Performing masculinity in the Moroccan theatre: virility, sexuality and Spanish military culture from the African War to the Civil War

Abstract

This article explores constructions of Spanish masculinity in the first decades of the twentieth century, as Spain engaged in colonialist wars in Morocco; memoirs and literary texts by travellers, soldiers and military leaders such as Francisco Franco and José Millán Astray are read alongside theoretical works. I argue that, like European Orientalism, Spanish Orientalism projects onto Moroccan men an image of fanaticism, barbaric violence and ultra‐virile yet ‘polymorphously perverse’ sexuality. However, that particular image of masculinity is just as often re‐assimilated into a Spanish national identity that can never quite manage to assert its fundamental difference from North Africa.

Notes

This article is excerpted from my current book manuscript, Disorientations: Spanish Colonialism in Africa and the Cultural Mapping of Identity, which focuses on how Spanish national identities are reconstructed during the modern era—the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—vis‐à‐vis Spain's African colonies, in those areas now known as Morocco, the Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea. I argue that over the course of the last two centuries, previously hegemonic conceptualisations of Spanish national identity based on a presumed ethnic, racial and religious homogeneity and purity are radically questioned. That questioning is of necessity linked to the ongoing reconsiderations during this time period of gendered identities and issues of sexuality as well; this paper focuses in particular on masculinity and male sexuality at the turn of the century and beyond.

Evans, ‘Cifesa’, pp. 211–12.

Viscarri, ‘¡Harka!’, pp. 406–07, 417, 407, 418.

‘Los novios de la muerte’. Viscarri, ‘¡Harka!’, p. 417. José Millán Astray, the founder of the Spanish Foreign Legion, was acutely aware of the effectiveness of such forms of propaganda, and he devoted a chapter to the subject in his book on the Legion.

Balfour, Abrazo , p. 383.

Bleys, Geography, p. 90, 133–4.

Rivière Gómez, Orientalismo , pp. 86–7, 68–9, 60.

Leo Africanus (whose original name was Al‐Hassan Ibn Muhammad Al Wazzan), was born in Granada around 1492, and subsequently brought up in Fez; his narrative was written later in Italy (and first published in Italian), after he had been kidnapped by corsairs and given as a gift to the Medici Pope Leo X, at whose behest Leo Africanus converted to Christianity. Fanjul, Introduction, p. 38. Mármol was born in Granada around 1520; in 1535 he went to Tunis with Charles V, and served the Spanish crown for several decades in Africa. He spent some eight years of that time in captivity after being taken as a slave by the Turks. Monroe, Islam , pp. 16–17. Mármol's African narrative would be based on his travels throughout the northern part of Africa, both as a slave and subsequently as a free man, as well as on earlier texts such as Leo's. Diego de Haedo's 1612 narrative of his travels through Algeria is another important Spanish source on North Africa, and includes observations concerning homosexual practices similar to those penned by Leo and Mármol. Late nineteenth‐century Spanish writers, however, are more likely to cite the latter, perhaps because Haedo does not discuss Morocco.

Fanjul, Introduction, pp. 37, 40.

Mármol y Carvajal, Descripción , ‘Libro Quarto’ folio 102 verso, folio 146 recto.

Leo, Descripción, pp. 116, 183.

Leo, Descripción, pp. 139, 71. Mármol, Descripción, ‘Libro Quarto’ folio 83 recto, folio 145 verso.

Leo, Descripción, pp. 160, 312. Mármol, Descripción, ‘Libro Quarto’ folio 87 recto.

‘[igual] que la mujer con el esposo’. Leo, Descripción, p. 144.

‘ynormisimos peccados contra natura’. Mármol, Descripción, ‘Libro Quarto’ folio 86 verso.

Leo, Descripción, p. 144. Mármol, Descripción, ‘Libro Quarto’ folio 87 recto. In his discussion of the sexual mores and experiences of the Iberian ‘conquerors’ of the Americas, Richard C. Trexler makes reference to this passage in Leo, but reads it differently than do I, arguing that it was female prostitutes who accompanied the sultan's military forces (p. 54). However I believe that both Leo and Mármol (whom Trexler does not cite) suggest that it is the innkeepers themselves—and other members of their unusual ‘guild’—whose services were required. This would seem to be confirmed as well by the various nineteenth‐century sources I cite later in this paper, as well as by the 1860 travel narrative of Brigadier Salvador Valdés, which indicates that the owners of Fassi transvestite brothels were required to provide male cooks to the army (p. 51).

Dunne, ‘Homosexuality’.

Bleys, Geography, pp. 8, 10.

See for example Dunne, ‘Homosexuality’ and Dunne, ‘Power’, p. 37.

Gatell, Viajero , p. 60.

See for example Gatell, Viajero , 131, 132.

See for example Gatell, Viajero , pp. 64–6.

Gatell, Viajero , p. 83.

