Santiago Alonso Cordero, the Maragato (Spain)

A liberal Member of Parliament and representative of the great capitalists who invest in public works; his mule trains were used in the construction of the Canal de Isabel II.

Pérez Galdós portrays him thus in the Ayacuchos, one of the Episodios Nacionales “(…) for nothing in the world will he forsake his popular label of maragato pantaloons. He is a fresh and smiling man, with a bishop’s face, and rather awkward manners, in keeping with the traditional clothing of his land, straight speaking, and to the nitty-gritty. He made his fortune, as you know, peddling provisions, and is today one of the leading capitalists in Madrid (…)  he will propose that Madrid Town Hall knock down the Puerta del Sol, and build it anew but much wider, so as to allow the passage of the many coaches which now roll down these streets”.