Abstract

In both Spain and Portugal, over the past several years, more and more historically Jewish sites have been identified, discovered and promoted, both academically and for tourism. In a few cases this has accompanied individual Identification with Judaism or, in one Portuguese town, a significant group. More often, it has led to newly-created festivals of imagined Jewish communities. This article uses approaches from the anthropology of tourism to examine issues such as authenticity, appropriation and identity markers. More specifically, it focuses on the function of Sephardic music in recently developed festivals of two Camino de Sefarad towns, Ribadavia (Galicia) and Hervas (Extremadura).

Highlights

  • Over the past decades, a phenomenon of «discovering» hidden Jewish communities in Spain and Portugal has developed, leading to functioning Jewish communities in some cases, and festivals promoting imagined Jewish communities in others

  • In 1492, the Jews were expelled from the kingdoms of León and Castile, in 1497 from Portugal, and in 1498 from Navarra, leaving no Jews on the Iberian Península —officially

  • The Jews we know as Sephardim migrated to the ex-Ottoman Empire and north África, eventually to the Americas too; many, especially from Portugal, settled in Amsterdam

Read more

Summary

Independent Scholar

A phenomenon of «discovering» hidden Jewish communities in Spain and Portugal has developed, leading to functioning Jewish communities in some cases, and festivals promoting imagined Jewish communities in others. Of these, some were caught by the Inquisition, and executed, or tortured and/or imprisoned; some left the Peninsula later, as Catholics, and took up their Jewish identities in other, safer places (incidentally bringing the latest songs with them); some maintained some vestiges of Jewish practices, and of these, some continué to maintain at least some level of Jewish identity up even today, at the end of the 20"' century In both Spain and Portugal, a phenomenon of «discovering» hidden, or Crypto-Jewish communities has developed, leading to newly-functioning Jewish groups in a few cases, and to tourist buses, and festivals of imagined Jewish communities in others, or a combination. ^^' Sylvia RODRÍGUEZ, «Fiesta Time and Plaza Space: Resistence and Accomodation in a Tourist Town», Journal of American Folklore, 3, 439 (1998), pp. 39-56, describes a similar plaza transformation at a New Mexican event, «during fiesta the plaza becomes the transformed site of múltiple social, symbolic and political inversions...» (p. 45)

JEWISH ELEMENTS IN THE FESTA
CLOSING REMARKS

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.