para el árbol un documento equivalente a los versos de Moore, solo leyendas, una de soldados de Hesse y otra de la reina Victoria y el príncipe Alberto
«What is probably the most famous of the legends, and the one with which we shall begin, has it that the first American Christmas tree was set up in Massachusetts, in 1835, by Charles Folien, a German immigrant who had become an American citizen and a Harvard professor.» — la leyenda más famosa según el capítulo: que el primer árbol de Navidad estadounidense lo puso en Massachusetts en 1835 el inmigrante alemán Charles Follen
«I was present at the introduction into the new country of the German Christmas-tree.» — según Nissenbaum, la fórmula de Harriet Martineau en el libro del que sale esa leyenda
«Though this was not the first American Christmas tree, it is certainly true that Charles Folien set up a Christmas tree in Martineau’s presence for his son and namesake, an endearing 5-year-old whom everybody called “little Charley.”» — lo que el capítulo concede y lo que no de esa leyenda: no fue el primer árbol estadounidense, pero Follen sí puso uno en presencia de Martineau para su hijo y tocayo de cinco años
«The tree (actually the top portion of a fir or spruce) had been placed in the front drawing room of the house. A toy hung from every branch, and when Martineau arrived Charles Folien and his wife were just adding the seven dozen little wax candles.» — la escena que el capítulo reconstruye: el árbol, en realidad la punta de un abeto, puesto en el salón delantero, con un juguete en cada rama y siete docenas de velitas de cera
«As little Charley and two older companions approached the house, the adults quickly closed the door to the front drawing room and moved into an adjacent room, where (as Martineau put it) they sat around “trying to look as if nothing was going to happen.» — el dispositivo de la sorpresa: al acercarse los niños, los adultos cerraron la puerta del salón y se sentaron en el cuarto contiguo como si no fuera a pasar nada
«Their faces were upturned to the blaze, all eyes wide open, all lips parted, all steps arrested. Nobody spoke, only Charley leaped for joy.» — según Nissenbaum, la descripción de Martineau al abrirse las puertas dobles: las caras vueltas al resplandor, los ojos abiertos, los labios entreabiertos y los pasos detenidos
«After a few moments the children discovered that the tree “bore something eatable,” and “the babble began again.» — el momento siguiente de esa escena: los niños descubren que el árbol llevaba algo de comer y vuelve el barullo
«The children were told to take what they could from the tree without burning themselves on the candles. (Martineau reported that “we tall people kept watch, and helped them with good things from the higher branches.» — la instrucción que se dio a los niños y el papel de los adultos, que vigilaban y les alcanzaban las cosas buenas de las ramas altas
«After the children had eaten their fill of the edibles, the evening continued with dancing and mugs of “steaming mulled wine.” By eleven, all the other guests had gone home; little Charley was in bed; and Harriet Martineau herself was left alone with the boy’s parents, Charles and Eliza Folien. It had been a delightful evening, and Martineau concluded her account by predicting that the Christmas tree ritual would surely become an established American tradition.» — el cierre de la velada según Martineau y la predicción con que remata: baile, vino caliente especiado, y la seguridad de que el rito del árbol llegaría a ser tradición estadounidense
«But in an important way the story was misleading. For when Martineau reported the episode, she placed it in a context that implied that she had simply stumbled upon it during the course of her travels. The episode appeared as part of a catchall chapter in Martineau’s book, a chapter she called “Hot and Cold Weather,” about seasonal phenomena in New England.» — lo que el capítulo objeta al relato de Martineau: el contexto en que lo puso implicaba que había tropezado con la escena de paso, en un capítulo sobre fenómenos estacionales de Nueva Inglaterra
«Martineau and the Follens had met only a few months earlier, but in the course of those few months they had become fast personal friends and political allies in a cause that was changing the course of their lives. Harriet Martineau had gone to visit the Follens that evening to chart their mutual plans at a moment of crisis, a crisis that was forcing them to make a difficult choice between their personal principles and their professional careers. The issue that precipitated the crisis was nothing less than the movement to abolish slavery in America.» — lo que había detrás de aquella velada según el capítulo: Martineau y los Follen se habían hecho amigos y aliados políticos en pocos meses, y aquella noche trazaban planes en una crisis precipitada por el movimiento abolicionista
«Karl Follen, as he was named at birth, was no simple product of German folk culture. He was a scion of the German elite, the son of a respected judge—almost the German equivalent of Clement Clarke Moore.» — quién era Follen de origen según el capítulo: no un producto simple de la cultura popular alemana sino vástago de la élite, hijo de un juez respetado
«As a university student, Follen authored an incendiary political song and was actually arrested for complicity in a political murder (he was acquitted» — lo que el capítulo consigna de su juventud: escribió una canción política incendiaria y fue arrestado por complicidad en un asesinato político, del que resultó absuelto
«Appointed a member of the faculty at the University of Jena in 1820 (at the age of 24), Follen continued his political activities and was forced into exile in Switzerland, where he received another professional position; but four years later he was compelled to flee once again (in the face of new charges that he had organized a revolutionary cell). This time Follen found refuge in America.» — el itinerario del exilio que el capítulo traza: profesor en Jena a los veinticuatro años, desterrado a Suiza y obligado a huir cuatro años después ante nuevos cargos de organizar una célula revolucionaria
«Even before he arrived on New England soil, Folien stopped off in New York to meet a woman we have already met, the writer Catharine Maria Sedgwick, whose novel Redwood was the first book he had read in the English language.» — el encuentro con que el capítulo enlaza a Follen con el capítulo anterior: antes de llegar a Nueva Inglaterra pasó por Nueva York a conocer a Catharine Maria Sedgwick, cuya novela fue el primer libro que leyó en inglés
«But in any event they used culture rather than politics as an instrument to influence the social order.» — el instrumento que ese grupo usaba según el capítulo: la cultura antes que la política, para influir en el orden social; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«The element of surprise was crucial here, and as we shall see it was something that» — lo que el capítulo declara decisivo en ese rito; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue diciendo que distinguía al árbol de otros modos de dar los regalos a los niños
«IF CHARLES FOLLEN HAD not died in 1840 at the age of 43 (in the explosion of a» — lo que el capítulo dice de la memoria de Follen: de no haber muerto en 1840 a los cuarenta y tres años; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue con la explosión de un vapor y con la observación de que se le recordaría por algo más importante que el árbol de Navidad
«Above all, he formed close ties with the liberal Unitarian establishment that dominated Harvard and Boston. Folien was a deeply religious man as well as an enlightened republican, and he found Unitarianism wholly compatible with his own progressive Christian beliefs.» — los lazos que Follen formó en su nueva vida según el capítulo: con el establishment unitario liberal que dominaba Harvard y Boston, hallando el unitarismo compatible con sus creencias cristianas progresistas
«In 1830, five years after his arrival in America, Folien reached what would prove to be the pinnacle of his new life. That year he was made a minister in the Unitarian Church, and he became a U.S. citizen. Most important of all, he was appointed to a full-time faculty position at Harvard, a new professorship of German literature that had been given five years’ funding by a group of his admirers, with the expectation that Harvard would pick up the tab thereafter.» — la cumbre de esa vida nueva en 1830: ministro unitario, ciudadano estadounidense y, sobre todo, cátedra de literatura alemana en Harvard financiada cinco años por un grupo de admiradores
«But within less than five years, the radical commitments that had brought him to America in the first place brought him down once again. This time the issue was slavery» — lo que derribó a Follen según el capítulo: los mismos compromisos radicales que lo habían traído a América, esta vez por la esclavitud
«Folien quickly sensed the parallels between the antislavery movement and the principles he had stood for in Germany; by 1834 he had become one of the most dedicated of Garrison’s followers. He even helped organize a Cambridge Anti-Slavery Society, based at Harvard.» — el paralelo que Follen percibió y a dónde lo llevó: hacia 1834 era uno de los seguidores más entregados de Garrison y ayudó a organizar una sociedad antiesclavista en Cambridge
«But radical abolitionism did not sit well with most Northerners, even with the Boston Unitarian establishment, whose members were offended by what they regarded as its vulgar style as well as its constant insistence that abolition be total and immediate.» — la acogida que el abolicionismo radical tenía en el norte según el capítulo, incluido el establishment unitario de Boston, ofendido por su estilo vulgar y por la insistencia en una abolición total e inmediata
«Charles Follen was warned that becoming an active abolitionist would surely jeopardize his professional prospects, but he was too much a man of principle to let that get in the way. Anyway, he had been through it all before, back in Europe.» — el aviso que Follen recibió y su respuesta según el capítulo: le advirtieron que el abolicionismo activo pondría en riesgo su carrera y era demasiado hombre de principios para detenerse
«Charles Follen. This engraving, the only known likeness of Follen, appeared as the frontispiece to the biography that Eliza Follen published in 1841, just a year after her husband’s tragic death in the explosion of the steamship Lexington. (Courtesy, Harvard College Library)» — el pie del único retrato conocido de Follen, frontispicio de la biografía que su viuda publicó en 1841, un año después de la muerte de él en la explosión del vapor
«In early 1834 Follen became an active member and officer of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. He did so against the urgings of his Harvard colleagues, who warned him that it would cost him his position. (The professorship would expire in 1835, and only at that point would it be made permanent—or else terminated. In effect, Follen would be coming up for tenure.» — el paso decisivo de 1834 contra el consejo de sus colegas de Harvard, que le advirtieron que le costaría el puesto porque la cátedra expiraba en 1835
«Follen’s friends were of course correct. Early in 1835 he learned that his appointment would terminate at the end of the spring semester.7 He and his family (little Charley turned 5 that year) would be left high and dry, with no source of income.» — el desenlace que el capítulo consigna: a principios de 1835 supo que su nombramiento terminaba al acabar el semestre de primavera, dejando a la familia sin ingreso
«He would oversee the education of the two children of a wealthy Boston merchant, James Perkins, who had recently died (and whose widow was emotionally incapacitated). In return for this part-time work, Follen was to have the use of the Perkinses’ house, and he would be paid the comfortable annual salary of $2,000.» — el puesto con que sus admiradores lo rescataron por un tiempo: encargarse de la educación de los dos hijos de un mercader bostoniano difunto, con casa y dos mil dólares al año
«The fortune of the Follens seems like a Fairy-tale» — lo que Catharine Sedgwick escribió al saber esa buena noticia
«He was committed to a progressive pedagogical strategy, derived largely from the work of the Swiss reformer Johann Pestalozzi. Pestalozzi assumed that children were intrinsically perfect creatures to begin with, and that education should therefore consist in the cultivation of those attributes that were already present in their young souls.» — la pedagogía a la que Follen estaba comprometido según el capítulo: la del suizo Johann Pestalozzi, que daba a los niños por criaturas intrínsecamente perfectas y a la educación por cultivo de lo ya presente en ellos
«Follen wrote (in what amounted to his job proposal) that he intended to “study their natures,” so as to “awake every dormant energy” the two boys already possessed.» — lo que Follen escribió en lo que equivalía a su propuesta de trabajo: estudiar la naturaleza de los dos niños para despertar cada energía dormida que ya poseyeran
«This was the kind of approach that struck many people (including many Unitarians) as leading inevitably to an indiscriminate parental indulgence of children in their immature desires and whims.» — cómo se leía ese enfoque según el capítulo: muchos, incluidos muchos unitarios, lo tenían por camino seguro a una indulgencia parental indiscriminada con los deseos y caprichos inmaduros de los niños
«What happened next is not wholly clear. But it appears that Follen’s political enemies used his progressive educational ideas against him, and when Follen, predictably enough, refused once again to retreat from his principles, he learned that he was once again out of a job. The bad news arrived in mid-December 1835, just a couple of weeks before Christmas.» — lo que el propio autor declara no del todo claro y lo que sí data: los enemigos políticos usaron sus ideas pedagógicas contra él y a mediados de diciembre de 1835 quedó otra vez sin empleo
«The last months of the year 1835 witnessed a series of verbal and physical attacks on the abolitionist movement (abolitionists later referred to this period as a “reign of terror» — el marco mayor en que el capítulo mete esa crisis personal: los últimos meses de 1835, con ataques verbales y físicos al movimiento abolicionista
«In October, William Lloyd Garrison was physically assaulted by a mob which dragged him through the streets of Boston with a halter around his waist. Most Bostonians were convinced that Garrison’s own behavior had brought on such treatment, and indeed that additional steps had to be taken to prevent the abolitionists from provoking further public disorder.» — el episodio de octubre de 1835: una turba arrastró a Garrison por las calles de Boston con un dogal a la cintura, y casi todos los bostonianos daban por hecho que su propia conducta lo había provocado
«With additional pressure coming from Southern quarters, the Massachusetts legislature was soon considering a law that would effectively ban most abolitionist activities.» — la medida legislativa que el capítulo consigna: con presión adicional del sur, la legislatura de Massachusetts consideraba una ley que prohibiría en la práctica casi toda actividad abolicionista
«He was a man of extraordinary principle and tenacity, an intellectual who was above all an effective moral leader—a genteel counterweight to William Lloyd Garrison. But he was also a man without a job. And it was in connection with all these troubles, just in time for the end of the Christmas season, that Harriet Martineau came to visit.» — el retrato con que el capítulo cierra ese arco: un intelectual que era ante todo un líder moral eficaz, contrapeso distinguido de Garrison, y un hombre sin empleo
«Her visit was no coincidence. Martineau herself had been born (in 1802) into an English Unitarian family, though one less distinguished socially than the Sedgwicks or the Boston Unitarian establishment. By the time of her American tour Martineau had become a famous writer. She had arrived in the United States in mid-1834, coming (with a publisher’s travel advance) with the express intention of writing a book about life in the new nation.» — quién era Martineau según el capítulo: nacida en 1802 en una familia unitaria inglesa menos distinguida socialmente, y ya escritora famosa cuando llegó en 1834 con un adelanto editorial para escribir sobre la nueva nación
«Because of her connection with the Unitarian community, one of the Americans to whom Martineau received an introduction was Catharine Sedgwick (whose literary renown made her one of the best-known American Unitarians), and Stockbridge was the first place Martineau visited outside the New York City area. The two women quickly became friends.» — por quién entró Martineau en ese círculo: por su conexión unitaria le dieron carta de presentación para Catharine Sedgwick, y Stockbridge fue el primer sitio que visitó fuera de Nueva York
«Returning to Boston during the autumn, she met and quickly befriended Charles Folien. It was in some measure in response to Follens urging that Martineau attended an abolitionist women’s meeting, held in Boston on November 19, in the midst of the “reign of terror.” She came to this meeting in the role of a reporter, but by the time she left she had become an avowed abolitionist.» — el giro del otoño de 1835: Martineau conoce a Follen y, en parte por instancia suya, asiste como reportera a una reunión de mujeres abolicionistas en Boston y sale de ella abolicionista declarada
«most intimate friends, Eliza Cabot of Boston. Two years later Folien and Cabot married, and in 1830 they had a child, who was christened Charles after the English version of his father’s name.» — cómo siguió la relación de Follen con el círculo de los Sedgwick: Catharine le presentó a Eliza Cabot de Boston, se casaron dos años después y en 1830 tuvieron un hijo bautizado con la forma inglesa del nombre del padre; el troceo abre el segmento a media frase
«Early in 1836 he testified against the proposed antiabolitionist bill at a public legislative hearing. On that occasion he was silenced by the committee» — lo que Follen hizo a principios de 1836: testificar contra el proyecto antiabolicionista en una audiencia pública; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue diciendo que el presidente del comité lo hizo callar y lo amenazó con cargos por desacato
«I foresaw that almost every house in Boston, except those of the abolitionists, would be shut against me; that my relation to the country would be completely changed, as I should suddenly be transformed from being a guest and an observer to being considered a missionary or a spy» — según Nissenbaum, lo que Martineau recordaba haber previsto al declararse abolicionista: que casi toda casa de Boston salvo las de los abolicionistas se le cerraría y pasaría de huésped y observadora a misionera o espía
«Martineaus foreboding was correct. The Boston papers reported (and ridiculed) her avowal of abolitionist sympathies, and those reports were quickly reprinted throughout the United States. By the following spring she was forced to change the itinerary of her postponed western trip in order to avoid the prospect of encountering personal danger.» — lo que siguió a esa declaración según el capítulo: la prensa de Boston la reportó y ridiculizó, se reimprimió por todo el país y ella tuvo que cambiar el itinerario de su viaje al oeste para evitar el riesgo personal
«Martineau had transformed herself from a journalist into an activist. She would always recall her American sojourn as a profoundly transforming episode in her life.» — el cambio que el capítulo consigna en ella: de periodista a activista, con el viaje estadounidense recordado siempre como episodio profundamente transformador
«She regarded Charles Follen as her “very nearest friend, guide, and guardian,” and to the end of her life she kept his portrait (next to one of William Lloyd Garrison) in her parlor.» — lo que Follen era para ella según el capítulo: su amigo, guía y guardián más cercano, con el retrato de él junto al de Garrison en su salón hasta el fin de su vida
«Both of them were under heavy pressure just then; Martineau had just lost her social credibility, and Charles Follen had just lost his post as tutor to the Perkins children. The visit would be a time for mutual commiseration, and also a chance to plan a strategy for what would be (it was now clear) the abolitionist focus of the rest of Martineau’s American visit, including the western trip that she would take several months later in the Follens’ company.» — la situación de los dos en aquella reunión de Año Nuevo: ella acababa de perder su crédito social y él su puesto de preceptor, y la visita sería de consuelo mutuo y de planeación abolicionista
«A few days before their holiday reunion (it actually took place on New Year’s Eve), Follen wrote to Martineau in mock-conspiratorial language: “I rejoice in the prospect of having you with us next Friday, to settle the affairs of this nether world at least, at this Congress of our Holy Triple Alliance» — según Nissenbaum, la carta con que Follen anunció la reunión en lenguaje de conspiración jocosa: arreglar los asuntos de este mundo de abajo en el congreso de su santa triple alianza
«They had each “stepped out of the safe vessel of selfish indifference, and ventured to walk on troubled waters of philanthropic enterprise.» — la fórmula con que Follen decía en otra carta lo que los dos habían hecho: salir del navío seguro de la indiferencia egoísta y aventurarse a caminar sobre las aguas revueltas de la empresa filantrópica
«being either “shunned with silent condemnation as abolitionists, democrats, agrarians, or hailed with the cries of’Crucify! crucify!’ as fanatics and incendiaries.» — la suerte que Follen atribuía en esa carta a los radicales de principios de toda edad y cultura: o rehuidos con condena silenciosa o recibidos con gritos de crucifícalo
«Folien went on, however, to assure Martineau that in their own deepening friendship they could both find an oasis of intimate serenity: “But if the world separate itself from us, it leads us to find a world in ourselves and each other» — el oasis que Follen prometía en la misma carta: si el mundo se separa de nosotros, eso nos lleva a hallar un mundo en nosotros mismos y el uno en el otro
«At their reunion, Charles Folien went out of his way to seal his intimacy with Martineau, and also to offer the promised oasis of serenity, by setting up little Charley’s Christmas tree in her presence. (The Follens had postponed the ritual until New Year’s Eve in order to accommodate Martineau’s schedule.» — lo que el capítulo lee en el árbol de aquella noche: Follen se esmeró en sellar su intimidad con Martineau y en ofrecer el oasis prometido, y los Follen pospusieron el rito a la Nochevieja para acomodar su agenda
«The tree was a success, a time of joy for the grownups as well as for little Charley and his friends (these friends were in fact none other than the Perkins children; indeed, the whole event took place in the Perkinses’ house, where the Follens were still living). The rest of the agenda—the commiseration and the political planning—could presumably wait until the next morning.» — el resultado de esa velada y lo que quedaba pendiente: el árbol fue un éxito, con los amigos de Charley que eran los propios niños Perkins en cuya casa vivían los Follen
«IN HER PUBLISHED ACCOUNT, Harriet Martineau took pains to conceal all this, or at least to dissociate it from the story of little Charley’s Christmas tree. She did not even identify the Follens by name in her account, referring to them only as “Charley’s father and mother.» — lo que Martineau calló en su relato publicado: no identificó a los Follen por su nombre y los llamó solo el padre y la madre de Charley
«But it should be clear to us that Martineau’s experience of what she believed to be the introduction of the Christmas tree into America was actually embedded in a thick matrix of political controversy. Little Charley’s Christmas tree was a carefully planned moment of domestic peace in the midst of crisis and scandal.» — la lectura que el capítulo propone: la introducción del árbol que ella creía presenciar estaba incrustada en una matriz espesa de controversia política, y aquel árbol fue un momento de paz doméstica planeado con cuidado en medio del escándalo
«First, they confirm something that historians have recently come to notice: There were important similarities between the antislavery sensibility and the new attitude toward children. Abolitionists and educational reformers shared a joint empathy for people who were powerless to resist the wrath of those who wielded authority over them—slaves and children, respectively.» — la primera de las dos derivaciones amplias que el capítulo saca: la semejanza entre la sensibilidad antiesclavista y la actitud nueva hacia los niños, con la empatía común por quienes no pueden resistir a quien tiene autoridad sobre ellos
«Both types of reformers had a particular abhorrence of the use of the lash as a form of punishment.» — el rasgo compartido que el capítulo añade entre esas dos clases de reformadores: la aborrecen particular del látigo como forma de castigo
«In fact, what Charles Follen did in 1835 is similar in that sense to what Clement Clarke Moore had done more than a decade earlier, although his reasons—Moore was a reactionary, Follen a radical—were profoundly different. But both men had reason to feel alienated from their respective communities, and both responded by turning inward, to their own children, and using Christmas as the occasion for doing so.» — el paralelo que el capítulo traza pese a la oposición política: Moore reaccionario y Follen radical, los dos alienados de su comunidad, los dos vueltos hacia dentro y hacia sus hijos, y los dos usando la Navidad para hacerlo
«It is no coincidence that radical abolitionists were in the vanguard of the new child-centered Christmas. Two years earlier, in 1833, the Anti-slavery Society had formed a children’s chorus, the Boston Garrison Juvenile Choir (its members may have been African-Americans), which gave a public concert on Christmas Day. One of the numbers it performed was “The Cradle Song;” another was titled “The Sugar Plums.» — la vanguardia que el capítulo señala en la Navidad centrada en los niños: los abolicionistas radicales, con el coro infantil formado en 1833 que dio un concierto público el día de Navidad
«And beginning in 1834 (and continuing each year for more than two decades) the Garrisonians held an annual Antislavery Fair to raise money for the cause—invariably, on the days just before Christmas.» — la feria anual que los garrisonianos sostuvieron por más de dos décadas para recaudar fondos, siempre en los días previos a la Navidad
«In fact, according to a report published in Garrison’s magazine The Liberator, the very first of these Antislavery Fairs (the one in 1834) displayed an “evergreen shrub” that bore another witty message: “Persons are requested not to handle the articles, which, like slavery, are too ‘delicate’ to be touched.» — el arbusto perenne de la primera de esas ferias, la de 1834, con el letrero que el capítulo llama ingenioso: se ruega no manosear los artículos, que como la esclavitud son demasiado delicados para tocarse
«Humor aside, if any of the articles for sale at the 1834 fair were actually attached to this evergreen shrub (or placed around it), then //would have the honor of being the first public Christmas tree displayed in the United States.» — la hipótesis que el propio autor deja en condicional: si alguno de los artículos de aquella feria estaba prendido de ese arbusto o puesto a su alrededor, tendría el honor de ser el primer árbol de Navidad público del país
«“Christmas Eve” (1836). This is the first image of a Christmas tree to be printed in the United States. It appeared in Boston in 1836, as the frontispiece to The Strangers Gift, a Gift Book written by a German immigrant named Herman Bokum, a man who had taken over Charles Follens old job of teaching the German language on a part-time basis at Harvard. The tree is illuminated by open candles. The door at the right suggests that the children have only moments earlier been allowed to enter the room.» — el pie de la que el capítulo llama primera imagen de un árbol de Navidad impresa en Estados Unidos, frontispicio de un libro de regalo escrito por el inmigrante alemán que había heredado el puesto docente de Follen
«Sedgwick’s fictional account resembled Martineau’s report except that here the family that performs the ritual was not German but of old Yankee stock—Yankees living in New York City, as Catharine Sedgwick herself was doing. But this fictional tree was set up at the behest of a German immigrant, the young heroine’s maidservant, Madeleine.» — la diferencia que el capítulo señala entre los dos relatos: en el cuento la familia no es alemana sino yanqui de vieja cepa en Nueva York, y el árbol se pone a instancia de la criada alemana
«the maidservant has “persuaded her young mistress to arrange the gifts after the fashion of her father-land”—that is, by hanging them on a tree secretly set up in the rear parlor, a room the children rarely enter.» — cómo se pone el árbol en el cuento: la criada persuade a su joven ama de disponer los regalos a la usanza de su tierra, colgándolos de un árbol montado en secreto en el salón trasero
«Never did Christmas tree bear more multifarious fruit,—for St. Nicholas, that most benign of all the saints of the Calendar, had through the hands of many a ministering priest and priestess, showered his gifts. The sturdiest branch drooped with its burden of books, chess-men, puzzles, &c., for Julius, a stripling of thirteen. Dolls, birds, beasts, and boxes were hung on the lesser limbs. A regiment of soldiers had alighted on one bough, and Noah’s ark was anchored to another, and to all the slender branches were attached cherries, plumbs [sic], strawberries and peaches as tempting, and at least as sweet, as the fruits of paradise.» — según Nissenbaum, la descripción del árbol en el cuento de Sedgwick: nunca dio árbol de Navidad fruto más variado, con libros, ajedreces, muñecas, un regimiento de soldados, el arca de Noé y frutas colgando de las ramas delgadas
«As far as I can tell (and I have carefully read the family’s correspondence during these years), there was no German maidservant in Catharine Sedgwick’s house, and no Christmas tree.» — el hallazgo negativo que el propio autor declara tras leer la correspondencia familiar de esos años: no hubo criada alemana en casa de Catharine Sedgwick ni árbol de Navidad
«It is possible, of course, that Sedgwick learned of the tree through a neighbor’s maidservant. What is far more likely is that she learned about it from the Follens themselves.» — las dos hipótesis que el capítulo sopesa sobre de dónde salió el árbol del cuento, y cuál tiene por más probable
«Second, we can view the juxtaposition of the two stories (the Christmas tree and the political crisis) as a telling instance of another phenomenon that historians have been pointing to: the way that middle-class people in the early nineteenth century went about creating for themselves a private space, radically cut off from the» — la segunda derivación: cómo la clase media de principios del siglo XIX se fabricaba un espacio privado; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *pressures of the world outside and centered around the happiness of children*
«endorsed by Martineau and the Follens, but she continued to count them among her closest friends. And during the same Christmas season in which Martineau witnessed the Follens’ Christmas tree, Sedgwick published a story of her own, written earlier that year, in which a Christmas tree played a small but distinct part.» — la posición de Catharine Sedgwick y lo que publicó esa misma temporada: no respaldó la ideología abolicionista de Martineau y los Follen, pero siguió contándolos entre sus amigos más cercanos, y sacó un cuento donde un árbol de Navidad tiene parte pequeña pero nítida; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«Inasmuch as Martineau’s account of the Follens was not published for another two years, it was actually Sedgwick’s story that has the honor of introducing this ritual into American literature.» — el orden de publicación que el capítulo consigna: el relato de Martineau no salió hasta dos años después, de modo que el honor de introducir el rito en la literatura estadounidense es del cuento de Sedgwick
«IT IS COMMONPLACE, nowadays, to hark back to a time when Christmas was simpler, more authentic, and less commercial than it has become. Even professional historians have tended to write about the» — el lugar común que el capítulo se propone examinar: añorar un tiempo en que la Navidad era más simple, más auténtica y menos comercial, cosa que hasta los historiadores profesionales han hecho; la cita se corta aquí porque el troceo parte *pre-twentieth-century* con guion de fin de renglón
«The most prominent and influential of Theodore Sedgwick’s children, though, was not any of his sons but his youngest daughter, Catharine Maria Sedgwick (1789– 1867). Catharine Sedgwick became a professional novelist and» — quién fue el miembro más prominente de esa segunda generación: no un hijo sino la hija menor, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, que llegó a ser de las autoras más populares del país; la cita se corta aquí porque el troceo parte *short-story* con guion de fin de renglón
«In any case, each year from 1804 until his death eight years later, Sedgwick invariably used the approaching New Year to lecture them about the need for critical» — en qué convirtió el Año Nuevo desde 1804 hasta su muerte: una ocasión anual para sermonear a los hijos; la cita se corta aquí porque el troceo parte *self-reflection* con guion de fin de renglón
«that had been offered at that year’s fair. “Pretty well for the young fanatic!» — el episodio de 1836 que el capítulo cita: varios abolicionistas obsequiaron al hijo pequeño de Garrison con zapatos, medias, mitones y un vestido hermoso ofrecido en la feria de ese año, y el padre lo anotó en privado con ironía poco habitual en él; la cita arranca aquí porque el troceo parte *10-month-old* con guion de fin de renglón
«Elizabeth Ellery Sedgwick cared intensely about accumulating both material goods and success in New York’s fashionable social circuits, and she had a sense that by lavishing herself with the one she would help ensure herself the other.» — el retrato de la cuñada con que el capítulo abre la escena: le importaban intensamente los bienes materiales y el éxito en los circuitos sociales de moda, y creía que colmándose de lo primero se aseguraba lo segundo
«Each year Mrs. Sedgwick proudly reported to her father what she had been given that holiday season and also the number of visitors who had called upon her household on New Year’s Day (one year she boasted that the total was “about 70 gentlemen”). In turn, she noted that her husband, Robert, “made 63 calls in five hours, so you may judge how he walked.» — lo que esa señora reportaba cada año a su padre: los regalos recibidos y el número de visitantes del día de Año Nuevo, con los sesenta y tres visitas que su marido hizo en cinco horas
«Recalling how she had just greeted her seventy callers in the front room of her house, Mrs. Sedgwick proudly noted that the children “occupied the back parlor, and made a pretty perspective for us as we received our visitors.” Nor did she fail to note that several of the children’s gifts were “very valuable.» — cómo pensaba esa señora los regalos de sus hijos según el capítulo: en el marco del mundo elegante, con los niños ocupando el salón trasero y formando una perspectiva bonita para los visitantes
«Out of the sense of noblesse that governed so much of her life, Catharine Sedgwick participated fully in the fashionable ritual of receiving the gentlemen callers. But the visitations wore on her patience.» — la posición de Catharine Sedgwick ante ese rito: participaba de lleno por el sentido de nobleza que gobernaba tanto de su vida, y las visitas le gastaban la paciencia
«In a private letter (written to a favorite young niece) Sedgwick noted that on New Year’s Day, 1835, she had greeted “between 70 & 80” gentlemen, but she added that neither their names nor their fashionable witticisms (the latter presumably repeated at every stop) were worth passing along.» — lo que esa carta privada de 1835 decía: saludó a entre setenta y ochenta caballeros, y ni sus nombres ni sus agudezas de moda merecían repetirse
«He said ‘Nature has come out with her annual at last, & as bright as the best of them—the gentlemen find it a book of beauty.» — el único ejemplo que Catharine consintió en pasar a su sobrina: un visitante comparando el buen tiempo invernal con la salida anual de los libros de regalo
«The following year Catharine Sedgwick took an authors revenge, in the form of a mocking fictionalized account of that same experience. Her account made up the central section of the short story in which the Christmas tree also figured.» — lo que hizo al año siguiente según el capítulo: una venganza de autora, con un relato burlón de esa misma experiencia en el centro del cuento donde figura el árbol
«In Sedgwick’s fictional rendering the woman who receives the visitors is the tale’s teenage heroine, a charming and attractive girl named Lizzy Percival, the oldest child in a New York family of great wealth and prominence, and the character who obviously represents Catharine Sedgwick herself. (Lizzy Percival is sweet, caring, and sincere—a young woman who shares Catharine Sedgwick’s disdain for artifice.» — quién recibe a los visitantes en la ficción: Lizzy Percival, la hija mayor de una familia neoyorquina rica, que según el capítulo representa a la propia Catharine Sedgwick y comparte su desdén por el artificio
«When one of their visitors referred to the New Year’s ritual as a “fine old custom” created by “our Dutch ancestors,” Lizzy secretly thought of him as an “interloper who had not a drop of… Dutch blood.» — la ironía del cuento sobre el origen holandés: un visitante llama al rito vieja costumbre de nuestros antepasados holandeses y la protagonista lo tiene por intruso sin una gota de esa sangre
«The least offensive of the fictional visitors were the ones who merely attempted to be clever. Among these was a young man whose witticism will already be familiar to us. Echoing almost verbatim Sedgwick’s earlier, real-life report, this young man extolled the weather “and said that nature had, last of all the publishers, come out with her annual, and the gentlemen had found it ‘a book of beauty.» — el visitante menos ofensivo del cuento: el que repite casi textualmente la agudeza del anuario que Catharine había reportado en la carta real
«Set in this new context, its meaning is simple: Catharine Sedgwicks Christmas tree is associated with everything that is absent in the fashionable visitation ritual. It is associated with children—innocent, good-hearted children—and the private space of a purely domestic ritual.» — lo que el árbol significa en ese contraste según el capítulo: queda asociado a todo lo que falta en el rito elegante de las visitas, a niños inocentes y de buen corazón y al espacio privado de un rito puramente doméstico
«In effect, Catharine Sedgwick had turned the tables on the sheriff (discussed in Chapter 3) who had identified with the world of alcohol and male culture and dismissed the world of women (and temperance) as cold comfort.» — la vuelta de tortilla que el capítulo señala respecto del capítulo tercero: el alguacil se identificaba con el mundo del alcohol y de los hombres y despachaba el de las mujeres como consuelo frío
«In real life, as we have seen, the children of Robert and Elizabeth Sedgwick were playing with their presents in the back parlor at the same time that Catharine and Elizabeth Sedgwick were receiving their fashionable visitors in the front one. In fact, the door between the two rooms remained open the entire time.» — el contraste entre ficción y vida real que el capítulo subraya: en la casa verdadera los niños jugaban en el salón trasero mientras las mujeres recibían en el delantero, con la puerta abierta todo el tiempo
«But in Catharine Sedgwick’s fictionalized account of the same event, the two rituals appeared to be taking place in a separate time and space—and it was crucial that they did.» — la operación que el capítulo atribuye al cuento: en la ficción los dos ritos parecen ocurrir en tiempo y espacio separados, y era decisivo que así fuera
«The central theme of Sedgwick’s story is the contrast between artifice and authenticity. The holiday season functioned as a literary occasion on which it was easy to carve out a divide between the private and the public worlds, and to take the pleasures of the former more seriously than the demands of the latter.» — el tema central del cuento según el capítulo: el contraste entre artificio y autenticidad, con la temporada sirviendo de ocasión para separar el mundo privado del público y tomarse más en serio el primero
«And it is the reason Sedgwick chose to set the story at Christmas, a time when, as she saw it, the most artificial rituals were juxtaposed with the most authentic ones.» — la razón por la que, según el capítulo, la autora sitúa el cuento en Navidad: es el tiempo en que los ritos más artificiales quedan yuxtapuestos a los más auténticos
«Through the character of Lizzy, Sedgwick manages to establish a core of authenticity in a household that is besieged from without and within by the forces of social convention, whether “the stereotyped sayings of the season” or the equally stereotyped holiday presents the real-life Sedgwick children received.» — lo que la autora logra con ese personaje según el capítulo: un núcleo de autenticidad en una casa asediada desde fuera y desde dentro por las convenciones sociales
«I don’t know exactly what those presents were, but the children’s mother did report that they were numerous and “some of them [were] very valuable.» — el límite documental que el propio autor declara sobre los regalos reales, con lo único que la madre reportó
«When Catharine Sedgwick fictionalized this part of her experience she was more specific. The toys that Lizzy Percival placed on the Christmas tree consisted of things like books, dolls, animals, and a regiment of toy soldiers. At first glance these, too, would appear to be commercial toys, toys she has bought, the kind of toys that are available at any of number of New York shops.» — lo que la ficción pone en el árbol: libros, muñecas, animales y un regimiento de soldados de juguete, que a primera vista parecerían juguetes comerciales comprados en cualquier tienda de Nueva York
«But as the children— Lizzy’s younger brothers and sisters—comment on their gifts one by one, it becomes absolutely clear that Lizzy has prepared them all herself.» — lo que se aclara conforme los niños comentan sus regalos uno por uno: que la hermana los ha preparado todos ella misma
«Catharine Maria Sedgwick. This picture shows the author as a young woman, and suggests something of the charm that helped endear her to a wide circle of acquaintances. (Courtesy of the Fine Arts Library, Harvard College Library)» — el pie del retrato de la autora joven, que según el capítulo sugiere el encanto con que se ganaba un círculo amplio de conocidos
«One of the brothers receives “a nice book, filled with copies for him to draw after;” and exclaims pointedly, “‘how much pains you have taken to do this for me! how much time and trouble you have spent upon it» — el primero de esos comentarios: el hermano que recibe un cuaderno de modelos para dibujar y hace notar el trabajo y el tiempo que la hermana puso en él
«The dolls that two other siblings receive may have been store-bought, but they come dressed in clothing Lizzy has sewn. (“?, Anne, your doll is dressed just like mine; sister has even worked their pocket handkerchiefs.» — el caso de las muñecas: pudieron comprarse en tienda, pero vienen con ropa cosida por la hermana, que hasta les ha labrado los pañuelos
«Even the toy soldiers have been hand-finished: “‘Sister, sister, did you paint these soldiers?’ cried Hal; ‘kiss me, you are the best sister that ever lived.» — el caso de los soldados de juguete, terminados también a mano, con la pregunta y el beso del niño
«Lizzy modestly reminded him that alcohol had been “‘banished from all refined society.’” Catharine Sedgwick evidently supported the detoxification of New Year’s visitations.» — el apunte del cuento que el capítulo lee como posición de la autora sobre la bebida: a quien pide ponche de whisky se le recuerda que el alcohol ha sido desterrado de toda sociedad refinada; la cita arranca aquí porque el troceo parte *whiskey-punch* con guion de fin de renglón
«Every one of Lizzy’s fictional visitors spoke in stock phrases, and most of them were coarse, materialistic, and competitive.» — el retrato general de esos visitantes en el cuento: todos hablaban con frases hechas y casi todos eran groseros, materialistas y competitivos; el troceo corta aquí en el límite de segmento
«boasted that his wife had received fully 200 visitors the previous year. Another openly compared the hospitality he had received at various houses. A third betrayed the confidence of a woman he knew—a relative of Lizzy’s who had declined to receive visitors that day on grounds of ill health—by revealing that the woman was not sick at all: “‘” Say to my friends, “I’m sick, I’m dead [she had confided].” But, between ourselves, my dear Lizzy, the draperies to the drawing-room curtains are not completed—that’s all.» — los tres visitantes que el capítulo destaca a continuación: el que presume las doscientas visitas de su mujer, el que compara en voz alta las hospitalidades, y el que delata que la enferma solo esperaba terminar los cortinajes
«Finally, we learn that Lizzy has done the same for her father, too; she presents him with “a pair of slippers …, beautifully wrought by her own hands,” together with “several pairs of fine woolen hose which she had knit for him, in her intervals of leisure.” Sedgwick hammers the point home: “They were just such as he liked, just such as he could not buy, just such as nobody but Lizzy could knit» — el remate de esa serie en el cuento: las pantuflas y las medias de lana tejidas por ella para el padre, justo de las que a él le gustaban y justo de las que no podía comprar
«Just such as he could not buy. As early as this story, written in the mid-1830s, Catharine Sedgwick was able to make a point of how special it was for Christmas presents to be handmade or even hand-finished.» — lo que el capítulo lee en esa fórmula: ya a mediados de los años treinta la autora podía señalar lo especial que era que un regalo navideño fuera hecho o siquiera acabado a mano
«More to the point, Sedgwick chose to have all these gifts made by hand in order to reinforce further the point she had already suggested by the German Christmas tree: The true essence of the Christmas gift exchange must be forged outside the fevered crucible of market relations.» — el propósito que el capítulo atribuye a esa elección: reforzar lo que el árbol alemán ya sugería, que la esencia verdadera del intercambio navideño ha de forjarse fuera del crisol febril de las relaciones de mercado
«But there was one aspect of the contradiction that remained immune to such a literary solution: the tension between the story’s message and the medium that carried it.» — la contradicción que según el capítulo el recurso literario no podía resolver: la tensión entre el mensaje del cuento y el medio que lo llevaba
«But in fact it was not the German maidservant Madeleine who effectively spread the idea of the Christmas tree throughout American culture. It was the Yankee patrician Catharine Sedgwick—popular author and Unitarian daughter of a Massachusetts congressman—who accomplished that.» — quién difundió de veras la idea del árbol según el capítulo: no la criada alemana del cuento sino la patricia yanqui que lo escribió
«Even more important, Sedgwick did this not by setting up such a tree but by writing a story about it—and publishing that story in a popular Gift Book read by middle-class readers throughout America, a Gift Book that went on sale just in time for the 1835 holiday season.» — el medio preciso de esa difusión: no poner un árbol sino escribir sobre él y publicarlo en un libro de regalo popular que salió a la venta justo para la temporada de 1835
«In fact, the particular volume in which Sedgwick’s story appeared—a Gift Book called The Token—remains notable to literary historians for another reason entirely: It contains the first publication of two important stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne—“The May-Pole of Merry Mount” and “The Ministers Black Veil.» — el dato que el capítulo añade sobre ese volumen: para los historiadores de la literatura es notable por otra razón, la primera publicación de dos cuentos importantes de Hawthorne
«Sedgwicks readers may unconsciously have assumed that they were learning about Christmas trees directly from the folk character Madeleine, but in fact the path of transmission was nothing other than the latest holiday-season commodity—a Gift Book that had been purchased as a present in a fashionable shop.» — la vía real de transmisión que el capítulo señala frente a la que el cuento sugería: la última mercancía de la temporada, un libro de regalo comprado en una tienda de moda
«We have happened upon an important paradox: The Christmas tree entered American society through the avenues of commercial culture, but it did so in the name of precommercial folk culture.» — la paradoja que el capítulo enuncia: el árbol de Navidad entró en la sociedad estadounidense por las avenidas de la cultura comercial, pero en nombre de una cultura popular precomercial
