español al inglés Arte/Literatura Poesía y literatura Antonio de Capmany

This is another quote from Antonio de Company, this one from his book _Centinela contra franceses_. It appears in the same essay I asked about the other day, an academic article on Capmany's writings and his politics.

Here are the paragraphs that surround it:
Cuando la modernidad se considera una amenaza, “lo nuestro” se convierte en una obsesión. Los problemas que podríamos denominar espaciales (la defensa de la identidad nacional) desplazan del primer plano a los de índole temporal (la modernización del país).

En esta misma línea, asegura Capmany que sólo volviendo a ser “españoles de chapa y de calzas atacadas”, podrá evitarse que vengan “los franceses a azotarnos como a niños de escuela” (134-5). La imagen escolar que usaba el autor en sus primeros escritos para caracterizar el espíritu de fraternidad y colaboración que, según él entonces creía, caracterizaba al proyecto ilustrado, adquiere ahora un sentido muy diferente.


Here's what I've got up to that point:
When modernity is considered a threat, “what is ours” becomes an obsession. The problems that we could call spatial (defense of a national identity) push those that are more temporal (modernizing the country) out of the limelight.

In this same vein, Capmany claims that only by again becoming “Spaniards of ????” can they prevent “the French from coming to whip us like schoolchildren”. The scholastic imagery he used in his early writings to portray the spirit of fraternity and collaboration that, as he then believed, characterized the project of enlightenment, here takes on a very different meaning.

Everything I've found about the words "chapa" and "calzas atacadas" in particular make me think this is not a particularly positive trait, but the rest of the paragraph(s) certainly make it sound like he wants it to be. I thought of glossing "chapa" as "steel," ("Spaniards of steel") but I'm afraid I'd be stretching the meaning too much, since it tends to be used with reference to metal plates or other types of veneers, which to me imply something of a thin or surface coating. And no matter what meaning I use for "calzas," I just don't see how "atacada" as either fainthearted, irresolute, stingy, or, more literally, attacked, could be turned into something positive. All of which makes me think that there are allusions here that escape me. Perhaps it's just referring to being a strong barrier against the French? as in armor [plating] and blocks that can withstand attack [attacked blocks]? Any ideas on how that might be massaged into a reasonable sentence that approximates Capmany's imagery? I'm stumped.