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The Moor and the Gypsy in the
foundation of Spanish identity
The rise of Spain as a nation could be dated in 1492, the year in which two facts as relevant in the history of Spain as the Reconquista of Granada and the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the new world coincide. But these two events would not have occurred in turn if previously the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon had not been united through the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand, the Catholic kings. The new country, formed by a mixture of diverse identities, even with different languages, needs to create a national identity that helps keep the nation together, especially after of the so-called 1898 desastre and the successive civil wars. In this creation, there will be an ideological and cultural struggle in which the image of the Moors and Gypsies will be positive or negative depending on the position taken regarding the economic and cultural modernization of the country. In both cases, Andalusia, and especially Granada, will play an essential role, as will be explained. With the Catholic kings, a national identity arises that is associated with loyalty to the crown and the true religion, the Catholic religion (Álvarez, 2002: 13). This fact will significantly mark the history of Spain and its differences from other European countries. It will be key, for example, in the different use made by the Catholic conservatives of the representation of the Moor and the Gypsy precisely because of their religious differences, as well as in the construction of the modern state around the monarchy and not the republic. The Muslim invasion was seen as a punishment for the sins of the last Visigoth kings, so it is considered that it was the Catholic religion that brought national unity to Spain (Álvarez, 20 02: 30).
After the war against Napoleon, the image of Spain changed: the black legend forged in the reign of Philip II is reinterpreted in positive terms by the European Romanticism dominant at that time. The new European middle class finds the exotic and premodern image of Spanish society very attractive. Europeans believe that the modern society of their countries is boring and idealize the image of Spain seeing it as a paradise that has not been touched by capitalism and that maintains its identity since its founding as a country in 1492, as has been noted above. “Found in Spain vital spontaneity, joy of living and loyalty to its identity because nobody doubted there was a very clearly defined Spanish identity” (Álvarez, 2002: 20). But which is this national identity? This is where we find cultural creation to define the essence of the nation, its distinctive personality. In a similar way that it happened with the Spanish ex-colonies after their independence, in what Doris Sommer calls foundational novels, literature and other cultural elements are also used in Spain to create that myth or legend of the country's past since “Literature has the capacity to intervene in history to help construct it [national identity]” (Sommer, 1989: 117). So, we could classify as one of these foundational novels the legend of Boabdil and his mother after the loss of Granada, which according to Oscar Vázquez could be considered as political propaganda since “The ‘Suspiro del Moro’ does not appear in any of the historical Arabic sources” (Vázquez, 2017: 84). The same author points out the use of the Alhambra by various writers in a romantic act of nostalgia for the loss of the empire and the subsequent decline. It could also be classified in this section the poems of the generation of 98 as well as flamenquismo , being the romancero gitano of Lorca an example of both, as will be discussed later. The empire collapses. The loss of the last colonies puts into question the national unity, arising independentist movements in Catalonia and the Basque Country. After many years Spain stops taking part in international wars, has no external enemies against which to
The presence of gypsies in Spain is therefore old, but at the end of the 18th century it began to gain importance as a reaction against French cultural hegemony (Charnon-Deutsch, 2004: 181). Neither will be unanimity in the way in which gypsies will be used in the construction of national identity, but these divisions will not coincide with those previously mentioned with the Moors. On this occasion, the competition between Madrid and Andalusia will play a more prominent role by imposing its vision of flamenquismo. In the middle of the 19th century there was a great immigration of the Andalusian working class to Madrid and with it the multiplication of flamenco shows in the city, which coincides with the increase in poverty, lack of hygiene and delinquency. Flamenquismo is beginning to be used, especially by the so-called Generation of ’98 pro-Castile, as a synonym for this degeneration (Llano, 2017: 982). The juergas in the private rooms of the cafés cantantes where alcohol, prostitutes, and flamenco are mixed, and that usually end in violent fights, will be to blame for this. In his poem Preciosa y el aire , in the romancero gitano , Lorca metaphorically points out the danger facing the gypsy culture of the south and its pure flamenco symbolized by Preciosa, which “tocando viene” (l. 2), by provoking the sexual desire of the viewer that is watching her “mira” (l. 23). There are several metaphorical references to nocturnal juergas “que nunca duerme” (l. 20) and they end up with the man trying to penetrate the woman with his “espada caliente” (l. 32), and the intervention of the police, the “carabineros” (l. 38). Lorca yells “Preciosa, corre, Preciosa” (l. 37) advising gypsies and flamenco to get away from the juergas of the taverns and the criminality associated with them. After the outcome of the 1936-1939 civil war and the subsequent establishment by the winning side of a dictatorship, Spain wants to participate in the wealth generated by world tourism for what it needs to improve its external image. Franco knows that what most attracts that world tourism is the “andalusianism, and a defining element of it was its gypsy heritage” (Charnon-Deutsch, 2004: 210). So, he needs an imaginative reconstruction of history to
camouflage the discrimination and repression that gypsies have suffered, even affirming that “there was no persecution against Gypsies in Spain” and comparing it with that suffered by Jews and Moors “whose religious beliefs were more entrenched and therefore more censured” (Charnon-Deutsch, 2004: 209). Both in the last years of Franco's dictatorship and in the first years of the recovery of democracy, a positive image of Andalusia will be used to symbolize all of Spain as a place of tolerance and respect for other races and cultures. We can conclude that, in the more than five hundred years of history, the use and appropriation of the Moors and Gypsies in the construction of the national identity has had various stages in which both have been considered heroes or villains depending on the national interests of each historical moment, as well as the dominant ideology and its position regarding the preservation of ancient traditions in opposition to the modernization and progress of the country. It seems that, after the join of Spain to the European Union and its consolidation as a Western democracy, as well as after the recent Islamist attacks in several European countries and the resurgence of the peripheral nationalisms demanding independence, the debate is reopened, if it had ever been closed, on the convenience or detriment of the use of this ethnic groups in the configuration of the modern image of the country. The image of Spain associated with flamenco, bullfights and the Arab past become to be an embarrassment for the Spanish elite that had benefited for so long from the tourism that was attracted for this image.