«We might go so far as to say that both rituals were part of an early “folk revival” of sorts, a revival that emerged close behind the full-blown emergence of commercial culture itself.» — la fórmula que el capítulo propone para el árbol y para Santa Claus a la vez: los dos ritos como parte de un renacimiento folclórico temprano, surgido pisándole los talones a la cultura comercial
«It is commonplace to believe that Christmas trees were transmitted to America by early German immigrants in Pennsylvania. And in all probability, American Christmas trees did, indeed, first appear in the Pennsylvania German community in the early nineteenth century. But it is unlikely that they made their appearance much before 1820.» — lo que el capítulo concede y lo que acota de la creencia corriente: es probable que los primeros árboles aparecieran en la comunidad germano-pensilvana, pero difícilmente mucho antes de 1820
«Folklorists have done their best to seek out the first tree in Pennsylvania, and it seems plain that credible evidence of actual Christmas trees dates no earlier than the 181os. In 1819 (possibly as early as 1812), an immigrant artist from Germany drew a picture of a tree he saw during a tour of the Pennsylvania countryside, and that picture has been preserved in his sketchbooks. The first extant verbal reference to Christmas trees dates from the very next year, 1821 (it is an entry in the diary of a Lancaster resident, who reported that his children had gone to a nearby sawmill “for Christmas trees» — la evidencia que el capítulo resume: los folcloristas no hallan testimonio creíble anterior a la década de 1810, con el dibujo de un artista inmigrante y una entrada de diario de Lancaster de 1821
«What this sequence suggests is that Christmas trees were first set up by Pennsylvania Germans sometime during the 1810s (the very decade during which St. Nicholas was introduced in New York» — la cronología que el capítulo deduce y la coincidencia que subraya: los primeros árboles germano-pensilvanos en la década de 1810, la misma en que se introduce San Nicolás en Nueva York
«It turns out that the Christmas tree was a relatively new tradition in Germany itself, one that was still emerging there in the early nineteenth century.» — la respuesta que el capítulo da a por qué no aparecieron antes: el árbol era tradición relativamente nueva en la propia Alemania, todavía emergiendo allí a principios del siglo XIX
«An Early American Christmas Tree. This sketch was drawn from life (in either 1812 or 1819) by John Lewis Krimmel, a German painter who had emigrated to Philadelphia, and who drew the sketch while touring the Pennsylvania countryside. (Although Krimmel’s sketch is the first picture of an American Christmas tree, it was not printed until a few years ago.) The eleven people who appear here are apparently members of a single family. Judging from the dress and furnishings, this was a relatively prosperous household» — el pie del dibujo de John Lewis Krimmel, pintor alemán emigrado a Filadelfia: la primera imagen de un árbol de Navidad estadounidense, no impresa hasta hace pocos años, con once personas de una casa relativamente próspera
«The Strasbourg Christmas tree was apparently used as part of a judgmental Christmas ritual—much like the similar St. Nicholas ritual in Holland —in which good children were rewarded with bonbons provided by the “Christkindle” (i.e., the Christchild), while “disobedient” youngsters were punished by a figure known as “Hanstrapp,” the local» — el uso que el árbol de Estrasburgo tenía según el capítulo: parte de un rito navideño de juicio, con bonbones del Niño Jesús para los buenos y castigo de una figura local para los desobedientes; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«The ritual began to spread to other parts of Germany—minus Hanstrapp—only after 1750. A key date in this development may have been 1771, when Strasbourg became the site of an extended visit by the young writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who discovered in this city a new sense of “German” identity that transformed his larger cultural vision.» — cuándo y por qué empieza a difundirse el rito según el capítulo: solo después de 1750, con la visita larga del joven Goethe a Estrasburgo en 1771 como fecha clave
«It was largely through Goethe and his literary colleagues that the Christmas tree spread to other parts of Germany. It did so as a fashionable new ritual that was perceived—even there—as an ancient and authentic folk tradition. Christmas trees were adopted by the elite in Berlin, for example, only in the 1810s.» — la vía de difusión del árbol dentro de Alemania según el capítulo: sobre todo Goethe y sus colegas literarios, como rito nuevo y de moda percibido incluso allí como tradición popular antigua y auténtica
«In 1820 a young American visitor, the future historian George Bancroft, saw a tree there in the home of his local host, the distinguished jurist Baron Friedrich Karl von Savigny—a man who had married the sister of Goethe’s mistress Bettina Brentano.» — el testimonio estadounidense que el capítulo aduce para Berlín: el futuro historiador George Bancroft vio en 1820 un árbol en casa de su anfitrión, el jurista barón von Savigny
«It was not until the 1830s that Christmas trees became a truly national practice in Germany. They were introduced to Munich, for example, only in 1830, by the queen of Bavaria.» — cuándo se vuelve práctica nacional en Alemania según el capítulo: no antes de los años treinta, con Múnich adoptándolo en 1830 por obra de la reina de Baviera
«It seems fair, under the circumstances, to consider Christmas trees as something of an “invented tradition,” much like Santa Claus in New York—a ritual picked up by the elite and spread via literary channels through a middle class that was interested in discovering its “authentic” national culture.» — la conclusión que el capítulo saca de esa cronología: cabe tener el árbol por tradición inventada, como el Santa Claus de Nueva York, rito recogido por la élite y difundido por canales literarios
«By the early nineteenth century, Christmas trees were being described as a timeless tradition. In 1820—the same year that produced the earliest evidence of an actual Christmas tree in Pennsylvania—a story of modern European authorship, but set in medieval Germany, noted that on Christmas Eve “every family assembles all its members together and fathers and mothers are surrounded by their children; they light up a number of wax lights, which they suspend to the branches of a small fir-tree, which are also hung round with the presents they mean to make them.» — el relato de 1820 que el capítulo cita como ejemplo de árbol descrito ya como tradición intemporal: de autoría europea moderna pero ambientado en la Alemania medieval
«The same story also informs us—remember, this is the fourteenth century—that “the shops in the streets” are filled with “toys of every kind.» — el anacronismo que el capítulo señala en ese mismo relato: las tiendas de las calles llenas de juguetes de toda clase, supuestamente en el siglo XIV
«What matters first is the story’s plot. It deals with the redemption of a sinful mother by her selfless young child—a child who, like Jesus himself, was born on Christmas Eve (the story is titled “Christmas Eve; or, The Conversion» — lo primero que el capítulo destaca de aquel relato: su trama, la redención de una madre pecadora por su hijo desinteresado, nacido como Jesús en Nochebuena
«By now it should be clear that the Christmas tree was spread throughout the United States in large measure by committed Unitarians. It is time to ask what their agenda was. Why did members of this group care so much about Christmas trees?» — la pregunta con que el capítulo abre el apartado siguiente: por qué a los unitarios comprometidos, que difundieron el árbol, les importaba tanto
«Answering this question takes us along two important literary paths. The first starts with a famous British writer; the second, with a controversial Swiss educational reformer. Both paths run chiefly through the channels of Unitarian culture. And both constantly refer to the theme of selfless children.» — los dos caminos literarios que el capítulo anuncia para responderla, uno desde un escritor británico famoso y otro desde un reformador educativo suizo polémico, los dos por canales unitarios
«Coleridge happened to spend the 1798 Christmas season in the German town of Ratzeburg, located near Hamburg in the northern part of Germany. He had gone to Germany three months earlier, shortly after making a professional decision that changed the shape of his career—he had just decided against pursuing a career as a minister in the Unitarian Church.» — dónde pasó Coleridge la temporada de 1798 y qué acababa de decidir: Ratzeburg, en el norte de Alemania, tras resolver no seguir carrera de ministro unitario
«But in the midst of these revels he witnessed a domestic Christmas tree, accompanied by a ritual that “pleased and interested” him so much that he published an account of it eleven years later, in a magazine he was then editing in England (the piece was published in time for the 1809 Christmas season» — lo que Coleridge vio entre aquellas fiestas y cuándo lo publicó: un árbol de Navidad doméstico con un rito que le agradó e interesó tanto que once años después lo contó en una revista que editaba
«culture. They were a part of the fashionable new commercial world, a world that Catharine Sedgwick was critiquing from within.» — dónde se producían esos anuarios según el capítulo: no en los talleres de la cultura popular sino en el mundo comercial nuevo y elegante que la autora criticaba desde dentro; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«In fact, the story of the German Christmas tree has parallels to that of the Dutch Santa Claus. What happened in both cases was» — el paralelo que el capítulo traza entre el árbol alemán y el Santa Claus holandés; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue diciendo que en los dos casos un grupo pequeño empezó de pronto a hacer mucho de una tradición hasta entonces menor
«Before the last third of the eighteenth century, Christmas trees had been a localized custom, largely limited to a single place—the Alsatian capital of Strasbourg—where they seem to have developed by the beginning of the seventeenth century.» — la cronología alemana que el capítulo saca de las fuentes: hasta el último tercio del siglo XVIII el árbol fue costumbre localizada, casi limitada a Estrasburgo, donde parece haberse desarrollado a principios del siglo XVII
«In fact, a Christmas tree scene is included at a dramatic moment of the 1774 novel that established his literary reputation, The Sufferings of Young Werther (the scene takes place shortly before the hero’s suicide» — el rastro de esa asociación en la obra de Goethe: una escena de árbol de Navidad en momento dramático de la novela de 1774 que le dio su reputación literaria
«As it happens, that story was reprinted in the United States the same year it was published in Europe. Its American venue was The Athenaeum, a cosmopolitan literary magazine published in Boston by» — dónde se reimprimió ese relato en Estados Unidos el mismo año: una revista literaria cosmopolita publicada en Boston por unitarios y dedicada a reimprimir lo último de Europa; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«What really impressed him was a more important twist— for in the ceremony he witnessed, it was the children who gave presents to their parents, and not the other way around.» — el giro que impresionó a Coleridge según el capítulo: en la ceremonia que presenció eran los hijos quienes daban regalos a los padres y no al revés
«For three or four months before Christmas the girls are busy [working], and the boys save up their pocket-money, to make or purchase these presents. What the present is to be is cautiously kept secret, and the girls have a world of contrivances to conceal it» — según Nissenbaum, el procedimiento que Coleridge detalló: tres o cuatro meses antes las niñas trabajan y los niños ahorran su dinero de bolsillo, y lo que será el regalo se guarda en secreto
«Where I witnessed this scene, there were eight or nine children, and the eldest daughter and the mother wept aloud for joy and tenderness; and the tears ran down the face of the father, and he clasped his children so tight to his breast—it seemed as if he did it to stifle the sob that was rising within him.—I was very much affected.» — según Nissenbaum, la escena que Coleridge halló conmovedora: la hija mayor y la madre lloraban de alegría y ternura, y al padre le corrían las lágrimas mientras apretaba a sus hijos contra el pecho
«Coleridge did not realize it, but this ritual seems to have been a strictly local one, conceivably even limited to the single household in which he observed it. He afforded only brief mention to the more standard ritual that took place the following day—the familiar ritual in which the parents gave presents to their children.» — la acotación que el capítulo pone al testimonio: el rito parece haber sido estrictamente local, quizá limitado a la sola casa donde él lo vio, y del rito corriente del día siguiente Coleridge apenas hizo mención
«Coleridge’s account left something of a wake in the United States, a wake that I have come to term “the Ratzeburg file.» — el nombre que el propio autor pone a la estela de ese relato en Estados Unidos
«Coleridge originally published his Christmas recollections in 1809, in a short-lived magazine he edited called The Friend. The bound magazine was republished in London three times during the 1810s, and an American edition appeared in 1829 (in Burlington, Vermont» — la historia editorial de ese texto que el capítulo traza: revista efímera de 1809, tres reimpresiones londinenses en los años diez y una edición estadounidense en 1829
«Actually, Coleridge’s account of the Ratzeburg Christmas tree had been printed as a separate item in the United States back in 1824, in the official journal of the Unitarian Church in America, the Christian Register, published in Boston.» — la primera reimpresión suelta en Estados Unidos según el capítulo: 1824, en el órgano oficial de la Iglesia unitaria estadounidense
«Six years later parts of the account reappeared, without attribution, in a children’s book written by another Unitarian, Lydia Maria Child. Child, a novelist and an abolitionist, was best known at the time as the author of a cookbook, The New England Frugal Housewife.» — la segunda aparición y sin atribución: un libro infantil de Lydia Maria Child, novelista y abolicionista más conocida entonces por un recetario
«It is the last item in the book, titled “A Custom Worthy [of] Imitation,” that is of interest to us here. For it was nothing other than a paraphrase of Coleridge’s report—except that Child did not refer to the Christmas tree itself but only to what we might think of as the central element in the ritual, the generational reversal in the gift exchange.» — lo que ese libro traía del relato de Coleridge según el capítulo: una paráfrasis que no menciona el árbol sino el elemento central del rito, la inversión generacional del intercambio
«In Germany the children all make it a rule to prepare Christmas presents for their parents and brothers and sisters. Even the youngest contrive to offer something. For weeks before the important day arrives, they are as busy as little bees contriving and making such things as they suppose will be most agreeable. The great object is to keep each one ignorant of the present he, or she, is to receive, in order to surprise them when the offering is presented. A great deal of whispering, and innocent management is resorted to, to effect this purpose; and their little minds are brimful of the happy business.» — según Nissenbaum, el texto de Child: en Alemania los niños tienen por regla preparar regalos para padres y hermanos, y hasta el más pequeño se las arregla para ofrecer algo
«Another version of the same account appeared the very next year, 1832, in Keene, New Hampshire, in a children’s primer authored by one J. K. Smith, Juvenile Lessons; or The Child’s First Reading Book. One of the reading lessons in this book was titled “Christmas Presents.” This lesson began: “The children in the North part of Germany, have a custom which pleases me much. It is usual with them to make little presents to their parents at Christmas time.» — la tercera aparición de ese texto: una cartilla infantil publicada en Keene, Nuevo Hampshire, con una lección titulada sobre los regalos de Navidad
«The evening before Christmas, they obtain leave to light one of the parlors, and here the presents for their parents are laid out with great care. When all things are ready, the parents are called in, and the dear little creatures present their gifts. It is a delightful scene of kisses and embraces, and frolick.» — la escena de esa cartilla: la víspera obtienen permiso de encender uno de los salones, disponen allí los regalos para sus padres y los llaman a recibirlos
«Smith concluded by expressing a hope that “the boys and girls in America would make such a good use of Christmas eve, and Christmas day.» — el deseo con que el autor de esa cartilla remataba la lección
«The same item reemerged one last time, at the very end of the decade, in 1840, in a children’s religious magazine, Youths Companion. Like the earlier reprintings, this version, too, was published in New England. But whereas the earlier examples had been associated with Unitarians, the magazine in which this one appeared was published by their old opponents, the evangelical Congregationalists.» — la última aparición de esa serie en 1840 y su procedencia: una revista religiosa infantil publicada no por unitarios sino por sus viejos adversarios congregacionalistas
«This Congregationalist version actually came closest to Coleridge’s original account. The Christmas tree reappeared in it, and so did the town of Ratzeburg itself.» — lo que esa última versión restituía del original de Coleridge: el árbol de Navidad y el nombre mismo del pueblo
«I was reading something about it in one of papa’s books, the other day…. The person who wrote the account said that it is the custom at Ratzeburg, in Germany, to set up a branch of a yew tree near the wall, and fasten to the boughs little combustible things, pieces of candle wrapped up in colored papers. Then all the presents are tied to the branches, and all the children are called in…. [B]y and by they set fire to the little candles, and the branches begin to burn and crackle, which makes grand fun.» — según Nissenbaum, el pasaje de esa versión de 1840 en que un niño explica el rito: una rama de tejo junto a la pared con velas envueltas en papeles de color, los regalos atados a las ramas y el fuego que hace crepitar el ramaje
«First, each writer in turn learned about the ritual not from personal observation but from reading another writer’s account.» — lo primero que el capítulo destaca del proceso: cada autor supo del rito no por observarlo sino por leer el relato de otro
«But when we actually trace the process, what we find is that the source of all the reports is what a single visitor to one small town observed on just one occasion, and in a single household.» — lo que el capítulo halla al rastrear el proceso: que la fuente de todos esos reportes es lo que un solo visitante observó una sola vez, en un solo pueblo y en una sola casa
«The answer surely has to do with the one element in Coleridge’s report that was included in every item in the Ratzeburg file: the appearance of children who were behaving unselfishly at Christmas—children who had freely chosen to give presents as well as to receive them.» — el elemento común a todos los eslabones de esa cadena según el capítulo: la aparición de niños que se portaban sin egoísmo en Navidad y que habían elegido libremente dar además de recibir
«This was a point that would have struck a responsive chord in people who worried that the affection they lavished on their children at Christmas—and especially the gifts that were meant to symbolize this affection—were causing those same children to become self-centered and materialistic—in other words, spoiled.» — a quiénes tocaba esa fibra según el capítulo: a quienes temían que el cariño y los regalos con que colmaban a sus hijos en Navidad los estuvieran volviendo egocéntricos y materialistas
«Child-rearing practices were linked to theological beliefs. Whether parents chose to beat their children, for example, or lavish attention on them at Christmas was linked to whether they believed in original sin.» — el enlace que el capítulo traza: las prácticas de crianza iban unidas a las creencias teológicas, y pegar a los hijos o colmarlos en Navidad dependía de si se creía en el pecado original
«A central tenet of early-nineteenth-century Unitarians—and one that distinguished them from both the old-style Puritans and the majority of evangelical “New Lights”—was the belief that human beings were not born for damnation.» — el punto central de los unitarios de principios del siglo XIX según el capítulo, que los separaba de los viejos puritanos y de la mayoría evangélica: que los seres humanos no nacen para la condenación
«To repeat: The will itself—that which a person wished to do—was corrupted; it could serve only to resist the process of divine cleansing. Puritan-minded parents, and their nineteenth-century successors, therefore felt that it was their obligation to break a child’s will as early as possible.» — la consecuencia práctica de esa creencia según el capítulo: si la voluntad misma está corrompida, los padres de mentalidad puritana tenían por obligación quebrar la voluntad del hijo lo antes posible
«Unitarians, on the contrary, believed that the will should be trained rather than broken; it might be imperfect, but it was not fundamentally corrupt. Unitarians strenuously believed that human beings were responsible—utterly responsible—for their own actions.» — la posición contraria: la voluntad debía adiestrarse y no quebrarse, imperfecta pero no fundamentalmente corrupta, con los seres humanos responsables por entero de sus actos
«Children therefore required constant and painstaking parental training that would enable them to learn to conquer their natural inclinations, and do so by the sheer force of their own will. Such training should at all costs avoid physical punishment, even outbursts of rage—which led only to fear. It had to be based, instead, on the firm, patient, and imaginative use of moral instruction, accompanied by assurances of parental love.» — lo que esa posición pedía de los padres según el capítulo: adiestramiento constante y esmerado, sin castigo físico ni arrebatos de cólera, y con instrucción moral firme, paciente e imaginativa
«Men often speak of breaking the will of a child; it seems to me they had better break the neck. The will needs regulation, not destroying. I should as soon think of breaking the legs of a horse in training him, as [of breaking] a child’s will.» — según Nissenbaum, el reverendo Theodore Parker, ministro unitario y abolicionista prominente: la voluntad necesita regulación, no destrucción, como no se le rompen las patas a un caballo para adiestrarlo
«In 1833 Elizabeth Dwight Sedgwick of Stockbridge, Massachusetts (the wife of Catharine Sedgwick’s youngest brother and, incidentally, a granddaughter of the Reverend Jonathan Edwards), published a Christmas story in a very popular Gift Book, The Pearl. The story’s subtitle was “The Christmas Box.» — quién escribió el cuento que ilustra ese punto y dónde: Elizabeth Dwight Sedgwick, nieta por lo demás de Jonathan Edwards, en un libro de regalo muy popular de 1833
«In this tale a caring father decides to use Christmas as an opportunity to teach his four children to overcome their particular temperamental failings. Instead of putting presents in the stockings they have hung up, St. Nicholas leaves each child nothing except an individually composed poem that points, affectionately but firmly, to his or her characteristic failing—a readiness to lie, a quick temper, a lack of perseverance, and selfishness.» — el argumento de ese cuento: San Nicolás no deja regalos sino un poema para cada hijo que señala con afecto y firmeza su falla característica
«St. Nicholas adds the promise that he will return the following Christmas to check up on the children’s progress. (The son inclined to dishonesty grumbles, “‘I know I’ll get something from old Nicholas another year, by hook or by crook.» — la promesa con que el santo remata en ese cuento y la réplica del hijo inclinado a mentir
«But he arranges the gifts in such a fashion—this is carefully described—that they cannot be located or opened without an actual demonstration of the particular virtue that each of the children has spent the previous year cultivating.» — cómo dispone los regalos el santo al año siguiente según el cuento: de modo que no puedan hallarse ni abrirse sin una demostración efectiva de la virtud que cada niño ha cultivado
«Child did not refer to Coleridge, either, or to Ratzeburg itself; instead, she» — lo que esa paráfrasis calló: ni Coleridge ni Ratzeburgo; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue diciendo que daba a entender que el rito caracterizaba a Alemania entera
«Elizabeth Dwight Sedgwick emphasizes that constant parental attention is required if this kind of training is to succeed. The children in her story are educated at home, by both parents; and even outside of school hours there are regular walks and periods of conversation, storytelling, and reading aloud. Each evening concludes with a children’s game in which the parents themselves participate.» — lo que ese cuento subraya sobre la crianza: hace falta atención parental constante, con los niños educados en casa por los dos padres, paseos, conversación, lectura en voz alta y un juego cada noche
«A variety of tactics were employed, as needed: “Sometimes a soft answer turned away his wrath; sometimes a word in season averted the coming storm; occasionally a little ridicule thoroughly mortified him—and still more the serious displeasure of his father, which, because he loved him dearly, he dreaded more than any thing human, would put him for a time effectively on his guard.» — las tácticas que el cuento enumera: una respuesta suave, una palabra a tiempo, un poco de burla, y sobre todo el disgusto serio del padre, que el hijo temía más que nada por quererlo
«But Mrs. Sedgwick is quick to add a statement about the need to recruit a child’s own will as an ally in the process of child-rearing: “All these [tactics] together, however, would have been of little avail, had he not felt a strong determination in his own mind to conquer his bad habits.» — la salvedad que la autora añade enseguida: todas esas tácticas habrían servido de poco sin una determinación fuerte en la mente del propio niño
«The epistles of St. Nicholas, trifling as they may seem, were of positive use in turning the minds of the children to the subject of improvement in a single particular.» — el papel que el cuento asigna a las epístolas del santo: por nimias que parezcan, sirvieron para volver la mente de los niños al asunto de mejorar en un punto concreto
«To be sure, this was a “judgmental” Christmas that Elizabeth Dwight Sedgwick proposed here. But it was not quite the old-style ritual we have encountered earlier. St. Nicholas leaves no birch rod for the children, no pieces of coal.» — lo que el capítulo concede y lo que distingue en ese cuento: era una Navidad de juicio, pero no la del viejo estilo, porque el santo no deja vara de abedul ni trozos de carbón
«Physical punishment would have been far easier, and less labor-intensive, but for these Unitarians it would have produced children who behaved well only out of fear and not as a result of the self-control that could come only from inner strength.» — la razón que el capítulo atribuye a esos unitarios para descartar el castigo físico: habría sido más fácil y menos trabajoso, pero habría dado niños que se portaran bien solo por miedo
«It is astonishing,” she began (writing to her husband in the city), “that when the fresh and innocent natures of children require so little, to make them overflow, that more efforts are not made for their happiness.» — según Nissenbaum, la carta de 1835 en que una de las cuñadas se asombra de que, requiriendo tan poco la naturaleza fresca de los niños para desbordarse, no se hagan más esfuerzos por su felicidad
«But this thought immediately provoked doubts: “Is it, that youthful privations fit them better for the losses and crosses of After Years? Do Indulgencies of a wise kind necessarily prepare the way for that most odious appendage of character, Selfishness?» — las dudas que ese pensamiento le provocó de inmediato: si las privaciones juveniles preparan mejor para las pérdidas de los años venideros, y si las indulgencias sabias abren camino al egoísmo
«Mrs. Sedgwick concluded by precisely articulating the Unitarian dilemma: “I wish I could determine how nicely to adjust the scales, so as to preserve the balance between restraint and indulgence—for on the due proportion of each, how much does the character depend?» — el dilema unitario que el capítulo ve articulado con precisión en esa carta: cómo ajustar la balanza entre el freno y la indulgencia, de cuya proporción depende el carácter
«The difficulty in making this kind of determination was compounded by a new strain of thinking that emerged after 1830, largely within the Unitarian community itself. This strain (more broadly considered, it was a local expression of the movement known as Romanticism) took the Unitarian argument about child-rearing substantially further than was initially intended.» — lo que complicó ese cálculo según el capítulo: una corriente de pensamiento surgida después de 1830 dentro de la propia comunidad unitaria, expresión local del romanticismo, que llevó el argumento más lejos de lo pretendido
«It suggested that the natural impulses of children were not flawed, after all, and that those impulses should not be suppressed but actually encouraged and indulged. In this new and controversial view, it was children who offered adults a model for emulation, and not the other way around.» — lo que esa corriente sostenía: que los impulsos naturales de los niños no son defectuosos y no deben reprimirse sino alentarse, con el niño como modelo para el adulto y no al revés
«Children were not imperfect little adults; rather, adults were imperfect grown-up children. The seeds of perfection lay within each child, like the unopened buds in a plant; and the ills of society were produced by corruption and artifice within society itself, and not by the child’s own natural impulses.» — la inversión que el capítulo enuncia: los niños no eran adultos pequeños e imperfectos sino que los adultos eran niños crecidos e imperfectos, con la semilla de la perfección en cada niño
«The English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (a friend of Samuel Taylor Coleridge), put the idea in a nutshell in a classic phrase: “The Child is father to the Man.» — la fórmula con que el capítulo dice que Wordsworth resumió esa idea
«By the 1860s, when this radical notion had succeeded in transforming the way thousands of Americans treated their children, the now-aging Emerson looked back on the change with a certain irony. He opened an essay about the reformation of New England life in his own time by reporting a witty aphorism: “‘It was a misfortune to have been born when children were nothing, and to live till [adult] men were nothing.» — la ironía con que el mismo Emerson miraba el cambio ya viejo en los años sesenta, con el aforismo que citaba: haber nacido cuando los niños no eran nada y vivir hasta que los hombres no fueron nada
«These Romantic ideas of childhood had obvious implications for educational practices, implications that were most influentially articulated in the work of the European educational reformer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827). Pestalozzi, a German-speaking Swiss whose name is unfamiliar today except to students of intellectual and educational history, was well known in the second quarter of the nineteenth century—as well known as, say, John Dewey a century later.» — quién articuló esas implicaciones educativas según el capítulo: el reformador Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, suizo de lengua alemana, hoy poco conocido y entonces tan célebre como Dewey un siglo después
«In retrospect, we can view Pestalozzis ideas as part of the larger process by which moral authority within middle-class households shifted away from the father and into maternal hands, and by which the teaching profession itself became essentially women’s work.» — el proceso mayor en que el capítulo inserta esas ideas: el desplazamiento de la autoridad moral doméstica del padre a manos maternas y la conversión del magisterio en trabajo de mujeres
«Hundreds of educators and tourists visited the progressive boarding school that Pestalozzi established in Yverdon, Switzerland, in 1805, and Pestalozzian schools were set up over the succeeding decades throughout Europe (especially in Germany» — la difusión de ese sistema según el capítulo: cientos de educadores y turistas visitaron el internado de Yverdon abierto en 1805, y se fundaron escuelas pestalozzianas por Europa
«Pestalozzis progressive ideas about education—and about childhood itself—had become influential late in the 1820s among upper-class liberals in Philadelphia and Boston, and several “infant schools” were set up in those cities.» — la llegada de esas ideas a Estados Unidos según el capítulo: influyentes a fines de los años veinte entre liberales de clase alta de Filadelfia y Boston, con varias escuelas de párvulos fundadas allí
«In both cities, in the late 1820s, funds were raised for these schools by holding fairs at which Christmas presents were offered for sale; these fairs were the models for the antislavery fairs of the 1830s.» — el detalle que enlaza esas escuelas con la Navidad: se financiaron con ferias donde se vendían regalos navideños, y esas ferias fueron el modelo de las antiesclavistas de los años treinta
«Alcott’s program was controversial from the beginning—for example, when his pupils misbehaved badly, Alcott would punish them by ordering them to whip him!» — el rasgo con que el capítulo ilustra lo polémico del programa: cuando los alumnos se portaban muy mal, Alcott los castigaba mandándoles que lo azotaran a él
«But with the publication of Conversations with Children, on the Gospels, a book containing verbatim transcripts of the children’s responses to passages from the New Testament (the idea was that children could teach their elders even about theology), more conservative Unitarians were scandalized.» — el libro que escandalizó a los unitarios más conservadores: transcripciones textuales de las respuestas de los niños a pasajes del Nuevo Testamento, con la idea de que podían enseñar a sus mayores hasta de teología
«Enrollment in Alcott’s school declined precipitously, and in 1839 he was forced to close it down (the last straw was Alcott’s refusal to deny admission to an African-American pupil» — el final de esa escuela según el capítulo, con la gota que colmó el vaso: la negativa de Alcott a rechazar la admisión de un alumno afroamericano
«Even Harriet Martineau was appalled by Conversations with Children, on the Gospels, and she wrote almost savagely about Alcott in her book Society in America.» — la reacción de Martineau ante ese mismo libro, que el capítulo consigna junto a la reseña crítica que le hizo Elizabeth Dwight Sedgwick al primero de Alcott
«But Charles Folien subscribed to Pestalozzis ideas, and as we have seen, it appears that the main reason he was fired from his brief tenure as live-in private tutor to the children of the deceased Colonel Perkins was that he insisted on employing Pestalozzian techniques in the boys’ education.» — la razón que el capítulo atribuye al despido de Follen como preceptor: que insistiera en emplear técnicas pestalozzianas en la educación de los muchachos
«Folien insisted that he had dealt with the boys “by imposing only such rules as their own moral sense approved,” and by sharing “a ready sympathy with all their concerns and wants, and a hearty desire to gratify all their legitimate and innocent desires.” (He added, “I was aware, that, to some, this mode of treating the boys might seem too indulgent.» — cómo defendió Follen su método: imponer solo las reglas que el propio sentido moral de los muchachos aprobara, con simpatía pronta por sus asuntos, y con la conciencia de que a algunos podría parecerles demasiado indulgente
«It is interesting that Folien felt obliged to modify the term desires with the adjectives “legitimate and innocent.» — lo que el capítulo lee en un gesto mínimo de esa defensa: que Follen se creyera obligado a calificar los deseos de legítimos e inocentes
«Those more conservative Unitarians invoked a strategy of child-rearing that implicitly placed children at the center of the domestic universe, a strategy that could easily bring out the very selfishness it was intended to control.» — el dilema de los unitarios conservadores según el capítulo: una estrategia que ponía implícitamente al niño en el centro del universo doméstico y podía sacar el egoísmo mismo que quería controlar
«Here was the one occasion on which even those parents who held to the more traditional idea of child-rearing tended to give up any real effort to maintain what Elizabeth Ellery Sedgwick called “the balance between restraint and indulgence.» — la ocasión en que el asunto llegaba a su punto crítico según el capítulo: en Navidad hasta los padres más tradicionales renunciaban a mantener el equilibrio entre freno e indulgencia
«In a different culture—a world of scarcity, with seasonal cycles of plenitude—the axis along which that shift took place was one that involved a brief period of gluttonous feasting or similar forms of revelry. In contrast, for genteel Unitarian families who inhabited a world of relative abundance, that axis involved a similarly brief period of undammed affection for their children, an affection made manifest in a lavish orgy of gift-giving.» — el contraste que el capítulo traza entre dos mundos: en el de la escasez la suspensión del freno tomaba forma de glotonería estacional, y en el de la abundancia, forma de afecto desbordado y orgía de regalos
«Back in 1827, Charles Follen (then a newcomer to America) had a conversation with a friend “about the celebration of Christmas in Germany.” Follen lamented that there were “no feasts for the children” in the United States. “Such festivals for the feelings,” he mused, “would be a great improvement of the moral state of the nation.» — lo que Follen decía en 1827, recién llegado al país: que no había fiestas para los niños en Estados Unidos, y que tales festivales para los sentimientos serían una gran mejora del estado moral de la nación
«As we know, even as Follen spoke, this kind of festival was becoming more widespread—1827 was the very year that Clement Clarke Moore’s poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was widely printed for the first time.» — la coincidencia con que el capítulo acompaña esa queja: 1827 es el año en que el poema de Moore se imprimió ampliamente por primera vez
«On one occasion he asked his mother to give him a silver pencil. (Characteristically, she refused, suggesting instead that he buy himself “a wooden one—learn to take care of it—and then you shall deserve a better kind of one, and shall have it.» — el episodio del lápiz de plata con que el capítulo ilustra esa crianza: la madre se niega y le propone comprar uno de madera, aprender a cuidarlo y merecer así uno mejor
«Far worse, his Aunt Elizabeth had caught him cheating systematically on his Latin homework and then lying about the matter when he was confronted with it. All that autumn, the boy’s parents carried on an intensive correspondence about how to handle the matter.» — la falta más grave del niño ese otoño de 1835 y lo que provocó: hacer trampa sistemática en las tareas de latín y mentir al respecto, con una correspondencia intensa de los padres sobre cómo tratarlo
«How Gertrude Teaches Her Children (1801), Pestalozzi stressed above all the importance of mothers in childhood education. He suggested that “feelings of love, confidence, and gratitude, and [even] the habit of obedience,” are characteristics that “originate in the relationship established between the infant and its mother.» — lo que esas obras de Pestalozzi subrayaban sobre todo: la importancia de las madres en la educación infantil, con el amor, la confianza, la gratitud y el hábito de obediencia naciendo de esa relación; el troceo abre el segmento a media frase
«In 1835 Emerson’s friend Amos Bronson Alcott, an educator who had absorbed Pestalozzi’s ideas (and who would later test them out on his daughter Louisa May), opened a Pestalozzian school in Boston, a school in which Alcott devoted much of his energy» — quién abrió una escuela pestalozziana en Boston en 1835: el amigo de Emerson, Amos Bronson Alcott, que luego probaría esas ideas con su hija Louisa May; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue diciendo que dedicaba buena parte de su energía a escuchar a los niños
«For its part, the Romantic wing of the Unitarians explicitly looked to children to find the roots of human perfection, and they found it difficult to acknowledge that children who had been properly raised would show any signs of corruption. They tried hard to believe that children were» — el dilema del ala romántica: buscaba en los niños las raíces de la perfección humana y le costaba admitir señales de corrupción en un niño bien criado; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue con el supuesto de que eran innatamente desinteresados
«On the one hand, they meant that children had to be taught complete» — la línea delgada por la que andaban esas estrategias según el capítulo: por un lado el niño había de aprender dominio completo de sí; la cita se corta aquí porque el troceo parte *self-mastery* con guion de fin de renglón, y la frase sigue en la plana siguiente diciendo que a la vez lo volvían foco constante de la atención parental
«were those who “retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.” The “wisdom” of a man’s “best hour” was no better than “the simplicity of his childhood.” As Emerson summed it up, “the sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and heart of the child.» — lo que Emerson escribió en su ensayo de 1836: los mejores retenían el espíritu de la infancia en la edad adulta, y el sol ilumina solo el ojo del hombre pero entra en el ojo y el corazón del niño; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«Sedgwick endured sleepless nights on her son’s account. (“I am mortified and distressed, & fear I have been unfaithful to him, for these faults come back to the Mother.» — lo que esa madre escribió en aquel otoño de 1835: noches en vela, mortificada y angustiada, temiendo haberle faltado al hijo porque tales faltas vuelven contra la madre
«But at Christmas the parents’ pent-up anxiety was released in a torrent of affection, as both father and mother wrote letters assuring their errant son (still away at school with his aunt) of how intensely they missed him (“We miss you dreadfully dear Ell, every hour of the day”) and letting him know that they had actually set up a table filled with presents for him (“to show where he would be if he was here» — lo que pasó en Navidad según el capítulo: la ansiedad contenida de los padres se soltó en un torrente de afecto, con cartas de los dos y una mesa de regalos puesta para el hijo ausente
«Mr. Sedgwick even chose to let Ellery know that his mother was shedding tears over her letter as she wrote it. All this was hardly the kind of treatment that Elizabeth Dwight Sedgwick, young Ellery’s aunt and teacher, had proposed in the Christmas story she had published two years earlier!» — el detalle con que el capítulo remata ese contraste: el padre hizo saber al hijo que la madre lloraba sobre la carta mientras la escribía, muy lejos de lo que la tía proponía en su cuento de dos años antes
«This was simply the transcript of a talk—a passionate, rhapsodic talk—that Pestalozzi had delivered in 1810, on Christmas Eve, to the children and fellow teachers at his school in Yverdon. Judging from the context, it would seem that Pestalozzi gave the talk just before distributing presents to his pupils, and it is probable that those presents were hanging from a Christmas tree.» — qué era ese capítulo: la transcripción de una plática apasionada que Pestalozzi dio en Nochebuena de 1810 a los niños y maestros de su escuela de Yverdon, probablemente antes de repartir los regalos
«The editor of the English-language edition of Biber’s biography felt compelled to offer a footnote for his British and American readers, explaining that in German-speaking regions the presents would be placed on “‘Christmas trees,’ young fir-stems, lighted up with little wax tapers, on the twigs of which all the glittering gifts are hung.” He went on to explain that when German children asked who had put their presents on the Christmas tree, they were told, “‘The Christchild brought them.» — la nota que el editor inglés creyó necesaria para sus lectores británicos y estadounidenses: qué eran los árboles de Navidad, y qué se respondía a los niños alemanes que preguntaban quién había puesto allí los regalos
«He addressed his rhapsodic words directly to the children at Yverdon, insisting that it was they who formed the core of his household: “Beloved children! it is for your sakes that we are united in one family; our house is your house, and for your sakes only is it our house.» — según Nissenbaum, las palabras con que Pestalozzi se dirigía a los niños: es por su bien que estamos unidos en una familia, y solo por su bien es nuestra casa
«In a way, those words would have sounded familiar enough, at least during the Christmas season, when people in authority were used to deferring symbolically to those who at other times of the year would have owed deference to them.» — el eco que el capítulo detecta en esas palabras: en la temporada navideña los que tienen autoridad solían deferir simbólicamente a quienes el resto del año les debían deferencia
«But Pestalozzi meant something more than that. He meant that children were the center of the household not only in a symbolic fashion—not only on this ritual occasion—but that they constituted the actual and enduring center of the household. In part, that was because the training of children was what families were all about. But it was also because—and here Pestalozzis radicalism surfaced—the very training of children was ultimately designed to nurture the seeds of innocent perfection with which they had been endowed at birth.» — lo que Pestalozzi quería decir además según el capítulo: que los niños son el centro real y duradero de la casa, y que su adiestramiento busca nutrir las semillas de perfección inocente con que nacieron
«In other words, children (properly raised) offered an actual model for adults to imitate. Adults, Pestalozzi felt, needed to become like children: “We know that except we be converted and become as little children, except we be elevated to the simplicity of a childlike mind, we shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven» — la inversión que Pestalozzi proponía: los niños bien criados como modelo para los adultos, que necesitaban convertirse y hacerse como niños para entrar en el reino de los cielos
«And he continued by pleading for their childish spirit to redeem the very imperfections of their adult teachers: “Children, let the graces of childhood elevate our souls, and purify us of all contamination of anger, and wrath, and hastiness in your education» — lo que Pestalozzi pedía a continuación: que las gracias de la infancia elevaran el alma de los maestros y los purificaran de la ira y la precipitación en la educación de los niños
«Oh [Pestalozzi mused] … that we might all be like unto our children, to whom the invisible love of God is made manifest in the Christchild under the form of an innocent babe, like unto them in appearance, but descending from heaven with pleasant gifts» — el pasaje en que Pestalozzi funde el deseo de parecerse a los hijos con la figura del Niño Jesús, que baja del cielo con dones agradables
«What Pestalozzi ultimately wished to achieve was the reformation of adults. But in order for that to come about, children themselves had to play the role they had been assigned. Their joy had to be innocent joy.» — lo que Pestalozzi quería en última instancia según el capítulo: la reforma de los adultos, para lo cual los niños tenían que cumplir el papel que se les asignaba y su alegría tenía que ser alegría inocente
«And you, my beloved children, who celebrate this Christmas in the simplicity of your hearts, what shall I say to you? We wish to be partakers of your simplicity, of your childlike joy.» — la palabra en que Pestalozzi insistía según el capítulo, dicha a los niños que celebran la Navidad en la simplicidad de su corazón
«Whether it took a Pestalozzian form or the more conservative shape represented by Elizabeth Dwight Sedgwick, Unitarian pedagogy contained a serious internal contradiction. It attempted to teach children to be selfless, but it did so while placing them—by placing them—at the center of the domestic universe.» — la contradicción interna que el capítulo atribuye a la pedagogía unitaria en cualquiera de sus dos formas: enseñar a los niños a ser desinteresados poniéndolos en el centro del universo doméstico
«At one point near the end of his talk Pestalozzi himself hesitated and actually urged the children in his audience to conform to his definition, to become more childlike: “[B]e ye innocent children in the full sense of the word…. Let this festival establish you in the holy strength of a childlike mind» — el titubeo que el capítulo señala al final de la plática: el propio Pestalozzi urgía a los niños a ajustarse a su definición y a ser niños inocentes en el sentido pleno de la palabra
