Representing and accounting for the expulsion of the Sephardic Jews in contemporary Spanish historical fiction

ABSTRACT

The expulsion of the Jews from the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon in 1492 by Isabel I of Castile and Fernando II of Aragon is an event from Spain’s mediaeval past that continues to stimulate scholarly controversy. It is one of the most sensitive issues in Spanish historiography, alongside the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). This paper examines the portrayal of the expulsion in four Spanish historical novels published around the turn of the millennium that narrate the events from the perspective of Jews and conversos. It asks how the events of the expulsion have been reinterpreted in fiction to incorporate the perspective of the victims, particularly in light of the changing historiography after Spain’s transition to democracy in the early 1980s and the commemorations of 1992 (the 500th anniversary of the expulsion) which stimulated interest in Spain’s tricultural past. The essay looks particularly at how writers of historical fiction represent and account for the expulsion of the Jews, and examines the contribution these novels make to the reintegration of the memory of this group into the Spanish collective memory.

KEYWORDS:

• Sephardic Jews
• expulsion from Spain
• Spanish historical fiction
• collective historical memory
• role of historical fiction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Nicola Gilmour is a Senior Lecturer in Spanish at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her current research interests include representations of Spain's mediaeval ethno-religious minorities (Hispanic Muslims and Jews) in contemporary Spanish historical fiction and the uses to which those images are put. She is preparing a monograph on the topic.

Notes

1. The other two are the Inquisition and the conquest and colonization of the Americas (Boyd 1997, 84–85). The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) is also a very sensitive topic in Spanish historiography since 1975 but Boyd's study ends in 1975.

2. See Huyssen (1995, 2003), Lowenthal (1985), and Torpey (2009). Assmann, writing of the memory boom, refers to “a general desire to reclaim the past as an important part of the present, and to reconsider, to revalue, and to reassess it as part of individual biographies and the way individuals position themselves in a wider historical perspective” (2008, 54).

3. Translations from Spanish are mine, unless otherwise indicated.

4. Other novels have been written about Jews in Spain, however these are the ones most closely connected to the expulsion. Others with Jewish protagonists include Carme Riera's En el último azul (1994), La tierra fértil by Paloma Díaz-Mas (1999), Iacobus by Matilda Asensi ([2000] 2004) and José Manuel Fajardo’s El converso ([1998] 2001). Novels with Jews as prominent secondary characters include Luis Racionero’s El alquimista trovador (2003) or La catedral del mar by Ildefonso Falcones (2006). Others demonstrate a symbolic concern with the Jews of Sepharad (as an absence): Antonio Muñoz Molina's Sefarad ([2001] 2002) and Paloma Díaz-Mas's El sueño de Venecia (1992). This is not an exhaustive list.

5. Space does not permit detailed examination of the novels: see also my previous studies.

6. There were two versions of the Edict, one published in Castile and one in Aragon. The Aragonese version gave several reasons: however, the Castilian is better known (Crespo Álvarez 2012).

7. Events that year include Spain's full entry to the European Union; Madrid named as European Capital of Culture; the Olympic Games held in Barcelona and the Universal Expo in Seville.

8. Numerous articles appeared over 1992, particularly in El País, the left-leaning newspaper, penned by intellectuals such as Juan Goytisolo, Eduardo Subirats, and Antonio Elorza.

9. The official website states the award was in recognition of the Sephardim's conservation of their Spanish cultural and linguistic heritage and to contribute to peace and reconciliation between the Sephardim and their former country (Accessed 12 April 2015. http://www.fpa.es/es/premios-princesa-de-asturias/premiados/1990-comunidades-sefardies.html?texto=acta&especifica=0).

10. This is also manifested in the founding of the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory in 2000 and the Forum for Memory in 2002.

11. See the author's webpage: http://www.acerliteraria.com/l/root/toti_mtnez_libros.html.

12. Martínez de Lezea stresses her commitment to extensive historical research (Interview, Llorente 2007).

13. Álvarez Chillida notes the literary depiction of Jewish women as mysteriously attractive is common in the nineteenth century (2002, 162). I argue that it continues today.

14. She sees her work as “a denunciation of oppression” (Llorente 2007).

15. Graves, daughter of poet Robert Graves, has lived in Spain much of her life. This novel was written and first published in Spanish.

16. Díaz-Mas observes that Jewish characters are often represented as being holders of special knowledge. Often linked to “the magical and mysterious” (360), they are “supernatural beings” (361). This “secret knowledge” is frequently related to the Kabbala, but also to alchemy, or other occult sciences (Gilmour 2009).

17. This is not unique to this novel; Nichols has written in relation to Carme Riera's En el último azul, on the importance of remembrance and history to Judaism (1999, 212), emphasizing the Zakhor, the religious mandate of Judaism to remember (Gilmour 2011).

18. Baer adds:

it is the voids, the silences, and the abiding prejudices regarding Judaism (which were exacerbated during Franco's dictatorship but did not fade away after democracy was established) that shape in sociological terms the discursive activity on the Holocaust in contemporary Spain. (Baer 2011, 114)

19. Each chapter has two parts, one written by Isabel, the other by Haym/Pablo. Isabel's sections are longer and placed before the doctor's. The title also establishes their relative importance as narrators.

20. See also my study of the extremely anti-Islamic attitudes expressed (Gilmour 2016).

21. Note that the novel was published around the time the canonization process for Queen Isabel was restarted (Wilkinson 2003).

22. “An atrocity story […] about the murder of a Christian child at La Guardia (Toledo) by a group of conversos and Jews who were subsequently burnt for the alleged crime” (Kamen [1983] 2005, 44).

23. For Roth the accusations were patently false and Isabel certainly did not believe them (2002, 251).

24. Vidal repeatedly denigrates Aragon, portraying the region as less tolerant and more avaricious than Castile.

25. Compare with the rabbi's earlier idea of a vision that makes reclamations of injustice into acts of cowardice, resentment and envy.