‘no creo que exista en el mundo vicio alguno que no se encuentre extendido entre los marroquíes … adoran apasionadamente a las mujeres (a las auténticas y a las que solo lo parecen) … por aquí no reina más que la mentira y la ficción’. Gatell, Viajero , p.68.

‘llevan, en una palabra, la misma vida que las cortesanas en Europa’. Gatell, Viajero , p. 23.

Gatell, Viajero , p. 23.

Olivo y Canales, La mujer , p. 37.

‘peticiones de medicamentos que produzcan ficticiamente un vigor que los continuos excesos y las más repugnantes prácticas han hecho desaparecer antes de tiempo; ancianos decrépitos se rodean de inocentes niños’. Olivo y Canales, La mujer , p. 37.

‘amiguitos’. Olivo y Canales, La mujer , p. 38.

There is, however, another side to this coin: Dunne has suggested that the colonial presence—which openly condemned the ‘vices’ of Islam—in essence ‘produced’ homophobia and thus resulted in the reduced visibility of homosexual practices within Islamic societies. Dunne, ‘Homosexual’.

‘usad traje correcto, huyendo de las “teatralerías” de imitación al indígena con ropas exóticas’. Qtd. in Franco, Diario, p. 17.

See for example, Balfour, Abrazo , pp. 308–13 and Cordón, Memorias , p. 98.

The inter‐title reads: ‘Y allí están los oficiales que los mandan [a los marroquíes] cuyo valor y entusiasmo solo es comparable a su juventud … algunos de los cuales sería difícil de distinguir de entre sus subordinados a no ser porque superan en valor a las aguerridas huestes de su mando’ (‘and there are the officers who command [the Moroccans] and whose valour and enthusiasm is only comparable to their youth … some of whom would be difficult to distinguish from their subordinates if it weren’t for the fact that they are even more valiant than the war‐like troops under their command').

Berenguer, El ejército, p. 12. In a chillingly prescient passage, Berenguer claims that the Regulares ‘el día de mañana podrán constituir un numeroso y excelente ejército, que emplear en la defensa de nuestra Patria a semejanza de lo hecho por los franceses en la última guerra’ (‘will in future be able to constitute a large and excellent army, that could be employed in the defence of our Nation, just as the French did in the last war [First World War]’ [p. 81]).

Berenguer, El ejército , p. 99.

Ibid., 114.

Ibid., 83.

Ibid., 95.

Millán Astray, La Legión , p. 97.

‘algunos decididos las cortejan y los añosos olivos del bosque sagrado han sido muchas veces mudos testigos de la galantería legionaria’. Franco, Diario, p. 71.

See for example, Balfour, Abrazo , pp. 394–5.

‘en unos días de orgía se despiden de los placeres y atractivos de la vida ciudadana’. Franco, Diario, p. 59.

Arturo Barea, qtd. in Preston, Franco , p. 28.

‘vivió en Tetuán donde tiene amigos y amigas y su escuadra lo pasará bien’. Franco, Diario, p. 63.

‘maricas’. Barea, La forja , 2: pp. 8, 40.

Balfour, Abrazo , pp. 428–9.

Ogden, ‘Homosexuality’, p. 107.

Ogden, ‘Homosexuality’.

Watanabe & Iwata, The Love.

Jensen, Irrational Triumph , p. 141. Togores, Millán Astray , p. 176.

Millán Astray, La Legión , pp. 23; 20, 94–5, 130; 33–4. Unfortunately, I do not have time fully to address here the sadomasochistic dynamic of this relationship, in which the Legion's officers take pleasure in physically abusing the men under their command, some of whom apparently view such treatment as part and parcel of the demand for absolute submission. In Los caballeros de la Legión, Carlos Micó includes an astonishing characterisation of the relationship between officers and recruits in the Legion as ‘una lucha entablada entre las potencias subliminales de las dos fuerzas que se encuentran frente a frente: el jefe, que encarna en estos momentos toda la disciplina y el espíritu militares y el vigor y la energía viriles, y de otro lado unos hombres que quieren, vacilantes, sacudir de sus espaldas el peso imponderable de la decadencia de una raza’ (“a struggle between the subliminal potencies of the two forces that find themselves face to face: the leader, who in these moments incarnates all military discipline and spirit and virile vigour and energies, and on the other side some men who wish, hesitantly, to shake off the imponderable weight of the decadence of a race” [qtd. in Balfour, Abrazo , p. 332]). The racialised feminisation of the recruits here again points to the significance of the Legion's construction of racial, as well as sexual and gender, identities.

Millán Astray, La Legión , pp. 23–5, 28, 113–16, etc.

Qtd. in Jensen, Irrational , p. 149.

Millán Astray, La Legión , pp. 35–9.

‘un intersexual’. Asenjo Alonso, Los que fuimos , pp. 20–1. Additional references to cross‐dressing can be found in Frances Arbolí Nadal's unpublished diary. Qtd. in Balfour, Abrazo , p. 430.