«Under the weight of this definition, it was surely difficult to grow up as an actual child— perhaps as difficult, in its own way, as it was to grow up as a child whose will was being broken by physical or psychological abuse.» — la comparación con que el capítulo mide el peso de esa definición: crecer bajo ella era quizá tan difícil, a su modo, como crecer con la voluntad quebrada por abuso físico o psicológico
«The story is about using a Christmas tree to teach children a hard lesson: how not to be selfish on the occasion of a holiday that was centered around making them happy.» — de qué trata el cuento de 1836 que el capítulo analiza: usar un árbol de Navidad para enseñar a los niños a no ser egoístas justo en la fiesta hecha para hacerlos felices
«The author, a Philadelphian, lets us know where she got the idea for “The Christmas Tree.” It came from “a book I have lately read, in speaking of the celebration of Christmas by the Germans.” In a footnote, that book is identified as “Bibers Life of Pestalozzi.» — de dónde dice la autora que sacó la idea, y qué libro identifica una nota a pie del propio cuento
«The author lets us know on the first page just where on the ideological spectrum this couple’s hearts lay: “Mr. and Mrs. Selwyn were very affectionate parents, and nothing gave them greater pleasure than to gratify the wishes of their children.» — dónde sitúa el cuento a esos padres en el espectro ideológico, ya en la primera plana: afectuosos, sin mayor placer que complacer los deseos de sus hijos
«The story opens almost two weeks before Christmas Day, with young Mary asking her mother how long she has to wait until the big day arrives: “‘How much I wish it was here!’” she exclaims. When Mrs. Selwyn asks why she is so eager, Mary replies without hesitation: “‘Because I expect to get a great many presents.» — el arranque del cuento: la niña pregunta cuánto falta para el día y, al preguntarle la madre por qué tiene tanta prisa, responde sin vacilar que espera muchos regalos
«Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Selwyn are plotting a surprise: “They had been planning a Christmas celebration a few evenings before, and they thought of following the German custom in making it a surprise, by keeping the preparations a secret.» — la maniobra de los padres en ese cuento: planeaban seguir la costumbre alemana y hacer de la celebración una sorpresa guardando en secreto los preparativos
«They have made their preparations in the drawing room, which is ordinarily kept locked and off-limits to the children (who therefore “had no suspicion of the treat their kind parents had in store for them”). Young Mary is “a little disappointed that her mother had said nothing about a party, but she consoled herself by counting how many presents she expected to get.» — dónde se hicieron esos preparativos: el salón, cerrado con llave y vedado a los niños, mientras la niña se consolaba contando los regalos que esperaba
«Before sunrise …, Mary and her brothers were up and dressed, and ran into their parents’ room, to catch them by calling out ‘Christmas gift’—knowing that, according to the old custom, if they could say it before their parents, they were entitled to a present.» — el juego viejo con que los niños del cuento intentan ganarse el regalo: llegar al cuarto de los padres y gritarles primero la fórmula navideña
«Later that morning, the family goes to visit their grandfathers country estate, “where they always dined on Christmas day.” But on their arrival the children are once again disappointed—“there were no presents on the table.” Again they console themselves, this time with the thought that “they would get them after dinner» — el segundo desengaño del día en el cuento: en la casa del abuelo, donde siempre comían el 25, tampoco hay regalos en la mesa
«At last, toward evening, the family sets out for home. On the way, “little Mary … burst into tears,” sobbing that she had “‘never spent such a dull Christmas in her life…. Christmas is almost over, and I have not had a single present to-day.» — el tercer desengaño y el llanto de la niña camino a casa, que el capítulo cita por la fórmula del día más aburrido de su vida
«He gently but firmly expresses disappointment in her behavior: “‘every effort that has been made by your kind relatives, to amuse you and make you happy, has been entirely lost, merely because you could not have every wish gratified.» — la reprensión del padre en ese cuento: todo el esfuerzo de los parientes por divertirla se ha perdido solo porque no pudo ver satisfecho cada deseo
«That is the bad news. The good news begins as soon as the Selwyns reach their own house. Now the children are told to dress up. They are led to the parlor, where they are delighted to find “a little party of their young friends, who had been invited by Mrs. Selwyn.» — el giro del cuento: al llegar a casa mandan vestirse a los niños y los llevan al salón, donde hallan una fiestecita de amigos invitados por la madre
«U]pon his throwing open the drawing-room door, an universal exclamation of delight burst from their lips at the beautiful sight presented to them. In the centre of the room was a large table covered with a damask cloth, and in the middle of this was placed a Christmas Tree, brilliantly illuminated with wax tapers, and suspended to the branches were all kinds of beautiful gifts» — el desenlace del cuento: al abrirse la puerta del salón, una mesa con mantel de damasco y en medio un árbol de Navidad iluminado con velas de cera y cargado de dones
«festival of the feelings” was reinforced in 1833 with the publication in Philadelphia of a biography of the Swiss reformer (he had died four years earlier). In the middle of that book the biographer, Edward Biber by name, chose to insert a chapter bearing the title “Christmas-Eve Discourse.» — lo que reforzó ese impulso entre los seguidores de Pestalozzi según el capítulo: la biografía del reformador suizo publicada en Filadelfia en 1833, con un capítulo intercalado por el biógrafo; la cita arranca aquí porque el troceo parte *child-focused* con guion de fin de renglón
«children were waiting to receive their Christmas presents, gifts that were probably hanging on a Christmas tree at that very moment.» — la escena simultánea que el capítulo pone junto a las palabras de Pestalozzi: los niños esperaban sus regalos, probablemente colgados en ese mismo instante de un árbol de Navidad; el troceo abre el segmento a media frase
«I’m not sure exactly what was “innocent” about such childlike joy, but its connection with material expectations surely was (and remains) troubling—and this despite the efforts of parents to disguise the nature of the gifts by attributing them to such transcendent figures as St. Nicholas, or even (as Pestalozzi and German culture had it) the» — la reserva que el propio autor declara: no sabe bien qué tenía de inocente esa alegría infantil, y su ligazón con las expectativas materiales le parece inquietante pese a los esfuerzos por atribuir los dones a figuras trascendentes; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *Christ child himself*
«The historian Philip Greven has written that the goal of this kind of child-rearing was “self-control rather than self» — la fórmula que el capítulo toma del historiador Philip Greven para el fin de esa crianza: dominio de sí antes que aniquilación de sí; la cita se corta aquí porque el troceo parte *self-annihilation* con guion de fin de renglón
«The key, even more than the Christmas tree itself, is the element of surprise that accompanies it. The Selwyns, we are told, were “following the German custom in making it a surprise, by keeping the preparations a secret.» — lo que el capítulo señala como clave del rito, por encima del árbol mismo: el elemento de sorpresa, con los preparativos guardados en secreto a la manera alemana
«It is indeed the case, in Christmas-tree references from the 1820s and 1830s, both in stories set in America and in reports from Germany, that Christmas trees are invariably set up in a room that is normally off-limits to the children—the library, the parlor, or, as here, the drawing room.» — el rasgo constante que el capítulo halla en las referencias al árbol de los años veinte y treinta: se monta siempre en un cuarto normalmente vedado a los niños
«In real life, obviously, the surprise factor would be effective only once or twice; after that, the children would surely catch on. But even after the surprise was gone, the ritual would retain a lingering utility: It would continue to keep virtually total control of the gift exchange in the hands of the parents—control of the time and place, and of the knowledge of how many gifts there would be and what they were.» — la utilidad duradera que el capítulo atribuye al rito una vez gastada la sorpresa: dejar el control casi total del intercambio en manos de los padres, del tiempo, del lugar y del saber cuántos regalos habría y cuáles
«Frequently, permission for the children to enter the till-then secret room is signified by the ringing of a bell (in one instance, the children cannot enter until the third time the bell is rung» — el detalle con que el capítulo ilustra ese control: el permiso de entrar al cuarto secreto se señalaba tocando una campana, y en un caso los niños no entran hasta la tercera vez
«In this 1836 story, we might say, the Christmas-tree ritual was explicitly represented as a tactic by which the parents might seize total control of the gift exchange.» — lo que el capítulo lee en ese cuento de 1836: el rito del árbol representado explícitamente como táctica para que los padres se apoderen por completo del intercambio de regalos
«The difference between the ritual of crying out “Christmas gift” and that of waiting for the “Christmas tree” is the difference between children playing the role of active agents in the gift exchange and their assuming the passive role of silent, grateful recipients.» — la diferencia que el capítulo traza entre los dos ritos: en uno los niños son agentes activos del intercambio y en el otro, receptores pasivos, callados y agradecidos
«The Christmas-tree ritual, as it was introduced to American reading public, was designed to render children completely passive participants in the process. (Just so, as we will see in the next chapter, were new rituals of Christmas charity designed to make poor people themselves passive recipients of largesse.» — la función que el capítulo atribuye al rito tal como se introdujo al público lector estadounidense, con el paralelo que anuncia para el capítulo siguiente sobre la caridad navideña
«no little girl or boy ever went to bed on Christmas Eve without hanging up a stocking, which they expected would be filled with gifts by the good Christkingle. They were always up bright and early the next morning, to see what was given to them. The good children were always sure of having their stockings filled with cakes, sugar plums, and little presents by the Christkingle, but the naughty ones would find a rod thrust in theirs by the old Bellsnickel…. [The Christkingle was regarded] as a kind of fairy, or good genius—such as you read of in fairy tales—who rewarded good children and the Bellsnickel was an evil genius, who punished the bad ones.» — según Nissenbaum, el epílogo del cuento en boca del padre, que sitúa el rito nuevo en su contexto histórico: antes las medias se llenaban de pasteles y confites para los buenos, y a los malos les metían una vara
«A generation earlier, in other words, it would have been easy to deal with a girl ilke little Mary Selwyn; if her parents were trying to teach her a lesson, she would have received her just desserts from the Belsnickle. But Mr. and Mrs. Selwyn are just as interested in their daughter’s inner life as they are in her actual behavior.» — el contraste que el capítulo saca de ese epílogo: una generación antes la niña habría recibido su merecido del Belsnickle, y ahora a los padres les importa tanto su vida interior como su conducta
«They want her to learn how to control even her selfish expectations. (Mr. Selwyn tells her at the very end that “‘you ought to submit with cheerfulness to your situation’”—to “submit” rather than to nag; and to do so “with cheerfulness.» — lo que esos padres quieren de la niña según el capítulo: que aprenda a controlar hasta sus expectativas egoístas, y que se someta a su situación con alegría en vez de insistir
«Not only is young Mary to make no demands for presents, she is not even supposed to harbor any desire to receive them.» — hasta dónde llega esa exigencia según el capítulo: la niña no solo no ha de pedir regalos, ni siquiera ha de albergar el deseo de recibirlos
«As a practical matter, of course, that was impossible. What was possible was only concealment. Stories like “The Christmas Tree,” if they were actually put into practice, secretly encouraged children to behave hypocritically—to pretend they didn’t know or care what their parents were really planning.» — lo que el capítulo dice que en la práctica producían esos cuentos: no el desinterés sino el disimulo, con niños alentados en secreto a fingir que no sabían ni les importaba lo que sus padres planeaban
«Ultimately, the effect of such stories was to encourage children to deny (even to themselves) their own selfish feelings, or else to feel guilty about having them. Children were being encouraged to feign, first to their parents and then to themselves, both selfless indifference and spontaneous joy; to act as if they enjoyed their presents only because they were expressions of love—because they were “affections gift.» — el efecto último que el capítulo atribuye a esos cuentos: alentar al niño a negar ante sí mismo sus sentimientos egoístas o a sentirse culpable por tenerlos, y a fingir indiferencia desinteresada y alegría espontánea
«Beginning in about 1840, yet another kind of Christmas story began to appear. This kind of story was about children who were already perfect in the Romantic, Pestalozzian sense, children who did not need to be taught a lesson about selflessness because they were utterly unselfish by nature.» — el tipo de cuento navideño que el capítulo data hacia 1840: el de niños ya perfectos en el sentido romántico y pestalozziano, que no necesitan lección de desinterés
«This book opens with an extended Christmas sequence in which the four young title characters voluntarily give their Christmas presents to an impoverished neighboring family.» — la escena con que abre *Little Women*, que el capítulo pone como ejemplo mejor conocido de ese tipo de cuento
«Louisa May Alcott herself was the daughter of Bronson Alcott, the radical Pestalozzian Transcendentalist—and a man who had raised his children in the Pestalozzian fashion.» — el dato genealógico con que el capítulo enlaza esa novela con el resto del capítulo: la autora era hija de Bronson Alcott, el pestalozziano radical que la crió a esa manera
«But as it happens, another associate of Bronson Alcott’s had addressed a wide audience on similar matters a full generation earlier. This was Margaret Fuller, the first great female American intellectual figure.» — quién había tratado esos asuntos ante un público amplio una generación antes: Margaret Fuller
«Back in 1835, Fuller had assisted Alcott in running his radical Temple School, and it was she who actually wrote the controversial 1836 book, Conversations with Children, On the Gospels, that had caused so many conservative Unitarians (including Harriet Martineau) to take offense. Fuller had also been among the very first American intellectuals to devote serious study to German language and philosophy.» — lo que el capítulo consigna de Fuller: ayudó a Alcott en la Temple School, escribió el libro polémico de 1836 que ofendió a los unitarios conservadores, y fue de los primeros intelectuales estadounidenses en estudiar a fondo la lengua y la filosofía alemanas
«In 1844 Margaret Fuller was living in New York and trying to support herself by writing for Horace Greeley’s successful new newspaper, the New York Tribune. It was she who authored the Christmas editorial that appeared in the Tribune on December 25, 1844, an editorial read by thousands of people.» — dónde estaba Fuller en 1844 y qué escribió: vivía en Nueva York escribiendo para el *Tribune* de Greeley y firmó el editorial navideño del 25 de diciembre de ese año
«Christmas would seem to be the day peculiarly sacred to children, and something of this feeling shows itself among us, though rather of German influence, than of native growth. The evergreen tree is often reared for the children on Christmas evening, and its branches cluster with little tokens that may, at least, give them a sense that the world is rich, and that there are some in it who care to bless them. It is a charming sight to see their glittering eyes, and well worth much trouble in preparing the Christmas tree» — según Nissenbaum, el editorial de Fuller: la Navidad parecería el día peculiarmente sagrado para los niños, con el árbol perenne levantado para ellos y sus ramas cargadas de prendas
«We borrow the Christmas tree from Germany. Might we but borrow with it that feeling which pervades all their stories about the influence of the Christ child, and has, I doubt not—for the spirit of literature is always, though refined, the essence of popular life—pervaded the conduct of children there.» — la continuación de ese editorial: tomamos prestado el árbol de Alemania, y ojalá tomáramos con él el sentimiento que impregna sus relatos sobre la influencia del Niño Jesús
«The first was about “St. Hermann Joseph,” a lovely child who one day offered an apple to a church sculpture of the Virgin and child—and the sculpted young Jesus “put forth its hand and took the apple.” From that time forth, “little Hermann” took every gift he received and carried it “to the same place. He needed nothing for himself; but dedicated all his childish goods to the altar.» — la primera leyenda alemana que Fuller contaba: el niño que ofrece una manzana a una imagen de la Virgen con el Niño, y el Niño esculpido tiende la mano y la toma
«The second legend was about “the holy Rupert,” a young prince who gave away his possessions whenever he saw a suffering child. One cold day Prince Rupert gives away his coat, stops and falls asleep on the road home, and has a dream.» — la segunda leyenda: el príncipe que regala cuanto tiene al ver a un niño sufriente y que un día frío da su abrigo y se duerme camino a casa
«Margaret Fuller acknowledged that these stories were legends— Catholic legends, at that—but she insisted that they were useful, good legends, and Protestants should not reject them. “The thought of Jesus, as a child, has great weight with children who have learned to think of him at all.» — lo que Fuller concedía y lo que sostenía: eran leyendas católicas, pero útiles y buenas, y los protestantes no debían rechazarlas
«In earlier days, the little saints thought they imitated the Emanuel by giving apples and coats [i.e., like Hermann and Rupert]; but we know not why, in our age, that esteems itself so enlightened, they should not become also the givers of spiritual gifts» — el argumento de Fuller: si en otros días los pequeños santos imitaban al Niño dando manzanas y abrigos, no se ve por qué en una época que se tiene por ilustrada no puedan dar también dones espirituales
«The cause of education would be indefinitely furthered, if in addition to formal means, there were but this principle awakened in the hearts of the young[:] that what they have they must bestow…. Were all this right in the private sphere, the public [sphere] would soon right itself also, and the nations of Christendom might join in a celebration such as “Kings and Prophets waited for” and so many martyrs died to achieve, of Christ-Mass.» — el remate del editorial: la educación avanzaría sin medida si se despertara en los jóvenes el principio de que han de dar lo que tienen, y con la esfera privada así enderezada se enderezaría la pública
«Margaret Fuller spent part of her own Christmas Day that year visiting the inmates of the city’s asylum for deaf and dumb children. The experience, she reported three days later, was one of personal “edification and delight.” The children at the asylum put on a theatrical performance for the visitors, a performance that demonstrated that they were capable of expressing intense and authentic emotion. Fuller wrote: “It was gratifying to see the faces of so many children of eternal silence radiate with intelligence, and evincing a knowledge and elevation of sentiment which it would seem impossible, thus benighted, to acquire.» — cómo pasó Fuller aquel día de Navidad: visitando el asilo de niños sordomudos de la ciudad, donde la función que representaron le pareció prueba de emoción intensa y auténtica
«Writing a week later, another Tribune reporter commented on what the streets of the city were actually like on New Year’s Day: The grog shops, we regretted to observe, overflowed throughout the day—so did some of their visitors toward evening. This was the worst feature of the anniversary, though the howling, and popping and banging through the preceding night were little better. What a profundity of emptiness there must be in that boy’s head who deems gun-firing an appropriate observance of the solemn, majestic, noiseless march of Time.» — el otro extremo de la temporada neoyorquina de 1844 según el capítulo, en otro reportero del mismo diario: las tiendas de aguardiente desbordadas todo el día, y los aullidos y disparos de la noche anterior poco mejores
«with a sentence that expressed the behavioral concerns of one culture in terms of the generational assumptions of another: “The mother of that boy has much to answer for.» — el remate de ese reportaje, en que el capítulo ve la preocupación conductual de una cultura dicha con los supuestos generacionales de otra: la madre de ese muchacho tiene mucho de qué responder; el troceo abre la última plana del capítulo a media frase
«Puritans and most evangelical Protestants, in contrast, believed that people were inevitably stained at birth by an original sin that corrupted them at their very core by causing them to be willful and selfish. Such a defect was so deep» — la creencia contraria que el capítulo expone: una mancha original que corrompe el núcleo mismo por volver al hombre voluntarioso y egoísta; la cita se corta aquí porque el troceo parte *deep-seated* con guion de fin de renglón
«THE YEAR 1853 marked two important achievements in the life of young Charles Loring Brace. The first achievement was practical: Brace helped establish the Children’s Aid Society, a New York charitable institution that would become, within his lifetime and due chiefly to his unceasing efforts, the most important charitable organization in the city and probably the entire United States.» — los dos logros de 1853 con que abre el capítulo sexto: Charles Loring Brace ayuda a fundar la Children’s Aid Society, que llegaría a ser la organización caritativa más importante de Nueva York
«Brace’s other achievement was literary: the publication of a book. That book, Home-Life in Germany, would soon be forgotten, overshadowed both by Brace’s subsequent literary work and, more important, by his labors with the Children’s Aid Society itself. But it is of interest here, if only because of the light it casts on Brace’s subsequent charitable work with children, and also on his enduring interest in Christmas.» — el segundo logro y por qué le interesa al capítulo: un libro pronto olvidado, útil aquí por la luz que arroja sobre la obra caritativa posterior de Brace y sobre su interés duradero en la Navidad
«During his visit Brace was struck by several important contrasts between Germany and his native United States. For example, Germans tended to be far less individualistic and self-reliant than Americans were. On the other hand, family life—the main subject of Brace’s book—was far more important in Germany than it was in America.» — los dos contrastes que Brace halló entre Alemania y su país: los alemanes bastante menos individualistas y confiados en sí, y la vida familiar bastante más importante allá
«As I recall our hollow home-life in many parts of America—the selfishness and coldness in families—the little hold HOME has on any one, and the tendency of children to get rid of it as early as possible, I am conscious how much after all we have to learn from these easy Germans.» — según Nissenbaum, la fórmula de Brace sobre la vida doméstica hueca de muchas partes de América: el egoísmo y la frialdad en las familias, y la tendencia de los hijos a librarse de la casa cuanto antes
«Brace acknowledged that there was a certain “compensation” for this failing: In the United States “a boy is an independent, self-reliant man …, when he is [still] in leading-strings in Germany.” But for the most part, that compensation was inadequate, because self-reliance alone was no asset at all—unless it was softened by unselfish geniality.» — la compensación que Brace concedía y por qué la juzgaba insuficiente: el muchacho estadounidense es hombre independiente cuando el alemán aún va de andaderas, pero la confianza en sí sola no vale sin afabilidad desinteresada
«Materialism—the passion for money-making and excitement, is eating up the heart of our people. We are not a happy people; our families are not happy. Men look haggard and anxious and weary. We want something more genial and social and unselfish amongst us» — según Nissenbaum, el diagnóstico de Brace: el materialismo se come el corazón del pueblo, no es un pueblo feliz, y los hombres se ven macilentos, ansiosos y cansados
«For Brace (as for so many Americans), Christmas was now above all a domestic idyll, an opportunity to produce and foster family values as an antidote to materialism and selfishness.» — lo que la Navidad era ya para Brace y para tantos según el capítulo: un idilio doméstico, ocasión de producir y fomentar valores de familia como antídoto contra el materialismo y el egoísmo
«There is something about this German Festival, which one would seldom see in our home enjoyments. People do not seem to be enjoying themselves, because it is a “duty to be cheerful.” … They are cheerful, because they cannot help it, and because they all love one another. The expression of trustfulness through the children of these families … was very beautiful to see. They were all so happy, because they had been making one another happy.» — según Nissenbaum, lo que Brace decía de la fiesta alemana: la gente no disfruta por deber de estar alegre, sino que está alegre porque no puede evitarlo y porque se quieren
«Brace connected this domestic Christmas with authentic religious piety: “Good people are to recognize that there is a religion in Christmas feasts, as well as in prayer-meetings; that a father who has made his home gloomy, has done quite as great a wrong to his children, perhaps, as he who made it irreligious. We want these German habits—these birth-day and Christmas festivals—this genial family life» — el enlace que Brace hacía con la piedad religiosa auténtica: hay religión en las fiestas de Navidad como en las reuniones de oración, y el padre que ha vuelto sombría su casa ha agraviado a sus hijos
«It is difficult to imagine a better definition of what modern historians have taken to calling the “religion of domesticity.”» — el juicio del capítulo sobre esa fórmula de Brace, como definición de lo que los historiadores modernos llaman la religión de la domesticidad
«Brace reported that in Germany such close-knit, nurturing families were to be found much further down the social ladder than they were in America—indeed, down nearly to the bottom of the working class.» — lo que Brace reportaba sobre el alcance social de esas familias en Alemania: llegaban mucho más abajo en la escala que en América, casi hasta el fondo de la clase obrera
«And the consequences were even apparent in public—for example, the German working class was far more polite and deferential than its American (or English) counterpart.» — la consecuencia pública que Brace señalaba de esa diferencia: una clase obrera alemana bastante más cortés y deferente que la estadounidense o la inglesa
«He had once “asked an English groom for directions in the streets of London, and was told in answer, “How the h—11 should I know?’” An American laborer, he added, would be almost as rude. But in Germany things were different: “A German stands—says to you with a half bow, ‘Be good enough to take the second street,’ etc., and touches his hat as he goes.» — el ejemplo vívido que Brace daba: la respuesta grosera del mozo de cuadra inglés en Londres frente al alemán que hace media reverencia, indica la calle y se toca el sombrero
«In other words, Brace attributed working-class rudeness in the United States to a home life that was “cold, unsocial, disagreeable.» — la conclusión que el capítulo saca de ese argumento de Brace: la grosería obrera estadounidense atribuida a una vida doméstica fría, insociable y desagradable
«In a way, this was what most impressed Brace about the German Christmas itself: how far down the social ladder it reached. That was just how he introduced his chapter on the German Christmas. The Berlin lodging house at which Brace had been staying over the holidays was owned by a man who was “hopelessly in debt;” nonetheless, Brace watched this man “bringing home an armful of presents.” Then there was the local shoemaker, whose family lived in the basement of Brace’s lodging house; the family was so poor that the children often seemed to go hungry. But, sure enough, Brace spotted “through the low window, a green Christmas tree, and the children are tying on the bits of candle.» — lo que más impresionaba a Brace de la Navidad alemana según el capítulo: hasta dónde bajaba en la escala social, con el casero endeudado sin remedio trayendo brazadas de regalos y el zapatero del sótano poniendo velitas en su árbol
«Brace summed up his point by asserting that in all of Berlin, “There are not a dozen families so poor, as not to have their [Christmas] tree.» — la fórmula con que Brace resumía ese punto sobre Berlín entero
«Brace did not need to add the obvious: Men who celebrated Christmas like the Berlin shoemaker who lived in the basement were the kind of men who would never talk back to their betters, who would never say, “How the h-11 should I know?” They were, on the contrary, precisely the kind of men who were likely to answer a stranger’s question with a polite half bow and a deferential touch of the hat. And they would raise their children to do the same.» — lo obvio que Brace no necesitaba añadir según el capítulo: quienes celebraban así la Navidad eran los que nunca replicarían a sus superiores y responderían con media reverencia
«It is the Cratchit family, the central household in Charles Dickens’s classic 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. Too poor to provide adequate medical care for their children (the youngest of whom, Tiny Tim, is for that reason a cripple), the Cratchits are intensely genial, close-knit, and nurturing—everything that Bob Cratchits employer, Ebenezer Scrooge, is not.» — la familia con que el capítulo empareja al zapatero de Brace: los Cratchit de Dickens, demasiado pobres para dar atención médica adecuada a sus hijos y sin embargo afables, unidos y acogedores
«For Dickens, as for Brace, the social warmth of the Cratchit family achieves its apotheosis at Christmas. Despite their poverty, the Cratchits have a merry time of it. And their merriment is a celebration of domesticity itself.» — lo que el capítulo señala común a Dickens y a Brace: el calor social de esa familia llega a su apoteosis en Navidad, y su alegría es celebración de la domesticidad misma
«There is another characteristic of what Brace considered to be “German” culture that applies to the Cratchits. They are polite and well-mannered to their superiors, even in the face of incessant provocation (in their case, provocation by Ebenezer Scrooge). It is impossible to imagine Bob Cratchit snarling to Scrooge, “How the h-11 should I know?” Even in private, at the family’s Christmas dinner, Bob Cratchit refuses to say a mean word about his employer.» — el segundo rasgo alemán que el capítulo aplica a los Cratchit: corteses y bien educados con sus superiores aun provocados sin tregua, hasta el punto de que el padre no dice una palabra dura sobre su patrón ni en privado
«To begin with, they are not really members of the British working class. Every bit as much as Braces shoemaker, they are integrated into the larger society.» — la primera acotación del capítulo sobre esa familia como tipo social: no son en realidad de la clase obrera británica, y están integrados en la sociedad mayor tanto como el zapatero de Brace
«The actual working classes of mid-nineteenth-century Britain (and America) were composed chiefly of industrial laborers—men and women who worked in textile mills or coal mines. But Ebenezer Scrooge was apparently not an industrial capitalist, but rather a merchant. (We learn almost nothing about the nature of Scrooge’s line of work, except that he owns a warehouse.» — quiénes componían de veras la clase obrera de mediados del siglo XIX y qué era Scrooge según el capítulo: obreros de fábricas textiles y minas, frente a un patrón que al parecer no era industrial sino mercader
«Nor was Bob Cratchit an industrial laborer; he was a clerk. He worked not on an assembly line but in an office, an office of his own (however ill heated it may have been in the winter). Indeed, as far as we can tell, Cratchit was Scrooge’s only employee, and a trusted one at that. In modern parlance, he was (albeit barely) a white-collar worker, more like a bank teller than a coal miner or a mill operative.» — qué era el empleado según el capítulo: un escribiente en una oficina propia, único empleado de su patrón y de confianza, más cerca de un cajero de banco que de un minero
«However badly Cratchit was treated by Scrooge, he was not apt to be laid off in hard times, as many industrial workers would have been. And however badly Scrooge treated Cratchit, the two men maintained a close working relationship (Cratchit’s office was located right next to Scrooge’s). Again, this stands in sharp contrast to the conditions of most industrial workers, whose employers would not even have been able to identify them, by either name or face.» — las dos consecuencias que el capítulo saca de esa posición: no era probable que lo despidieran en tiempos duros, y los dos hombres mantenían una relación de trabajo cercana, al revés que los obreros industriales
«Cratchit is literate, too (indeed, that is one of the requirements of his job), and so is at least one of his sons. One reason for the literacy may be that Cratchit’s wife and their children all stay at home; unlike their counterparts in most working-class families of the time, they do not labor for wages to help support the family.» — otro rasgo que el capítulo consigna: el empleado sabe leer y uno de sus hijos también, quizá porque la mujer y los hijos se quedan en casa y no trabajan por un salario
«All this is not to deny that Bob Cratchit is an exploited worker, but only to observe that he is hardly a realistic symbol of the industrial proletariat. It would be more accurate to identify him (in nineteenth-century terms) as a man who is struggling to become part of the respectable—and respectful—petite bourgeoisie.» — la conclusión del capítulo sobre ese personaje: sin negar que sea un trabajador explotado, no es símbolo realista del proletariado industrial sino un hombre que pugna por entrar en la pequeña burguesía respetable
«A Christmas Carol is often read today (and it was often read in the nineteenth century) as if it painted a vivid picture of alienated class relations in the period of the Industrial Revolution, and as if it evoked ways of bridging the vast gulf that had emerged between the top and bottom strata of society—through the kind of fellow feeling that Ebenezer Scrooge comes to experience after his conversion. But that is not the case. The vast and depressing face of the Industrial Revolution scarcely appears in this book.» — la lectura corriente de esa novela que el capítulo objeta, y su razón: la cara vasta y deprimente de la Revolución Industrial apenas asoma en el libro
«In fact, the only contact Scrooge has with the poor is in his vision—a dream, as it turns out, that unfolds in the safety of his own bed. And even in that dream, none of the poor ever curse or threaten him. The most horrible vision Scrooge has—a vision evoked by the Ghost of Christmas Future —is the indifference expressed by his business acquaintances when they learn of his death.» — el único contacto con los pobres que el capítulo halla en la obra y la visión más horrible del personaje: la indiferencia de sus conocidos de negocios al saber de su muerte
«In A Christmas Carol Dickens addressed not the great social divisions among classes estranged from one another by wealth, distance, and occupation but the daily, intimate class differences among people who were much closer to one another on the social scale.» — lo que esa obra trata según el capítulo: no las grandes divisiones entre clases ajenas por riqueza, distancia y oficio, sino las diferencias diarias e íntimas entre gente mucho más próxima en la escala social
«For if Bob Cratchit is not a member if the industrial working class, neither is Ebenezer Scrooge an upper-class industrial capitalist. This is true in a purely economic sense, since Scrooge seems to be a merchant and not an industrialist. And it is also true in a behavioral sense. In terms of his own lowly origins (he began as an apprentice to Old Fezziwig) and also his adult behavior, Scrooge, too, is essentially a member of the petite bourgeoisie, a self-made man who has spent his life striving hard (and at the cost of all human relationships, whether public or private) to attain a sense of security.» — la contraparte de esa lectura: tampoco el patrón es un capitalista industrial de clase alta, sino un hombre de origen humilde y también de pequeña burguesía, hecho a sí mismo a costa de toda relación humana
«anything which will make home pleasanter, which will bind children together, and make them conscious of a distinct family-life, is most strongly needed.» — el antídoto que Brace proponía contra el materialismo crudo: todo lo que haga más grata la casa y dé a los hijos conciencia de una vida familiar distinta; la cita arranca aquí porque el troceo parte *family-festivals* con guion de fin de renglón
«lessons in the natural “expression of any feeling” that almost all German children learned from their families; the kind of feelings that were “laughed at in childhood” by the parents of their American counterparts. (Brace added that in the United States such feelings were “pruned” away.» — a qué atribuía Brace la diferencia de modales: a las lecciones de expresión natural del sentimiento que casi todo niño alemán aprendía en su familia, y que en América los padres se reían y podaban; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«Cratchit exhibits none of the behavior that respectable people of the time associated with working-class culture: He does not drink to excess, he does not spend all his wages on payday; he is not (we must assume) sexually» — lo que el capítulo enumera como ausente en ese personaje: nada de lo que la gente respetable asociaba con la cultura obrera, ni beber en exceso ni gastar la paga el mismo día; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue: *promiscuous*
«demands of Scrooge, and for that matter he never encounters them. (We never see him approached by a beggar, for example.» — lo que el capítulo señala ausente en esa obra: los pobres no le piden nada al personaje y él nunca se los encuentra, ni siquiera abordado por un mendigo; el troceo abre el segmento a media frase
«Whatever else Scrooge’s conversion represents, it also marks his realization that he has “made it,” after all—that he can finally afford to ease up on himself and others. Considered sociologically, Scrooge’s conversion may mark his entry into the easy culture of the upper-middle-class world, a world for which he has previously been eligible only in an economic sense, but which his temperament has heretofore barred him from joining.» — la lectura sociológica que el capítulo hace de la conversión de Scrooge: la señal de que ya la hizo y puede aflojar consigo y con los demás, y su entrada en la cultura holgada del mundo de clase media alta
«In the more contemporaneous language of Charles Loring Brace, Scrooge is finally ready to transform the emotionally hollow culture of sheer greed into a more fulfilling culture in which everyday activities and relationships are softened by family values.» — la misma conversión dicha con el lenguaje contemporáneo de Brace: transformar la cultura emocionalmente hueca de la pura avaricia en otra más plena, con las relaciones diarias suavizadas por valores de familia
«That obligation, however, has its limits, even at Christmas. For when, at the very end of the book, Scrooge signifies to the Cratchits that he has changed, he does so by giving them a Christmas turkey, the largest bird he can find. But he has the turkey sent to the Cratchits; he does not deliver it in person—despite what several of the movie versions of A Christmas Carol may suggest. Presents, yes, but not “presence.”» — el límite de esa obligación que el capítulo señala: manda el pavo más grande que encuentra, pero no lo lleva en persona, pese a lo que sugieren varias versiones cinematográficas
«Scrooge is the “founder of the feast,” but he does not participate in the Cratchits’ actual Christmas dinner. Instead, he chooses to take dinner with his own family—at the house of his nephew, Fred. The message was clear: It was enough to provide such known employees with a gift.» — lo que el capítulo lee en esa ausencia: el personaje funda el banquete pero no participa de la cena de sus empleados y prefiere comer con su sobrino, con lo que bastaba el regalo al empleado conocido
«And while this is surely not the point of the book, it is of course evident that even the gift amounts to good business practice. For henceforth Scrooge will surely be able to count on Bob Cratchit’s heightened loyalty and diligence: Cratchit will become an even better employee.» — la salvedad que el propio autor marca como ajena al propósito del libro: el regalo es además buena práctica comercial, porque el empleado quedará más leal y diligente
«In other words, A Christmas Carol addressed the relationship of the well-to-do not with the faceless poor but with the poor who were personally known and whose predicament might provoke pangs of conscience.» — la relación que esa obra trata según el capítulo: no la de los acomodados con los pobres sin rostro, sino con los pobres conocidos personalmente, cuya situación puede dar punzadas de conciencia
«It offered a perspective on how to deal with people who neither belonged to one’s own family or social circle nor were members of the anonymous proletariat. This was a real problem in a society where Christmas rituals were becoming domesticated and class differences themselves were being reshaped.» — el problema real al que el capítulo dice que esa obra responde: cómo tratar a quienes no son de la familia ni del círculo propio y tampoco del proletariado anónimo
«Scrooge was not a country squire; Cratchit was not his tenant or apprentice. Maybe, had either been the case, each would have known just what to do at Christmas (and, of course, there would have been no story). But the creation, in England and America, of vast armies of middle-class people and wage earners produced a new type of society in which the old rituals of inversion and misrule no longer made much sense.» — lo que el capítulo enuncia como causa de ese problema: la creación de ejércitos vastos de gente de clase media y de asalariados produjo una sociedad nueva donde los viejos ritos de inversión ya no tenían sentido
«Indeed, the relationship between the youthful Scrooge and his master, Old Fezziwig, had been a paternalist one, a relationship of patron and client.» — la relación anterior que el capítulo contrasta: la del joven Scrooge con su maestro Fezziwig, paternalista, de patrón y cliente, y de aprendiz y no de empleado
«But as Dickens himself well knew, that was in an earlier age, in a precapitalist culture. Cratchit could never have been Scrooge’s apprentice. The economic system had changed, and with it the social relationships between patron and client.» — lo que el propio Dickens sabía según el capítulo: aquello era de una edad anterior y de una cultura precapitalista, y el empleado no habría podido ser aprendiz de su patrón
«In a still later age, employers might re-create Old Fezziwig’s Christmas in the form of an office party—but the employees’ families would not participate in that» — la continuación que el capítulo proyecta hacia adelante: en una edad todavía posterior los patrones recrearían esa Navidad en forma de fiesta de oficina, pero sin las familias de los empleados
«What Dickens showed his readers was how to navigate the ritual waters of the Christmas season so as to avoid the dual shoals of the guilt that might stem from not giving at all across class lines and the messiness (not to say futility) that would result from giving to every beggar who walked the streets or knocked on one’s door.» — lo que el capítulo dice que esa obra enseñaba a sus lectores: cómo sortear a la vez la culpa de no dar nada a través de las líneas de clase y el desorden de dar a todo mendigo que pasara
«Still, and for all that, there is something elusive about A Christmas Carol. Its message has proven malleable, subject to different readings.» — lo que el capítulo declara esquivo en esa obra: un mensaje maleable, sujeto a lecturas distintas
«During the century and a half since its publication in 1843, progressive liberals have claimed this book as a plea to ameliorate the evils of industrial capitalism. And free-enterprise conservatives have been equally able to claim it for their own.» — las dos lecturas opuestas que el capítulo consigna sin arbitrar: los liberales progresistas la han reclamado como alegato para paliar los males del capitalismo industrial y los conservadores de libre empresa la han reclamado igual
«Thus the New York Times in 1893, in the depths of a very severe depression, used A Christmas Carol to make the point that private charitable resources were sufficient to relieve pressing want, and the commitment of the city’s most wealthy citizens to do so was strong: “[A]t no time in the history of the city has private helpfulness come more eagerly cr more prodigally» — el uso que el *New York Times* hizo de esa obra en la depresión de 1893: mostrar que los recursos caritativos privados bastaban para aliviar la necesidad apremiante; el troceo parte la frase en renglones sueltos
«Philanthropically minded employers had “plunged into the fray with all the noble ardor of all the benevolent philanthropists ever fabled by Charles Dickens,” performing “prodigies of kindness” reminiscent of a “recreated and rejuvenated Scrooge.” For the Times, the message was clear: “Who … shall dare to say hereafter that corporations have no souls» — la continuación de ese editorial: patrones filantrópicos lanzados a la brega con el ardor de los benefactores fabulados por Dickens, como un Scrooge recreado y rejuvenecido
«That editorial was based on a plausible reading of A Christmas Carol. But it was equally plausible to read the book as an attack on capitalism.» — el juicio con que el capítulo consigna esa lectura sin arbitrar: era una lectura plausible, y era igualmente plausible leer el libro como ataque al capitalismo
«The elusiveness of A Christmas Carol may in part be what has allowed it to become an enduring literary classic—or, actually, more than a classic, for this book has entered a legendary realm beyond the category of literature itself.» — lo que el capítulo atribuye a esa ambigüedad: haber permitido que el libro se volviera clásico duradero y aun entrara en un reino legendario más allá de la categoría misma de literatura
«Scrooge is approached at the start by a pair of men who visit his office to solicit a cash donation to help the destitute. These men represent an unnamed charitable agency, and their own social status is clear: They are “gentlemen” (meaning that they are of a class above that to which Scrooge himself belongs). Scrooge, of course, turns these gentlemen down, in the famous exchange in which he retorts that there are prisons and workhouses to house the destitute, and that he is paying taxes to support these.» — el episodio inicial de esa obra: dos caballeros de una agencia benéfica sin nombre piden un donativo y Scrooge los rechaza alegando cárceles y casas de trabajo, sostenidas con sus impuestos
«Then, at the end of the book, after his conversion, Scrooge sees these same two gentlemen on the street, and he approaches them and proceeds to offer the contribution he had earlier refused. (We never learn how large a contribution, since Scrooge whispers the sum in their ear. All we know is that the charitable gentlemen are delighted.» — el episodio final que le corresponde: ya convertido, el personaje aborda a esos mismos caballeros y ofrece la contribución que había negado, en una suma que el lector nunca sabe
«In that sense, Scrooge’s conversion also has to do with his new ability to make a distinction between the different kinds of Christmas obligations he owes to different kinds of people. To members of his family he owes face-to-face participation, and (as we have seen) to the known poor with whom he deals regularly, he must send a present.» — la distinción que el capítulo ve en esa conversión: saber qué obligación navideña toca a cada clase de gente, con participación cara a cara para la familia y un regalo enviado para el pobre conocido
«But his debt to the unknown poor, the faceless suffering poor of industrial society, can be paid at a greater distance, by offering a donation to a private charitable agency; and the agency itself will provide the poor with “meat and drink, and means of warmth.» — la tercera categoría de esa distinción: la deuda con el pobre desconocido, pagadera a mayor distancia por donativo a una agencia caritativa privada que provee la comida, la bebida y el medio de calentarse
