Saturday, March 15, 2014
Committee (Omni Shoreham)
Reconquista is a term historically meant to denote the gradual Christian consolidation of power in the Iberian Peninsula that culminated in the fall of the city of Granada in 1492. In recent decades, southern Spain in particular has experienced notable transformations, including a movement of conversion to Islam amongst a small but highly visible number of Spaniards as well as an increased movement of immigration as more Moroccans seek work in the country. In this light, the term Reconquista has come to take on a new valence, referencing a looming possible takeover, a second Reconquest, in popular discourse. In this talk, I consider how Spanish converts to Islam in the city of Granada negotiate and intervene in the framework of such a term. How is Reconquista, with the specific notions of temporality and historical framing it denotes, made sense of in the context of conversion? I argue that attending to the particular modes of engagement with the term–including joking and lighthearted references–can shed light on significant shifts in conceiving of what it means to be Spanish and of engaging with Spain’s past. Conversion itself potentially disrupts the temporal understanding of history implied by the notion of Reconquest. Drawing on ethnographic research, I consider how the women I have worked with invoke and re-work this understanding through their experiences of conversion to Islam, and ask what implications such invocations might have for questions of memory, history, and apprehensions of a European future in the specific context of present-day Spain.
