Was Consuelo ahead of her time in wanting a love match, rather than a financial merger?
It’s an interesting question. Consuelo certainly wasn’t ahead of her time in feeling she was entitled to a love match, but even society love matches of that period were subject to family approval and made within a very tiny caste of the very rich and grand — their young weren’t allowed to meet anyone else. But even when marriages were subtly arranged, the young couple was generally given a chance to say ‘no.’ Consuelo, however, wasn’t permitted this degree of freedom by Alva, who was determined that she knew best. And such a calculating and determined view of what was best, in the face of her daughter’s profound reservations was unusual, a throwback to an earlier age of dynastic alliances. I’m not even sure Alva would even have objected to this description. As far as she was concerned, Consuelo was part of the new American royalty of wealth, and love matches were a middle-class sort of business. Later, Alva embraced feminism and was inclined to view the very notion of romantic love as