«If the reborn Scrooge were approached by a beggar on the street, or at his door, he could now respond with a clear conscience by saying, in effect, I gave at the office.» — la fórmula con que el capítulo remata esa distinción nueva y su efecto sobre la conciencia
«By the 1840s, Christmas giving was beginning to be polarized into just those two different activities. Gifts for one’s own family and friends now took the form of “presents,” while gifts that were given to the needy took the form of “charity.”» — la polarización que el capítulo data en los años cuarenta: los dones a la familia y los amigos como presentes y los dones a los necesitados como caridad
«The gifts given to family and friends consisted of luxury items, ordinarily purchased by the givers and presented directly to their recipients, either face-to-face or accompanied by a personal note.» — las diferencias entre esos dos dones: los de familia y amigos eran artículos de lujo comprados por el donante y entregados directamente, cara a cara o con una nota personal
«The gifts given to the faceless poor consisted mostly of necessities, which were ordinarily purchased and distributed not by the givers but by a charitable organization, which mediated between the other parties and eliminated the need for any direct contact between donor and recipient.» — la otra mitad de esa diferencia: los dones al pobre sin rostro eran sobre todo necesidades, compradas y repartidas no por el donante sino por una organización que eliminaba el contacto directo
«For example, in 1837 the Lenox, Massachusetts, branch of the Sedgwick family held just such an event. It was centered, interestingly enough, around a Christmas tree—the first such tree that any member of the Sedgwick family had ever erected.» — el ejemplo con que el capítulo muestra la pervivencia de ese rito: el árbol de Navidad de 1837 en Lenox, el primero que levantaba algún miembro de la familia Sedgwick
«Among the dependents, Susan Sedgwick reported, were “several of Charles’ poor pensioners, several blacks, and among others the deaf & dumb lad, whom you may remember to have applied for, to get him in at Hartford [i.e., a School for the Deaf and Dumb» — quiénes se juntaron en torno a ese árbol según la carta que el capítulo cita: varios pensionados pobres de la casa, varios negros y el muchacho sordomudo por cuyo ingreso en una escuela se había gestionado
«The lad “looked perfectly delighted,” Susan Sedgwick noted, and she went on to report with pride that a little black girl named Josey (a crippled child, apparently) joined in dancing around the Christmas tree, “turning round &c round, now assisted by one, & now by another of the children—all fear of amalgamation [i.e., race mixing] entirely forgotten.» — lo que esa misma carta reportaba con orgullo: una niña negra llamada Josey, al parecer coja, bailando en torno al árbol asistida por unos y otros niños, con todo temor de mezcla racial olvidado
«It was really quite affecting to witness [Susan Sedgwick insisted] so much happiness, so diffused, and yet created from such simple materials» — el juicio con que la autora de esa carta cerraba la escena
«Lenox, Massachusetts, represented a vestigial pocket of rural paternalism—a self-conscious pocket, at that—and the Sedgwicks were both willing and able to play the role of gracious squires to their poor “pensioners.”» — la lectura que el capítulo hace de aquel caso: Lenox era un bolsón vestigial de paternalismo rural, consciente de serlo, con los Sedgwick dispuestos y capaces de hacer de escuderos graciosos ante sus pensionados
«The urban poor were now living in separate neighborhoods, and (except for domestics and menials) they had little occasion for personal contact with the well-to-do. And when such contacts did take place, especially at Christmas, they were likely to take an awkward or even hostile form, mixed perhaps with a bit of mockery, and the whole exchange lubricated with alcohol.» — por qué eso era más difícil en las ciudades según el capítulo: los pobres urbanos vivían en barrios aparte y apenas tenían contacto personal con los acomodados, y cuando lo había solía ser áspero y regado de alcohol
«During the middle decades of the nineteenth century, the press, the economic elite, and even those who were most deeply concerned with helping the poor, all pressed the notion that organized charities provided the most appropriate means of assisting the poor.» — quiénes empujaban la distinción nueva según el capítulo: la prensa, la élite económica y hasta los más preocupados por ayudar a los pobres, todos a favor de las caridades organizadas
«Rightfully appropriated was the operative phrase here: Money should be offered to the poor through organized charities rather than through what was now being universally attacked with a dismissive phrase: “indiscriminate giving.» — la frase que el capítulo señala como operativa en el editorial de Greeley, contra lo que entonces se atacaba universalmente con una fórmula desdeñosa
«One Tribune Christmas editorial opened with the blunt heading “DO NOT GIVE TO STREET BEGGARS,” and went on to dismiss that practice in no uncertain terms: “Whenever you see one of these City pests approaching, button up both pockets» — el editorial navideño del *Tribune* que el capítulo cita: encabezado con la orden de no dar a los mendigos callejeros y con el consejo de abotonarse los dos bolsillos al ver venir a uno
«Another editorial (this one from a depression year) explained that “the evil of street-begging” would inevitably increase as a result of the hardness of the times. “Impostors will abound more than ever,” for example. But buttoning up one’s pockets was psychologically difficult: “he who rejects a petition for the needs of a night’s lodging or a meal may have his own warm rest disturbed by the reasonable apprehension that fearful exposure and distress have resulted from his prudence.» — el editorial de un año de depresión que el capítulo cita: el mal de la mendicidad callejera crecería con la dureza de los tiempos, y aun así abotonarse los bolsillos era psicológicamente difícil
«On this occasion the Tribune handed out meal tickets instead of cash to beggars. But making contributions to organized charity offered a more effective solution. It would obviate the need for face-to-face encounters along with the danger of fraud, and it would be far more efficient.» — la salida práctica de aquel periódico y la que recomendaba: repartió vales de comida en vez de dinero, pero tenía por mejor el donativo a la caridad organizada, sin encuentros cara a cara ni riesgo de fraude
«Let us give not merely as cases of destitution may present themselves, but through the regularly organized channels for the dispensation of social charity wherewith our own and most other cities are blessed» — la fórmula de otro editorial navideño del mismo diario: dar no según se presenten los casos de indigencia, sino por los canales regularmente organizados
«If the middle-class press criticized “indiscriminate giving,” it also generally attacked another alternative to private charities: governmental support for the poor through programs of public assistance or public works.» — la otra cosa que la prensa de clase media atacaba según el capítulo: el sostén gubernamental de los pobres por programas de asistencia pública o de obras públicas
«Many workingmen themselves called for just such programs, especially during years of severe depression—the kind of devastating depression that regularly shook the new capitalist economy. When the times were hard, many employers simply laid their workers off—and there was no unemployment insurance to see them through.» — quiénes pedían esos programas y por qué: los propios trabajadores en los años de depresión severa, cuando los patrones simplemente despedían y no había seguro de desempleo
«commercial Christmas in the nineteenth century, as we have seen, “presents” and “charity” were one and the same, and they were given to the same people—directly and face-to-face.» — lo que era antes según el capítulo: presente y caridad eran lo mismo y se daban a la misma gente, directamente y cara a cara; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«The newly established New York Times responded to the situation by acknowledging that “these were hard times” and expressing special sympathy for the fact that “men are poor this winter who were never poor before.» — la respuesta del recién fundado *New York Times*: reconocer que los tiempos eran duros y compadecer especialmente a los que eran pobres ese invierno sin haberlo sido antes
«This was as much as to say that such men were more worthy of sympathy than those who had always been poor.» — lo que el capítulo lee en esa compasión selectiva del periódico
«In passing, the Times even proposed paternalist gestures on the part of those employers who could afford it: “retaining their workmen, though they are not profitable.» — el gesto paternalista que ese diario proponía de paso a los patrones que pudieran permitírselo
«But the editorial reserved the bulk of its space to stress the superiority of giving through such established institutions as the churches and the newly formed Children’s Aid Society. This was presented in the name of simple efficiency.» — a qué dedicaba el grueso de su espacio ese mismo editorial: a subrayar la superioridad de dar por instituciones ya asentadas como las iglesias y la recién formada Children’s Aid Society
«Such institutions have well-established “channels” and employ “effectual and discriminating” techniques; they have at their disposal well-tooled “machinery” to make sure that each individual dollar “reaches tomorrow the very family that is famishing to-day for lack of it.» — los términos con que ese editorial describía a esas instituciones: canales asentados, técnicas eficaces y discriminadoras, y maquinaria bien afinada para que cada dólar llegue mañana a la familia que hoy se muere de hambre
«If a man has money, and does not know how he can make the most of it, let him step into the offices of any of those excellent institutions, in whose hands, if you place a dollar, you do what, individually, you could not make five dollars do.» — el consejo con que ese editorial remataba: quien tenga dinero y no sepa cómo aprovecharlo que entre en las oficinas de esas instituciones, donde un dólar rinde más que cinco puestos por cuenta propia
«A decade later, the same newspaper actually argued that this kind of charity was little more than a continuation of the long-standing tradition of Christmas generosity on the part of the British gentry and nobility. In the previous century, the argument went, “[n]o hungry faces were allowed to be seen around the barons hall, or the monk’s open doors, or the citizens gate.» — el argumento que ese mismo diario hacía una década después: que esa caridad continuaba la vieja tradición de generosidad navideña de la nobleza y la gentry británicas
«That tradition was being maintained into the present with hardly a hitch: “Modern times have continued this pleasant custom of benefaction. Yesterday, we doubt not, the faces of thousands of the poor were made happy with the good fare provided by the generosity of the charitable…. The bounty of others … heaped the tables of the outcast with good things.» — cómo decía ese diario que la tradición seguía viva: miles de rostros de pobres alegrados con el buen alimento que proveía la generosidad de los caritativos
«As matters grew worse during the following decades, and workers responded by attempting to unionize, the press became even more insistent that private benevolence was far superior to either indiscriminate giving or public assistance.» — lo que la prensa insistía conforme empeoraban las cosas y los trabajadores intentaban sindicalizarse: que la benevolencia privada era muy superior tanto al dar indiscriminado como a la asistencia pública
«At Christmas in 1893 several local unions were out on strike. But the New York Times responded with a warning that it acknowledged might seem “strange” to its readers: “Strange as it may sound, there is danger of overdoing the charitable relief business, or at least of misdoing it, if it is not put under concentrated, intelligent, and judicious direction.» — el aviso que el *New York Times* dio en la Navidad de 1893, y que él mismo reconocía que podría sonar extraño: hay peligro de excederse en el negocio del socorro caritativo, o al menos de hacerlo mal
«But there is need of great discretion in organizing and directing agencies for the relief of the poor in times like these. More than ever is it important that this work should be done intelligently and judiciously. Lavish and indiscriminate giving to applicants, however vouched for, will result in waste…. Worst of all, it will encourage and embolden beggary and attract worthless vagrants from all quarters.» — la continuación de ese editorial: dar con largueza y sin discriminar, por avalado que esté el solicitante, acabará en desperdicio y, lo peor, envalentonará la mendicidad
«The editorial decried the use of public moneys to ease the situation, insisting that “organized arrangements for distributing this superfluity among the needy through private benevolence are much better than efforts to use public authority and public funds for the relief of the poor or the unemployed.» — lo que ese mismo editorial rechazaba: el uso de dineros públicos, teniendo por mucho mejores los arreglos organizados de la benevolencia privada
«What the editorial did not mention, though it would have been clear to any reader who also followed the labor columns of the same paper, was that not one of the established charitable organizations was willing to provide assistance to workers who were out on strike.» — lo que el capítulo señala que el editorial callaba y que cualquier lector de las columnas laborales del mismo diario habría sabido: ninguna de las organizaciones caritativas asentadas socorría a los trabajadores en huelga
«As late as the early 1850s, the major charitable institutions in cities like New York were of two sorts: either municipal agencies (such as the almshouse and the workhouse for adults, and the city nursery for children) or arms of the city’s churches, which established “missions” to the urban poor (there were seventy-six of these missions operating in 1865» — qué instituciones caritativas había en ciudades como Nueva York a principios de los años cincuenta: agencias municipales, y misiones de las iglesias, de las que había setenta y seis en 1865
«These institutions did not disappear, but during the 1850s they were supplemented by a new set of private philanthropic organizations dedicated exclusively to serving impoverished groups.» — el cambio que el capítulo data en los años cincuenta: esas instituciones no desaparecen, pero se les suman organizaciones filantrópicas privadas dedicadas en exclusiva a grupos empobrecidos
«Increasingly, these organizations came to focus their energies on a single group within the neighborhood they served: impoverished children.» — el foco que esas organizaciones fueron estrechando según el capítulo: un solo grupo del barrio al que servían, los niños pobres
«And very soon, organizations began to emerge that were devoted exclusively to children. The most effective (and aggressive) of these agencies—and probably, within a decade or two, the single largest and best-known charitable organization in the United States— was the Children’s Aid Society, established in 1853 under the guiding influence of the young reformer Charles Loring Brace.» — la organización que el capítulo señala como la más eficaz y agresiva de las dedicadas en exclusiva a los niños, fundada en 1853 bajo la influencia rectora de Brace
«It was the end point of an eight-year period that Brace spent in seeking a clear vocation for himself.» — lo que esa fundación cerraba en la vida de Brace según el capítulo: ocho años de buscar una vocación clara
«Born in 1826 in Litchfield, Connecticut, of old New England stock (his father later became principal of the Hartford Female Seminary, where Catharine and Harriet Beecher served as teachers), Brace graduated from Yale in 1846 and returned there a year later to study theology. Ambitious to make his way in a more cosmopolitan setting, he also studied at the Union Theological Seminary in New York.» — el itinerario de formación de Brace: nacido en 1826 de vieja cepa de Nueva Inglaterra, graduado de Yale en 1846, de vuelta a estudiar teología y luego en el Union Theological Seminary de Nueva York
«Late in 1849 Brace visited New York’s municipal facilities on Blackwells Island, where he preached to the poor in the almshouse and met with prisoners and ill prostitutes. It was like a conversion experience: “I never had my whole nature so stirred up within me,” he reported, “as at what met my eyes in those hospital wards.» — el episodio que el capítulo llama experiencia de conversión: la visita de 1849 a las instalaciones municipales de Blackwell’s Island, predicando en el asilo y tratando con presos y prostitutas enfermas
«But his sympathy for the oppressed was very much alive, and while touring Hungary in the spring of 1851 he was actually imprisoned for a month on charges of aiding the Hungarian nationalist revolutionaries led by Lajos Kossuth.» — lo que le pasó a Brace en ese viaje europeo: preso un mes en Hungría en 1851 por cargos de ayudar a los revolucionarios nacionalistas
«As the executive secretary of the C.A.S., Brace was an early representative of an emerging social type in American history (and also a new group in the history of Christmas patronage)—the salaried managerial class.» — el tipo social que el capítulo ve emerger en Brace como secretario ejecutivo de esa sociedad, y también como grupo nuevo en la historia del patrocinio navideño
«Brace had come to the firm conclusion that targeting adults was virtually useless—“like pouring water through a sieve» — la conclusión firme a que Brace había llegado sobre trabajar con adultos, con la figura que él mismo usaba
«All too often, adults wasted charitable relief on alcohol or worse. Moreover, whatever assistance they received (and on this point Brace’s ideas resemble that of many modern conservatives) only created a sense of dependency that further ensured their ongoing pauperization.» — las dos razones de Brace para descartar a los adultos según el capítulo: que malgastaban el socorro en alcohol o cosa peor, y que la asistencia les creaba dependencia y aseguraba su pauperización
«Brace was persuaded that the only “hopeful field” was among “the young.” If one worked exclusively with children, he believed, “crime might possibly be checked in its very beginnings, and the seed of future good character and order and virtue be widely sown.» — el campo que Brace tenía por el único esperanzador y lo que creía posible allí: atajar el crimen en sus comienzos mismos y sembrar la semilla del buen carácter
«Brace carried this principle very far. He decided not only that adults could not be part of the solution to the problem of poverty but also that they constituted the immediate source of the problem.» — hasta dónde llevaba Brace ese principio según el capítulo: los adultos no solo no podían ser parte de la solución, sino que eran la fuente inmediata del problema
«But the families of the poor were worse than inadequate—they were, as Brace put it, actual “poison” for their own children.» — la fórmula con que Brace calificaba a las familias pobres
«Brace argued that this was true of mothers as well as fathers. In making such an argument he was confronting the heart of the reigning domestic ideology—the belief that all mothers could be counted on, by their very natures, to nurture their children through thick and thin.» — lo que el capítulo señala más audaz en ese argumento: Brace lo aplicaba a las madres tanto como a los padres, contra el corazón mismo de la ideología doméstica reinante
«At Christmas, 1855, he published in several New York newspapers a plea for charity that consisted of several little “Scenes for Christmas.” One of these scenes pictured a proud and respectable young mother who had been reduced to poverty by a combination of hard times and her husband’s drinking.» — la pieza de 1855 con que Brace hizo ese argumento: escenas navideñas impresas en varios periódicos neoyorquinos, una de ellas con una madre joven y respetable reducida a la pobreza
«And he added: “If she could but see it, it is just such dowdiness which sends the husband to the dram-shop instead of home.» — lo que Brace añadía enseguida sobre esa mujer: que es justo ese desaliño lo que manda al marido a la taberna en vez de a casa
«Brace concluded that it would be of little avail to offer assistance to this pathetic woman: “The husband will probably die a drunkard; [and] the young wife, who had left comfort and home for his poverty, will either kill herself or perish of a broken-heart.” But then there were the children: “There is the hope. Who will aid us in doing something for them?» — la conclusión de esa escena: de poco serviría socorrer a esa mujer, y la esperanza está en los hijos
«Brace used such accounts to make a radical argument: It was not enough to help the children—they actually had to be separated, permanently so, from their parents.» — el argumento radical que Brace sacaba de esos relatos según el capítulo: no bastaba ayudar a los niños, había que separarlos de sus padres de manera permanente
«In another of his 1855 “Christmas Scenes” (this one titled “The Cold Home”), Brace contrasted a pair of “tidy, sweet children” with their chilly mother and her “cheerless” house. He had tried to persuade the mother to let the girls attend an industrial school (offering to provide them with clothing if they would do so), and he promised “that the boy should find a home if he would come to our office.» — la segunda de esas escenas de 1855: dos niños pulcros y dulces frente a una madre fría y una casa sin alegría, con la oferta de escuela industrial y ropa para las niñas y de hogar para el niño
«Brace was adamant: “[T] hough for her pure young children too much could hardly be done, in such a woman [herself] there is hardly any confidence to be put.” And he confidently generalized from this woman’s case: “In nine cases out of ten, it is probable, some cursed vice has thus reduced her, and that, if her children be not separated from her, she will drag them down, too.» — la generalización terminante de Brace a partir de ese caso: en nueve casos de cada diez algún vicio maldito la ha reducido, y si no se separa a los hijos de ella los arrastrará también
«avaricious landlords” and called for what amounted to a rent strike by appointing a “vigilant committee” to oversee the response. The city had made a special $10,000 appropriation for the poor, and the workers demanded that some of those funds be given directly to the association itself. One speaker denounced the municipal soup kitchens as “haughty and contemptuous” (and added that they served watery soup). Another speaker called for public-works programs instead of soup kitchens. A third demanded that the city itself subsidize up to 50 percent of rent payments for the unemployed.» — las demandas de aquella asamblea de trabajadores sin empleo el día de Navidad de 1854: un comité vigilante para algo que equivalía a una huelga de rentas, parte del fondo municipal para la asociación, obras públicas en vez de comedores y subsidio de renta; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«referring—to “the missions, the industrial schools, the lodging-houses for homeless boys and girls, [and] the almshouses and asylums and refuges.» — lo que el capítulo precisa de aquel editorial: se refería solo a la obra de las instituciones caritativas, misiones, escuelas industriales, casas de alojamiento, asilos y refugios; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«Those good-hearted individuals “who fear to do as much injury as good by their indiscriminate charities, should seek out the great public almoners, our benevolent societies, who have reduced charity almost to a science, and probably seldom err on the side of too much generosity.» — el consejo con que ese editorial cerraba: que los bienintencionados acudan a los grandes limosneros públicos, las sociedades benéficas que han reducido la caridad casi a ciencia; la cita arranca aquí porque el troceo parte *now-standard* con guion de fin de renglón
«Society, a Methodist group, and located in one of the city’s most blighted and dangerous areas (the Five Points was the site of a notorious gang war in 1857). Together with a similar agency, the Five Points House of Industry, founded in 1853, these missions offered charitable relief to neighborhood families and provided children with classes that taught them industrial or domestic skills.» — la misión que el capítulo pone de ejemplo: la de Five Points, fundada en 1852 por una sociedad metodista en una de las zonas más asoladas y peligrosas de la ciudad, con socorro a las familias del barrio y clases de oficios; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«he wished to do with his life: He would dedicate himself to working for the poor.» — lo que Brace resolvió al volver de Europa según el capítulo: dedicarse a trabajar por los pobres; el troceo abre el segmento a media frase
«respect; she had even lost “the last thing a woman of her former [respectable] habits loses—the pride in neat appearance.» — lo que Brace añadía al guion decimonónico conocido: que la madre joven había perdido hasta el orgullo del aspecto pulcro, lo último que pierde una mujer de hábitos respetables; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«Charles Loring Brace. This woodcut was taken from a picture made late in Brace’s life. (Courtesy of the Fine Arts Library, Harvard College Library)» — el pie del retrato de Brace, tomado de una imagen hecha ya tarde en su vida
«So Brace devised a new scheme. It involved persuading parents to send their children to the Children’s Aid Society (or persuading the children themselves to go there)—in order to ship them out of the city altogether, to new homes in the American West, in villages with stable families, ample opportunities for employment, and the kind of individualistic ethos that would offer the boys fertile soil to develop their competitive tendencies into socially productive channels.» — el plan que Brace ideó según el capítulo: convencer a los padres o a los propios niños de acudir a la sociedad para embarcarlos fuera de la ciudad, a hogares del Oeste con familias estables y trabajo
«Manless land for landless men” was a slogan of the movement.» — el lema del movimiento que el capítulo cita
«In its first four decades the “placing out” scheme—it would later be dubbed the “orphan train” program—managed to transport some 90,000 boys to new homes and lives in the West.21 And it helped bring international renown to Charles Loring Brace.» — la cifra y el nombre posterior de aquel plan: unos noventa mil muchachos llevados al Oeste en sus primeras cuatro décadas, con el programa luego llamado del tren de los huérfanos
«He saw such behavior as a sign of potential ambition that, healthfully channeled, could transform bad habits into productive ones.» — lo que Brace veía en la conducta de los niños abandonados a sus propios recursos: señal de ambición potencial que, encauzada sanamente, podía volver productivos los malos hábitos
«Now, as secretary of the Children’s Aid Society, Brace paid more attention to encouraging self-reliance than to fostering family ties. Knowing that many of New York’s poor children could be enticed with relative ease to leave home, Brace put to practical use what he had previously lamented as the weakness of family ties among American youths.» — el giro que el capítulo señala en Brace: como secretario de la sociedad atendía más a fomentar la confianza en sí que los lazos de familia, y usaba en la práctica lo que antes lamentaba
«All seemed as careless at leaving home forever, as if they were on … [an] excursion to Hoboken.» — la fórmula con que Brace reportó el ánimo de un grupo de muchachos que dejaban Nueva York en 1855
«According to the historian Paul Boyer, Brace did not systematically track the later careers of the orphan-train riders: He “showed little interest in determining whether the boys he sent West actually became settled members of their communities; it was enough that they were ‘being absorbed into that active, busy population.» — lo que el capítulo toma del historiador Paul Boyer: Brace no siguió sistemáticamente la suerte posterior de aquellos muchachos y le bastaba con que quedaran absorbidos en esa población activa
«But it would be a mistake to think that this complex man had turned into a simple apologist for the spirit of free enterprise. Despite his enduring admiration for the independent human spirit, Charles Loring Brace never lost the deep distrust of nineteenth-century capitalism that informed Home-Life in Germany.» — el límite que el capítulo pone a esa lectura: sería un error tener a ese hombre complejo por simple apologista del libre empresa, porque nunca perdió su desconfianza honda del capitalismo decimonónico
«In that book, Gesta Christi, Brace noted tentatively that the New Testament itself was permeated by a “certain tone” that was, “if not of’communism/at least in favor of greater distribution of wealth than would suit modern ideas.» — lo que Brace anotaba con cautela en su obra de teología de 1882: que el Nuevo Testamento está impregnado de cierto tono favorable a una distribución de la riqueza mayor de lo que convendría a las ideas modernas
«Jesus and the apostles “almost denounce the rich,” he wrote, and “their sympathies are strongly with the working classes; they urge continually the diffusion of property, in whatever way would benefit the world.» — lo que Brace decía de Jesús y los apóstoles en ese mismo libro: casi denuncian a los ricos, simpatizan fuertemente con las clases trabajadoras y urgen sin cesar la difusión de la propiedad
«At another point in the same book Brace insisted that there was “in many of the aspirations and aims of communism, a certain marked sympathy or harmony with the ideals of Christianity.” But he was also quick to add that “[n]othing, however, in Christ’s teachings tends towards any forcible interfering with rights of property, or encourages dependence on others.» — el límite que Brace ponía enseguida a esa simpatía con el comunismo: nada en las enseñanzas de Cristo tiende a interferir por la fuerza con el derecho de propiedad ni alienta la dependencia de otros
«It was his practical organizational skills which did that, and his ability to deal effectively with poor children themselves. Those interpersonal skills came increasingly to the fore over the years.» — lo que ganó a Brace el respeto de la comunidad filantrópica según el capítulo: no la filosofía sino su destreza organizativa práctica y su trato eficaz con los propios niños pobres
«From the beginning, the Children’s Aid Society did not restrict itself to sending children West, and by the 1860s it was becoming clear that the supply of street children in New York far exceeded the demand for their labor on the farm.25 So the C.A.S. came increasingly to focus its efforts on the industrial schools and lodging houses it had established in the city.» — el giro de la sociedad hacia los años sesenta: la oferta de niños de la calle en Nueva York excedía con mucho la demanda de su trabajo en las granjas, así que se concentró en escuelas industriales y casas de alojamiento
«The first and most successful of these local establishments—the one that captured the attention of the public, and became Braces personal pride and joy—was a lodging house designated specifically for a single subset of poor children: the city’s newsboys.» — cuál fue la más exitosa de esas casas según el capítulo: la destinada en exclusiva a un subconjunto de niños pobres, los vendedores de periódicos
«Often homeless, they eked out their subsistence by hawking afternoon newspapers and “extra” editions on the streets of the city. By the 1850s newsboys constituted a familiar and sometimes aggressive segment of the urban population, and they were notorious for their streetwise impertinence and for the racket they made at their beloved theater.» — cómo subsistían esos muchachos y por qué eran notorios: voceando periódicos de la tarde y ediciones extra, con impertinencia callejera y con el escándalo que hacían en su amado teatro
«Charles Loring Brace referred to them as “a fighting, gambling set.” Consisting largely of immigrant Irish Catholics, the newsboys seem to have spoken in an argot of their own, and they were usually known only by nicknames —“Pickle Nose,” “Fat Jack,” Mickety,” “Round Hearts,” “No-Nothing Mike,” “O’Neill the Great,” “Wandering Jew,” even (in one case) “Horace Greeley.» — cómo los llamaba el propio Brace y cómo se conocían entre sí: irlandeses católicos en buena parte, con jerga propia y solo por apodos, uno de ellos el nombre del director del *Tribune*
«The Newsboys’ Lodging House that Brace set up in 1854 provided many of these boys with a stable household. By 1867 the Children’s Aid Society was operating five such lodging houses in poor districts of New York, one of which was located at the corner of West Twenty-fourth Street and Eighth Avenue, just at the edge of the former Chelsea estate owned by Clement Clarke Moore!» — la casa de alojamiento que Brace abrió en 1854 y la coincidencia geográfica que el capítulo subraya: para 1867 había cinco, una de ellas al borde de la antigua finca de Chelsea de Moore
«Working with them became for him a secular version of the ministry to which he had originally intended to devote himself.» — lo que ese trabajo era para Brace según el capítulo: una versión secular del ministerio al que originalmente pensó dedicarse
«He delivered one of these sermons at Christmas, emphasizing Jesus’ humble birth and upbringing “among common laboring people” and the fact that his own chosen ministry was to “the great masses of mankind—the poor laboring people—just such as you are, boys.” And in another sermon Brace called Jesus “the working-man’s friend.» — lo que Brace subrayaba en uno de esos sermones navideños no sectarios: el nacimiento y la crianza humildes de Jesús entre gente trabajadora común, y su ministerio dirigido a las grandes masas
«Guided by what was probably a combination of private admiration and pragmatic tactics, Brace dealt with these newsboys without sentimentality, without pretending that they embodied purity or selflessness.» — cómo trataba Brace a esos muchachos según el capítulo: sin sentimentalismo y sin fingir que encarnaran pureza ni desinterés
«He came to relish what he saw as the independence, competitiveness, and signs of ambition that characterized the culture of newsboys, even the aggressive edge they displayed, and he worked to encourage those attributes. Whatever else they were, newsboys were by definition not beggars—they worked for their own support.» — lo que Brace llegó a saborear en la cultura de esos muchachos: la independencia, la competitividad y las señales de ambición, incluso su filo agresivo, y el que por definición no fueran mendigos
«The aspiring young author Horatio Alger spent several months in residence at the original Newsboys’ Lodging House, and he based several of his novels on that experience.» — el dato que el capítulo intercala sobre esa casa: el joven Horatio Alger residió allí varios meses y basó en esa experiencia varias de sus novelas
«Brace retained, at the same time, his earlier sense that the newsboys needed to grow up in an environment that was genial and cheerful, and he tried with considerable success to make every Newsboys’ Lodging House into just such an environment. Brace was skillful in dealing with newsboys on their own terms, and he made sure he hired a flexible and well-trained staff.» — lo que Brace conservó de su idea anterior: que esos muchachos necesitaban crecer en un ambiente afable y alegre, y su empeño en que cada casa lo fuera, con personal flexible y bien formado
«As one scholar has put it, “Newsboys inhabited a twilight realm somewhere between desperate poverty and democratic manhood.» — la fórmula que el capítulo toma de un estudioso para situar a esos muchachos entre la pobreza desesperada y la hombría democrática
«Brace knew better than to patronize the newsies, and he even took pleasure in watching them ridicule any visiting speakers who did. The lodging houses were characterized, as Paul Boyer has put it, by “the prevailing high spirits, the street slang, and the boisterous shouts of tough little gamins totally unin-timidated by the surroundings of a benevolent institution.» — lo que el capítulo dice del trato de Brace y de la atmósfera de esas casas: se guardaba de condescender y disfrutaba viéndolos ridiculizar a los oradores que sí lo hacían
«Such geniality satisfied Brace’s own deep craving for the unforced social warmth he had first encountered in Germany at Christmastime.» — lo que esa afabilidad satisfacía en el propio Brace según el capítulo
«SO IT MAY be no coincidence that the high point of the year at every Newsboys’ Lodging House was the annual Christmas dinner. Those dinners became a regular institution during the last four decades of the nineteenth century and were reported with relish in the press.» — lo que el capítulo señala como cima del año en cada una de esas casas: la cena anual de Navidad, institución regular durante las cuatro últimas décadas del siglo XIX
«Dyspeptics who cannot enjoy the eating of a good Christmas dinner ought to make it a point to go to the Newsboys’ Lodging House … at 7 o’clock in the evening of Christmas Day and see the newsboys eat.» — la fórmula con que un reporte invitaba al público a ver comer a esos muchachos la noche del día de Navidad
«Only once, in 1888, have I found an acknowledgment that something more serious may also have been at stake for the boys: Their “stomachs [were] small with chronic hunger.» — la única vez que el propio autor dice haber hallado el reconocimiento de que había algo más serio en juego: los estómagos pequeños de hambre crónica
«The Christmas dinners were often described in military terms, as in 1888, when the story was headed “NEWSBOYS WILL BE FED. They Battle with a Dinner and Win a Great Victory.” Or in 1890: “THE NEWSBOYS’ ANNUAL TRIUMPH OVER TURKEY AND PIE.» — los titulares con que la prensa describía esas cenas en términos militares, de batalla y de victoria
«The press accounts took equal delight in reporting the newsboys’ raucous behavior on such occasions—their expertise in “cutting such capers … as only street arabs know.» — lo que esas crónicas celebraban por igual: la conducta estridente de los muchachos en esas ocasiones
«C]are is taken to have every seat at every table accessible [to adults], so that in case any newsboy becomes intoxicated by the lavish display of viands, and forgets how he should behave while at a banquet, he may be reached before he has filled the eyes of more than two of his neighbors with pie. The wisdom of this provision has been shown time and time again.» — el detalle logístico que el capítulo cita de una de esas crónicas: cada asiento accesible a los adultos, por si algún muchacho, embriagado por el despliegue de manjares, olvida cómo portarse en un banquete
«All in all, such scenes can be seen as the inventive fulfillment, in a very different set of circumstances, of the very Christmas fantasy that Charles Loring Brace had first described in Home-Life in Germany—a scene of genuine, spontaneous cheer in which people did not “seem to be enjoying themselves, because it is a ‘duty to be cheerful,’” but simply “because they cannot help it.» — la lectura con que el capítulo cierra ese apartado: esas escenas como cumplimiento inventivo, en circunstancias muy distintas, de la fantasía navideña que Brace había descrito en su libro alemán
«Protestant-dominated West, he argued, would be likely to transform a “rough, thieving New York vagrant” into an “honest, hardworking Western pioneer.» — lo que Brace sostenía sobre el efecto del Oeste, hambriento de mano de obra y dominado por protestantes, sobre un vagabundo ladrón de Nueva York; la cita arranca aquí porque el troceo parte *labor-starved* con guion de fin de renglón
«final clause suggests, Jesus might be a socialist, but Brace would not relinquish the idea that he was also a man of self-reliance! Here as clearly as anywhere in his writings may be found a clue to the coherent philosophy that Brace never quite managed to articulate.» — lo que el capítulo lee en esa cláusula final de Brace: Jesús podía ser socialista, pero él no soltaba la idea de que fuera también hombre de confianza en sí mismo; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«wealthy New York businessman named William Fliess. Other prominent New Yorkers often agreed to host dinners at the other lodging houses. Theodore Roosevelt did so, for example, every year from 1870 to 1873, and on at least one of those occasions the future president presented a $25 cash prize to a newsboy who had submitted the best essay in a writing competition.» — quiénes pagaban y anfitrionaban esas cenas según el capítulo: un hombre de negocios neoyorquino en la casa original y otros prominentes en las demás, entre ellos Theodore Roosevelt, que una vez dio premio en metálico al mejor ensayo de un concurso
«Pleas for giving charity to poor children reached their height during the Christmas season, and they seem to have made for an effective fund-raising technique.» — cuándo llegaban a su punto más alto los llamados a dar caridad a los niños pobres según el capítulo, y con qué resultado
«Almost certainly it stemmed from a powerful convergence of older and newer holiday traditions: those older traditions in which Christmas was the major occasion in the year for offering gifts to the poor and those more recent traditions in which Christmas was the major occasion for giving gifts to children. Impoverished children embodied simultaneously the core of both rituals.» — la convergencia a que el capítulo atribuye esa eficacia: la vieja tradición de dar a los pobres en Navidad y la reciente de dar a los niños, con el niño pobre en el núcleo de las dos
«Charles Loring Brace was among the few who seem to have been able to accept the rough-edged behavior of the “street arabs” with something that approached unadulterated admiration. Others persisted in trying to see them in a more romantic light.» — lo que el capítulo distingue en Brace frente a los demás: de los pocos que aceptaban la conducta áspera de esos muchachos con algo cercano a la admiración sin mezcla
«It was as if people were intrigued by their own uncertainty about whether newsboys were lost Victorian children waiting to be redeemed or just young hoodlums in the making.» — la incertidumbre que el capítulo detecta en esa fascinación de clase media: si aquellos muchachos eran niños victorianos perdidos a la espera de redención o gamberros en ciernes
«A fair number of books about newsboys appeared in the 1850s and 1860s. One of these, Ragged Dick (1867), was written by Horatio Alger, who based the novel on his own observations in the original Newsboys’ Lodging House.37 The title character of this book is spunky and ambitious, but he is also polite.» — los libros sobre esos muchachos que el capítulo cita: unos cuantos en los años cincuenta y sesenta, entre ellos el de Horatio Alger de 1867, con un protagonista animoso y ambicioso pero también cortés
«In none of these books, however, is the confusion as clear as it is in Elizabeth Oakes Smiths novel The Newsboy (1854). Published in the same year that Brace opened the first Newsboys’ Lodging House, this otherwise forgettable book offers an extraordinary example of authorial ambivalence.» — el libro que el capítulo destaca por la confusión que exhibe: la novela de Elizabeth Oakes Smith de 1854, publicada el mismo año en que Brace abrió la primera casa de alojamiento
«The hero of The Newsboy starts out as an uncouth homeless urchin who knows nothing about his parents. When he is asked who his mother is, he responds almost like little Topsy, the incorrigible slave girl in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book that had been published only two years earlier.» — cómo empieza el héroe de esa novela: golfillo sin techo ni noticia de sus padres, que responde casi como la niña esclava incorregible de *Uncle Tom’s Cabin*
«But in the course of the novel, without any training or support, this boy turns out to be a saintly child. He refuses to try alcohol or tobacco (“‘It’s agin my nater,’” he explains); he disdains to complain about his condition; and he befriends and supports—emotionally as well as financially—a variety of other outcasts, even becoming a surrogate parent to an adult woman. At one point the author is actually able to refer to her childish hero as “a miracle of goodness,” an instinctively perfect little boy.» — en qué se convierte ese personaje sin adiestramiento ni apoyo: un niño santo que rechaza alcohol y tabaco, no se queja de su condición y sostiene a otros desamparados
«And at the end of the book he proves his worth by voluntarily sacrificing any prospect of marrying the wealthy girl he loves. If this newsboy begins the novel as a male version of Stowe’s Topsy, he ends it as a male version of another young character from Uncle Tom’s Cabin—little Eva.» — el desenlace de esa novela y la comparación del capítulo: el muchacho sacrifica voluntariamente la posibilidad de casarse con la joven rica a la que ama
«Such a child hardly resembled the kind of real-life newsboy that Charles Loring Brace had to deal with.» — el juicio con que el capítulo cierra esa lectura: un niño así no se parecía al vendedor de periódicos real con el que Brace tenía que tratar
«It was with sentimental fantasies such as that of Elizabeth Oakes Smith that charitable agencies had to contend, but also to exploit, during the second half of the nineteenth century. And on no occasion did those fantasies become more pervasive than at Christmas.» — con qué tenían que lidiar y a la vez explotar las agencias caritativas según el capítulo: fantasías sentimentales de ese orden, más pervasivas en Navidad que en ninguna otra ocasión
«The original model for such fantasies was another fictional character, Dickens’s Tiny Tim. This boy is a cripple, but spiritually he is a perfect model of humanity, a paragon of patient, cheerful selflessness.» — el modelo original de esas fantasías según el capítulo: el Tiny Tim de Dickens, tullido y a la vez dechado de desinterés paciente y alegre
«In fact, characters like Tiny Tim resemble nothing so much as the selfless German children we encountered in Chapter 5, the children idealized by Coleridge and Pestalozzi.» — el parentesco que el capítulo traza para esos personajes: los niños alemanes desinteresados del capítulo quinto, idealizados por Coleridge y por Pestalozzi
«Two Images of Newsboys. The street urchin on the right appeared in the 1872 edition of Elizabath Oakes Smith’s novel The Newsboy. The appealing little boy on the left was the subject of an 1857 picture by the New York painter James Henry Cafferty, titled “Newsboy Selling New York Herald.” For all the contrast between them, the two pictures are essentially mirror images of each other.» — el pie de la lámina con las dos imágenes del vendedor de periódicos, el golfillo de la novela de 1872 y el niño simpático del cuadro de 1857, que el capítulo lee como imágenes especulares una de otra
«It was fictional children like Tiny Tim—needy children who were forbearing and grateful, and sometimes disabled as well—who would become the ordinary objects of charity in scores of stories and sketches written in the middle of the nineteenth century.» — quiénes serían los objetos corrientes de la caridad en decenas de cuentos de mediados de siglo según el capítulo: niños necesitados, sufridos y agradecidos, y a veces con alguna discapacidad
«A Christmas Carol was only the first of a host of stories published over the next several decades (and beyond) that evoked the gap between rich and poor, and used young children to imagine ways of bridging this gap through acts of direct personal generosity at Christmas.» — el lugar que el capítulo asigna a la novela de Dickens en esa serie: la primera de una hueste de relatos que evocaban la brecha entre ricos y pobres e imaginaban puentes por actos de generosidad personal directa
«Traveling on the ferry between New York and Brooklyn, the writer has encountered a small girl, palpably impoverished, and is struck by something unusual in the girl’s demeanor, something that set her apart from “the whining, obtrusive beggars of this large city.» — la escena del relato de no ficción de 1844 con que el capítulo ilustra el género: en el transbordador entre Nueva York y Brooklyn, una niña visiblemente pobre con algo inusual en su porte
«Sitting quietly amid the other, more prosperous patrons of the ferry, this child signified “poverty that complains not.” Her face conveyed “utter hopelessness,” but also a striking “resignation.» — lo que esa niña significaba para quien escribió el relato: una pobreza que no se queja, con un rostro de desesperanza absoluta y a la vez de resignación llamativa
«Children crushed to the earth with poverty and crime are common in large cities: they are painfully numerous. But it is seldom that such quiet, uncomplaining little sufferers are met there.» — el remate de ese relato: los niños aplastados por la pobreza y el crimen son comunes y penosamente numerosos en las grandes ciudades, pero rara vez se hallan sufrientes tan quietos y sin queja
«Here was the basis of the familiar, almost stereotypical genre in which poor children stand huddled in the cold outside the home of a rich family, gazing patiently through the window at the latter’s Christmas luxuries.» — el género casi estereotípico que el capítulo dice que nace de ahí: niños pobres apiñados en el frío ante la ventana de una casa rica, mirando con paciencia los lujos navideños
