Emilio Blanco Izaga (1892–1949) was a Spanish military comptroller, ethnographer and architect, who developed his career in the
Spanish protectorate in Morocco. He published a number of ethnographic and architectural essays on the
Rif region.
Biography
Born on 15 March 1892 in
Orduña, Biscay,[1] he licentiated from the
Infantry Academy in 1913.[2] He was destined to
Larache, in the
Spanish protectorate in Morocco in 1914.[1] A military colonial comptroller in the Spanish protectorate in Morocco from 1927 to 1945, he served as delegate for Native Affairs from 1944 to 1945.[2]
Ascribed to
Africanism, according to Alfonso Iglesias Amorín, Blanco fitted better a profile in the vein of the 19th-century Spanish africanists, underpinned by a greater respect for the local population, a greater awareness of the social and cultural fabric of the Protectorate, and a preference for peaceful solutions rather than the africanomilitarismo subset embodied by the likes of
Francisco Franco,
José Sanjurjo,
Emilio Mola,
José Millán-Astray and
Juan Yagüe, characterised for vying for a rapid military promotion, a lesser cultural acumen and for espousing anti-democratic views.[3]
A Berberophile, he was weary of the Arab and French influences on the
Berbers,[4] rejecting both Western and Arab influences in the architecture of the region. Striving towards finding an ideal style from the
Riffians, he projected a number of small buildings in the protectorate based on a mashup of ksar from Southern Morocco,
Neo-Pharaonic egyptian architecture and Pre-Columbian models.[5]
A keen researcher of the Riffian
customary law, he praised the perks of keeping the local assemblies in force, opposed to the influence dictated by the Makhzen; he got to the point of stating "what is ridiculous (on the Part of the Spanish colonial administration) is not having protected the Rif from
Sharia contamination".[6]