ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the development and relevance of 'racial' stereotypes in Western culture, and the reactions to New York's polyethnicity in early twentieth-century European and Spanish narratives. Scientific theories of 'race' or 'racialism' sprang from the evolutionary theories of Darwin, which gave the basis for new ideas of European 'racial' supremacy and a view of the colonized as biologically inferior. 'Racial' discourses of 'Otherness' did not only originate from colonial encounters in overseas territories. Both Camba's racist stance regarding African Americans and his dialectical efforts to dismantle theories of Anglo-Saxon 'racial' superiority must be connected with nostalgic formulations of Spanish national identity. The racist attitudes shown in the New York narratives of Julio Camba and Teresa de Escoriaza are a response to the challenge posed by the increasing multiculturalism of American society to the stability of the concept of national identity promoted by ethnic nationalism.