«As might be expected, these stories invariably deal with a Christmas encounter between someone rich and someone poor, an encounter in which the former is touched by both the plight and the patience of the latter (generally a child). The encounter is marked by a special Christmas gift that leaves both the giver and the recipient deeply touched. It is the old exchange of gifts for goodwill.» — el esquema invariable de esos relatos según el capítulo: un encuentro navideño entre alguien rico y alguien pobre, con un regalo que conmueve a los dos, es decir el viejo intercambio de dones por buena voluntad
«Again and again, it was the passivity, the uncomplaining resignation, of such fictional children in the face of pervasive, ambient opulence that rendered them fit objects of direct charity. It was because they asked for nothing that they proved themselves worthy of receiving something.» — lo que volvía a esos niños de ficción objetos aptos de la caridad directa según el capítulo: su pasividad y su resignación sin queja ante la opulencia ambiente
«At the end, the reader is assured that the poor little girl will “never forget” these gifts in times of future hardship.» — la seguridad con que ese relato cierra
«There is a deeper pattern to some of these stories, and it is a revealing one. It has to do with resolving the vexatious public issues of class division—issues that were essentially unresolvable within any version of the prevailing ideological language—by transforming them, under cover of fiction, into issues that are resolvable: private issues of family, morality, and forgiveness.» — el patrón más hondo que el capítulo halla en algunos de esos relatos: resolver bajo cubierta de ficción los asuntos públicos irresolubles de la división de clases volviéndolos asuntos privados de familia, moral y perdón
«I have not found a single nineteenth-century Christmas story that deals forthrightly with the dynamics of American class relations.» — el hallazgo negativo que el propio autor declara sobre el conjunto de esos relatos
«In the commonest version of this pattern, the poor children turn out, at the end, to be related to their benefactors by blood itself.» — la versión más común de ese patrón según el capítulo: los niños pobres resultan al final emparentados con sus benefactores por la sangre misma
«This story was accompanied by a two-page illustration showing precisely the now-familiar stereotypical scene: the rich family inside on the left side, the poor children outside» — la lámina a dos planas que acompañaba al relato de 1858 que el capítulo analiza: la familia rica dentro a la izquierda y los niños pobres fuera; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«In other words, the division of social class that separated the “rich” from the “poor” of this story’s title was more apparent than real. Not only did these poor children behave like well-trained members of respectable society—that is actually what they were.» — la lectura que el capítulo hace del desenlace: la división de clase que el título del relato anunciaba era más aparente que real, porque los niños pobres no solo se portaban como miembros de la sociedad respetable, lo eran
«The real problem that the wealthy man in the story had to deal with was not that of social class but of family dynamics. The cathartic gesture he makes at the end is one in which he forgives his daughter, after fifteen years of exile, and takes her back into the family.» — cuál era el problema real de aquel relato según el capítulo: no la clase social sino la dinámica familiar, con el gesto catártico del perdón a la hija desterrada quince años
«Of course, he feels relieved and cleansed by this act, but his catharsis, and that of the story’s readers, have little to do with the expectations raised by the story’s title and its accompanying illustrations.» — el desajuste que el capítulo señala al cerrar: la catarsis del personaje y la de los lectores tienen poco que ver con las expectativas que levantaban el título y las láminas
«And the young newsboy uses rough language, too. On one occasion he responds to the solicitous question of a stranger by yelling, “‘What in h-1 is that to you?’” (This response is virtually» — el lenguaje áspero del muchacho en esa novela, con la respuesta que suelta a un desconocido solícito; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue señalando que es casi idéntica a la que Brace recibió del jornalero inglés
«the toys were “‘good to look at.’”The prosperous woman thereupon offers the poor little girl a gift of $5, and the girl proceeds to give the money to her mother. After the prosperous lady learns about the girl’s selfless gesture, her own daughter, too, decides to pass along some of her surplus Christmas presents.» — el ejemplo con que el capítulo lo ilustra, que el troceo parte en el límite de segmento: la señora acomodada da cinco dólares a la niña, la niña se los entrega a su madre, y al saberlo la hija de la señora decide pasar parte de sus propios regalos
«Christmas for Rich and Poor.” This pair of pictures were printed on two opposing pages of Godeys Lady’s Book for December 1858. They provided the illustration for the story of the same title. (Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society)» — el pie del par de estampas que ilustraba aquel relato de 1858, impresas en dos planas enfrentadas de la revista
«At the same time that Christmas stories appeared about poor children who were patient and grateful, other stories were appearing that portrayed the jaded responses of more prosperous children. By the 1850s, fictional accounts about such jaded rich children were becoming commonplace.» — el otro tipo de relato que el capítulo pone junto al del niño pobre paciente: el de los niños prósperos hastiados, ya corriente en los años cincuenta
«In this book, Carl Krinken: His Christmas Stocking, Warner indicated that the presents received by the children of the rich made them feel “discontent.” Such well-off children were hard to please, Warner wrote; they generally “fretted because they had what they did, or because they hadn’t what they didn’t have.» — lo que un libro infantil de 1854 sostenía sobre los regalos de los niños ricos: los volvían descontentos y difíciles de complacer
«The Christmas stocking of a typical rich child was stuffed with “candy enough to make the child sick, and toys enough to make him unhappy because he didn’t know which to play with first» — cómo describía ese libro la media de un niño rico típico: dulces bastantes para enfermarlo y juguetes bastantes para hacerlo infeliz por no saber con cuál jugar primero
«Several decades later, no less popular a writer than William Dean Howells would write a delightful story about a little girl who expresses a wish that Christmas could come every day—and who has her wish fulfilled in horrific fashion. After a few weeks, the girl and her friends become so sick of receiving “disgusting presents” that they begin to throw them out on the street unopened, and soon the police began to warn the children “to shovel their presents off the sidewalk, or they would arrest them.» — el relato de William Dean Howells que el capítulo resume: la niña que desea que la Navidad llegue cada día y ve su deseo cumplido de manera horrorosa, con los regalos tirados sin abrir en la acera
«Before long, the overworked garbage collectors of the city are refusing to pick up any more Christmas trash! Eventually, of course, the little girl learns her lesson.» — el remate de ese relato según el capítulo: los basureros de la ciudad, agotados, se niegan a recoger más desecho navideño
«In that story (discussed in Chapter 4), Stowe indicated that Christmas shopping for one’s own family and friends had become difficult, since such prosperous folk were “sick, and sated, and tired with having everything in the world given [them]» — lo que el cuento de Stowe de 1850 señalaba, según el capítulo: comprar para la propia familia y los amigos se había vuelto difícil, porque esa gente próspera estaba enferma, saciada y cansada de que se lo dieran todo
«Its plot hinged on just that point: It was easy enough, after all, to find people who had not been sated by Christmas presents, people who could be counted on to be intensely grateful for even the smallest trifle.» — la solución que la trama de ese cuento proponía: era fácil hallar gente a la que los regalos navideños no hubieran saciado, y que agradeciera intensamente hasta la menor bagatela
«The language Harriet Beecher Stowe chose to describe them is quite suggestive. A poor person offered the prosperous shopper a “fresh, unsophisticated body to get presents for;” the poor as a class provided the rich with a supply of “unsophisticated subjects to practice on.» — el lenguaje que el capítulo llama sugerente en ese cuento: el pobre como cuerpo fresco y sin sofisticación al que comprarle regalos, y los pobres como clase proveyendo sujetos sin sofisticar en quienes practicar
«Its prosperous main character becomes a “good fairy” for a poor family who lives in the neighborhood—and, indeed, the poor family does respond with all the gratitude anyone could wish.» — de qué trata ese cuento según el capítulo: la protagonista próspera se vuelve hada buena de una familia pobre del barrio, que responde con toda la gratitud que pudiera desearse
«The four young heroines of Little Women, in the opening chapters of that novel, do the very thing that Stowe proposed: They go off on Christmas morning (after receiving their own presents of the New Testament) and bring gifts to a poor family in the neighborhood.» — lo que las cuatro protagonistas de *Little Women* hacen en los capítulos iniciales, que es exactamente lo que el cuento de Stowe proponía
«In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, there was something of a movement to form Christmas clubs for prosperous children, clubs that were designed to foster selfless behavior during the Christmas season by encouraging their members to hold Christmas parties for their less-privileged peers, and to give away some of their own old Christmas presents.» — el movimiento que el capítulo data en las dos últimas décadas del siglo: clubes navideños de niños prósperos para fomentar la conducta desinteresada, con fiestas para sus pares menos privilegiados
«Portland, Maine, organized in 1882, pressed its members “to save [old] toys, books, and games, instead of carelessly destroying them,” and to present these castoffs at a Christmas dinner held for the children of the local poor.» — lo que uno de esos clubes pedía a sus miembros: guardar juguetes, libros y juegos viejos en vez de destruirlos sin cuidado, y entregarlos en una cena navideña para los niños pobres del lugar; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«A similar club was later formed in Washington, D.C., with the daughter of the U.S. postmaster general serving as its president, assisted by the daughter of the U.S. president himself, Chester Arthur.» — quiénes presidían un club semejante en Washington según el capítulo: la hija del director general de correos y, de asistente, la hija del propio presidente
«Such material suggests that some members of the American bourgeoisie were facing a real Christmas dilemma. Their own children had become jaded with presents. On the other hand, the actual poor— who were unlikely to be surfeited with gifts—were a sea of anonymous proletarian faces, and in any event they were as likely to respond to acts of token generosity with embarrassment or hostility as with the requisite display of hearty gratitude.» — el dilema navideño que el capítulo atribuye a parte de la burguesía estadounidense: los hijos propios hastiados de regalos y los pobres reales como un mar de rostros anónimos, tan propensos a la vergüenza o la hostilidad como a la gratitud
«Giving to the children of the needy would solve the dilemma neatly.» — la salida a ese dilema que el capítulo enuncia
«Typically, the children selected to participate in such events (as in the case of the Portland Children’s Christmas Club) came from a pool that had been carefully screened by charitable organizations.» — de dónde salían los niños escogidos para esos actos según el capítulo: de una reserva cribada con cuidado por las organizaciones caritativas
«These needy children made ideal recipients of face-to-face charity. They could be counted on to be both well behaved and truly grateful. They would respond neither with the jaded indifference of more privileged children nor with the guarded resentment their own parents might display.» — por qué esos niños eran receptores ideales de la caridad cara a cara: se podía contar con que estuvieran bien portados y fueran de veras agradecidos, sin la indiferencia hastiada ni el resentimiento guardado
«Face-to-face charity—the exchange of gifts for goodwill—could be made to work in mid-nineteenth-century America, after all. But the economic divide could be bridged only by going across generational lines. In shorthand language, class had to be mediated through age.» — la fórmula con que el capítulo condensa esa salida: la caridad cara a cara podía funcionar, pero la brecha económica solo podía salvarse cruzando la línea de las generaciones
«In any case, from mid-century on—and with what appears to have been increasing frequency into the 1890s—some well-to-do Americans devoted part of their Christmas days to visiting the children of the poor. These visits were ordinarily encouraged and arranged by the charitable agencies themselves.» — la práctica que el capítulo data desde mediados de siglo y con frecuencia creciente hasta los años noventa: acomodados que dedicaban parte del día de Navidad a visitar a los niños de los pobres
«The first instance I have found of what would become the standard ritual took place in 1844, when Margaret Fuller chose to spend part of Christmas Day with the children in New York’s Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb—and to report on her visit in the New York Tribune (this episode is recounted in Chapter 5» — el primer caso que el propio autor dice haber hallado de ese rito estándar: la visita de Margaret Fuller en 1844 a los niños del asilo de sordomudos y su reporte en el *Tribune*
«After 1850, New York’s charitable agencies for children institutionalized this kind of event. They began to hold formal open houses that more prosperous residents of the city were invited to visit on Christmas Day, open houses that received lots of publicity (they also served as effective fund-raisers» — cómo se institucionalizó ese acto tras 1850 según el capítulo: casas abiertas formales el día de Navidad, muy publicitadas y eficaces además como recaudación
«On Christmas Day, 1851, the New York Tribune reported that “quite a large party of ladies and gentlemen” attended “a capital entertainment” given to the children at the municipal nursery and hospital.» — el primero de los dos reportes que el capítulo cita sobre la isla de Randall: en 1851, una partida grande de damas y caballeros en un entretenimiento de primera dado a los niños
«The following year, too, the Tribune reported that the children on Randalls Island were visited by “several dignitaries, including several merchants of the City,” who brought “a supply of juvenile presents suitable to the season.” On this occasion the children “marched in procession to meet them at the dock.” And of course they “most gratefully accepted and heartily enjoyed» — el segundo reporte, de 1852: varios dignatarios y mercaderes de la ciudad llevando regalos juveniles propios de la temporada, con los niños marchando en procesión a recibirlos al muelle
«Of course, Randalls Island was physically cut off from the rest of the city. But charitable institutions located within the city, even in its less savory areas, also invited visitors on Christmas Day.» — la acotación que el capítulo añade: aquella isla estaba físicamente cortada del resto de la ciudad, pero también las instituciones caritativas dentro de ella invitaban visitantes el día de Navidad
«The most heavily publicized of these was in the Mission House located in the Five Points section, the most notorious slum area in the city (in the entire nation, for that matter» — la más publicitada de esas casas según el capítulo: la de la misión en la zona de Five Points, el barrio bajo más notorio de la ciudad
«The report, headed “CHRISTMAS AT THE FIVE POINTS,” indicated that the Mission House (located on the site of a former brewery) was “open all day” and received many visitors.» — lo que el reporte de 1853 decía de aquella jornada, y que el capítulo llama revelador
«t]he streets were thronged in that neighborhood with well-dressed ladies and gentlemen, and some of the richest carriages of the City; the effect of which was to make the topers [i.e., drunkards], male and female, shrink back into their dens, while the children saw and felt the effects of such visits to the House of» — la escena que ese reporte describía: las calles del barrio atestadas de damas y caballeros bien vestidos y de los carruajes más ricos, con lo que los borrachos se retiraban a sus madrigueras; el troceo corta en el límite de segmento
«This was an intriguing description. It assured its readers that the Five Points area was transformed on this occasion, its menace momentarily defused. The more unpleasant denizens of the neighborhood simply withdrew from sight when the respectable outsiders came to visit, and only the presence of children was felt.» — la lectura que el capítulo hace de esa descripción: aseguraba al lector que el barrio quedaba transformado por la ocasión y su amenaza desactivada, con los moradores desagradables retirados de la vista
«What impelled people to make such visits? Pangs of conscience certainly played a part, but there is surely more. (To ease one’s conscience, it would have been enough to have made a substantial contribution, and stayed at home.» — la pregunta que el capítulo formula sobre el móvil de esas visitas y el límite que pone a la respuesta fácil: para aliviar la conciencia habría bastado un donativo sustancial y quedarse en casa
«The visitors—and, just as important, the many others who merely read about them in the newspapers—seem to have needed to experience, in person or by report, the “gratefully accepted and heartily enjoyed” gifts, the “happy faces and joyful voices.» — lo que el capítulo dice que visitantes y lectores necesitaban experimentar, en persona o por reporte
«Such a need may have addressed an unspoken fear that was shared by many Americans in just these decades—a fear that the urban social order was coming apart, that industrial capitalism was leading to social collapse.» — el miedo no dicho al que esa necesidad respondería según el capítulo: que el orden social urbano se estuviera deshaciendo y que el capitalismo industrial llevara al colapso social
«Christmas that the happy faces demonstrated; it was the viability of industrial capitalism itself.» — lo que las caras felices venían a mostrar según esa lectura del capítulo: no solo una Navidad alegre sino la viabilidad del propio capitalismo industrial; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«But I suspect that such a “political” motivation is not the whole answer. The grateful exclamations and smiles of the poor children may have fulfilled another need as well—a need to experience spontaneous affectionate gratitude in itself; to participate in social interactions that evoked a powerful emotional response that was difficult to achieve within middle-class family life.» — la segunda necesidad que el propio autor propone con cautela: experimentar gratitud afectuosa y espontánea, en interacciones que provocaran una respuesta emocional difícil de lograr dentro de la familia de clase media
«The very importance that domestic life had taken on in nineteenth-century American society had led many people to harbor a set of powerful expectations that real families found it difficult to fulfill. The middle-class family was becoming a victim of its own Utopian fantasies.» — el diagnóstico que el capítulo hace de esa familia: la importancia misma que la vida doméstica había tomado generó expectativas que las familias reales difícilmente cumplían
«In 1875 the press reports about the annual Christmas pilgrimage to Randalls Island noted the presence among that year’s visitors of a celebrity, Louisa May Alcott. (Alcott was now living in New York, eight years after the publication of Little Women had propelled her into literary stardom.» — el testimonio personal raro que el capítulo levanta: la presencia de Louisa May Alcott entre los visitantes de la isla de Randall en 1875
«Alcott and her party visited first the municipal orphanage, then the children’s hospital, and finally the home for retarded children. Alcott herself carried a large box of dolls and a bundle of candy. At every stop, one newspaper reported, “Miss Alcott… mingled with the little ones, giving to each a doll and some candy, accompanying each gift with some kind greeting.» — el recorrido de Alcott aquel día y lo que un periódico reportó: orfanato municipal, hospital infantil y casa de niños con retraso, con una caja de muñecas y un bulto de dulces
«Her letter is filled with graphic descriptions of the children’s gratitude, intense and helpless—the sudden “cry of delight,” the outstretched “groping hands,” the sighs of “oh! oh!,” the “cheer of rapture,” the “silent bliss.” (One little girl was “so overcome” by the present Alcott gave her that “she had an epileptic fit on the spot.» — lo que la carta privada de Alcott a su familia describía: la gratitud intensa y desvalida de los niños, con el grito de deleite, las manos tendidas a tientas y los suspiros
«It was the first Christmas Alcott had spent “without [family] dinner or presents,” but she liked it “better than parties”: “I feel as if I’d had a splendid feast,” she concluded, “seeing the poor babies wallow in turkey soup, and that every gift I put into their hands had come back to me in the dumb delight of their un-childlike faces trying to smile.» — cómo cerraba Alcott esa carta: era su primera Navidad sin cena ni regalos de familia y le gustó más que las fiestas, con la sensación de haber tenido un banquete espléndido
«Alcott appears to have deeply craved the overwhelming gratitude displayed by the objects of her charity. In contrast to the aggressive begging of wassailers in pre-nineteenth-century Christmas rituals, these Gilded Age dependents took the role of passive, responsive instruments on whose emotional vulnerability Alcott seems to have “played.”» — el contraste que el capítulo traza con los ritos anteriores: frente a la mendicidad agresiva del wassail, estos dependientes de la Edad Dorada tomaban el papel de instrumentos pasivos y receptivos
«But that isn’t entirely fair. People like Louisa May Alcott had good reason to feel stifled by the constraints of domesticity, even as they were unable to liberate themselves from its assumptions.» — la enmienda que el capítulo pone enseguida a esa severidad: gente como Alcott tenía buena razón para sentirse ahogada por las restricciones de la domesticidad sin poder librarse de sus supuestos
«By the final decades of the nineteenth century, women were bearing the brunt of the tension (and the labor) that the Christmas season ordinarily entailed in prosperous households. The Ladies’ Home Journal actually published an article in 1897 that acknowledged this as a cultural problem.» — sobre quiénes recaía el peso de la temporada en las casas prósperas según el capítulo, y el reconocimiento que una revista publicó en 1897
«Men in “thousands of homes” across America would be “truly thankful when this Christmas business is over,” the article began (it was written by a man). Why so? “[B]y seeing their wives, mothers, sisters, or daughters reach Christmas day utterly tired out, [and] with the prospect of a siege of illness as soon as Christmas is over.» — lo que ese artículo de 1897, escrito por un hombre, decía: en miles de hogares los hombres agradecerían que este asunto de la Navidad terminara, por ver a sus mujeres agotadas y con perspectiva de enfermar
«These were women on whom the emotional work of Christmas had devolved, along with the bulk of the shopping and the cooking— women who felt themselves chiefly responsible for making sure that their husbands and their children (or, as in Alcott’s case, their fathers) were satisfied with the holiday experience. The task was daunting, and even partial failure (or anxiety about the prospect of failure) meant that guilt would be added to fatigue.» — lo que recaía en esas mujeres según el capítulo: el trabajo emocional de la Navidad junto con el grueso de las compras y la cocina, y la responsabilidad de que marido e hijos quedaran satisfechos
«Such women wished for a little relaxation, surely. But they also welcomed any opportunity to see their efforts rewarded with the kind of intense response their own families were often unable to provide. They were seeking intense sensation along with social justice.» — lo que esas mujeres buscaban además del descanso según el capítulo: ver su esfuerzo premiado con la respuesta intensa que su propia familia no solía dar, es decir sensación intensa junto con justicia social
«Not long afterward, some of these women would manage to link those dual urges together by turning to such activities as social work (in places like Jane Addams’s Hull House) or the radical Christian Social Gospel movement, which openly addressed the issue of bringing a capitalist social order into conformity with the teachings of Jesus» — adónde canalizaron esos dos impulsos algunas de esas mujeres poco después según el capítulo: el trabajo social y el movimiento del Evangelio Social cristiano
«Or, farther afield, these same women might have joined such emerging enterprises as the Colonial Revival and other forms of what the historian Jackson Lears has termed “anti-modernism.» — la otra vía que el capítulo señala: el renacimiento colonial y otras formas de lo que el historiador Jackson Lears llamó antimodernismo
«The problem was not with their needs but with the dynamics of the society in which they lived. The problem was with a constricting domestic ideology that caused many people of means to harbor unsatisfied expectations of achieving personal fulfillment through family life alone. And the problem was also with an inequitable economic system that caused many of the same people—those, indeed, with the strongest ethical sense—to experience profound guilt, a guilt that, for good reason, could not be easily assuaged.» — dónde sitúa el capítulo el problema: no en las necesidades de esas mujeres sino en una ideología doméstica constrictiva y en un sistema económico inequitativo que producía culpa difícil de aplacar
«During the 1890s some New Yorkers began to treat charity, almost literally, as a kind of spectator sport, performed on a large scale in arenalike spaces before a paying audience.» — el giro que el capítulo data en los años noventa: tratar la caridad casi literalmente como deporte de espectadores, a gran escala y en espacios de arena ante un público que pagaba
«On Christmas Day, 1890, a midday dinner was served to 1,800 poor boys (many of them newsboys) at Lyric Hall, a theater at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Forty-second Street. A newspaper account made clear what was taking place: “Every floor was crowded with lookerson, principally members of the Children’s Aid Society and other charitable people.» — el primero de esos actos que el capítulo cita: una comida para mil ochocientos muchachos pobres en un teatro, con cada piso atestado de mirones de la sociedad caritativa
«This meal was followed, that same evening, by the traditional dinners held at every Newsboys’ Lodging House in the city. It was as if the newsboys were being asked to put on performances at different holiday venues —as if there were something erotically charged about watching hungry children eat.» — lo que el capítulo lee en la doble jornada de aquel día: como si se pidiera a esos muchachos actuar en varios escenarios festivos, y como si hubiera algo cargado eróticamente en mirar comer a niños hambrientos
«The next year a newly formed organization, the Christmas Society, held a massive gift distribution at the newly constructed Madison Square Garden, an event attended by some 10,000 needy children, many of whom were accompanied by their mothers. Gifts were attached to a series of ropes that, in turn, were attached by pulleys to the roof of the Garden.» — el acto del año siguiente: un reparto masivo de regalos en el nuevo Madison Square Garden ante unos diez mil niños necesitados, con los dones atados a cuerdas y poleas
«The organizers of this event planned to attract the children of wealthy families as spectators, but few attended (one headline read: “THOUSANDS OF LITTLE ONES MADE HAPPY IN MADISON SQUARE GARDEN—CHILDREN OF THE RICH STAY AWAY» — lo que los organizadores planearon y lo que ocurrió, según el titular que el capítulo cita
«Wealthy children were apparently not interested in watching hordes of their less-fortunate peers, but the parents of those wealthy children soon proved susceptible to the lure. It was, of all things, the Salvation Army that provided them with the opportunity. Beginning in 1898, this organization’s army of Christian soldiers organized immense public dinners for impoverished New Yorkers, held at Madison Square Garden.» — quién dio a los adultos acomodados la ocasión que sus hijos desdeñaron: el Ejército de Salvación, con cenas públicas inmensas desde 1898 en el mismo recinto
«As the hungry and homeless were fed at tables on the arena floor, under the glare of electric lights, more prosperous New Yorkers paid to be admitted to the Garden’s boxes and galleries, where they observed the gorging. The event was reported as a front-page story in the New York Times, with a headline that announced, in block capitals, “THE RICH SAW THEM FEAST.» — la mecánica de aquellos banquetes y el titular de primera plana con que el *New York Times* los reportó: los hambrientos comiendo en la arena bajo luz eléctrica y los prósperos pagando por los palcos para mirar
«The press reported in detail how “nearly 20,000 men, women, and children gathered from the highways and byways of the city in one great surging throng,” waiting patiently to be admitted to enter the arena. The crowd was kept waiting until after the spectators had been admitted—through a separate entrance» — el detalle que el capítulo destaca de esa cobertura: la multitud esperó fuera hasta que los espectadores hubieron entrado, y por una puerta aparte
«To the Madison Avenue entrance came the spectators of the extraordinary scene …, men in high hats, women in costly wraps … the great concourse of the prosperous and happy…. They were to furnish the lighter shade to the pleasure, with their air of contentment, and prosperity, and perchance sympathy…. At the other entrance to the Garden [on Fourth Avenue] gathered the pilgrims from the illimitable abodes of poverty and wretchedness.» — el contraste de las dos entradas según esa crónica: por una los hombres de sombrero alto y las mujeres de abrigos costosos, y por la otra los peregrinos de las moradas ilimitadas de la pobreza
«The several thousand wealthy observers entered first, so that they could look on as the “hungry multitude” was admitted. “In the boxes and gallery of the great building,” the story ran, “sat many thousands of well-fed and prosperous people, among them many women who had come in carriages and were gorgeously gowned and wore many diamonds, who looked on in happy sympathy …, who had come to see the spectacle of thousands being made happy.» — lo que esa crónica decía de los miles de observadores ricos: entraron primero para mirar cómo se admitía a la multitud hambrienta, muchas mujeres llegadas en carruaje y enjoyadas
«There were four large sections of tables on the arena floor, and it was there that the poor, sitting in the upper gallery till their turn was called, were fed 2,200 at a time. This was a charity event on an industrial scale, a kind of Gilded Age version of Bracebridge Hall in which the entertainment itself was produced on an assembly line. Even so, the food ran out before everyone could be served.» — la escala de aquel acto según el capítulo: los pobres alimentados de dos mil doscientos en dos mil doscientos, en una caridad de escala industrial que él compara con una versión de Bracebridge Hall montada en cadena
«Before the meal, both rich and poor joined together in singing the hymn “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.” The hymn was sung in unison, “position and fortune forgotten for one brief moment.» — el himno que ricos y pobres cantaron juntos antes de la comida, según esa crónica
«And the reporter concluded hopefully, suggesting that the very scale of the event foretold an imminent solution to the vexing problems of capitalism: “Neither any Continental city nor even London ever had to do anything approaching this in magnitude. It means the dawning of a new era, the bridging of the gulf between the rich and poor.» — la conclusión esperanzada con que ese reportero cerraba: ninguna ciudad continental ni Londres había tenido que hacer nada de esa magnitud, y eso anunciaría el alba de una era nueva
«It is easy to look back at this with distaste. From one angle, Alcott was exploiting the youthful recipients of her benevolence—using them as what I’m tempted to call “charity objects,” almost an economic» — la lectura severa que el capítulo ensaya sobre ese episodio: Alcott explotando a los niños beneficiarios como objetos de caridad; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue con la comparación que el propio autor dice sentirse tentado de hacer
«Some seemed to look upon this feeding of the ravens as a spectacle, and whispered and pointed at poorly clad men and women who ate ravenously, or smiled when a piece of turkey was surreptitiously slipped into a capacious pocket.» — el único reporte que el capítulo halla apuntando al voyerismo antes que a la reconciliación de clases: algunos parecían tomar aquello por espectáculo, y cuchicheaban y señalaban a los que comían con voracidad; el troceo abre el segmento a media frase
«There was still another strange twist. The Salvation Army hit upon a novel fashion for raising funds to pay for these events: They hired unemployed men to play the part of street-corner Santa Claus, soliciting passersby for contributions as they did their Christmas shopping. (This technique is still employed by the Salvation Army» — el modo con que esa organización financiaba aquellos actos según el capítulo: contratar hombres sin empleo para hacer de Santa Claus de esquina y pedir contribuciones a quienes iban de compras
«Given the long history of the transformation of Christmas in the nineteenth century, there was irony as well as ingenuity in this tactic, for what it did was to re-create the structure, though not the substance, of a much older ritual in which the poor were informally sanctioned to approach the rich during the Christmas season and beg for gifts.» — la ironía que el capítulo señala en esa táctica: recreaba la estructura, aunque no la sustancia, de un rito mucho más viejo en que los pobres quedaban informalmente autorizados a pedir a los ricos en la temporada
«Even the fact that the needy men who acted as street-corner Santas were begging in disguise was deeply rooted in the mumming tradition. (After all, Belsnickles had done much the same thing in Pennsylvania towns at least as late as the 1870s.» — el rasgo que el capítulo enlaza con la tradición del mumming: que aquellos hombres necesitados pidieran disfrazados, como los Belsnickles de Pensilvania hasta los años setenta
«But of course what the Salvation Army Santas were doing was profoundly different from older forms of Christmas wassailing and mumming: Their public begging was sanctioned only because they were not soliciting for themselves. They did not get to keep the money but had to turn it over to the organization for which they worked.» — la diferencia de fondo que el capítulo marca: la mendicidad pública de aquellos Santas solo estaba sancionada porque no pedían para sí y tenían que entregar el dinero
«They were in fact the paid employees of a charitable organization. (It is not clear whether they were paid a flat rate or a percentage of what they raised» — lo que aquellos hombres eran y el límite de lo que el propio autor sabe: empleados pagados de una organización caritativa, sin que esté claro si cobraban tarifa fija o porcentaje
«But even if they were, it would only be because they had been given a ticket of admission by their employers. In that sense, the entire Santa Claus ritual was nothing less than a microcosm of the workings of nineteenth-century capitalism itself.» — la lectura con que el capítulo cierra ese apartado: aun si aquellos Santas asistían a las cenas, sería por un boleto dado por sus patrones, de modo que el rito entero era un microcosmos del funcionamiento del capitalismo decimonónico
«In 1902 the Salvation Army’s charity dinner was moved from Madison Square Garden to another arena, the Grand Central Palace. Once again, 20,000 people were fed. But this time the event failed to go exactly as planned.» — el acto de 1902 con que el capítulo cierra el capítulo sexto: la cena benéfica trasladada a otro recinto, con veinte mil comensales y con un desenlace distinto del previsto
«The problem resulted from the fact that approximately 1,000 of the banqueters were young people, most of them newsboys, and they were seated separately in sections of their own at the two ends of the hall. These arrangements proved to be a mistake.» — el origen del problema según el capítulo: unos mil de los comensales eran jóvenes, casi todos vendedores de periódicos, sentados aparte en los dos extremos de la sala
«They made so much noise that for a time it was thought they would break up the religious meeting that followed. They hurled pies and every other thing they could lay their hands on at one another, and even at those who waited on them.» — según Nissenbaum, la crónica de aquel desorden: hicieron tanto ruido que por un rato se temió que reventaran la reunión religiosa siguiente, y arrojaron pasteles y cuanto tuvieron a mano
«General Daniel E. Sickles and his daughter, Miss Mary Sickles, who were among the invited guests, attracted considerable attention. They spent most of the time entertaining the boys. Miss Sickles carried a Blenheim spaniel [a fancy breed] in her arms. She called it Bulwer [a fancy name]. When the boys set their eyes on Bulwer they began hurling mince pie and turkey at him. Miss Sickles was taken by surprise, and let Bulwer slip from her arms to the floor. Bulwer ran over to where General Sickles was seated. The boys set up a great shout and hurled knives, forks and spoons at him. Then they began cheering and shouting to General Sickles to make a speech. He laughed and said he was not able to do so.» — según Nissenbaum, la crónica del *Tribune* en tono impasible: los muchachos empezaron a lanzar pastel y pavo al perrito de la hija del general, y luego cuchillos, tenedores y cucharas al propio general
«There was an apparent shortage of mince pie for a time, and the youngsters thought that they were being overlooked. They began hurling bread and potatoes at those who waited on them, and said that they did not want turkey, but wanted more pie. Miss Sickles went into the kitchen and came out a minute later with her arms laden with pieces of pie. “Three cheers for Mama!” shouted the urchins, and they made a rush to take the pie from her. Miss Sickles pleaded with them to keep quiet and be patient, but they would have none of her advice. One boy, whom another called “Pinkie,” upset one of the plates on which were piled a number of pieces of pie, and there was a wild scramble to see who could get the most. Miss Sickles put the other plate of pie on the table and fled in dismay.» — el desenlace de aquel tumulto según esa misma crónica: los muchachos pidieron más pastel en vez de pavo, la hija del general trajo los platos y ellos se abalanzaron hasta que ella huyó consternada
«The organizers learned their lesson. The next year a somewhat smaller group of young people were invited (again, most of them newsboys), and this time the organizers had taken a precaution: The boys “were arranged in a corner of the hall all by themselves, where they could give vent to their boyish caprices without disturbing the more sedate.» — la precaución que los organizadores tomaron al año siguiente: sentar a los muchachos en un rincón propio de la sala, donde pudieran dar rienda a sus caprichos sin molestar a los más sosegados
«The tactic seems to have worked. The youths “occasionally let out a deafening war whoop just to break the monotony and let other folk know they were there» — el resultado de esa precaución según el capítulo, con lo único que los muchachos hicieron
«Two years later, in 1905, 600 newsboys attended, and as many as 10 policemen were assigned to control them. Even so, a substantial number were ejected from the hall during the course of the meal.» — el acto de 1905 con que el capítulo cierra la serie: seiscientos muchachos y hasta diez policías asignados a controlarlos, con un número sustancial expulsado durante la comida
«A newspaper report of one of the Christmas dinners, held in 1895 at a Newsboys’ Lodging House, made it clear that the newsboys’ rowdy behavior was not mere random chaos but the expression of an elaborate and venerable ritual.» — el reporte de 1895 con que el capítulo sostiene que aquel alboroto no era caos aleatorio sino expresión de un rito elaborado y venerable
«There are many queer and quaint customs among the newsboys which are strictly kept on Christmas, and which lend originality to their doings at their dinners.» — cómo explicaba ese reporte las costumbres propias de aquellos muchachos, guardadas estrictamente en Navidad
«For one thing, they would never deign to dress up on such occasions: “All the newsboys come in their everyday clothes. Any one who would have ventured to present himself in his best suit would have been regarded by the [other] lads as aspiring ‘ter shine in de upper crust.» — la primera de esas costumbres: iban a la cena con su ropa de diario, y quien se presentara con su mejor traje quedaría por aspirante a brillar en la flor y nata
«They always begin to eat a dinner by disposing of the pies, the puddings and other dessert dishes first. Each lad gets away with several large-sized pies and seldom tastes of pudding if there are any pies in sight. Then comes the turkey and the cranberry sauce.» — la segunda costumbre, que el capítulo cita del mismo reporte: empezar la comida por los pasteles y los postres, con varios pasteles grandes por cabeza antes del pavo
«The newsboys had a reason, then, to disrupt the 1902 Salvation Army dinner: The food was not being served in the proper sequence, and there were not enough pies.» — la razón que el capítulo atribuye al desorden de 1902 a la luz de ese rito: la comida no se servía en el orden debido y no había pasteles bastantes
«The newsboys’ reversal of the standard dinner sequence was itself a kind of misrule—inverting the normal order of things. The pie-throwing itself was probably part of the ritual.» — la lectura que el capítulo hace de ese orden invertido: era él mismo una forma de desgobierno, y hasta el arrojar los pasteles formaría parte del rito
«For if Christmas charity had become a spectator sport for the well-to-do, that meant it had become a form of what E. P. Thompson, referring to eighteenth-century England, has termed political “theater.”» — la segunda razón, y más importante, que el capítulo propone: si la caridad navideña era deporte de espectadores, se había vuelto lo que E. P. Thompson llamó teatro político
«In this case, it was theater in the most literal sense, complete with an arena equipped with a stage floor and galleries, as well as a separate entrance for the paying audience.» — hasta qué punto era teatro en sentido literal según el capítulo: una arena con piso de escenario y galerías, y entrada aparte para el público que pagaba
«The well-to-do New York spectators expected the poor to “perform” for them, as it were, by eating their Christmas meal with manifest gusto and gratitude.» — lo que los espectadores acomodados esperaban de los pobres según el capítulo: que actuaran para ellos comiendo su comida navideña con gusto y gratitud manifiestos
«But from this perspective it is also fair to say that the spectators were putting on a performance of their own, by dressing up in their “gorgeous gowns” and flashiest jewelry.» — la contraparte que el capítulo señala: también los espectadores actuaban, vestidos con sus trajes suntuosos y sus joyas más llamativas
«These boys were hungry, after all, and the banquet they were being given was almost certainly the best food they would get all year.» — la acotación que el capítulo pone antes de leer aquel alboroto como contrateatro: aquellos muchachos tenían hambre y ese banquete era casi con certeza la mejor comida del año
«Yet it was surely demeaning to the newsboys that their own pleasure was also a spectacle to be observed by the rich.» — lo que el capítulo señala humillante en aquel acto: que el propio placer de los muchachos fuera además un espectáculo para que lo mirasen los ricos
«Ostensibly, then, the newsboys’ display of misrule was a matter of mere juvenile high jinks. But surely it was also a form of counter-theater, aimed at those who were observing them.» — la doble lectura con que el capítulo cierra: en apariencia travesura juvenil, y a la vez una forma de contrateatro dirigida a quienes los miraban
«This counter-theater served as a gesture that was meant to restore some of the dignity the newsboys had lost by being forced to make their own hunger a matter of public display.» — lo que ese contrateatro venía a restaurar según el capítulo: parte de la dignidad que los muchachos perdían al verse forzados a hacer de su hambre asunto de exhibición pública
«Among other things, it announced that they weren’t so thoroughly dependent on their mince pies, or their patrons, that they couldn’t afford to engage in a dramatic gesture of wasting the former by throwing them at the latter.» — lo que ese gesto anunciaba además: que no dependían tanto de sus pasteles ni de sus patrones como para no poder desperdiciar los unos arrojándoselos a los otros
«In the process, the newsboys managed to make the most important point of all. They might be known as “Pinkie,” or “Pickle Nose,” or “No-Nothing Mike”—but whatever they were called, it would not be Tiny Tim.» — el punto que esos muchachos lograban dejar sentado según el capítulo, con el remate del capítulo sexto: los llamaran como los llamaran, no sería Tiny Tim
«Newsboys, as we know, had long been prone to such behavior at Christmas. As poor and youthful males, they came from the single sociodemographic group that had been most closely associated with Christmas misrule from at least as early as the sixteenth century.» — la continuidad que el capítulo traza con lo anterior: como varones pobres y jóvenes, esos muchachos venían del único grupo sociodemográfico asociado más estrechamente al desgobierno navideño desde el siglo XVI
«As early as 1876, a story about the annual dinner implicitly conveyed this point, even though the reporter ascribes the boys’ reaction to being watched to mere self-consciousness: “To appreciate the enjoyment of these boys properly one will have to see them when they sit down to hide away the ribs of beef,” the story began, only to continue with the acknowledgment that, unfortunately, “it will not do to be seen when seeing; for your newsboy, brave and sometimes impertinent as he sometimes is upon the street, is as sensitive, when he has his knees» — el reporte de 1876 con que el capítulo lo documenta, aunque el reportero atribuya la reacción a mera timidez: no conviene que a uno lo vean mirando, porque el muchacho es sensible cuando tiene las rodillas bajo la mesa; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«CHRISTMAS 1867 arrived in the midst of a depression. But that year the New York Times interrupted its standard admonition about remembering the plight of the city’s poor in order to offer a plea on behalf of a still worthier object of seasonal charity. There was already enough “ostentatious benevolence” directed at the urban poor in New York and other Northern cities, the paper admonished—“cities which, despite depression, are yet wealthy and happy.» — la escena con que abre el capítulo séptimo: en la depresión de 1867 el *New York Times* interrumpe su admonición habitual sobre los pobres urbanos para pedir por un objeto de caridad que juzga más digno
«So the arrival of Christmas might better serve to remind Americans of a forgotten portion of American society that was destitute indeed. It was the South—the defeated South. In that benighted region “a merry Christmas will not be known anywhere.” The newspaper painted a sorry scene: “Despair, or something like it, reigns in the mansions, and destitution is supreme in the hovels. Grim poverty makes its presence felt everywhere. Those who were once rich find themselves menaced by want, and those who, though always poor, were always provided for, now find themselves hungry and helpless.» — el cuadro que ese periódico pintaba del Sur derrotado: la desesperación en las mansiones, la indigencia suprema en las chozas, y los que siempre fueron pobres pero siempre estuvieron provistos ahora hambrientos y desvalidos
«But the New York Times seized this occasion to make a plea for sectional reconciliation between the vanquished South and the victorious North. More precisely, the plea was for reconciliation between the respectable white populations of the two regions.» — el propósito que el capítulo atribuye a esa pieza: un alegato por la reconciliación seccional, y más precisamente entre las poblaciones blancas respetables de las dos regiones
«When the Times spoke of the South’s “poor” who lived in “hovels,” it was referring to ex-slaves. That was why it made the point that in the past the poor had “always been provided for.” Slavery itself had ensured the physical well-being of those in bondage; the system had generated a “bond of sympathy” that “held these classes together.» — a quiénes se refería ese periódico con los pobres de las chozas según el capítulo: a los antiguos esclavos, cuyo bienestar físico habría asegurado la esclavitud misma generando un lazo de simpatía