Franco, Marruecos , pp. 96, 43.

Thematically, these ink drawings are reminiscent of the work of the gay artist Paul Cadmus, an American of Spanish descent on his mother's side, who had toured through Spain with his lover before setting up a studio in Mallorca for several years in the early 1930s. Cadmus is well known for his male portraits and nudes; he also became infamous for his depictions of randy soldiers and sailors. Warm thanks to my friend and colleague Ben Sifuentes‐Jáuregui, who pointed out the similarity to me.

Millán Astray, La Legión , pp. 100–1, 106, 113, 130.

‘bajo las pardas lonas de los lóbregos cafetines morunos’. Franco, Diario, p. 67.

Dunne, ‘Homosexuality’.

‘retaguardia’. ‘y las explanadas y calles del campamento brillan bajo el sol. La limpieza y policía es la característica de los campamentos legionarios’. Franco, Diario, p. 67.

‘zona aparte’. Muñoz, La agonía , p. 181.

Muñoz, Agonía , pp. 85–6.

‘afin[es]’. Muñoz, Agonía , p. 57.

‘[c]olonizar es vivir, ingerir nueva y potente sangre en las venas exhaustas, afirmar y definir la existencia en el futuro’. Muñoz, Agonía , p. 81.

Muñoz, Agonía , p. 86. There are some notable points of contact and divergence between Muñoz’s texts and Ernesto Giménez Caballeros's later Genio de España (1932), which has been brilliantly analysed by Jo Labanyi. Giménez Caballero also recognises the importance of the Islamic legacy to Spanish culture, and he, too, asserts the necessity of miscegenation. But, as Labanyi demonstrates, his conceptualisation of revitalisation through injections of virility is based strictly on the heterosexual ‘norm’ of rape of the ‘other’ woman; it lacks the violently homoerotic resonance of Muñoz's formulations.

‘los días de púrpura de nuestra raza’. Muñoz, La fiesta , pp. 112, 19, 50.

‘La potencia de mis pensamientos arduos y soberbios, se exaltaba en la tierra áspera, y sobre aquel fervor de vida yo sentía aguda ansia de abrir el caudal imperioso de mi sangre, y de llenar la tierra en un rito sangriento y magnífico’. Muñoz, Fiesta , p. 93.

‘una muerte diáfana’. Muñoz, Fiesta , p. 46.

‘bella boca femenina’, ‘sonrisa femenina’, ‘llena de gracia y de seducción’. Muñoz, Fiesta , pp. 118, 120, 31, 59.

‘de un indecible encanto femenino’, ‘manos, largas y puras como de mujer’. Muñoz, Fiesta , pp. 110, 60.

‘aptas para todas las matanzas y para acariciar todas las formas vivas’. Muñoz, Fiesta , p. 31.

Jefe de la Intervención Militar de la Región Occidental, or Head of Military Intervention in the Western Region. Madariaga, Los moros , p. 359.

Gistau Ferrando, Monografía , p. 419.

Santa Marina's exuberantly sensual descriptions of killing are perhaps most reminiscent of Muñoz's Orientalist fiction. See for example pp. 27–8; here, the sexual charge felt when a group of men engage in blood‐spilling together is most in evidence. Santa Marina also recounts episodes surprisingly similar to the fictional events narrated in Muñoz's work, as for example, the sumptuous banquet in which the guest of honour is savagely murdered at the end (Santa Marina, Tras , pp. 61–2; Muñoz, Fiesta , pp. 110–23).

I have found Christopher Lane's work on representations of homosexual desire in British imperialist texts, which he views as disturbing or even rupturing the national allegory, to be eminently illuminating. However, as should be evident here, I believe that, within the Spanish context, such representations are as likely to further the narrative of imperialism as they are to shatter it. I suspect this has much to do with the complexities of the Spanish case, in which multiple forms of ‘otherness’ are perhaps more difficult to distinguish and disentangle.

Balfour, Abrazo , p. 397. Madariaga, Los moros , pp. 104, 309.

Balfour, Abrazo , p. 94. Jensen, Irrational , p. 146. Madariaga, Los moros , p. 80. Cordón, Memorias , p. 77.

‘un buen par de cojones’. Madariaga, Los moros , p. 309. Madariaga also includes one version of the oft‐cited legend concerning a visit made by the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera to the Foreign Legion in Morocco in 1924, at a moment when his support for the war was wavering: the leader was reportedly served up a series of egg dishes, presumably intended to make up for his deficiencies (here it is necessary to recall that the Spanish word for eggs—‘huevos’—is also slang for ‘testicles’). Madariaga, Los moros , p. 309; also recounted in Preston, Franco , p. 44, and numerous other sources. For an alternative version of this story, see Cordón, Memorias , p. 111.

Balfour, Abrazo , p. 397.