Green-Mercado, Mayte. "Race-making and the preservation of power." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/race-making-and-the-preservation-of-power. [Date accessed].
Race-making and the preservation of power
How a 15th-century Spain racial caste system influenced far-right politics today
The language of racialization was tied to religious difference in premodern Spain. After the forced conversion of Muslims and Jews in the 15th century, Spain needed a way to distinguish so-called “new” Christians, or conversos, from “pure” Christians. This division was reified in an early Spanish dictionary from Sebastian de Covarrubias. His definition of words such as "raza" and "casta" reflected the growing system of racial caste across the Iberian Peninsula, and eventually the globe. This rhetoric of racialization, with the assumed superiority of white Christians, lives on in modern day Spain’s far-right political discourse.
Further learning
Recommended
Biopolitics and citizenship in Euripides’ Ion
Who is and who is not a citizen, and how this is determined across national and racial lines, has a deeply rooted history. Dan-el Padilla Peralta takes on questions of citizenship, belonging, and national identity in ancient Mediterranean literature.