«But emancipation had severed that bond. The result was racial tension that could, if it were not defused, easily exceed in severity any class conflict that existed in the Northern states.» — el argumento de ese periódico que el capítulo consigna: la emancipación cortó ese lazo, y la tensión racial resultante podría exceder en gravedad a cualquier conflicto de clase del norte
«Southern whites were filled with “vague apprehension” about what might happen; for their part, the region’s black population was making demands—“demands that yield not to reason.» — los dos lados de esa incertidumbre según ese periódico: los blancos del Sur llenos de aprensión vaga, y la población negra planteando demandas que no ceden a la razón
«Those unreasonable demands were for social and economic justice. And the effect was a dark uncertainty: “Neither side knows what is coming. The blacks will not accept freedom as a substitute for food, and the whites are fearful of the excesses to which famine-stricken ignorance not seldom yields.» — lo que el capítulo precisa de esas demandas llamadas irrazonables, y la fórmula con que el periódico describía la incertidumbre de los dos lados
«Not only had Christmas been a time of charity and generosity on the part of white people in the slave South, it had also been a season of special joy for the slaves themselves—a time when the “bond of sympathy” between the races was most evident.» — por qué la Navidad subrayaba esa situación según el capítulo: había sido tiempo de caridad y generosidad de los blancos y a la vez temporada de alegría especial para los esclavizados
«Slavery then put on its holiday garb. There was feasting and merrymaking everywhere [in the slave community]…. The bondsmen for the time forgot their bondage, and for a week gave themselves up to the rollicking enjoyment in which Sambo distances all competitors.» — según Nissenbaum, el cuadro que aquel periódico pintaba de las Navidades bajo la esclavitud, con los esclavizados olvidando por un tiempo su servidumbre
«It may seem insensitive for a Northern newspaper to argue that former slaveholders in the South required more sympathy than did unemployed workers in the North. And even that insensitivity might seem to pale in the face of the paper’s cynical use of Christmas as a way of pointing out the social benefits of slavery to black people.» — el juicio que el capítulo consigna sobre esa pieza: puede parecer insensible pedir más simpatía para los antiguos amos que para los obreros sin empleo del norte, y aún más su uso cínico de la Navidad
«Still, this Northern newspaper was not alone in noting that the Christmas season was a time of special resonance in the slave South. For decades, Southerners themselves had been doing the same thing, and they would continue to do so for several decades more. And what makes the point even more striking is that it was made by black as well as white Southerners.» — lo que el capítulo salva de aquella pieza: no estaba sola en notar que la temporada navideña tenía resonancia especial en el Sur esclavista, y el punto lo hacían sureños negros además de blancos
About the work
419 entries — what the apparatus and scholarship say about it«Acclaim for STEPHEN NLSSENBAUM’S The Battle for Christmas “Erudite yet entertaining … an unusual history of consumerism … an original study.» — el primer elogio de prensa que imprime el troceo, firmado por el *Boston Globe*; el encabezado sale del OCR con el apellido corrompido en *NLSSENBAUM* (lectura propuesta: Nissenbaum), y así se conserva
«A vivid, engaging achievement in social and cultural history. Nissenbaum’s interpretation of the centuries-long struggle to control and shape our most popular holiday is a revelation. The Battle for Christmas is a rare treat, brilliant and accessible.» — el elogio de Richard D. Brown, de la Universidad de Connecticut, que lee el libro como historia social y cultural
«Refreshingly original and utterly engaging. It is brilliant in conception and astonishing in terms of research.» — el elogio de Michael Kammen, de Cornell
«This is cultural history at its most riveting—lively, quirky, insightful. Nissenbaum has a sharp eye for the telling detail, and a keen sense of historical development.» — el elogio de Richard Wrightman Fox, de la Universidad de Boston
«Using Christmas as a lens that refracts American social history as a whole, [Nissenbaum] has written a fascinating account that demystifies Christmas and, paradoxically perhaps, humanizes it.» — el elogio de *Time Out New York*, que describe el procedimiento del libro como lente
«Like St. Nick himself, Stephen Nissenbaum has brought us a gift that will delight everyone fascinated with the remarkable twists and turns of American culture.… In vivid, compelling prose, Nissenbaum shows how the Christmas holiday has carried multiple meanings in our past.» — el elogio de Robert A. Gross, del College of William and Mary
«The Battlefor Christmas renews my faith in Santa Claus, for it tells us who he really is and where he came from…. This rewarding book shows that American Christmas was a highly contested holiday long before the Grinch got his hands on it.» — el elogio de Peter H. Wood, de Duke; el troceo imprime el título sin el espacio, *Battlefor*, y así se conserva
«Full of unexpected revelations about the evolution of Christmas, Nissenbaum’s book is a stellar work of American cultural history. In probing the historical contexts of Christmas, Nissenbaum casts fresh light on such diverse issues as consumerism, popular culture, class relations, the American family, and the African-American experience.» — el elogio de David Reynolds, del Baruch College, que enumera los asuntos que el libro cruza con la Navidad
«Nissenbaum’s excursion is both enlightening and entertaining in this well-researched book. He travels the centuries with a focus, weaving between the class struggles that define almost every age.» — el elogio del *New Jersey Star Ledger*
«Stephen Nissenbaum received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1961, his M.A. from Columbia University in 1963, and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1968. He has taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, since 1968, and is currently professor of history there.» — la solapa biográfica del autor, que el troceo imprime tras los elogios; no es voz de la obra
«He has been the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Charles Warren Center at Harvard.» — la misma solapa, con las becas del autor
«The Battle for Christmas was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in History in 1997.» — la solapa, que data el finalismo del Pulitzer un año después de la primera edición
«Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft (with Paul Boyer, 1974)» — la lista *ALSO BY STEPHEN NISSENBAUM* que el troceo imprime en la plana siguiente a la solapa: la obra anterior del autor, escrita con Paul Boyer
«The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692 (with Paul Boyer, 1977)» — la misma lista, con la edición documental de los papeles del proceso de Salem
«Preface 1. New England’s War on Christmas 2. Revisiting “? Visit from St. Nicholas” 3. The Parlor and the Street 4. Affection’s Gift: Toward a History of Christmas Presents 5. Under the Christmas Tree: A Battle of Generations 6. Tiny Tim and Other Charity Cases 7. Wassailing Across the Color Line: Christmas in the Antebellum South Epilogue: The Ghosts of Christmas Past Notes Acknowledgments» — el índice del volumen; el capítulo segundo sale del OCR con la inicial del título perdida, *Revisiting “? Visit from St. Nicholas”* (lectura propuesta: *A Visit from St. Nicholas*)
«P. Thompson has noted that landed gentlemen could always try to use a generous handout at Christmas as a way of making up for a year’s accumulation of small injustices, regaining in the process their tenants’ goodwill.» — lo que Nissenbaum toma del historiador E. P. Thompson: el terrateniente podía usar un reparto generoso en Navidad para compensar un año de pequeñas injusticias y recobrar la buena voluntad de sus arrendatarios
«Some historians argue that role inversions actually functioned as a kind of safety valve that contained class resentments within clearly defined limits, and that by inverting the established hierarchy (rather than simply ignoring it), those role inversions actually served as a reaffirmation of the existing social order.» — la lectura que Nissenbaum atribuye a algunos historiadores: la inversión de papeles como válvula de escape que contenía el resentimiento de clase y, por invertir la jerarquía en vez de ignorarla, la reafirmaba
«David D. Hall has succinctly described the “transformed culture” of what he aptly terms a “new Protestant vernacular”: Psalm-singing replaced ballads. Ritual was reorganized around the celebration of the Sabbath and of fast days. No town in New England had a Maypole; no group celebrated Christmas or St. Valentine’s Day, or staged a pre-Lenten carnival» — lo que Nissenbaum toma del historiador David D. Hall sobre el nuevo vernáculo protestante: el salmo desplazó a la balada, el rito se reorganizó en torno al sábado y a los días de ayuno, y ningún pueblo de Nueva Inglaterra tuvo palo de mayo
«The British historian E. P. Thompson has argued that in England, too, the eighteenth-century elite no longer performed the requisite paternalist rituals of the season, but Thompson adds suggestively that the English elite still continued to “perform” in front of the poor, in a kind of disdainful “theater of the streets.» — lo que Nissenbaum toma de E. P. Thompson para leer la procesión masónica: en Inglaterra la élite del siglo XVIII ya no cumplía los ritos paternalistas de la temporada, pero seguía actuando ante los pobres en una especie de teatro desdeñoso de las calles
«Thompson describes these eighteenth-century protests as a kind of political “theater,” directed at the gentry “audience” before whom it was “performed”—something less than a full-fledged radical movement but more than sheer, unfocused rowdiness.» — la fórmula de Thompson que el capítulo adopta para esas protestas: un teatro político dirigido a un público de la gentry, menos que un movimiento radical y más que mero alboroto
«As Elizabeth Blackmar has written, the city’s poorest residents—“peddlers, ragpickers, prostitutes, scavengers, beggars, and … criminals”—depended for subsistence on the freedom of the streets, and the unregulated opportunity to accost strangers at will, whether for legal or illegal purposes.» — lo que Nissenbaum toma de Elizabeth Blackmar: los residentes más pobres de la ciudad dependían para subsistir de la libertad de las calles y de la oportunidad no regulada de abordar a desconocidos
«What Susan G. Davis has demonstrated in her study of Philadelphia in this period holds equally true of New York.» — el traslado que Nissenbaum hace del estudio de Susan G. Davis sobre la Filadelfia del periodo a la Nueva York de los mismos años
«E. P. Thompson has argued that in eighteenth-century England it was the upper classes themselves who severed the paternalist bonds that allowed the rituals of misrule to operate as a safety valve. Both the gentry and the established church abandoned their control over holiday rituals; these now became purely “plebeian” cultural expressions.» — lo que Nissenbaum toma de E. P. Thompson para el siglo XVIII inglés: fueron las clases altas las que cortaron los lazos paternalistas que hacían del desgobierno una válvula, y tanto la nobleza como la iglesia oficial abandonaron su control de los ritos festivos
«historian Eric Hobsbawm has dubbed this kind of self-conscious re-creation of ostensibly old-time customs» — el término que Nissenbaum toma del historiador Eric Hobsbawm para lo que hace Irving: la invención de la tradición, esa recreación consciente de costumbres presuntamente antiguas; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«The idea that Christmas was universally rejected by the Puritans, and that it was not practiced in New England until the nineteenth century, has been casually accepted in virtually all the relevant scholarship.» — lo que Nissenbaum objeta en su primera nota a la bibliografía del asunto: la idea de que los puritanos rechazaron la Navidad universalmente y de que no se practicó en Nueva Inglaterra hasta el siglo XIX se ha aceptado sin examen
«This is even true of the best article on the subject: Ivor Debenham Spencer, “Christmas, the Upstart,” in New England Quarterly 8 (1935), 356–383. See also Katherine van Etten Lyford, “The Victory of the Christmas Keepers,” Yankee (Dec. 1964), 76–77, 102–105; and Katherine Lambert Richards, How Christmas Came to the Sunday-Schools: The Observance of Christmas in the Protestant Church Schools of the United States (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1934). A recent and notable exception is Richard P. Gildrie, The Profane, the Civil, and the Godly: The Reformation of Manners in Orthodox New England, 1679–1749» — el artículo que Nissenbaum tiene por el mejor sobre el asunto pese a compartir esa aceptación, y la excepción reciente que señala en un libro de 1994
«An Anglican minister in northern England, writing as early as 1725, acknowledged the pagan origins of these practices. Yule logs and candles, for example, were for pagans “an Emblem of the Sun, and the lengthening of Days,” and they originated in an effort “to Illuminate the House, and turn the Night into Day.» — lo que Nissenbaum resume de un clérigo anglicano del norte de Inglaterra en 1725: admitía el origen pagano de esas prácticas, con el tronco de Yule y las velas como emblema del sol
«But he speculated that it became associated with the Nativity for Christian reasons—“a Symbol of that Light which was that Night born into the World.” He argues that light has been associated with many things, and that one of these is that it has become “an emblem … of our Lord Jesus Christ.» — la explicación cristiana que ese mismo clérigo conjeturaba para la asociación con la Natividad
«The best account of the non-Christian origins of Christmas rituals remains Clement A. Miles, Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan (London, 1912; reissued as Christmas Customs and Traditions: Their History and Significance (New York: Dover Publications, 1976), 159–360 passim.» — la obra que Nissenbaum tiene por el mejor relato de los orígenes no cristianos de los ritos navideños, con la edición inglesa de 1912 y su reimpresión estadounidense
«According to the Reverend Henry Bourne, many in England and Scotland continued the season as late as Candlemas (Feb. 2» — el dato que Nissenbaum toma de Bourne sobre hasta cuándo se alargaba la temporada en Inglaterra y Escocia
«For perspectives on the world of carnival, see Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (New York: Harper and Row, 1978), 199–203; Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1968); and Peter Stallybrass and Allon White, The Politics and Poetics of Transgression» — las tres obras que Nissenbaum remite en nota para las perspectivas sobre el mundo del carnaval
«Misson added: “In the taverns the landlord gives [i.e., gives away, for free] part of what is eaten and drank in his house that and the next two days: for instance, they reckon [charge] you for the wine, and tell you there is nothing to pay for bread, nor for your slice of Westphalia [ham].» — el testimonio que Nissenbaum cita de un viajero francés sobre la casa abierta de las tabernas inglesas: el posadero regala parte de lo que se come y se bebe esos días, y solo cobra el vino
«To add a touch of sexual banter, the song opens with a demand that the “prettiest maid” [i.e., maiden] in the house “roll back the pin … [and] let us all in.» — lo que Nissenbaum apunta en nota sobre el arranque de esa canción de wassail, con la doncella a la que se pide correr el cerrojo
«A recorded version of this song, performed in the appropriate spirit, can be found on the album The Second Nowell: A Pageant of Mid-Winter Carols, vol. 2 (John Roberts, Tony Barrand et al.), Front Hall Records.» — la grabación que Nissenbaum recomienda en nota de esa misma canción, ejecutada según él con el espíritu apropiado
«For the Scottish version of wassailing, called Hagmena (or Hogomany), see Ashton, Right Merrie Christmasse, 217.» — la variante escocesa del wassail que Nissenbaum nombra en nota, con su remisión bibliográfica
«Natalie Zemon Davis, “The Reasons of Misrule: Youth Groups and Charivaris in Sixteenth-Century France,” in Natalie Zemon Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modern France (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975), 97–123.» — el artículo de Natalie Zemon Davis sobre las razones del desgobierno que Nissenbaum cita en nota, con su volumen y sus páginas
«David D. Hall, Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgement: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England (New York: Knopf, 1989), 10.» — la ficha bibliográfica completa del libro de David D. Hall del que sale la descripción del nuevo vernáculo protestante
«For a fine account of Marblehead maritime culture, including a subsequent conflict over the celebration of Christmas, see Christine Leigh Heyrman, Commerce and Culture: The Maritime Communities of Colonial Massachusetts, 1690–1750 (New York, W. W. Norton: 1984), 216–302.» — el estudio que Nissenbaum llama fino sobre la cultura marítima de Marblehead, que incluye un conflicto posterior por la celebración de la Navidad
«Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County (8 vols., Salem, 1911–1921), II, 433. Hoar’s age is from ibid., IX, 208. William Hoar’s occupation as a fisherman is ibid., VI, 401.» — las fuentes judiciales de las que Nissenbaum saca el caso de William Hoar, con la edad y el oficio en volúmenes distintos de la misma serie
«Braybrooke, a weaver, was taxed in the lowest 15 percent of Salem Village rate payers in 1681, and in 1700 he was renting a small parcel of land from a local landowner, Thomas Putnam, Jr. Fuller was the son of a bricklayer; in 1690 he was taxed in the lowest quartile. Flint was the younger son of a sturdy farmer, and would later inherit the less desirable portion of his parents’ estate; he did not flourish.» — los datos fiscales y patrimoniales con que Nissenbaum sostiene en nota que los cuatro del wassail de Salem estaban en el extremo bajo de la jerarquía económica
«Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem-Village Witchcraft, 262 (anti-Parris petition) and 350 (list of villagers withholding taxes» — la fuente documental que Nissenbaum cita para la petición contra Parris y la lista de vecinos que retuvieron sus impuestos, edición suya con Paul Boyer
«John Tully, “Tully 1687. An Almanac” (Boston, 1687); John Tully, “Tully 1688. An Almanac … Imprimatur Edw. Randolph, Secr.” (Boston, 1688» — las dos entradas con que Nissenbaum identifica los almanaques de Tully, la segunda con el imprimátur del lugarteniente de Andros en la portada
«The copy of this almanac I have used (from the “Early American Imprints” series on microfilm) was purchased and used by Samuel» — el ejemplar concreto que el propio autor declara haber usado, de la serie de impresos americanos tempranos en microfilme; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«There is a good discussion of early New England almanacs, and Tully’s in particular, in Hall, Worlds of Wonder, 54–61. See also Bernard Capp, English Almanacs, 1500–1800: Astrology and the Popular Press (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1979).» — las dos obras que Nissenbaum remite en nota para los almanaques tempranos de Nueva Inglaterra y para el de Tully en particular
«Mather wrote: “The impious and mischievous men, against whom the Inspired Writer is now engaged [in the sermons text, are guilty of the following:] First The Ungodly Men stand charged with Filthiness. They were, that I may use the most agreeable Term, which the French Translation leads me to, A very Dissolute Generation. I take notice, by the way, that the Greek term, here used for, Lasciviousness, or Wantonness, is derived from the name of the town Selga; a Place infamous for such dissolute Practices.” He concluded this series of euphemisms by admitting, “I am lothe here to explain my self too particularly.» — los eufemismos con que Cotton Mather trató la lascivia en el sermón de 1712, que Nissenbaum transcribe en nota, con el remate de que le repugna explicarse con demasiado detalle
«Cotton Mather, Advice from the Watch-Tower; in a testimony against evil customes. A brief essay to … offer a … catalogue of evil customes growing upon us (Boston, 1713), 31–40.» — la ficha bibliográfica completa del tratado de Cotton Mather de 1713 con su lista negra de costumbres malas
«The seasonal rhythm of conceptions is from a paper delivered by Kenneth Lockridge at SUNY, Stony Brook, in 1969.» — de dónde toma Nissenbaum el ritmo estacional de las concepciones: una ponencia presentada en 1969, es decir de una fuente no publicada
«The laments of such ministers as Cotton Mather have conventionally been interpreted as mere “jeremiads,” an irrational response to the decline of Puritanism. But recent scholarship supports my own sense that these were part of a reasonable response to the reemergence of popular culture in New England.» — la disputa historiográfica que Nissenbaum declara en nota: los lamentos de ministros como Cotton Mather suelen leerse como jeremiadas irracionales, y él los tiene por respuesta razonable al retorno de la cultura popular
«The best recent study is Gildrie, The Profane, the Civil, and the Godly. This is the only work which shows that Christmas itself was making a comeback at the turn of the eighteenth century.» — la obra que Nissenbaum llama el mejor estudio reciente y la única que muestra que la Navidad misma estaba volviendo al cambiar el siglo XVIII
«William Brattle, “An Ephemeris … for … 1682 (Cambridge, 1682). The verse actually concluded with a couplet that ridiculed those who believed its message.» — la ficha del almanaque de Brattle y el detalle que Nissenbaum añade sobre su dístico final
«Historians once believed that “Yankee Doodle” was the work of British soldiers who were satirizing New England rustic manners, but it now seems likely that its words were a local American product:—a kind of sophisticated rural self-parody. Evidence also suggests that the earliest of these verses date not from the era of the American Revolution but from a full generation earlier—from the early 1740s.» — el cambio de opinión historiográfica que Nissenbaum consigna sobre esa canción: antes se la creía sátira de soldados británicos y ahora parece producto local, una autoparodia rural sofisticada
«The preeminent argument for the American origins of the verse is J. A. Leo Lemay, “The American Origins of ‘Yankee Doodle,’” William and Mary Quarterly, 33 (1976), 435–464. Lemay dates at least some of the verses to the 1740s (even though they were not actually published until the late 1760s and 1770s and later), using references to events that took place in King George’s War, especially the capture of Louisburg (on Cape Breton) in 1745» — el trabajo que Nissenbaum tiene por argumento preeminente del origen estadounidense de esos versos, con la datación por sucesos de la guerra del rey Jorge
«This verse—and several others cited below—comes from a version of “Yankee Doodle” called “The Lexington March,” published in London, probably in 1775 (the only copy is owned by the Huntington Library» — de dónde toma Nissenbaum esos versos: una versión londinense de hacia 1775, cuyo único ejemplar conocido está en una biblioteca californiana
«For a late-eighteenth-century rural New England diary that records the association of cornhuskings with “abandoned drinking and sexual liaisons,” see Ulrich, Midwife’s Tale, 146–147.» — el diario rural de fines del siglo XVIII que Nissenbaum remite en nota para la asociación de las deshojadas de maíz con la bebida desatada y los enredos sexuales
«As early as 1706, Daniel Leeds warned in an almanac published in New York that “More health is gotten by observing diet / Than pleasure found in vain excess and Riot.» — el precedente más temprano que Nissenbaum aduce para el llamado a la moderación: un almanaque neoyorquino de 1706
«Other New England almanacs, while not sounding the dietary urgency of Nathanael Ames, typically combined notes of moderation with those of mirth, as when the “Bickerstaffe” almanac for 1777 assured its readers that “to keep your stomach warm / A moderate glass can do no harm.» — lo que otros almanaques de Nueva Inglaterra hacían según Nissenbaum: combinar la moderación con la alegría, como el que en 1777 aseguraba que un vaso moderado no hace daño
«As Eric Foner has pointed out, Franklin urged men like himself “to remember that ‘time is money,’ and condemned [the old] practice of observing the traditional pre-industrial ‘holiday’ of ‘Saint Monday’ and spending the day at the alehouse.» — lo que Nissenbaum toma de Eric Foner sobre Franklin: urgía a recordar que el tiempo es dinero y condenaba la vieja práctica del san lunes preindustrial
«Robert R. McCausland and Cynthia MacAlman McCausland, eds., The Diary of Martha Ballard 1785–1812 (Camden, Maine: Picton Press, 1992), 742 (1807); 828 (1810); 852 (1811).» — la edición del diario de Martha Ballard que Nissenbaum usa, con las páginas exactas de las tres entradas navideñas que cita
«This is the first example I have found in the history of New England of a commercial Christmas present.» — lo que el propio autor declara en nota sobre el almanaque regalado en 1796: el primer ejemplo de regalo navideño comercial que ha hallado en la historia de Nueva Inglaterra
«Milton wrote this poem as a young man, in 1629, but he remained sufficiently proud of it to place it first in a later collection of his poetry.» — el dato que Nissenbaum añade en nota sobre el poema navideño de Milton y el orgullo que le siguió teniendo
«Increase Mather, manuscript diary, Dec. 19, 1664 (in Mather Family Papers, American Antiquarian Society, Diary Typescript: Box 3, Folder 1, 48–49). I have inferred the subject of Mather’s sermon from circumstantial evidence.» — la fuente manuscrita del diario de Increase Mather y la reserva que el propio autor declara: ha inferido el asunto del sermón por evidencia circunstancial
«Much of his reading the previous week (as recorded in his diary) had dealt historically and critically with Christmas. It included Rudolf Hospinian, De Festiorum (Tiguri, 1592), William Prynne, Histrio-Mastix (London, 1633), and two references I have not been able to trace: Stuckins’ [?] De Antiq. and Caudrey, De Christmass (the reading is recorded in the entries for Dec. 12–14, 1664» — en qué se apoya esa inferencia: las lecturas de la semana previa anotadas en el propio diario, dos de ellas sin rastrear
«Edward Holyoke, “An Almanac … for … 1713” (Boston, 1713: “Licensed by His Excellency the Governour”); Titan Leeds, “The American Almanac for … 1714” (Boston, 1714); Increase Gatchell» — las fichas de los almanaques de la década de 1710 que nombraron la Navidad, uno de ellos con licencia del gobernador
«In his Boston newspaper, the New England Courant, Franklin had featured a front-page poem in defense of Christmas in the issue of Dec. 17–24, 1722.» — el dato que Nissenbaum añade sobre James Franklin: un poema de portada en defensa de la Navidad en su periódico bostoniano en diciembre de 1722
«Purcell set many of Tate’s poems to music, including what may be his greatest vocal solo, “The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation.” Nicholas Brady wrote the libretto to Purcell’s 1692 “Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day.» — los datos musicales que Nissenbaum da en nota sobre Purcell y los dos poetas de la nueva versión de los salmos
«The printing history of this collection can be traced most easily through Clifford K. Shipton and James E. Mooney, National Index of American Imprints Through 1800: The Short-Title Evans (2 vols., Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1969).» — la herramienta bibliográfica con que Nissenbaum dice rastrearse más fácilmente la historia de impresión de esa colección
«Isaac Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Songs (Boston, 1720). One of these Nativity hymns was placed third in this lengthy collection (It opens: “Behold, the grace appears, /The promise is fulfilled; / Mary the wondrous virgin bears, / And Jesus is the child.” It also reports that the “promis’d infant” is “born to day”). The second hymn, from Horae Lyricae [Lyric Poems] (Boston, 1748), begins: “Shepards rejoice, lift up your eyes.» — las dos fichas y los dos arranques de los himnos navideños de Watts que Nissenbaum transcribe en nota
«The folklorist Peter Benes has estimated that by 1780 almost half of the New England churches were singing the Watts version; another 25 percent were using Tate and Brady; and most of the remaining churches were singing from the old Bay Psalm Book.» — la estimación que Nissenbaum toma del folclorista Peter Benes sobre qué cantaban las iglesias de Nueva Inglaterra hacia 1780
«Like the Anglicans Brady and Tate, the great English hymnist and religious poet Isaac Watts (1674– 1748), though a steadfast Congregationalist, designed his verses to evoke powerful emotions rather than to offer plain and strictly faithful translations of the original biblical texts.» — lo que Nissenbaum señala común a esos autores de himnos pese a su distinta confesión: componían para evocar emociones poderosas antes que para traducir el texto bíblico con fidelidad estricta
«Titan Leeds, “The American Almanac for … 1714” (Boston 1714). This was a Boston reprint of a Philadelphia imprint.» — la procedencia que Nissenbaum precisa en nota del almanaque de 1714 que cita en el cuerpo
«Nathaniel Whittemore, “Almanac” (Boston, 1719). It is interesting that this admonition does not challenge the legitimacy of the ritual. By warning householders not to let their dependents “run too much abroad at Nights,” it seems only to be admonishing them not» — la lectura que Nissenbaum hace en nota del consejo de Whittemore: no impugna la legitimidad del rito; el troceo corta en el límite de segmento y la frase sigue diciendo que solo amonesta a no dejar a los dependientes fuera toda la noche o todas las noches
«sermon (probably an indication that it was not part of the sermon as he originally delivered it in church) his demonstration that Jesus could not have been born in December.» — lo que Nissenbaum infiere de la disposición tipográfica del sermón impreso: al relegar a nota su demostración de que Jesús no pudo nacer en diciembre, Mather indicaría que no formaba parte del sermón predicado; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«at that. According to the index to the published diary, there is only one record of a goose in the entire document; but the index is inadequate, failing to note either this New Year’s goose or a Thanks giving goose mentioned on page 621.» — la observación que Nissenbaum hace en nota sobre el ganso como regalo estacional y la insuficiencia del índice de la edición publicada, que omite dos de sus apariciones; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«Patty Town was a grown-up granddaughter who was spending a few months at her grandmother’s in order to help with the housework (see entries from Oct. 15, 1801, to Feb. 8, 1802, ibid., 559–569 passim). Cyrus Ballard remained a bachelor all his life.» — las identificaciones que Nissenbaum da en nota de los nombres de esa entrada, con la nieta que pasaba unos meses ayudando en la casa; la cita arranca aquí porque el troceo parte *still-unmarried* con guion de fin de renglón
«In addition, Billings may have been asked in 1782 to compose an elaborate Christmas hymn (also on a Watts text, but for soloist, chorus and organ) for Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston. (See David P. McKay and Richard Crawford, William Billings of Boston: Eighteenth-Century Composer [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975], 132– 133.» — la conjetura que Nissenbaum marca como tal sobre un himno navideño elaborado que a Billings pudieron encargarle en 1782 para una iglesia episcopal de Boston
«Technically, the “Hallelujah Chorus” is not a Christmas song, and Messiah itself was not written or initially performed as a Christmas oratorio.» — la precisión que Nissenbaum añade en nota sobre el coro de Handel que la colección de Isaiah Thomas incluía
«The Yale community seems to have been a center of Christmas activity in the 1780s. In 1786 the Yale College Chapel was the site of a performance of a large-scale Christmas cantata, “An Ode for Christmas,” composed specially for the occasion and subsequently published in a New Haven musical magazine. This “Ode” was sung by three separate four-part choirs (each representing one of the shepherds) and an additional three-part choir (in the role of the angel Gabriel). The published version of this elaborate piece indicated that it had received “universal applause.» — lo que Nissenbaum reporta de Yale en los años ochenta del siglo XVIII: una cantata navideña de gran escala compuesta para la ocasión y cantada en la capilla del colegio en 1786 por tres coros y otro más
«Birge’s final comment—“I cannot see why it was much better than Burglary”—implies that other people did not think of such Christmas intrusions as burglary, and supports the idea that this kind of seasonal misrule operated just at the boundaries of acceptable behavior.» — lo que Nissenbaum lee en el comentario final de aquel tendero: que otros no tenían esas irrupciones navideñas por robo con allanamiento, lo que apoya que el desgobierno estacional operaba justo en el borde de lo aceptable
«The Masons celebrated the name day of two saints named John; the other was St. John the Baptist, whose name day happened to fall on June 24. In effect, the Masons were celebrating both the winter and the summer solstice.» — el dato que Nissenbaum añade en nota sobre las dos fiestas masónicas de San Juan, con lo que la logia celebraba en efecto los dos solsticios
«According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word antic originally meant “a grotesque gesture, posture, or trick.” It was commonly used to refer to “a grotesque pageant or theatrical representation …; hence, a grotesque or motley company.» — la etimología que Nissenbaum toma del diccionario de Oxford para el nombre de aquellas tropas bostonianas
«The Anticks were not the only perpetrators of Christmas violence in Boston in 1793. On Christmas Eve another mob disrupted religious services in the local Roman Catholic church.» — el otro suceso navideño de Boston en 1793 que Nissenbaum consigna en nota: una turba interrumpió los oficios en la iglesia católica local
«The one marginal exception to the Unitarian front was the Old South Church, which “remained nominally orthodox by the narrowest margin, [although] its minister, Dr. Eckley, denied the supreme divinity of Christ» — la excepción marginal que Nissenbaum señala en el frente unitario de Boston, con la salvedad sobre el ministro de esa misma iglesia
«The 1659 Massachusetts law was printed in the Boston Intelligencer and Evening Gazette, Jan. 2, 1819.» — la fuente y la fecha exactas con que Nissenbaum documenta la reimpresión sin comentario de la ley puritana de 1659
«The previous year a collection of Christmas hymn texts was printed in Boston (it may have been part of the same movement): G. Carseer, Hymns for the Nativity of Our Saviour (Boston, 1817).» — la colección de textos de himnos navideños que Nissenbaum señala en nota como posible parte del mismo movimiento
«Farmer’s Cabinet (Amherst, N.H.), Dec. 25, 1819 (the previous Christmas the same paper had reported favorably on the Boston business closings, and two local religious societies actually held devotional meetings in Amherst» — lo que Nissenbaum precisa sobre el periódico de Nuevo Hampshire: el año anterior había reportado con favor los cierres de negocios de Boston y dos sociedades religiosas locales tuvieron reuniones devocionales
«The episode is recorded by Pintard in a letter written in stages between Dec. 8, 1820, and January 4, 1821 (the passage I have used was written on January 1): Letters from John Pintard to his Daughter 1816–1833 (4 vols., New York: New-York Historical Society, 1940): vol. 1, 359. I have modernized Pintard’s spelling and punctuation.» — la fuente exacta del episodio de la Nochevieja de 1820 y la intervención que el propio autor declara: modernizó la ortografía y la puntuación de Pintard
«The revelers who disturbed Pintard’s sleep would have constituted a callithumpian band consisting of young working-class men; by the 1820s, these bands had become a menace in the eyes of more prosperous New Yorkers. See Paul A. Gilje, The Road to Mobocracy: Popular Disorder in New York City, 1763–1834 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989), 254–255.» — la identificación que Nissenbaum hace en nota de los juerguistas de aquella noche: una banda calitumpiana de jóvenes de clase obrera, que hacia los años veinte eran ya una amenaza a ojos de los neoyorquinos prósperos
«The Hudson [N.Y.] Weekly Gazette, Jan. 4, 1787. This item was brought to my attention by Robert Arner.» — la fuente del periódico de 1787 y el crédito que Nissenbaum da a quien se la señaló
«The resurgence of paganism in England during this period has often been noted; Thompson’s splendid article places it in a richly subtle context.» — el juicio que Nissenbaum da del artículo de E. P. Thompson sobre sociedad patricia y cultura plebeya: sitúa el resurgir del paganismo inglés en un contexto de sutileza rica
«E. P. Thompson deals with the English version of the charivari in two articles: “‘Rough Music’: Le Charivari anglais,” Annales (1972); and “Rough Music,” in E. P. Thompson, Customs in Common: Studies in Traditional Popular Culture (New York: The New Press, 1993), 467– 533.» — los dos artículos en que Thompson trata la versión inglesa del charivari, según la nota de Nissenbaum
«Such employers collectively resisted the ongoing tendency of their workers to treat the month of December as a period of leisure and festivity. An instance of English worker resistance to celebrating Christmas on a single day is reported in J. M. Golby and A. W. Purdue, The Making of the Modern Christmas (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1986), 76. This book offers a very good overview of the history of Christmas in England.» — lo que Nissenbaum consigna en nota sobre los patrones ingleses y la resistencia obrera a celebrar la Navidad en un solo día, con el libro que tiene por buen panorama de la historia inglesa de la fiesta
«Golby has traced references to Christmas in the Times of London from 1790 to 1836.» — el rastreo de menciones de la Navidad en la prensa londinense que Nissenbaum atribuye en nota a un historiador inglés
«The recorded population of New York City increased from 33, 131 in 1790 to 202, 589 in 1825.» — las cifras de población de Nueva York que Nissenbaum da en nota, con el espaciado que el troceo introduce en los millares
«The best brief account of the transformation of early-nineteenth-century New York is Stansell, City of Women, 4–10.» — la obra que Nissenbaum tiene por el mejor relato breve de la transformación de la Nueva York de principios del siglo XIX
«According to Blackmar, the poor “used the streets as a common landscape” that provided an opportunity for unregulated, spontaneous encounters with others, encounters that made it possible for them “to gain or supplement subsistence by peddling fruits, oysters, hardware, used clothing, or sexual favors” (or by scavenging, gambling, shoplifting or fencing stolen goods). “No less than foraging on rural common land, the ‘liberty’ of the streets supported the city’s poorest residents.» — lo que Nissenbaum resume de Elizabeth Blackmar en nota: los pobres usaban las calles como paisaje común para encuentros no regulados que les permitían ganar o completar la subsistencia
«The S.P.P.’s purposes included the discouragement and “prevention of mendicity and street begging;” the group argued that existing relief policies only served to encourage laziness and dependence on charity» — los fines de la sociedad de Pintard contra el pauperismo según la nota, con el argumento de que las políticas de socorro existentes solo fomentaban la pereza
«Pintard himself wrote that the S.P.P. was intended to stem the growth of “the present system of relieving the poor,” by providing “not … alms but labor, so that there shall be no pretext for idleness,” and “to expel the drones from society.» — lo que el propio Pintard escribió del propósito de esa sociedad: no limosna sino trabajo, para que no hubiera pretexto de ociosidad, y expulsar de la sociedad a los zánganos
«This item was actually printed as a broadside: “The following piece, which was desired to be inserted in the New-York Journal of this Day, Dec. 24, 1772, but omitted for want of room, will be inserted next Week.» — la forma material en que apareció el texto de 1772 que Nissenbaum cita en el cuerpo: un pliego suelto, por falta de espacio en el periódico
«composed extended Christmas meditations in 1763, 1768, and 1769. He is not to be confused with the historian David D. Hall.» — lo que Nissenbaum precisa del diario del reverendo David Hall y la advertencia que añade para no confundirlo con el historiador homónimo; el troceo abre el segmento a media frase
«John Birge manuscript Daybook (Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Library), p. 62. This document was unearthed by Carrie Giard, an undergraduate student at the University of Massachusetts» — de dónde sale el libro de cuentas del tendero de Deerfield y quién lo desenterró: una estudiante de licenciatura a la que Nissenbaum nombra
«Unitarian who had been preaching Christmas sermons each year since 1816. See “The Diary of Isaiah Thomas 1805–1828,” in Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society IX (1909), 337 (1816), 368 (1817), 412–413 (1818).» — el dato que Nissenbaum da sobre el ministro de Worcester que predicó en la campaña, con el diario de Isaiah Thomas como fuente; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«The mayor was Philip Hone. In 1837 Hone recorded in his diary a New Year’s Day scene at the house of a subsequent mayor: “[T]he rabble … use his house as a Five Points tavern…. [T]he scene … defies description … the tables were taken by storm, the bottles [of wine and punch] emptied in a moment. Confusion, noise, and quarreling ensued, until the Mayor, with the assistance of his police, cleared the house and locked the doors…. Every scamp … considers himself authorized to use him and his house and his furniture at his pleasure; to wear his hat in his presence, to smoke and spit upon his carpet, to devour his beef and turkey, and wipe his greasy fingers upon the curtains, to get drunk with his liquor» — el diario del alcalde Philip Hone que Nissenbaum transcribe en nota sobre una escena de Año Nuevo en casa de un alcalde posterior: la chusma usando la casa como taberna y tomando las mesas al asalto
«Hone suggests that similar scenes had happened before. Allan Nevins, ed., The Diary of Philip Hone, 1828–1851 (2 vols., New York, 1927), I, 235– 236).» — lo que Nissenbaum lee en ese diario y la ficha de la edición que usa
«In 1832 Pintard anonymously published in the New York Mirror (Dec. 29, 1832, 207) an essay lamenting the decline of New Year’s open houses among the New York elite and attributing it to the nouveaux riches. (This anonymous essay was brought to my attention by Elizabeth Blackmar.» — el ensayo anónimo de 1832 en que Pintard lamentaba el declive de las casas abiertas de Año Nuevo entre la élite y lo atribuía a los nuevos ricos, con el crédito a quien se lo señaló
«Anthropologists have dubbed this phenomenon, rather meanly and a little unfairly, fakelore (as distinct from more authentic folklore» — el término con que los antropólogos han bautizado ese fenómeno según la nota de Nissenbaum, que juzga el mote algo mezquino e injusto
«Another essay on the same topic simply argued that the old rural Christmas was a complete bore! “A Country Christmas,” ibid. 5 (1823), 168–172.» — el otro ensayo que Nissenbaum cita del debate de los años veinte, que sostenía sin más que la vieja Navidad rural era un aburrimiento completo
«While Pintard’s basic Santa Claus ritual remained essentially the same after he first devised it, Pintard did continue to tinker with the details. In 1827–29, the family’s presents were placed in stockings hung by the chimney, but in 1830 they were placed on a table. The presents themselves changed, too: candies and fruit at first; toys were added in 1828 (a drum), and in 1832 the toys were replaced with books (because toys “cost much and are soon broken» — los retoques que Pintard fue haciendo a su rito según Nissenbaum: de las medias junto a la chimenea a la mesa, y de los dulces y frutas al tambor y luego a los libros
«There were allusions to St. Nicholas’ Day in 1773 and 1774, but Jones explains these in reference to the American Revolution (i.e., as a patriotic alternative to St. George’s Day), and not as precursors of the St. Nicholas cult that would develop a generation later.» — lo que Jones hace con las alusiones a San Nicolás de 1773 y 1774 según la nota: las explica como alternativa patriótica al día de San Jorge y no como precursoras del culto posterior
«In another study Jones even suggests that the Dutch themselves took up the St. Nicholas cult from America—in the twentieth century, and largely for the sake of the tourist trade: Charles W. Jones, St. Nicholas of Myra, Bari, and Manhattan: Biography of a Legend (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), 307–308.» — la vuelta de tuerca que Nissenbaum recoge de otro estudio de Jones: los propios holandeses habrían tomado el culto de San Nicolás desde América en el siglo XX y en buena medida por el turismo
«with characteristic slowness….” appears only in the first edition (N.Y., 1809), vol. 1, 116 (Book 2, ch. 5); Irving deleted the passage in the 1812 edition.» — el detalle de crítica textual que Nissenbaum consigna: la fórmula sobre la lentitud característica solo está en la primera edición del libro de Irving
«For a somewhat later (and highly self-conscious) expression of this same Knickerbocker enterprise, see James K. Paulding, The Book of Saint Nicholas, translated from the Original Dutch (New York, 1836), a “biography” of the saint, dedicated to the St. Nicholas Society of New York, and with a preface dated “Nieuw Amsterdam, 1827.» — la obra posterior que Nissenbaum señala como expresión muy consciente de la misma empresa knickerbocker: una biografía del santo dedicada a la sociedad de San Nicolás, con prefacio fechado en la vieja Nueva Ámsterdam
«Sean Wilentz terms Moore a “level-headed Episcopalian conservative.” (See Chants Democratic, 79.» — la fórmula con que Nissenbaum cita a otro historiador calificando a Moore
«The only book-length study of Moore, short and hagiographic, is Samuel W. Patterson, The Poet of Christmas Eve: A Life of Clement Clarke Moore, 1779–1863» — el único estudio de libro sobre Moore según Nissenbaum, que lo llama corto y hagiográfico
«The political tracts Moore published include Observations upon Certain Passages in Mr. Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia (New York, 1804), a critique of Jefferson’s irreligion; and A Sketch of Our Political Condition (New York, 1813), condemning the Jefferson and Madison administrations (and the War of 1812) for their destruction of rural life!» — los panfletos políticos de Moore que la nota enumera: una crítica de la irreligión de Jefferson y otra que condena a los gobiernos de Jefferson y Madison por destruir la vida rural
«Moore’s professorship initially paid a token $750, a figure that eventually increased to $2,000.» — la cifra exacta del salario simbólico de la cátedra de Moore y su aumento posterior
«Moore writes of eminent domain in A Plain Statement, Addressed to the Proprietors of Real Estate in the City and County of New-York (New York, 1818), 13– 18.» — la obra y las planas exactas en que Moore trata la expropiación por dominio eminente
«A few years later, the city made plans to fill in an area under the Hudson River, in the process moving the river away from Moore’s estate. (Phelps Stokes, Iconography, vol. 5, 1603). By the 1830s some of that land was occupied by the Manhattan Gas-light Works, a company that was installing street lights in that area of the city, and digging a network of underground pipes in order to do so.» — lo que la ciudad hizo unos años después según la nota: planes para rellenar un área bajo el río Hudson, alejando el río de la finca de Moore, con una compañía de gas instalando alumbrado y cañerías
«By the end of the 1820s, the area that had come to be known as Chelsea Square was home to a substantial population, much of it poor and/or immigrant. By the 1830s Moore was watching Irishmen on St. Patrick’s Day marching along the periphery of his property—down Twenty-third Street, then turning south on Eighth Avenue. See Patterson, Poet of» — lo que Nissenbaum consigna del barrio de Moore a fines de los años veinte: población sustancial, en buena parte pobre o inmigrante, con irlandeses desfilando por el borde de su propiedad el día de San Patricio; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«Elizabeth Blackmar shrewdly suggests that Moore’s complaint was based on his understanding that New York’s urban development actually functioned as a public-works program to provide jobs for the poor and the unemployed—a program Moore opposed» — lo que Nissenbaum toma de Elizabeth Blackmar sobre la queja de Moore: se apoyaría en entender que el desarrollo urbano de Nueva York funcionaba como programa de obras públicas para dar trabajo a pobres y desempleados
«Cartmen, whom Moore singled out for criticism, had developed a reputation for especially rude and surly behavior by 1820, breaking speed limits and running down pedestrians—much like the modern taxi drivers who partly replaced them. See Graham Hodges, New York City Cartmen, 1667–1850 (New York: New York University Press, 1986), 116–117, 127.» — la reputación que los carreteros tenían hacia 1820 según la nota: rudos y hoscos, rompiendo límites de velocidad y atropellando peatones, con la comparación que Nissenbaum hace con los taxistas modernos
