Morisco Justice in Calderón’s Amar después de la muerte

Abstract

For Thomas Case and Erik Coenen, Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s notion of justice has theological origins in Saint Thomas Aquinas’s natural law and national self-determination. Issues of Morisco justice become a means of dramatic development. In Amar después de la muerte, Calderón dramatizes the Morisco revolt in Granada (1567–1571). Moorish descendants sought refuge and a return to Islam, after Philip II’s edicts banned their cultural heritage. Calderón’s play moves through four different attempts to deal with the Morisco community. The first is the enslavement of survivors of the rebellion. The second attempt is intermarriage, evidenced when Malec’s daughter Clara, betrothed to El Tuzaní de Alpujarras, accepts marriage as a means of revenge against Juan de Mendoza, whom she plans to kill for disrespecting her father. With the third issue, the revolt, the play becomes a revenge drama as El Tuzaní seeks out the murderer of his wife. The fourth issue is true conversion to Catholicism. Redemptive justice and true faith are perhaps what attracted Calderón to this historical event. His play stands as a tribute to a disenfranchised population.