By means of a re-reading of Rafael Alberti’s famous poem „To Miss X“ the article offers a new solu-tion to the problem of how to define the historical avant-garde mouvements as well as to the question of the ‘special path’ of Spain and the role of the generación del 27. To this end, our investigations concentrate on Alberti’s intertextual dialogue with Italian Futurism (Marinetti) on the one hand and English Romanticism (Shelley) on the other hand. Considering its function and position in the collec-tion of the Cal y canto, the poem reveals itself as a poetic manifesto which puts forth no less than a new concept of avant-garde. By recomposing and redefining the relations between tradition and inno-vation, aesthetic autonomy and engagement, reference to the world and self-referentiality, Alberti seeks to overcome the aporiae of the preceding avant-garde movements. Our analysis thus permits us to see in a new light not only Alberti, but also the generation of 27, the ‘special path’ of Spain as well as the concept of avant-garde.