«Hodges indicates that many wealthy New Yorkers chose to move out of downtown New York after being awakened regularly by the sound of “hundreds of cartmen racing their vehicles at dawn» — el dato que Nissenbaum toma de ese mismo estudio: muchos neoyorquinos ricos se mudaron del centro tras despertar cada día con cientos de carreteros compitiendo con sus vehículos al alba
«In the late 1820s Moore was actually planning to move out of Chelsea to a still-rural area of Manhattan several miles to the north; he changed his mind only when his wife died in 1830.» — el plan de mudanza que Nissenbaum consigna de Moore a fines de los años veinte y lo que lo hizo cambiar de idea
«There was a practical reason for workers’ use of short pipes: they made it possible to smoke while working. But what may have begun as a practical necessity became, by the nineteenth century, a political gesture.» — la razón práctica que Nissenbaum concede para la pipa corta de los obreros, y el paso siguiente: lo que empezó como necesidad se volvió gesto político en el siglo XIX
«By the same token, smoking a long pipe became an assertion as well as a sign of genteel leisure (as, for example, the long pipes in Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle» — la contraparte de esa lectura según Nissenbaum: fumar pipa larga pasó a ser afirmación además de signo de ocio distinguido
«Southwark Watchman’s Address for Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 1829” (Philadelphia, 1829), Broadside» — la ficha del pliego del sereno de Southwark que Nissenbaum cita en el cuerpo, conservado en una colección de pliegos sueltos; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«Antiquarian Society. Coincidentally, even the meter (of the odd lines, at least) is identical to that of “A Visit from St. Nicholas.» — la coincidencia métrica que Nissenbaum señala entre ese pliego del sereno y el poema de Moore; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«Among some British Jews today, I have been told, the gesture still thrives, signifying stumm!, or “hush.» — lo que el propio autor dice haber oído sobre la pervivencia del gesto del dedo al lado de la nariz entre algunos judíos británicos de hoy
«John Pintard made the same point in 1832; see letter of Nov. 3, 1832, in Pintard, Letters, IV, 106.» — el dato con que Nissenbaum apoya en nota la relación de Moore con la configuración del capitalismo urbano
«Lauren J. Cook, “Snow White Little Instruments of Comfort: Clay Pipes and Class Consciousness at the Boott Mills Boarding Houses,” a paper delivered at a meeting of the New England Historical Association, Lowell, Massachusetts, April 21, 1989.» — la ponencia de arqueología histórica de la que Nissenbaum toma el argumento de las pipas de barro y la conciencia de clase, presentada en Lowell en 1989
«Stone added that such a change would also provide the “young ladies” who hosted the visits with “an opportunity for a contest of skill in making coffee.» — lo que el editor federalista añadía a su propuesta del café según la nota: daría a las jóvenes anfitrionas ocasión de competir en destreza preparándolo
«For another example of Santa as Lord of Misrule, see Francis H. Davidge, “Christmas Is Coming,” in T. S. Arthur, ed., The Brilliant (New York, 1850), 22–26. This sketch was apparently written by a Southerner, and it was in the South that Santa Claus continued for decades to be described as a “trickster.” See, for example, Joel Chandler Harris, “Something About ‘Sandy Claus’”: ch. 7, On the Plantation: A Story of a Georgia Boy’s Adventures During the War (New York, 1892), 104–121, in which a pair of slaves describe Santa Claus as a kind of Brer Rabbit figure.» — el otro ejemplo de Santa Claus como Señor del Desgobierno que Nissenbaum cita en nota, con la observación de que fue en el Sur donde la figura siguió describiéndose por décadas como embaucador
«The theater at which “Santiclaus” appeared was the Broadway Circus, perhaps the only New York theater that was still attracting a “mixed”-class audience at this time. See also New York Tattler, Dec. 27, 1839. These items were brought to my attention by Dale Cockrell.» — el teatro en que se anunció aquella pantomima según la nota, quizá el único de Nueva York que aún atraía público de clases mezcladas, y el crédito a quien le señaló esos materiales
«For a survey of riots in nineteenth-century New York, see Luc Sante, Low Life: Lures and Snares of New York (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1991), 339–356, a chapter bearing the apt title “Carnival.”» — el panorama de motines de la Nueva York del siglo XIX que Nissenbaum remite en nota, con un capítulo cuyo título le parece atinado
«See also the New-York American for Dec. 26 and 30, 1840, juxtaposing riot reports (in one column) with an upbeat editorial (in another) about Christmas shopping and “the merry days [of] childhood and youth.» — las dos planas del mismo periódico que Nissenbaum yuxtapone en nota: reportes de motín en una columna y un editorial animoso sobre las compras navideñas en otra
«Coleridge continues: “About seven or eight years old the children are let into the secret, and it is curious how faithfully they keep it!» — lo que Coleridge añadía sobre el secreto del rito de Ratzeburgo: a los siete u ocho años se pone a los niños en el secreto, y es curioso con qué fidelidad lo guardan
«Diary of James L. Morris (from Montgomery, Penn.); quoted ibid., 74. 22. Pottstown Lafayette Aurora, Dec. 21, 1826; quoted ibid., 73–74.» — las fuentes de las que Nissenbaum toma los testimonios del Belsnickle en Pensilvania, todas ellas por la antología de un folclorista
«On Dec. 30, 1856, Philadelphia patrician Sidney Fisher noted in his diary that he had “[h]ad trouble with our servants—cook and waiter got drunk this afternoon & I was obliged to have the police to take them away.» — el apunte de diario de un patricio de Filadelfia que Nissenbaum cita en nota: la cocinera y el camarero se emborracharon y tuvo que llamar a la policía para que se los llevaran
«In 1801 Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser carried a watchman’s address asking for money (Dec. 25, 1801). But in 1802 the same newspaper published a warning, under the heading “Christmas Reflections,” urging religious piety instead of revelry and excess—at least on Christmas Day itself: “Pause—ye giddy and ye gay…. Forego, for one day at least, the resplendent and fascinating charms of dissipation.» — el contraste que Nissenbaum monta en nota entre el pliego del sereno de 1801 y el aviso de piedad del año siguiente en el mismo periódico
«The four almanacs: “Citizens & Farmers’ Almanack for … 1825” (Philadelphia, [1824]); “Grigg’s Almanack, for … 1825” (Philadelphia, [1824]); “New Brunswick Almanack, for 1825” (Philadelphia, [1824]); and “The United States National Almanac” (Philadelphia, 1825). The newspapers: Saturday Evening Post, Dec. 23, 1826; National Gazette, Dec. 24, 1827 (Moore poem); Poulson’s, Dec. 26, 1827 (Bracebridge Hall» — las fichas exactas de los cuatro almanaques de Filadelfia de 1824 que imprimieron el poema de Moore y de los periódicos que lo siguieron
«The “Bracebridge Hall” extract was a passage defining Christmas as “the season for gathering together of family connections» — qué pasaje de Irving reimprimió aquel periódico de Filadelfia en 1827, según precisa la nota
«For comparison, here is the text of a wassail sung by young people in England: “We are not daily beggars / That beg from door to door, / But we are neighbors’ children, / Whom you have seen before…. / We have got a little purse / Made of stretching leather skin, / We want a little of your money / To line it well within.» — el wassail inglés que Nissenbaum transcribe en nota para comparar con los pliegos de los repartidores: no somos mendigos de cada día sino hijos de los vecinos, con una bolsita de cuero que queremos forrar por dentro
«Phillipe Aries, Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life (New York: Knopf, 1962), shows brilliantly how this began to change in the seventeenth century among the European aristocracy and nobility.» — la obra que Nissenbaum dice que muestra con brillantez cuándo empezó a cambiar la condición de los niños entre la aristocracia europea
«The ritual had reached America by the middle of the eighteenth century. A little broadside printed in 1765 or 1766 (probably in Boston» — cuándo llegó a América el rito de la caja de Navidad según la nota, y el pliego pequeño de 1765 o 1766 en que Nissenbaum lo documenta
«This is catalogued as Bristol ’B2818; S-M41768; Ford #137. Ford says it was “probably” printed in New England because it was found together with other New England material.» — la signatura catalográfica de ese pliego y la razón que su catalogador daba para atribuirlo a Nueva Inglaterra
«Both volumes were originally printed in Boston in 1747. The former was reprinted six more times by 1804; a last edition appeared in 1824.» — la historia editorial que Nissenbaum da de los dos manuales para criados y aprendices con la palabra *present* en el título
«How am I pleas’d with painted toys? / I feed the foolish fire: / Trifles and fashions cover my eyes / And cheat my warm desire. / On jointed babes [i.e., dolls] I fix my hope. / In my fond arms carest; / I dress the mimic-puppets up, / And hug them to my breast.» — los versos con que Nissenbaum documenta en nota que uno de aquellos libros infantiles advertía contra jugar con juguetes
«Cathcart suggests that barring-out may have begun as a substitute for the earlier inversion ritual known as the “Boy-Bishop,” which was suppressed at about the same time.» — la hipótesis que Nissenbaum recoge de un historiador sobre el origen del rito escolar: pudo empezar como sustituto del obispillo, suprimido por esos mismos años
«For barring-out in England, see Maria Edgeworth, “The Barring Out” (Philadelphia, 1804); Brand, Popular English Antiquities, I, 441– 434; and Ona and Peter Opie, The Lore and Language of Children (Oxford, England, 1959).» — las tres remisiones bibliográficas que Nissenbaum da para el rito escolar en Inglaterra
«Virginia was also the site of an apparently more peaceful barring-out much later in the same century. A Northern visitor noted in his diary on Dec. 18, 1773, that “Mr» — el segundo caso virginiano que Nissenbaum anuncia en nota, más pacífico y de fines del mismo siglo; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«Boston Daily Advertiser, Dec. 24, 1817. See also Independent Chronicle, Dec. 24, 1817, and Boston Gazette, Dec. 25, 1817 and Dec. 29, 1817 (a confirmation that all of this actually happened).» — las tres fuentes de prensa con que Nissenbaum documenta la campaña navideña de 1817; la última la cita como prueba de que lo anunciado sí ocurrió
«piece from Robert Schumann’s “Album for the Young.” In Alsace, a similar figure was named Hanstrap.» — la asociación que Nissenbaum ofrece a sus lectores para esa figura alemana y su variante alsaciana; el troceo abre el segmento a media frase
«Another Pennsylvanian, writing later in the century, recalled the custom from his childhood in the 1850s: “The windows were nailed fast, one and all; the benches were dragged from all parts of the room and piled against the door,—a long row extending to the stove, as a prop…. For one brief hour the scholars were master,—the tables turned, as it were, and riot ran high and wild.» — el recuerdo de infancia de los años cincuenta que Nissenbaum cita en nota sobre el rito escolar: ventanas claveteadas, bancas apiladas contra la puerta y una hora en que los alumnos eran los amos
«Barring-out presumably died off later in the century, as Christmas vacations became an official part of the school calendar rather than something negotiated ad hoc by the schoolboys themselves (and as the teaching profession itself became professionalized—and feminized» — la conjetura que Nissenbaum marca como tal sobre el fin del rito escolar: habría muerto al volverse las vacaciones parte oficial del calendario y al profesionalizarse y feminizarse el magisterio
«But students at Yale were engaging in an annual Christmas Eve “Callithumpian anniversary” during the 1830s and 1840s: Late at night, “painted and masked, wearing all sorts of hideous and fantastic dresses; some having drums, some tin kettles, some horns,” they would march through New Haven, “carrying devastation and ruin wherever they go, levelling fences, breaking windows, destroying the unfortunate barrels of whiskey, which may happen to be exposed» — el rito que los estudiantes de Yale practicaban en Nochebuena según la nota: pintados y enmascarados, con tambores, calderos y cuernos, marchando por New Haven derribando cercas y rompiendo ventanas
«After the 1847 callithumpian parade, one Yale student was actually indicted for attempted murder (Hampshire Gazette [Northampton, Mass.], Dec. 28, 1847, and Feb. 8, 1848» — el desenlace del desfile de Yale de 1847 que Nissenbaum consigna, con las dos fechas del periódico local que lo reportó
«This is not the only such example. The American Antiquarian Society’s copy of Robin Carver, The Book of Sports (Boston, 1834) is inscribed on its flyleaf with the date “Jan. 1st, 1835.» — el segundo ejemplar con dedicatoria manuscrita que Nissenbaum aduce para mostrar que esos libros se regalaban en la temporada
«See also an ad in the New England Palladium, 1822–23, for “instructive games on cloth, with te-totems.” A te-totum was a top.» — el anuncio de 1822 que Nissenbaum cita en nota y la glosa que da de la palabra
«McGlinchee writes that “[t]his type of entertainment was superseded by the Christmas show, a queer medley of burlesque, musical comedy, fairy play, and revue. The term ‘pantomime’ was kept, even though dialogue had been introduced.» — lo que Nissenbaum toma de una historiadora del Boston Museum: la pantomima fue desplazada por el espectáculo navideño, mezcla rara de burlesco, comedia musical, obra de hadas y revista, que conservó el nombre viejo
«The tickets had probably been purchased for the newsboys by their employers, as a Christmas present. See Brother Jonathan, Holiday Extras dated Jan. 1, 1843, and Dec. 25-Jan. 1, 1844 (which reported that they had gone to the Chatham Theater» — la conjetura que Nissenbaum marca como tal sobre quién pagó las entradas de aquellos muchachos en 1844, con las fuentes que reportaron adónde fueron
«The best account of the newsboys’ love of theater is in an 1852 novel by Elizabeth Oakes Smith, The Newsboy (New York, 1854), 25– 33, from which I have taken some of my description.» — la fuente de la que Nissenbaum declara haber tomado parte de su descripción del amor de aquellos muchachos por el teatro
«The title of the book is—deliberately—malleable. The cloth cover reads “Kriss Kringle’s Book,” and that title is repeated at the very end of the preface. But the title page itself reads “St. Nicholas’s Book,” and that is the way the book is referred to at another point in the preface. When the book was reprinted in 1846 the title page read “The Christmas Book,” while a third printing, in 1852, read “Kriss Kringle’s Book.”» — la maleabilidad deliberada del título de aquel libro de regalo de 1845 según la nota: la tapa y el final del prefacio dicen un título, la portada otro, y las dos reimpresiones siguientes cambian otra vez
«The socially disruptive, subversive potential of books (especially fiction and romance) was well recognized in the early nineteenth century (critics employed virtually all the same arguments that are used today against children’s watching television» — el potencial subversivo que se reconocía a los libros a principios del siglo XIX según la nota, con el paralelo que Nissenbaum traza con los argumentos de hoy contra la televisión
«Novels were even written to warn their readers about the dangers of reading other novels! In one novella, published in 1824 and set during the Christmas vacation from school, the parents keep their collection of books in a locked bookcase, and a series of mishaps is set off when the mother is obliged to entrust the key to her oldest daughter.» — el ejemplo que Nissenbaum da de esa alarma: una novela corta de 1824, ambientada en las vacaciones navideñas, donde los padres guardan los libros bajo llave y los percances empiezan al confiarla la madre a la hija mayor
«Carrie also discovered that two years later, in 1771, another Deerfield shopkeeper paid one of his clients 10½ shillings “cash at Christmas” in return for “four days [i.e., of labor] at Christmas.” (We can only speculate as to why this man desired to have cash at Christmas» — el segundo hallazgo de aquella estudiante en los libros de cuentas de Deerfield, y la reserva con que el propio autor lo comenta: solo cabe especular por qué aquel hombre quería efectivo en Navidad
«This was the same magazine in which Stowe was shortly to begin serial publication of her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.» — el dato editorial que Nissenbaum añade sobre la revista en que salió el cuento navideño de Stowe en 1850
«For scholarly works that date the commercialization of Christmas to the turn of the twentieth century, see William B. Waits, The Modern Christmas in America: A Cultural History of Gift Giving (New York: New York University Press, 1993); and, implicitly, William Leach, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture (New York: Pantheon, 1993); as well as James H. Barnett, The American Christmas: A Study in National Culture (New York: Macmillan, 1954), 79–101.» — los trabajos académicos que datan la comercialización de la Navidad en el cambio al siglo XX, y de los que Nissenbaum se aparta
«But another historiographical strain dates the origins of the consumer revolution far earlier, even to the middle of the eighteenth century; see page 340, note 16.» — la otra corriente historiográfica que Nissenbaum consigna, que lleva los orígenes de la revolución del consumo hasta mediados del siglo XVIII
«Philadelphia’s first ad for Christmas presents came in 1812. If we include ads for “New Year’s Presents”—or “Holiday Presents”—this dating needs to be moved back a decade or two earlier.» — la precisión cronológica que Nissenbaum añade sobre los primeros anuncios, y cómo cambia la fecha si se cuentan los de Año Nuevo o de fiestas
«But Salem was not the first American community to advertise New Year’s gifts. The first community to do so was another New England town, Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1783 (more about Worcester a little later). New York followed in 1789; Philadelphia, in 1796; Boston, in 1801.» — el orden cronológico de las primeras comunidades estadounidenses en anunciar regalos de Año Nuevo según la nota
«By 1825 the same periodical was able to claim that Christmas was a season “which custom from time immemorial has pointed out as a proper one for giving and receiving remembrances, and tokens of affection» — lo que la misma revista podía afirmar ya en 1825: que la costumbre señalaba desde tiempo inmemorial esa temporada como la propia para dar y recibir recuerdos
«In Worcester, Massachusetts, one man noted in his diary on Christmas Eve: “[G]eneral preparation for Christmas: the children must have presents and the parents, uncles, and aunts are all getting them.» — el apunte de diario de 1837 que Nissenbaum cita en nota: preparación general para la Navidad, con los niños que han de tener regalos y los padres, tíos y tías consiguiéndolos
«Farmer’s Cabinet (Amherst, N.H.), Jan. 2, 1835. The story urged children to buy books rather than candy for the holidays.» — lo que el cuento de aviso de 1835 recomendaba a los niños según la nota
«In contrast, I have found only a single advertisement that advertised presents for servants. During the 1822 Christmas season, one Boston bookstore, after advertising a great variety of books and games for children of various ages, added that it also had “a large collection of Narratives, Popular Stories, &c., very cheap and neat editions, suitable for presents to Domestics and others.» — el hallazgo casi negativo que el propio autor declara: un solo anuncio de regalos para criados, en una librería bostoniana de la temporada de 1822
«The 1820s may have been the last decade in which such an ad could reasonably appear; after that, servants would not have been considered real members of the household. (Conversely, the early 1820s were also virtually the first time such an ad could have appeared; only a decade or two earlier, nobody would have received a commercial Christmas present.» — la ventana estrecha que Nissenbaum sitúa para ese anuncio: después los criados ya no se contaban como miembros reales de la casa, y una o dos décadas antes nadie habría recibido un regalo navideño comercial
«13. New-York Tribune, Dec. 23, 1850. The paper went on to suggest» — el remate de la nota sobre las pandillas de 1850, cuyo periódico Nissenbaum identifica; el troceo corta la frase en el cambio de plana, y lo que sigue es que tenían el apoyo tácito de los políticos
«55. Eliza Leslie, “Snow-Balling; or, The Christmas Dollar,” in The Violet (Philadelphia, 1839 [c. 1838]), 36–52.» — la ficha exacta del cuento de Eliza Leslie sobre las bolas de nieve, con el volumen de regalo en que apareció y el año entre corchetes que el propio libro añade
«bookseller. Headed simply “Elegant Presents for Children,” it was followed on January 1 by a similar ad headed “Elegant New Year’s Presents for Children.” It is as if this bookseller was testing the cultural waters before actually daring to name Christmas.» — la lectura que Nissenbaum hace del anuncio de Salem de 1804: como si aquel librero tanteara las aguas culturales antes de atreverse a nombrar la Navidad; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«prosperous New York woman recorded spending “2.6” [2s. 6d.?] for “N[ew] Year presents to servants.” The following December the same woman made a similar entry: “New Year presents to servants[:] 1.56.» — los dos apuntes de cuentas con que Nissenbaum documenta el regalo de Año Nuevo a los criados en una casa neoyorquina próspera; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«In 1844, the first Christmas ads in the New-York Tribune appeared as early as December 12.» — el dato con que Nissenbaum documenta en nota el adelanto de los anuncios navideños
«The idea probably originated in New York, where one paper reported in 1838 that “[f]our or five mammoth cakes have been made in this city to be cut up on New Year’s Eve. That at Ameli’s, 395 Broadway, is the largest ever made in this city. It weighs about 3300 pounds, and is worth $1500» — el origen probable de la moda de los pasteles inmensos según la nota, con el de una casa de Broadway que pesaba unas tres mil trescientas libras
«But even as early as 1819, a New York baker advertised a “mammoth cake … weighing 300 pounds” (New York Evening Post, Dec. 28, 1819» — el antecedente más temprano de esa moda que Nissenbaum halla, un pastel de trescientas libras anunciado en 1819
«The publishers of The Pearl may well have pressured their authors to insert such advertising copy into their work. In another children’s Gift Book, Christmas Blossoms for 1850, a Santa-like figure named Uncle Thomas embeds the same point in a passage explaining the advantages of mass production and mass marketing» — la conjetura que Nissenbaum marca como tal sobre los editores de aquel libro de regalo: pudieron presionar a sus autores para meter publicidad en el texto
«What a wonderful thing printing is! It seems hard to understand how the world could have got along so long and so well without it…. Even after printing was invented, it was, for a long time, so costly that books were often bound with strong iron rings fastened to the leather, and were fixed to the walls of the library or the sides of the book-cases, by means of iron chains, for fear they should be stolen. How happy, then, Uncle Thomas should be that he can now print his Christmas Blossoms, and send them over the country so cheaply that everybody can easily get to see them. He can now talk to six millions of little boys and girls, and shake hands with them on paper all at once» — el pasaje que Nissenbaum transcribe de un libro de regalo de 1850, en boca de un tío Thomas: la imprenta como maravilla que permite hablar a seis millones de niños y estrecharles la mano en papel a la vez
«John Davis to Elizabeth Bancroft Davis, Dec. 26, 1826, in John Davis Papers, American Antiquarian Society.» — la fuente manuscrita de la carta del congresista que compró un libro de regalo de cinco dólares para su mujer
«edited by T. S. Arthur, best remembered today as the author of the temperance novel Ten Nights in a BarRoom.» — quién editó uno de los libros de regalo citados según la nota, recordado hoy por una novela de templanza
«In a Boston bookshop in 1823, King Solomon “might there find his own proverbs illustrated, and made familiar to the eye of childhood, by means of the graphic art; and the [wonders] of Egypt and the realm of his favorite queen of Sheba, displayed in miniature, to furnish up an evening of entertainment for the nursery.» — la fantasía con que un periódico bostoniano de 1823 describía las Biblias ilustradas de una librería: el rey Salomón hallaría allí sus propios proverbios ilustrados para el ojo de la infancia
«Ellen and her friends are discussing Christmas presents they are about to make out of satin cloth and morocco leather they have received. They agree to choose which pieces each of them will take. “But this business of choosing was found to be very long and very difficult….” One girl says: “I declare it’s too vexatious! Here I’ve got this beautiful piece of blue satin, and can’t do any thing with it; it just matches that blue morocco —it’s a perfect match—I could have made a splendid thing of it, and I have got some cord and tassels that would just do—I declare it’s too bad.” She is told by another girl: “Well, choose, Margaret.” But Margaret replies: “I don’t know what to choose—that’s the thing. What can one do with red and purple morocco and blue satin? I might as well give up» — el segundo pasaje de la novela de Susan Warner que Nissenbaum transcribe, donde la impotencia ante la elección se vuelve aguda: las niñas no logran repartirse los retazos de satén y tafilete
«The Sedgwick family maintained its cohesion and distinction well into the present century; one of its more recent members, Edie Sedgwick, achieved notoriety—and an early death from drugs—as a movie starlet in Andy Warhol’s “stable.” See Jean Stein, Edie, An American Biography (New York: Knopf, 1982).» — lo que Nissenbaum añade en nota sobre la continuidad de esa familia hasta el siglo XX, con una de sus miembros recientes muerta joven por las drogas
«Theodore Sedgwick himself returned such salutations for the first time only on Jan. 1, 1795, in a pair of letters, one to his wife and the other to Ephraim Williams» — el dato que Nissenbaum fija en nota sobre el patriarca: solo el 1 de enero de 1795 devolvió por primera vez esos saludos, en dos cartas
«Note: The Sedgwick Family Papers are catalogued in five separate collections at the Massachusetts Historical Society, labeled I-V, respectively. Henceforth these will be referred to as “Sedgwick I” [etc.]. The papers of Catharine M. Sedgwick are catalogued separately.» — la advertencia archivística que Nissenbaum da en nota sobre cómo están catalogados esos papeles familiares
«Van Schaack jokingly added that his wife had “eloped,” so there would be no women present.» — el añadido jocoso del amigo del patriarca en aquella carta de 1784 según la nota
«Eight years earlier, when Sedgwick and Van Schaack were both serving in the War for Independence, Sedgwick sent his friend a copy of a soldier’s drinking song in mid-December; the song concluded: “Its not right for a soldier to grumble I know / But there is one grudge that I lawfully owe» — la canción de soldados bebedores que Sedgwick mandó a su amigo a mediados de diciembre durante la guerra de independencia; el troceo corta la letra en el cambio de plana
«The phrase comes from his letter to Pamela Dwight of Jan. 1, 1795 (Sedgwick V, Box 1.14» — la fuente exacta de la fórmula que Nissenbaum cita en el cuerpo sobre las fiestas de damas
«On New Year’s Eve, 1799/1800, Theodore Sedgwick, Jr., wrote to his father: “I should [prefer to] live in a Town, at this season” (Sedgwick III, Box 2.16). And in 1808 Catharine M. Sedgwick wrote to her sister Frances Watson on Dec. 25 that she felt “secluded and alone» — los dos testimonios con que Nissenbaum documenta en nota el ansia de ciudad de la familia en la temporada
«Note: Catharine M. Sedgwick’s papers are catalogued in three separate collections at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Henceforth these will be referred to as “CMS I” [etc.], and Catharine M. Sedgwick’s name will be abbreviated “CMS.”» — la segunda advertencia archivística de Nissenbaum, sobre las tres colecciones separadas de los papeles de la escritora
«A letter from Theodore Sedgwick to Henry D. Sedgwick, written the next day, Jan. 2, 1812 (ibid.), makes no reference to this “feast.”» — el silencio que Nissenbaum señala en nota: la carta del patriarca del día siguiente no alude a la comida de Año Nuevo que su hija había descrito
«The next day Henry D. Sedgwick described the scene: “On New Year’s day Robert began his visits at a quarter past twelve. I accompanied him. It is considered indispensable to visit all your friends at that season…. We finished our rounds or rather ex[h]austed our time at a quarter past 3 having made more than 30 visits in every part of the city. There were still several omissions which he very much regretted.» — la escena que ese mismo corresponsal describió al día siguiente: más de treinta visitas en tres horas por toda la ciudad, y todavía varias omisiones que su hermano lamentaba
«This was not because of a dearth of young people in the family. From 1795 to 1820 there were twenty Sedgwick children born to the third generation (i.e., Theodore Sedgwick’s grandchildren» — el dato con que Nissenbaum descarta una explicación fácil del silencio sobre los niños: de 1795 a 1820 nacieron veinte niños en la tercera generación de la familia
«Vous savez notre cher pere que nous vous aimons et que nous n’avons rien a vous donner si nous avions ete dans la ville certainement nous vous avarions donne quelque chose. A l’un qui est toujours indulgent et toujours genereaux a tout le monde et surtout a ses enfans a [sic] billet est presente par Theodore Sedgwick et M. Sedgwick.» — la nota en francés con que los dos niños se disculparon con su padre por no tener nada que darle, que Nissenbaum transcribe entera
«Theodore III was 12, and his sister was 10 years old. Of course, the letter itself was the real present, displaying, as it did, the children’s command of a foreign language.» — las edades de aquellos dos niños y lo que Nissenbaum señala del verdadero regalo: la carta misma, que exhibía su dominio de una lengua extranjera
«This was one of the rare acknowledgments of the way Catharine Sedgwick was handed responsibility by her relatives.» — lo que Nissenbaum destaca de una carta de 1835: uno de los reconocimientos raros de cómo los parientes descargaban la responsabilidad en Catharine Sedgwick
«Catharine Sedgwick didn’t much like the commercial part of Christmas, but it was she who ended up doing much of the family’s shopping, because other family members trusted her judgment (and as an unmarried woman, she was expected to have the time» — la contradicción que Nissenbaum consigna sobre esa escritora: no le gustaba la parte comercial de la fiesta y acabó haciendo buena parte de las compras de la familia, porque confiaban en su criterio y por soltera
«This passage was a postscript to a letter otherwise addressed to young Katherine’s father, Charles Sedgwick (Catharine’s youngest brother). Catharine Sedgwick herself had sent this same niece a present of books.» — la precisión que Nissenbaum da en nota sobre la carta de la muñeca de cera: era una posdata a una carta dirigida al padre de la niña
«Richard Gassan—who also devised the idea of calculating these figures.» — el crédito que Nissenbaum da en nota por los cálculos de costos y ganancias de la casa editora, obra de un estudiante de posgrado al que nombra; el troceo abre el segmento a media frase
«It was actually New Year’s rituals in New York that were unknown in Boston, as Henry D. Sedgwick pointed out in a letter to his Boston fiancée: “Tomorrow is the commencement of a new year consecrated here to a species of brisk hilarity and hurried sociability of which you have scarcely an idea in Boston.» — lo que Nissenbaum precisa sobre la geografía de esos ritos: eran los de Año Nuevo en Nueva York los desconocidos en Boston, según escribió Henry D. Sedgwick a su prometida bostoniana; la cita se corta antes de la fracción que el OCR del troceo corrompe con asteriscos
«What is just as striking (but not apparent from the above description) is that the woman who sent the present, “Aunt Speakman” (Jane Sedgwick’s aunt on her mother’s side) was a Bostonian. One of the lingering ambiguities of the Christmas season (it would not be resolved for another generation) was when to open presents—on December 25 or January 1?» — la ambigüedad que Nissenbaum señala en nota sobre la temporada: cuándo abrir los regalos, si el 25 de diciembre o el 1 de enero, cosa no resuelta hasta una generación después
«Ultimately, it was all the same thing, inasmuch as the date was less important than the sheer fact of the gifts (indeed, as we shall see, the first Christmas trees in the Sedgwick family would be set out on New Year’s Day). But it is striking nonetheless that New York was the city that held out for New Year’s, while December 25 was more customary in Boston.» — el reparto geográfico de esa ambigüedad según la nota: Nueva York resistía por el Año Nuevo y en Boston era más acostumbrado el 25 de diciembre
«Three years later, Catharine Sedgwick teased Lizzie on the morning of New Year’s Day: “Lizzie woke with the first ray of light—jumped into my bed & I quizzed [i.e., teased] Sue & her unmerci[full]y with a descrip[tio]n of the Tables [of presents] awaiting them—boxes of pills, doses of castor-oil, crust of bread, mug of water, &c.» — la broma que la tía gastó a la niña la mañana de Año Nuevo de 1835 según la nota: le describió unas mesas de regalos llenas de cajas de píldoras, dosis de aceite de ricino, cortezas de pan y una jarra de agua
«yesterday, and was waited upon by hundreds of the little people of the Queen City. Hearing of what was going on, we called around just about sun-down, but were rather late. The old gentleman, with his arms full of Christmas presents, was on the eve of retiring for the night. Seeing us however, he paused a moment, although he had one leg down the chimney, and allowed us to scan his features.» — el reporte de un periódico de Cincinnati de 1844 que Nissenbaum cita en nota: los redactores fueron a ver al viejo caballero y lo hallaron con una pierna ya metida en la chimenea; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«He holds another levee today, and such of our little friends as did not visit him yesterday, should not fail to make him a call” (Cincinnati Daily Gazette, Dec. 24, 1844). The same picture turned up in an 1851 jeweler’s advertisement in Bangor, Maine. (1851 Bangor City Directory.» — el remate de ese reporte y el rastro posterior de la misma estampa en un anuncio de joyería de Maine en 1851
«The earliest reference I have found to a living impersonation of Santa Claus dates from 1833, when a student at the General Theological Seminary in New York (Clement Clarke Moore’s institution, located in Chelsea) attended a church Christmas fair in Morristown, New Jersey, and reported that “[i]t was held … under the auspices of a figure called St. Nicholas who was robed in fur, and dressed according to the description of Prof. Moore in his poem.» — la referencia más temprana que el propio autor dice haber hallado a una personificación viva de Santa Claus: un diario manuscrito de 1833 de un seminarista de la institución de Moore
«Sandra D. Hayslette brought this item to my attention while she was an undergraduate student at the College of William and Mary.» — el crédito que Nissenbaum da por ese hallazgo a una estudiante de licenciatura
«It is possible that this St. Nicholas was a constructed figure and not a real person.» — la reserva que el propio autor pone a ese testimonio de 1833
«In the capitalist order, personal relationships were based on competition, limited only by law and contract, while in the domestic order those relationships were founded on affection and loyalty. In retrospect, it is clear enough that capitalism and domesticity went hand in hand with each other. But at the time, people sometimes experienced the two as being in mutual tension, a tension that was resolved by assigning the two to operate in what were sometimes termed “separate spheres.» — la paradoja que Nissenbaum expone en nota apoyado en un estudio ajeno: el orden capitalista fundaba las relaciones en la competencia y el doméstico en el afecto, y la tensión se resolvió asignándolos a esferas separadas
«Horace Greeley himself had editorially resisted Christmas consumerism throughout the 1840s. For a while he ran annual editorials attacking lavish spending as socially harmful.» — la resistencia editorial de Horace Greeley al consumismo navideño que Nissenbaum consigna en nota para toda la década de 1840
«The first expression of this new concern I have found is a story by Eliza Leslie, the author of “Snow-Balling.” It is “The Souvenir,” in The Pearl for 1830 (Philadelphia), 106–123, a story about a little girl who gives away the Gift Book she has received as a Christmas present.» — la primera expresión de la preocupación nueva que el propio autor dice haber hallado: un cuento de 1830 de la misma Eliza Leslie, sobre una niña que regala el libro que le habían dado
«Harriet Martineau thought this was the Follens’ first Christmas tree, but Eliza Follen’s account indicates that it was probably their fourth.» — la corrección documental que Nissenbaum hace en nota al relato de Martineau, con la biografía escrita por la viuda de Follen como fuente
«The Follens’ little boy was particularly fond of Catharine Sedgwick (he called her “Aunt Catharine”), and she returned his affection.» — el detalle familiar que Nissenbaum añade en nota sobre el niño del árbol y la escritora, a la que llamaba tía
«The Harvard position paid only $500 per annum. One of the three men who contributed the money was Eliza Follen’s father.» — los datos económicos de la cátedra de Follen que Nissenbaum da en nota, con el suegro entre los tres donantes
«Douglas Stange argues that the termination was unrelated to Follen’s abolitionist activities, and that Harvard had never planned in the first place to offer Folien a permanent job; he attributes the anti-Harvard interpretation to radical Garrisonian propaganda—the desire to create abolitionist martyrs» — la tesis contraria que Nissenbaum consigna de otro estudioso: la cátedra no habría terminado por el abolicionismo de Follen, y la lectura contraria sería propaganda garrisoniana para fabricar mártires
«I disagree: Stange’s argument is based on a literal interpretation of a letter written by Harvard president Josiah Quincy, a letter that was almost certainly designed to protect Harvard’s interests by ascribing to purely administrative causes what was actually a thoroughly political decision.» — la posición que el propio autor toma en esa disputa: el argumento contrario se apoya en leer literalmente una carta del presidente de Harvard, escrita casi con certeza para proteger los intereses de la institución
«Compare the following letter from William Minot to Jane Sedgwick, April 14, 1836: “The Follens … are full of prejudices & have communicated … very erroneous notions of the condition of Harvard College» — la carta de 1836 que Nissenbaum aduce contra esa lectura, donde se acusa a los Follen de estar llenos de prejuicios y de difundir nociones erróneas sobre Harvard
«the home and family; capitalist values held sway in most of the world outside, the world of business and politics.» — el reparto de esas dos esferas según la nota: los valores domésticos dentro de la casa y los capitalistas en el mundo de los negocios y la política; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«The missing presents turned up the following evening. For other examples, see Susan R. Sedgwick to her son Theodore Sedgwick III, Dec. 16, 1830 (Sedgwick II, Box 7.14), and Theodore Sedgwick, Jr., to Theodore Sedgwick III, Dec. 17, 1832 (Sedgwick» — el desenlace que Nissenbaum da en nota del episodio de los regalos extraviados de 1836; el troceo corta la referencia en el cambio de plana
«Or again, CMS to Katherine Sedgwick, Dec. 29, 1834[-Jan. 2, 1835]: “Your Aunt & E. rec’d handsome wax flowers from the Rod[ha]ms & mingling a few fresh geranium leaves with them they passed with these artifi[cia]l New Yorkers for as natural as mine. Do you believe they’d know a live lion from a dead dog?» — el segundo pasaje de la misma corresponsal que Nissenbaum cita en nota: unas flores de cera pasaron por naturales ante los neoyorquinos artificiales, y ella se pregunta si distinguirían un león vivo de un perro muerto
«Major Longbows Description of Jos. Bonfanti’s Fancy Store,” American Antiquarian Society. This verse was printed sometime between 1824 and 1837, probably during the mid-1820S. Bonfanti published another Christmas verse-advertisement during the 1824 Christmas season, sixteen verses describing the shop’s most alluring gifts—but without any reference to Santa Claus (this appeared in the New York Advertiser, Jan. 1, 1825» — la datación y el antecedente del volante en verso de la joyería neoyorquina que Nissenbaum cita en el cuerpo, con otro anuncio en verso del mismo comerciante sin mención de Santa Claus
«are disappointed in their places & impute the failure to others instead of themselves. The Dr. [Folien] is a learned & very laborious man of good talents, an excellent teacher of the German language, but deficient in the qualifications of an interesting & useful public lecturer, and he & his wife are dissatisfied because the College would not give him the professorship of moral philosophy which has been vacant ever since the death of Mr. Fiske[?], for which he is by no means fit. They have both thrown themselves into the melee of this abolition controversy[,] & by their indiscreet zeal have annoyed their friends & as I think injured the cause of emancipation» — la continuación de aquella carta de 1836 contra los Follen: se los acusa de imputar a otros su fracaso y de haber dañado la causa de la emancipación con su celo indiscreto; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«Follen seems to have developed this style early in life: In response to being taunted by his father and brothers, he devised a facade of “perfect self-control” to hide his feelings» — el origen que Nissenbaum atribuye en nota al dominio de sí de Follen: lo habría desarrollado de joven frente a las burlas de su padre y sus hermanos
«Martineau’s publisher, Saunders and Otley, could hardly have been willing to print a book that was so personally revealing—and so politically controversial (for the terms of her book contract, see Webb, Martineau, 156» — la explicación editorial que Nissenbaum propone para el silencio de Martineau: su editor difícilmente habría impreso un libro tan personal y tan polémico
«Whenever she wrote about Charles Follens role in the abolitionist movement (as she did in reporting his stoical performance before the Massachusetts legislative committee in early 1836, an event she witnessed), Martineau kept her own relationship with him completely out of her account.» — la regla que Nissenbaum detecta en la escritura de Martineau: al tratar el papel abolicionista de Follen dejaba fuera por completo su relación con él
«Conversely, whenever she wrote of that personal relationship (as she did in recounting the western trip she took with the Follens in the late spring of 1836, or—to return to the subject of this book—the evening of the famous Christmas tree), she disguised Follen’s identity by referring to him simply as “Dr. F.,” an apolitical figure who, in this guise, invariably played a secondary role to his young son, “my little friend Charley.» — la regla inversa: al tratar esa relación personal disfrazaba la identidad de él, reducido a una inicial y a figura apolítica secundaria frente a su hijo
«The use of “little Charley” was an effective literary device. The boy also served as a rhetorical substitute for his father, and made it possible for Martineau to convey in utterly nonpolitical ways her close relationship with Charles Follen (who appeared in the wholly domestic role of Charley’s father» — lo que Nissenbaum sostiene del recurso literario del niño: servía de sustituto retórico del padre y permitía decir en clave doméstica una relación que era política
«Lawrence J. Friedman, Gregarious Saints: Self and Community in American Abolitionism, 1830–1870 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), actually uses as an epigraph the Follen letter I have quoted above.» — el libro que Nissenbaum señala en nota por usar como epígrafe la misma carta de Follen que él cita en el cuerpo
«For an African-American participant in many of these fairs, see Ray Allen Billington, ed., The Journal of Charlotte Forten, A Free Negro in the Slavery Era (New York: Norton, 1981), 66, 78, 87, 133, 125–126.» — la fuente que Nissenbaum remite para una participante afroestadounidense en aquellas ferias antiesclavistas
«On January 1, 1829, bad weather kept the number of visitors down to about thirty. But next year the weather was “absolutely perfect,” and from noon until 4 p.m. she received “a constant succession of guests.” Poor health prevented Mrs. Sedgwick from receiving visitors the next two years, but in 1834 she was back in form.» — la serie de años que Nissenbaum reconstruye en nota para las visitas de Año Nuevo de aquella señora, con el mal tiempo, la salud quebrada y el regreso a la forma en 1834
«But by associating the Christmas tree itself with Lizzy’s German maidservant, Sedgwick managed to ally herself imaginatively with the world “below”—a world equally detached from bourgeois American culture.» — lo que Nissenbaum lee en la elección de la criada alemana del cuento: la autora se aliaba imaginativamente con un mundo de abajo, igual de desprendido de la cultura burguesa estadounidense
«In 1824, two years later, a humorous notice in a York (Penn.) newspaper suggests that Christmas trees could still be put to the service of a different Christmas tradition: carnival and courtship. That year a local young men’s club (the Society of Bachelors) announced that—in return for receiving a “Cart load of Gin-gercakes” from any “Old Maids” who would pay them a visit on “second Christmas eve”—they would set up a “Krischtkintle Baum.» — el aviso humorístico de 1824 que Nissenbaum cita en nota: un club de solteros ofrecía montar un árbol a cambio de un carro de pasteles de jengibre de las solteronas que los visitaran
«Coleridge himself, in a 1798 letter, referred to his society as “Gentry and Nobility.” His description of the house in which he observed the Christmas tree refers to two parlors. (Coleridge was rather offended by the sexual looseness he witnessed in Ratzeburg.» — dos datos que Nissenbaum añade en nota sobre la estancia de Coleridge: cómo llamaba él a su compañía, y que lo ofendía bastante la soltura sexual que presenciaba
«The ritual contained some of the old elements of Christmas as judgment day: Just before the presents are actually distributed, “the mother says privately to each of her daughters, and the father to his sons, that which he has observed most praise-worthy and that which was most faulty in their conduct.» — el resto de juicio que Nissenbaum halla en el rito de Ratzeburgo: antes de repartir los regalos, cada padre dice en privado a cada hijo lo más loable y lo más culpable de su conducta
«It is interesting that the parents tell the children their faults “privately;” this has the ring of a new practice (like the Christmas tree itself» — lo que Nissenbaum subraya de ese detalle: que las faltas se digan en privado tiene el aire de una práctica nueva, como el árbol mismo
«I suspect that I have not completely tracked down the printing history of Coleridge’s little report, or the history of the way it reappeared in American sources, sometimes without attribution.» — la reserva que el propio autor declara sobre su reconstrucción de la historia de impresión del relato de Coleridge en fuentes estadounidenses
«The title was registered for copyright on December 25, 1830, and the preface wished the children who read it “a merry Christmas and a happy New-Year” (ibid., iv). The book was reprinted several times, into the 1850s.» — los datos editoriales que Nissenbaum da del libro infantil de Lydia Maria Child, registrado el día de Navidad de 1830
«This last statement of this lesson reveals that Coleridge himself, and not Lydia Maria Child, was almost surely the source.» — lo que Nissenbaum infiere del cierre de la lección de aquella cartilla de 1832: la fuente casi seguramente era Coleridge y no la paráfrasis de Child
«Circumstantial evidence suggests that J. K. Smith, too, was a progressive Unitarian. Smith’s book went through three editions, all published in Keene, between 1832 and 1842.» — lo que la evidencia circunstancial sugiere sobre el autor de esa cartilla según Nissenbaum, y las tres ediciones que el libro tuvo
«This magazine was edited by Nathaniel Willis, the father of two writers who were very popular in their day» — quién editaba la revista religiosa infantil de 1840 según la nota, padre de dos escritores muy populares en su tiempo
«Ellery Sedgwick (who reported conversing with her through Martineaus notorious hearing aid—she was hard-of-hearing—which Mrs. Sedgwick called the “dreaded trumpet.» — el detalle que Nissenbaum consigna del primer encuentro entre Martineau y una de las Sedgwick: la conversación por la trompetilla acústica que aquella señora llamó la trompeta temida; el troceo abre el segmento a media frase
