Andulusia Remembers and Forgets

We visited two Andalusian towns yesterday that were important symbols to us of the multicultural history we came here to study. The first, Lucena, was the home of one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in Spain during the Muslim caliphate. It was the home of artists and poets, and was governed by the Jewish majority in the town for two centuries. It all ended when more fundamentalist Moors and the Castilian Christians took over and in their turn undertook to persecute and finally expel the Jews. Now there is almost no evidence in Lucena of this once-vital Jewish heritage. Unlike nearby Cordoba, there are no defined neighborhoods, no street names, plaques, or monuments. We heard there was one room dedicated to the town's Jewish history in their anthropological museum, and we finally found it housed in the ancient castle tower.
It was a well done display, but as the destination for a pilgrimage for Jews seeking a lost heritage, it would be disappointing.

Later the same day, we drove through Antequerra, a town with a strong Muslim history, a frontier town for the last surviving Muslim territory in Spain that the Christians finally overthrew in the 15th century. The museums were closed by the time we got there, but much to our surprise, at the base of the impressive castle fortress built by the Muslims a dozen centuries ago, we found a newly erected statue memorializing the Muslim refugees who had been driven from the city. The sculpture shows a couple in flight with all their possessions on their backs. They are in traditional Muslim clothing, the man in a turban, the women wearing a hijab and veil. Other than that, however, they could be any of the world's refugees. They could be Mary and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem.

We noticed the date on the statue -2010 - and did our best to read the Spanish inscription. Clearly, the monument is part of a progressive movement of reclaiming the town's history and telling it truthfully and compassionately. In one day, we saw vividly how Andalusia remembers, and how Andalusia forgets.