Tracing the New Reconquista: Religious Rhetoric in Morocco During the Spanish Civil War (abstract)

One of the most powerful founding myths of the Spanish nation is that of the reconquista, typically represented as the sacred and patriotic struggle of medieval Christians to rout infidel Muslim forces from the Iberian Peninsula. Given the potency of this narrative in Spanish tradition, it appeared as an attractive discourse for a group of disgruntled military officers staging a coup d’etat in 1936: they saw themselves as messianic guardians of the “true” Spain, duty-bound to purge the country of the decadent Republic then in power. Their self-portrayal became complicated, however, by a heavy reliance on the Spanish protectorate in northern Morocco – more specifically, on some 80,000 Muslim Morocco recruits into the rebel army. To smooth over the irony of an alliance with precisely the Moorish enemy of the medieval reconquista, leaders of the Nationalist effort began promoting the notion of a religious brotherhood between Catholics and Muslims. Followers of the two monotheistic traditions were to unite in a holy crusade against the threat of the atheistic Spanish Republic.

My research focuses on the nature of this religious rhetoric, as well as the ways in which contemporary and later accounts depicted it. I will first explore the question of who amongst the Spanish and Moroccans was using (or rejecting) the idea of a Catholic-Muslim fraternity. When did they use it? With what effects? Second, I will examine the varying historiographies of the rhetoric. How did Spanish and Moroccan writers characterize it during the Civil War? After it, under the Franco dictatorship? Once the dictatorship ended? Now? To answer these questions, I will draw on materials in the libraries and archives of Tetouan, the capital of the former Spanish protectorate, and on the expertise of local scholars. My findings will enhance our understanding of the dynamic relationship between Spain and Morocco, specifically as it pertains to religious representations of themselves and each other.