«asked of me: but to comply was probably to shut against me every door in the United States but those of the Abolitionists. I should no more see persons and things as they ordinarily were: I should have no more comfort or pleasure in my travels; and my very life would be … endangered by an avowal of the kind desired» — lo que Martineau recordaba veinte años después de aquella decisión: cumplir cerraría contra ella todas las puertas de Estados Unidos salvo las de los abolicionistas, y hasta su vida peligraría; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«The rhetoric here suggests that the occasion was to be a young people’s carnival. As for the picture (see page 196) by John Lewis Krimmel (1776–1821): Milo M. Naeve, John Lewis Krimmel: An Artist in Federal America (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1987), dates this picture to 1819–20; while Anneliese Harding, John Lewis Krimmel: Genre Artist of the Early Republic (Winterthur, Del.: Winterthur Publications, 1994), 45, gives the date as 1812–13.» — lo que Nissenbaum lee en esa retórica y el desacuerdo de fechas que consigna sin arbitrar entre dos catálogos del pintor alemán del primer árbol dibujado
«This story had appeared earlier that year in a French magazine, La Belle Assemblée (Jan. 1820). For a much later story (which placed the origin of the Christmas tree even earlier),» — la procedencia previa del relato de 1820 que Nissenbaum consigna; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana y la frase sigue con el relato mucho más tardío que llevaba el origen del árbol al año 722
«faults they have overcome during the year, and what they have still left to overcome.’” (“‘I should like that» — lo que los niños del relato de 1840 proponen a su vez siguiendo a Coleridge: que los padres les den notas con las faltas vencidas durante el año y las que quedan por vencer; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«Greven adds that such parents (whom he calls “moderates,” as distinct from “evangelicals”) “were preoccupied with self-established and self-maintained boundaries over their passions and appetites» — lo que Nissenbaum toma del historiador Philip Greven sobre esos padres, a los que llama moderados frente a los evangélicos: los preocupaban los límites puestos y mantenidos por uno mismo
«Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Historic Notes of Life and Letters in New England,” ibid., vol. 10, 325. I am indebted to Conrad Wright for this reference.» — la ficha del ensayo de Emerson sobre la reforma de Nueva Inglaterra y el crédito que Nissenbaum da por la referencia
«Mrs. Sedgwick called Alcott an “enthusiast” and an “ultra.”» — los dos términos con que Susan Sedgwick calificó a Bronson Alcott en su reseña, según la nota
«Richard Brodhead makes a compelling linkage between radical educational theory and the abolitionists’ horror of the use of the lash on slave plantations.» — el enlace que Nissenbaum llama convincente en otro estudioso: entre la teoría educativa radical y el horror abolicionista al uso del látigo en las plantaciones
«Folien maintained, as Elizabeth Palmer Peabody later reported, “that the child should be handled not with reference to his future, but to his present perfection; that the father of the man is the perfect child in the balance of childish beauty, and not the child prematurely developed into a man; that education which does the latter both destroys the child and dwarfs the man.» — lo que Follen sostenía según lo reportó años después Elizabeth Palmer Peabody: el niño ha de tratarse no con referencia a su futuro sino a su perfección presente
«For further evidence of Follen’s adherence Pestalozzian principles: In 1826 he tried to procure some “fables” by Pestalozzi (Works, 1, 161). And in 1828 he attempted to revise William Russel’s Pestalozzian “Teacher’s Manual,” a work evidently still in manuscript» — las dos pruebas adicionales que Nissenbaum aduce de la adhesión de Follen al pestalozzianismo: buscó unas fábulas del suizo en 1826 y quiso revisar un manual pestalozziano en 1828
«On such occasions, the patrons expressed their spiritual [piety] by offering “earthly gifts” to their clients. “Thus stood the mother among her children, the master among his workmen, the landlord among his tenants. Thus assembled the congregation before its pastor; thus the rich entered the cottage of the poor» — el cuadro de reciprocidad armoniosa que Pestalozzi pintaba según Nissenbaum: así estaba la madre entre sus hijos, el maestro entre sus obreros y el terrateniente entre sus arrendatarios
«But that was in the old days. In modern times, Pestalozzi implied, neither side in this exchange, whether workmen and masters, tenants and landlords, even congregations and pastors, had kept their part of the arrangement. But with children, Pestalozzi insisted, the old relations could and did still continue to function in their original harmony, and in the enactment of these relations with the young the intense spirituality of the old days could be re-created.» — lo que Nissenbaum lee en ese cuadro: para Pestalozzi ninguna de las dos partes cumplía ya su parte del arreglo en los tiempos modernos, salvo con los niños
«To an extent, Pestalozzi was simply playing on the symbolism of the Magi bringing gifts to the Christ child, with the assembled children taking the role of the Christ child. But for Pestalozzi the connection between children and the Christ child was real as well as symbolic—and it was here that his words crossed the line from symbolic social inversion into something much more radical.» — hasta dónde llega esa lectura según Nissenbaum: en parte Pestalozzi jugaba con la simbología de los Magos, pero para él la conexión entre los niños y el Niño Jesús era real además de simbólica
«The same custom is implied in Catharine Sedgwick’s 1836 story “New Year’s Day.” There the children “waked [Lizzy Percival, the heroine] at dawn with … cries of ‘Happy New Year’;” and the servants “besieged her door with their earnest taps and their heart-felt good wishes, and each received a gift and a kind word to grace it.» — el eco del mismo juego navideño que Nissenbaum halla en el cuento de 1836 de Catharine Sedgwick, con los criados asediando la puerta de la heroína y recibiendo cada uno un don y una palabra amable
«The best book about Fuller is Charles Capper’s analytic biography Margaret Fuller, An American Romantic Life: The Private Years (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), the first of two projected volumes, taking Fuller’s career only up to 1841.» — el libro que Nissenbaum tiene por el mejor sobre Margaret Fuller, primero de dos volúmenes proyectados
«A Christmas Carol never even shows us the poor, even though the book opens by evoking a general vision of a society riven by vast economic and social divisions. But the book provides hardly a glimpse of poverty, and none at all of discontent.» — el hallazgo negativo que Nissenbaum desarrolla en nota sobre la novela de Dickens: abre evocando una sociedad partida por divisiones económicas vastas y apenas da un atisbo de pobreza y ninguno de descontento
«Real poverty does make one appearance on this tour—but only in the form of a pair of allegorical figures labeled “Want” and “Ignorance.” And these figures, who do not move or speak, take the innocent form of a pair of young children.» — la única aparición de la pobreza real en esa novela según Nissenbaum: dos figuras alegóricas rotuladas Carencia e Ignorancia, que no se mueven ni hablan y toman la forma inocente de dos niños
«Because these two scenes are portrayed so vividly, they end up satisfying us emotionally. But both Fred’s Christmas dinner and (as we have seen) the Cratchits’ are bourgeois events—even though the Cratchits’ dinner has all the pathos (without any of the accompanying resentment) of a proletarian meal.» — lo que Nissenbaum concluye de las dos cenas detalladas de esa novela: nos satisfacen emocionalmente y las dos son acontecimientos burgueses, aunque una tenga todo el patetismo de una comida proletaria
«Should the weather prove fine there seems to be no reason why everybody, including all the possible Bob Cratchits and Tiny Tims in the great Metropolis, should not to-day have the happiest of ‘Merry Christmases.’ The times are hard, it is said, but the charitable institutions are all bountifully supplied with substantial food, and with an abundance of toys and fruit and candy for the children…. In the markets the dealers say that never before were there so many purchases by employers who desired to reward faithful employees, and to make their gifts in the shape of poultry.» — el editorial navideño de 1876 que Nissenbaum añade en nota al de 1893: las instituciones caritativas bien provistas y los patrones comprando aves para premiar a sus empleados fieles
«This same number of The Pearl contained a prefatory poem about holiday gifts, signed “A.D.W.” and dated from Stockbridge (the author was almost certainly a friend of the Stockbridge Sedgwicks). This poem concludes with two stanzas advertising The Pearl itself: “And here is one,—look, Ellen dear,—/ That I from all would choose; / Its very name’t is sweet to hear; / Affection’s Gift’ who’d lose» — el poema prefatorio del mismo volumen de regalo de 1834 que Nissenbaum transcribe en nota, firmado con iniciales y fechado en Stockbridge, que se anuncia a sí mismo en sus estrofas finales; el troceo corta en el cambio de plana
«I ascertained the authorship of this essay from Charles Capper. For another “German” legend, printed in an American newspaper in the mid-1830s—complete with suffering child, a vision of the infant Jesus, and a Christmas tree—see “The Forlorn Child’s Christmas Eve, a translation from the German of Ruckert,” in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, Dec. 24, 1836.» — cómo dice el propio autor haber sabido quién firmaba el editorial navideño de 1844, y la otra leyenda alemana que señala en nota
«have used these sources to arrive at the above interpretation, but the interpretation itself is my own.» — lo que el propio autor declara sobre la larga lista de fuentes alemanas de esa sección; el troceo funde el número de nota con la inicial de la frase, *14.1 have used*
«Sedgwick assured her husband that “It would have just suited you—sufficiently republican, yet in excellent taste.» — lo que aquella corresponsal aseguraba a su marido sobre una velada: le habría cuadrado, suficientemente republicana y de excelente gusto; el troceo abre la plana a media frase
«Who can devote even one day to hilarity and social enjoyment until he shall have at least devoted as much of his worldly substance as that day’s enjoyment will cost him to the relief of the misery so imminent and appalling.» — la fórmula del *Tribune* de 1845 que Nissenbaum cita en nota sobre la obligación de dar antes de festejar
«Greeley went on to insist on the need to attack poverty as a systemic problem.» — lo que Greeley añadía en 1848 según la nota: la pobreza había que atacarla como problema sistémico
«The evils of individual, which is, as a general rule, indiscriminate, charity, are almost equal to its benefits; and the truly charitable will wisely give what they can to the organized societies”) and Dec. 23, 1871 (“A dollar given to an institution like this [the Children’s Aid Society] is sure to be more fruitful than twenty bestowed in undiscriminating alms» — las dos fórmulas del *New York Times* que Nissenbaum añade en nota contra la caridad individual indiscriminada y a favor de dar a las sociedades organizadas
«Nasaw’s study deals with the period 1900–20, when newsboy culture had changed (for example, most early-twentieth-century newsboys lived with their own families» — el tratamiento moderno que Nissenbaum tiene por el más comprensivo de la cultura de los vendedores de periódicos, con la acotación de que cubre un periodo posterior
«Roosevelt was present once again in 1884 (ibid., Dec. 26, 1884» — el dato que Nissenbaum añade en nota sobre la asistencia de Theodore Roosevelt a aquellas cenas
«Most of the other books about newsboys were anonymously authored. These include John El-lard, The Newsboy (Philadelphia, 1860), a nonfiction account of the “Newsboys’ Aid Society,” founded in Philadelphia in 1858; Tom Brice, the News-boy (New York, 1862); Willie Wilson, the Newsboy (New York, 1865), a moralistic tale of a good boy; Luke Darrell, the Chicago Newsboy (Chicago, 1866); and [Thomas March Clark,] John Whopper the Newsboy (Boston, 1871), a fantasy adventure story of a newsboy’s trip to China.» — el catálogo de libros sobre esos muchachos que Nissenbaum enumera en nota, casi todos anónimos, entre ellos una fantasía sobre un viaje a China
«Robert says later, “‘I never had any father; I was sea» — la frase que el héroe de aquella novela dice más adelante según la nota; el troceo parte la palabra con guion de fin de renglón
«For other examples of poor children who do not ask for anything, see “Nelly’s Christmas Gift,” ibid., Dec. 20, 1877, 434–435 (in this story the little heroine is black); and also the two stories to be discussed below.» — los otros ejemplos de niños pobres que no piden nada que Nissenbaum remite en nota, uno de ellos con heroína negra
«See also Frank Lee Benedict, “The Orphan’s New-Year’s Eve,” Peterson’s Magazine 31 (Jan. 1864), 27–34, in which an impoverished orphan turns out to be the illegitimate daughter of the rich heroine’s closest friend.» — el segundo relato que Nissenbaum aduce con el mismo patrón: la huérfana empobrecida resulta ser hija ilegítima de la amiga más cercana de la heroína rica
«This story is also about the conflict between older notions of family structure, which gave fathers veto power over their children’s marriage partners, and emerging notions which accorded children free choice. From still another angle, the daughter’s “elopement”—and her subsequent banishment from the family—can be read as a symbolic way of touching on the issue of premarital sex and illegitimacy. Ironically, from this angle such stories do deal with social class, after all—in the form of the risk of downward mobility posed by sexual misconduct.» — la segunda lectura que Nissenbaum propone de ese relato: el conflicto entre el veto paterno al matrimonio y la libre elección de los hijos, y la fuga leída como modo simbólico de tocar el sexo prematrimonial
«The Tribune of Dec. 26, 1853, published an extensive list of the charitable agencies that had held open house the previous day— twenty in all.» — la cifra que Nissenbaum da en nota de las agencias caritativas que abrieron sus puertas el día de Navidad de 1853
«There were three other reports of charity visitations in that same number of the Tribune. All three took place at institutions for children: Randalls Island, the New York Juvenile Asylum (the children there were served a dinner “which they enjoyed in a manner that would have made many a street vagrant envious”), and the Girls’ Industrial School.» — los otros tres reportes de visitas caritativas del mismo número del periódico, los tres en instituciones para niños
«That same year Alcott published a novel in which several children experience a perfect, present-filled Christmas: “‘Now, I believe I’ve got every thing in the world that I want» — el contraste que Nissenbaum señala en nota: el mismo año de aquella visita, Alcott publicó una novela con niños que tienen una Navidad perfecta y colmada de regalos
«It is evident that this event was resented by the established charitable agencies, who saw it as drawing attention (and contributions) away from their own work. A representative of the Christmas Society told a reporter the following year, “The organized charities of the city say we have been the means of depriving them of subscriptions» — el recelo que aquel reparto masivo despertó en las agencias caritativas asentadas según la nota, por desviarles atención y contribuciones
«See also the 1901 report: “From the boxes many prominent people looked down upon the 3,000 Christmas diners, the majority of whom remained until the end of the entertainment.” The article concluded with a list of prominent New Yorkers who “purchased boxes» — el reporte de 1901 que Nissenbaum añade: desde los palcos, mucha gente prominente miraba a los tres mil comensales, con la lista de quienes habían comprado palco
«New York’s mayor, Seth Low, was in attendance on this occasion.» — el dato que Nissenbaum añade sobre la cena de 1903
«The article continues: “After eating three plates of turkey and as many dishes of sauce the soup is called for, and when they have got outside of one or two bowls they stuff their pockets with candy, apples, nuts, bananas and other good things and hasten to the gymnasium, where they exercise vigorously for an hour…. All these customs were kept strictly at the dinner last night.» — la continuación del reporte de 1895 sobre el orden ritual de aquella cena: tres platos de pavo y otras tantas salsas antes de la sopa, y luego los bolsillos llenos y el gimnasio
«New York Times, Dec. 26, 1901 (a dinner given by Frank Tilford, who was quoted as saying: “Who is there that could watch these little fellows enjoying themselves without feeling happy?” Nevertheless, “twelve policemen were present to maintain order.» — el contraste que Nissenbaum monta en nota con la cena de 1901: el anfitrión preguntaba quién podría mirar a esos pequeños sin sentirse feliz, y aun así había doce policías para mantener el orden
«Another account, published in 1897 by Thomas Nelson Page, included, just as Irving had done, an extended description of the anticipation of the guests who were being driven in carriages to spend Christmas in their old family mansion.» — lo que la nota 2 señala sobre el relato de Thomas Nelson Page y su deuda con Irving.
«It is no coincidence that Page, who helped invent the idea of the old Southern Christmas, was also largely responsible for inventing the myth of Old Dixie.» — el vínculo que la nota traza entre la invención de la Navidad sureña y la del mito de *Old Dixie*.
«For evidence that Christmas misrule was common in parts of the South at least as early as the late seventeenth century, see Michel Sobel’s provocative book, The World They Made Together: Black and White Values in Eighteenth-Century Virginia» — la fuente que la nota 6 remite para el desorden navideño sureño del siglo XVII.
«The one general exception to the pattern of free time involves house slaves, whose labor (unlike that of field hands) was needed at Christmas.» — la excepción que la nota 10 pone al descanso navideño de los esclavos: los de casa.
«ere weren’t no celebratin’, ‘ceptin’ at hog killin’. Dat was de biggest dat of de year.» — el testimonio de Henry Cheatam que la nota 11 recoge; el troceo imprime la inicial entre corchetes, *[D]ere*.
«A few planters—they seem to have clustered in the “new” States from Alabama to Texas—allowed no holiday at all.» — lo que la misma nota dice de los plantadores que no daban asueto alguno.
«On Christmas we didn’t have to do no work, no more’n feed the stock and do de li’l work round de house. When we got through with dat we had de rest of de day to run round wherever we wanted to go. ’Course, we had to get» — el recuerdo de Mingo White que la nota 12 cita; *permission from de master* sigue en la misma plana tras el corte del troceo.
«I much prefer giving a week in July, when the crop is laid by, to giving three days at Christmas.» — el remate de ese mismo consejo al amo: una semana de julio en lugar de tres días de Navidad.
«Over subsequent decades, Southerners themselves evoked similar recollections of Christmas as part of the psychological arsenal they employed to plead with Northern whites for reconciliation along class» — lo que la nota 1 del capítulo 7 apunta sobre el uso posterior que los sureños dieron al recuerdo de la Navidad; la frase sigue en la misma plana *and racial lines*.
«manuscript Memoir, Archives of the College of William and Mary. This item was brought to my attention by Patrick Breen.» — el crédito que la nota 8 da a quien le hizo ver la memoria manuscrita de William Nevison Blow.
«Believing that the strolling about of negroes for a week at a time during what are called Christmas Holidays is productive of much evil, the writer has set his face against the custom. Christmas is observed as a Sacred» — el arranque del consejo anónimo de Tatler en el Southern Cultivator que la nota 12 reproduce; la palabra *Festival* sigue tras el corte del renglón.
«separating sweet dishes from the rest of the food as a distinct course termed “dessert.”» — lo que la nota 63 del capítulo 6 apunta sobre el postre como plato aparte.
«that allowed slaves to exert at least symbolic control over the length of the holidays: They were to last as long as the “Yule log” continued to burn in one piece.» — el ritual del tronco de Navidad que la nota 13 describe como medida del asueto en la costa baja.
«Slaves would choose the largest possible tree, chop it down a year in advance, soak it in water for the entire year, and light it early on Christmas Day in the hall of the Big House, where it would» — lo que la misma nota cuenta del cuidado con que se elegía y se remojaba el tronco; la frase sigue *be the “back-log.”*
«The holidays would be over when the Yule log finally burned into two pieces—a process that could take a full week.» — la regla que cerraba las fiestas según esa nota.
«This ritual was apparently devised by literary-minded Anglophile planters; it derived from an English custom in which tenants and servants were permitted to eat at the patron’s table as long as the Yule log burned.» — la procedencia que la nota atribuye al rito: invención de plantadores anglófilos sobre una costumbre inglesa.
«I have not encountered a single case in which slaves were unambiguously deprived of their customary right to freedom from labor at Christmas.» — lo que el propio autor declara sobre el límite de su pesquisa en la nota 14.
«In 1854, James Henry Hammond denied slaves Christmas celebrations at his plantation, on account of a poor» — el caso de Hammond que la nota 14 pone como el más cercano a la privación; sigue *(wasted) harvest*.
«No festivities, crops being lost—negroes not having done their duty.» — lo que Hammond apuntó en su libro de registro el 25 de diciembre de 1854, según esa nota.
«made to run the gauntlet for taking a hog out of the pen. The whole plantation being shared out of Xmas until they found out the crimnal» — el segundo caso que la nota 14 aduce, en la arrocera de Robert Allston; el troceo imprime *crimnal* con el *[sic]* del propio autor.
«This is the first version of Douglass’s autobiography; his description of Christmas is different in» — lo que la nota 15 advierte sobre la versión de 1845 del relato de Frederick Douglass; sigue *subsequent versions*.
«followed the common practice of paying his slaves if they» — lo que la nota 16 refiere del amo que pagaba jornal en los días de asueto; sigue *would otherwise be free*.
«Several historians report that slave marriages were sometimes “grouped» — lo que la nota 19 apunta sobre las bodas de esclavos agrupadas en Navidad; el troceo corta antes de las comillas de *“grouped” at Christmas*.
«This claim is backed by the accounts of ex-slaves (e.g., Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, 221–222) as well as by plantation records.» — el respaldo documental que esa misma nota aduce.
«One plantation diary from 1859–60 records seven slave marriages at a single Christmas» — el dato que la nota toma de un diario de plantación; el troceo imprime el rango de años *1859–60* pegado al renglón.
«a Florida newspaper argued in 1857 that it was foolish to believe that the “idle, lounging, roving, drunken, and otherwise mischievous [Christmas] week fits the Negro in the least degree for the discharge of his duties.» — el argumento patronal contra la semana de Navidad que la nota 21 recoge de un periódico de Florida.
«I would agree with Eugene Genovese in taking issue with Douglass’s claim: “Douglass was right in thinking that the holidays … undermined the revolutionary impulse of the slaves, but he was wrong, I believe, in thinking that the cause lay in» — lo que el propio autor declara sobre su acuerdo parcial con Genovese frente a Douglass en la nota 23; la frase sigue en la plana siguiente *the slaves' being trapped in triviality and self-degradation*.
«Genovese suggests that the counterrevolutionary effect of such “big times” was that they developed in slaves a patriarchal sense of “community with their white folks» — la lectura de Genovese que la nota resume.
«On this issue I disagree with Genovese, and I would add another point: Douglass was very much a man of bourgeois principles—for him, the loss of self-control through drinking and sexual excess signified a loss of self-respect.» — lo que el autor opone a Genovese sobre el temple burgués de Douglass.
«Douglass’s rhetoric was bound to appeal to the temperance-minded audience that constituted a substantial part of his intended Northern readership.» — el destinatario que la nota 23 atribuye a la retórica de Douglass.
«It is now considered more becoming to attend the places of worship, or to have private religious parties among themselves; and in passing through a negro village on a Christmas night, it is more common to hear psalm-singing, than the sound of merriment.» — el efecto que Barclay atribuye a los misioneros: salmos en lugar de algazara en la noche de Navidad.
«The music at these revivals was limited to the human voice (and other parts of the body); musical instruments were prohibited for religious reasons.» — lo que la nota 26 apunta sobre la música de esos avivamientos.
«Every woman got a handkerchief to tie up her hair. Every girl got a ribbon, every boy a ballow [i.e., Barlow] knife, and every man a shin plaster. De neighbors call de place, de Shin Plaster, Barlow, Bandana place» — la lista de regalos que la nota 28 cita de los testimonios de ex esclavos, con el apodo que le valió a la finca.
«dances were formerly common, or I should rather say universal, at Christmas; but of late years have gone much out, owing to an idea impressed on the minds of the negroes, principally I believe by the» — lo que Alexander Barclay escribió en 1828 sobre los bailes navideños en Jamaica, según la nota 24; sigue *missionaries*.
«gifts on one plantation were unusual enough to become a subject of humorous comment» — lo que la nota 28 refiere de los regalos de una plantación como motivo de burla vecinal.
«Slaves often provided their own food and drink, from stock they had raised, made, or sold on their own during the year;» — lo que la nota 29 apunta sobre la comida que los propios esclavos ponían; el troceo parte la frase en el límite de plana y sigue *sometimes they simply stole the master's food*.
«Ho my Riley! dey eat en dey cram, / En bimeby [by-and-by] ole Miss’ll be sendin’ out de dram.» — la canción navideña que Joel Chandler Harris recogió en 1858, según la misma nota, con la glosa *[by-and-by]* que el troceo imprime entre corchetes.
«This slave was speaking in the month of June, so he had not eaten meat for almost half a year. His remark was made to Charles Ball, and reported in Ball, Slavery» — lo que la nota 32 precisa sobre el testimonio recogido por Charles Ball.
«workers received meat from their master during four weeks only» — la cifra que Jones da del reparto de carne, según esa nota.
«all of us would come up to de yard back of de Big House and Marse Billie and de overseer handed out presents for all.» — el recuerdo de Martha Colquitt que la nota 36 cita.
«One planter gave his slaves their gifts in the family kitchen.» — lo que la nota 37 apunta del reparto en la cocina de la casa grande.
«n the evening they assemble in their master’s or manager’s house, and as a matter of» — lo que un plantador jamaiquino refirió en la década de 1820, según la nota 37; el troceo imprime la inicial entre corchetes, *[i]n*, y la frase sigue *course, take possession of the largest room*.
«White people in great numbers assemble [there] to witness the gastronomical enjoymen» — lo que Solomon Northup dejó escrito sobre los amos que bajaban a las barracas, según la nota 38; el troceo imprime *[there]* entre corchetes.
«hile they danced and sang the master and his family sat and looked on» — el recuerdo de otro ex esclavo que la nota 38 cita; el troceo abre con la inicial entre corchetes, *[w]hile*.
«A misleading summary of this fascinating case can be found in Guion Griffis Johnson, Ante-Bellum North Carolina: A Social History (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1937): Johnson misinterprets the story as a matter of the owner’s merely» — lo que el autor objeta al resumen que Guion Griffis Johnson hizo del caso judicial; sigue *inviting the slaves home to perform*.
«later recalled how his own family decorated the table for their slaves’ Christmas dinner with “their own white hands» — lo que la nota 40 refiere del recuerdo de Thomas Nelson Page.
«Norrece T. Jones, who has measured Christmas meat in the context of “ordinary” slave diet on one South Carolina plantation, writes that over a period of nine» — lo que la nota 32 dice de la medición de Norrece T. Jones sobre la carne repartida; sigue *months*.
«I have endeavored … to make my Negroes joyous and happy, and am glad to see them enjoying themselves with such a contented hearty good will» — lo que un amo apuntó en su diario el 25 de diciembre de 1852, según la nota 42.
«One North Carolina planter was brought to court in 1847 for allowing members of his own family (including his young daughters) to dance with the slaves he had invited into the Big House on Christmas night.» — el pleito de 1847 que la nota 42 refiere: un plantador llevado a juicio por bailar su familia con los esclavos.
«The judge in the case acquitted this man of the charges, and in his decision wrote of the defendant’s behavior that “there was nothing contrary to morals or law in all that» — lo que la nota 42 cita de la sentencia absolutoria; sigue *… unless it be that one feel aggrieved*.
«people should for a short space be happy at finding the authority of the master give place to his benignity» — el pasaje del fallo que la nota 42 reproduce sobre la autoridad del amo cedida a su benignidad.
«It is very possible, that the children of the family might in Christmas times, without the least impropriety, countenance the festivities of the old servants of the family by witnessing, and even mingling in them.» — el resto del fallo, sobre los hijos de la familia mezclados en la fiesta de los criados.
«It would really be a source of regret, if, contrary to common custom, it were denied to slaves, in the» — la decisión del juez Ruffin que la nota 43 opone; sigue *intervals between their toils, to indulge in mirthful pastimes*.
«We may let them make the most of their idle hours, and may well make allowances for the noisy outpourings of glad hearts, which providence bestows as a blessing on corporeal vigor united to a vacant» — el remate de esa decisión; el troceo corta antes de la palabra *mind*.
«In some places this “game” lasted into the» — lo que la nota 48 apunta sobre la pervivencia del juego del aguinaldo; el troceo entrecomilla *“game”* y la frase sigue *twentieth century*.
«Zora Neale Hurston told a story of a black man who hid behind a stump one Christmas and took God Almighty by surprise with the cry» — el cuento de Zora Neale Hurston que la nota 48 resume; remata con el grito *“Christmas gift!”*.
«There is even a reference to this ritual in William Faulkner’s novel The Sound and the Fury.» — la huella del rito que la nota 48 localiza en Faulkner.
«As young Quentin Compson leaves Harvard College in despair and arrives by train in Mississippi on December 25, the first thing that happens to him when he steps off the train—it is what makes him realize he has arrived “home”—is that he is approached by a Negro beggar who accosts him with the words» — la escena de Quentin Compson que la nota 48 describe; cierra con las palabras *“Christmas gift.”*
«Edmonds married only in 1870, at the age of 30. One young Virginia married woman claimed the perquisites of both roles: “We [she and her husband] have invitation to a dinner on Wednesday …, and I am invited among the young people to an evening party on Friday—so you perceive I have» — lo que la nota 50 precisa sobre la edad de casamiento de Amanda Virginia Edmonds y la carta que cita; sigue *[both] married and single privileges*.
«Bayard Hall reported that slaves mimicked the idiosyncrasies of the whites’ dialogue and mannerisms» — lo que la nota 55 refiere del remedo que los esclavos hacían del habla y los modales de los blancos.
«The writer acknowledged that “very few of the blacks were at church,” and added that “the distant sounds of Cooner reached even there.» — lo que la nota 57 toma del Liberator sobre la escasa asistencia negra al templo aquel día.
«This verse is quoted by Lawrence Levine, who writes that it was sung by the John Canoe band to “those whites who did not respond to their offerings with generosity.» — el destinatario que Levine da a la copla del John Canoe, según la nota 62.
«a creolized masquerade tradition that has incorporated African and English» — la definición del John Canoe que la nota 63 cita de una carta de John W. Nunley; sigue *traditions of masking*.
«The penchant for rum and the collecting of money by the maskers is also a shared trans-Atlantic tradition» — el rasgo trasatlántico que esa misma carta señala.
«Frederick G. Cassidy claims that the ceremony comes from the “Gold Coast,” though it was widely» — la procedencia que Cassidy atribuye a la ceremonia, según la nota 63; sigue *observed in the New World*.
«have found one other (rather inoffensive) fragment of a begging song, recalled years later by a white woman who was raised in the area» — lo que el propio autor declara sobre su hallazgo de otra copla de aguinaldo, recordada por una mujer blanca de la comarca.
«far as the ridiculing song, Dena Epstein notes that “the parallel with African songs of derision is evident» — lo que la nota 63 recoge de Dena Epstein sobre el parentesco africano de la copla de escarnio.
«argues for the English origin of the ritual. Martha Warren Beckwith, Black Roadways: A Study of Jamaican Folk Life (Chapel Hill, 1929), gives evidence from the 1920s that Shakespearean plays were» — las dos procedencias que la nota 63 pone frente a frente para el John Canoe; sigue *being used by the John Canoers*.
«Bowling v. Statton and Swann, … December 1847. ‘[A]ction … for the loss of a negro man … hired … and never» — el pleito de Tennessee que la nota 65 cita como caso de esclavo no devuelto; el troceo imprime *‘[A]ction … for the loss of a negro man … hired …* y la frase remata *returned*.
«On December 24, 1856, one Virginia slave was discovered carrying a letter concerning an imminent “meeting” that would lead to “freedom;” the letter claimed that soon “the country is» — el papel que la nota 66 refiere hallado a un esclavo de Virginia en vísperas de Navidad; la cita remata *ours certain*.
«Some revolts were timed for July 4, the other major slave holiday, and one that was also charged with a powerful symbolism of liberation.» — la otra fecha de asueto que la nota 66 señala como propicia para las revueltas.
«Nat Turner, for example, originally intended his 1831 rebellion to begin on July 4.» — el ejemplo con que esa nota cierra.
«This letter was brought to my attention by Wesley Borucki.» — el crédito que la nota 68 da a quien le hizo ver la carta de Henry Watson.
«black] women say that they never mean to do any more outdoor work» — lo que Watson escribió a su hija sobre las libertas y el trabajo de campo, según la nota 68; el troceo imprime la aclaración entre corchetes.
«Such hopes to abandon “outdoor work” suggest intriguingly that these freedwomen harbored bourgeois aspirations» — la lectura que el autor propone de ese pasaje.
«associates the “Christmas Riots of 1865” with the long history of rowdy behavior on this holiday but» — lo que la nota 69 objeta al estudio de Carter sobre los motines navideños de 1865; sigue *does not go on to associate the holiday with gestures of paternalist largesse*.
«one South Carolina planter told a visiting reporter, “[T]he freedmen were doing absolutely nothing.» — lo que la nota 71 cita de un plantador de Carolina del Sur; el troceo imprime *[T]he freedmen* con la inicial entre corchetes.
«He had overheard one of his girls saying that she hadn’t seen any freedom yet, she had to work just as hard as ever. And that was the feeling of a great many of them.» — lo que el mismo plantador refirió del sentir de sus trabajadoras.
«they were waiting for January, and nothing could be done with them till they became convinced that they must work for» — el plazo que ese plantador atribuía a los libertos; la frase remata *wages*.
«Christmas week, which has always been a holiday for the negroes they will congregate in large numbers in the villages and towns where they will get liquor and while under its influence I fear that collisions will occur between them and the whites.» — lo que el gobernador provisional de Carolina del Sur, James Lawrence Orr, escribió en diciembre de 1865, según la nota 72; el troceo abre con *[During]* entre corchetes.
«When once commenced no one can tell where the conflict will end» — el temor con que Orr cerraba aquella carta.
«also notes that in South Carolina “[t]he Fourth of July … and Christmas or New Year’s Day had marked a large number of» — lo que la nota 66 toma de Joel Williamson sobre las fechas de las insurrecciones en Carolina del Sur; el troceo imprime la inicial entre corchetes, *[t]he Fourth of July*, y la frase remata *insurrections or planned insurrections*.
«At least one, Thomas Conway of the New Orleans office, continued into the fall to advise freedmen that they could apply for free land through the end of December» — el caso de Thomas Conway que esa nota rescata.
«And another, General Edgar Gregory—formerly a radical abolitionist—was reported to have given a somewhat incendiary speech to Texas freedmen, telling them that they were entitled to free land and urging them not to sign unfavorable labor» — el caso de Edgar Gregory; la frase remata *contracts*.
«all agents of the Freedmen’s Bureau were willing to do this dirty work. At least one, Thomas Conway» — lo que la nota 77 apunta sobre los agentes de la Oficina de Libertos que no quisieron hacer esa faena; la frase abre con *Not*, que el troceo deja en el renglón anterior.
«General Howard’s address to the freedmen was printed in the New Orleans Times, Dec. 10, 1865, and quoted in Carter, “Anatomy of» — el dato de imprenta que la nota 77 da del discurso del general Howard a los libertos.
«In any case, the Picayune noted, readers could take heart from the knowledge that “the negro population will be found, as it has always been found in the South, to be docile.» — el consuelo que la nota 85 recoge del Picayune en vísperas de la Navidad de 1865.
«He added, referring to the turn of the century, “This custom prevails throughout this portion of the South to-day.» — lo que la nota 1 del epílogo apunta sobre la vigencia que Booker T. Washington daba a la costumbre.
«it is Levine who explains the term dicty» — el crédito que la nota 2 del epílogo da a Lawrence Levine por la voz *dicty*.
«The Halls refer to this as “the only Christmas gambol remaining in Ireland of the many that in the middle ages were so numerous and so» — lo que el matrimonio Hall escribió del último juego navideño de Irlanda, según la nota 5; sigue *dangerous as to call for the imposition of the law*.
«gave] audience to half the world, some humbly begging for a little help, some asking merely for» — la entrada del 23 de diciembre de 1842 que la nota 8 cita de los diarios irlandeses de Elizabeth Smith; el troceo imprime la inicial entre corchetes y la frase remata *a loan*.
«Two years later, on New Year’s Eve, 1842, Mrs. Smith wrote that she and her husband would “drink it» — lo que la nota 9 refiere del fin de año de 1842 en casa de los Smith; sigue *[the old year] out in negus upstairs and punch below*.
«One blues song that does deal with children and presents (sung from a woman’s perspective, it is about a man who has abandoned his woman and children during Christmas week» — el único blues navideño con niños y regalos que la nota 17 halla; sigue *ends by reporting happily that another man has entered the singer's life*.
«there’s a big fat Santy [Santa] walkin’ in my front» — el remate de ese blues, en el que el troceo glosa *[Santa]* entre corchetes; la frase cierra *door*.
«Know-Nothings lost control of the state legislature in the 1856 elections» — lo que la nota 13 apunta sobre el desenlace electoral del partido Know-Nothing en Massachusetts.
«Rep. Vose was a Know-Nothing, he was also a leader of the opposition to the temperance legislation that had passed the previous year.» — el matiz que la nota 14 pone sobre el representante Vose; el troceo abre la frase con *(While*.
«The term Christmas could actually become a euphemism for sex, as in the blues song “Merry Christmas, Baby.» — lo que la nota 18 del epílogo apunta sobre el uso de la voz *Christmas* como eufemismo en el blues.
«After an opening verse that makes the association between Christmas and sex—by repeating the words of the title and adding, “you sure did treat me nice» — la lectura que esa nota hace de la primera estrofa de ese blues.
«the second verse opens with a line in which the very term Christmas has come to mean “sex”: “I’m comin’ home, comin’ home for Christmas right now.» — el verso con que la nota apuntala su lectura.
«The association of Christmas with leisure in African-American rural culture has remained so strong that the idea of working on Christmas Day is powerfully symbolic.» — lo que la nota 18 sostiene sobre el peso simbólico de trabajar el día de Navidad en la cultura rural afroamericana.
«But it appears that in many places Thanksgiving itself came to take on some of the aspects of carnival.» — lo que la nota 21 del epílogo señala sobre el Día de Acción de Gracias y el carnaval.
«in 1818 the Farmer’s Cabinet (an Amherst, N.H., newspaper) printed an article lamenting the» — el periódico de Amherst que esa nota cita contra los *frolicks of Thanksgiving*.
«the period annually set apart as a season of devout thanksgiving … were in reality a season of heart-felt and religious gratitude … when the heart and not the appetite should be the source of thanksgiving.» — el deseo que aquel editorial de 1818 formulaba.
«The same editorial suggested that Thanksgiving had also become at least semi-commercialized, a time when “farmers and merchants make their calculations to profit by its return, in the disposal of their various articles.» — lo que la nota 21 lee en ese mismo editorial sobre la faz comercial de la fiesta.
«Hanukkah was probably attached to a solstice feast already celebrated in Jerusalem by Jews friendly to Greece.» — lo que la nota 22 cita de Martin Hengel sobre el origen solsticial de Janucá.
«Spufford terms Purim “a carnival as Bakhtin described carnivals.» — lo que la nota 25 recoge de Francis Spufford sobre Purim como carnaval a la manera de Bajtín.
«Sittin’ on Top of the World,” for example, the singer suggests how hard his lot is by simply noting that he spent Christmas» — el ejemplo de Howlin' Wolf que la nota 18 trae; el troceo corta antes de *Day in his “overalls”*.
«WROTE this book in the course of three nonconsecutive years (and an additional summer) during which I lived away from my Amherst, Massachusetts, home.» — lo que el autor cuenta en los agradecimientos sobre los años en que escribió el libro; el troceo imprime la primera palabra en versales, *I WROTE*.
«Serious work began in 1989–90, when I was James P. Harrison Professor of History at The College of William and Mary.» — el puesto desde el que arrancó la faena seria, según los agradecimientos.
«That appointment included the services of a helpful research assistant, Nigel Alderman, as well as the obligation to deliver several public lectures that managed to transform my Christmas project from a minor arrow in my scholarly quiver into a serious endeavor.» — lo que el autor atribuye a las conferencias públicas de aquel nombramiento.
«Much of the book was researched and written during the 1991–92 academic year, when I held a residential fellowship (funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities) at the American Antiquarian» — el año de beca en que se investigó y escribió buena parte del libro; la frase remata *Society*.
«But the AAS was more than a wonderful library. It has long been my second home, and the members of its staff are like family.» — lo que el autor dice de la American Antiquarian Society en los agradecimientos.
«Dennis Laurie went beyond the call of any possible duty several times, doing research in newspapers I had not even asked to see.» — el servicio que el autor agradece en la hemeroteca de la AAS.
«My work there was enhanced by the careful cataloguing of the voluminous Sedgwick family papers (which would otherwise have been impenetrable» — lo que el autor debe a la catalogación de los papeles de la familia Sedgwick.
«Finally, in 1994–95 I finished the book at Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History» — el lugar donde el libro se terminó, según los agradecimientos.
«Donald Fleming, who organized our seminars and directed my attention to» — el crédito por haberle señalado a Charles Loring Brace; la frase remata con ese nombre.
«Seth also helped out by reading German materials for me» — el auxilio con las fuentes alemanas que el autor agradece.
«None of my leaves of absence would have been possible without the assistance of UMass.» — lo que el autor debe a la Universidad de Massachusetts en Amherst.
«many of the students in my three Christmas seminars, both undergraduates and graduates, in the process of fulfilling their own course requirements unearthed material that found its way into this book.» — lo que el autor declara sobre el material que sus alumnos de los tres seminarios sobre la Navidad aportaron al libro.
«Writing this book has reaffirmed my faith that a community of scholarly inquiry does indeed exist.» — lo que el autor dice haber recobrado al escribir el libro.
«It was my mother, Claire Willner Nissenbaum, who named for me the meter in which Clement Moore composed» — el crédito que el autor da a su madre por haberle nombrado el metro del poema de Clement Moore; sigue el título *“A Visit from St. Nicholas”*.
«James Henretta also brought this project to the attention of Jane N. Garrett, who became my editor at Knopf.» — cómo llegó el proyecto a su editora en Knopf, según los agradecimientos.
«It is the mark of a good friend to be willing to say critical things. Christopher Clark and Robert A. Gross, who read my draft manuscript in its entirety, were such good friends» — lo que el autor dice de quienes leyeron el manuscrito entero.
«Chris Clark persuaded me to redo Chapter 6—and showed me how.» — lo que el autor declara sobre la rehechura del capítulo 6.
«David Tebaldi has been a model for my most important commitment as a writer and teacher: that complex ideas do not need to be expressed in complicated language.» — el compromiso de escritura que el autor enuncia al cerrar los agradecimientos.
«It was she, at the very beginning, who helped me see how “The Night Before Christmas” played a complex riff on the larger ritual of the carnival Christmas» — lo que el autor atribuye a Dona Brown en la lectura del poema como réplica al carnaval navideño.
«she made sure I used the writing of this book as a way to keep exploring my own sense of what it means to be Jewish.» — lo que el autor dice haber explorado al escribir el libro.
«Grateful acknowledgment is made to MCA Music Publishing, Inc., for permission to reprint an excerpt from “Christmas Tree Blues,” words and music by Charley Jordan,» — el permiso de reimpresión que la página de derechos consigna.
«The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows: Nissenbaum, Stephen. The battle for Christmas / Stephen Nissenbaum. —1st ed.» — la ficha catalográfica que la página de derechos reproduce.
«In the summer of 1993 I held an Andrew W. Mellon fellowship at» — la tercera estancia de investigación que los agradecimientos consignan; el troceo corta en el límite de plana y la frase sigue *the Massachusetts Historical Society*.
«For William R. Taylor My teacher» — la dedicatoria del libro, que el troceo imprime en plana propia.
«This point constitutes further evidence that Christmas trees were used by prosperous families, families who could afford to live in houses that contained enough rooms to do this job» — lo que Nissenbaum saca en nota del cuarto cerrado del rito del árbol: prueba de que se usaba en familias prósperas con casas de bastantes cuartos; la cita se corta aquí porque el troceo parte *up-to-date* con guion de fin de renglón.
Concepts treated
Crítica de fuentes (criterios de inclusión y descarte) — Nissenbaum declara una y otra vez el límite de lo que la documentación permite: no ha hallado procesos bajo la ley de 1659 contra la Navidad; no hay prueba impresa de que cierto libro de regalo se destinara a la Navidad, y suple el hueco con una dedicatoria fechada en un ejemplar posterior; del árbol de Navidad dice que no existe documento equivalente a los versos de Moore, solo leyendas que fechan el hecho demasiado pronto o demasiado tarde; y en las notas consigna que no encontró un solo caso en que se privara sin ambigüedad a los esclavizados de su asueto navideño.
Cadena de transmisión (quién tomó de quién) — La Navidad doméstica estadounidense se arma en una cadena de eslabones nombrados: John Pintard trae a San Nicolás y paga en 1810 el pliego de la New-York Historical Society; Washington Irving publica en 1819-20 los cinco cuentos navideños de *The Sketch Book* ambientados en Bracebridge Hall; y Clement Clarke Moore, amigo de Pintard, escribe dos años después del choque de 1820 el poema que fija la figura. El propio autor llama a Pintard el Juan Bautista del Santa Claus que Moore perfeccionaría.