La nación singular. Fantasías de la normalidad democrática española by Luisa Elena Delgado (review)

TLDR: In this article, the authors argue that the Moriscos of Villarrubia and the Campo de Calatrava sought and obtained legal privileges precisely because they were indistinguishable from Old Christians.

Abstract: such a degree that they were not different. Indeed, the Moriscos of Villarrubia and the Campo de Calatrava sought and obtained legal privileges precisely because they were indistinguishable from Old Christians. In other words, royal policy of uniformity in belief and cultural practice appears to have been successful among these communities. Shall we call that tolerance and coexistence? We may maintain the terms in the context of discriminatory practices based on limpieza de sangre, but they need to be fleshed out more to have an appropriate meaning. For the same reason I would question Dadson’s affirmation that “parts of Spain remained, after 1609-14, multicultural, diverse, and relatively tolerant communities” (182). These Moriscos only found acceptance because they erased any sign of diversity. Even Dadson recognizes that the cases of Aragón and Valencia were different, as was the case of the expelled Granadinos, and this difference was due to a lack of assimilation; i.e. it was due to diversity. In conclusion, Dadson’s study both convinces the reader of the integration of the Moriscos with the Old Christians in the Campo de Calatrava and, more specifically, Villarrubia, and it complicates our understanding of the Moriscos in Old and New Castile generally. Some of its terminology is problematic, but its content and findings are solid and of the utmost rigor. Its limit is geographic, as it does not address Aragón, Valencia, or pre-expulsion Granada in any meaningful way. Thus as Dadson recognizes, the revisionist history of Tolerance and Coexistence does not necessarily apply to all of early modern Spain. However, it does engage in a dialogue that is ongoing and producing an ever increasingly complicated vision of a minority group that was once considered solely in terms of religion and, consequently, as diametrically opposed to the values that created the Spanish state in Early Modernity.