- The Epic of Juan Latino: Dilemmas of Race and Religion in Renaissance Spain by Elizabeth R. Wright
In this well-documented study, Elizabeth R. Wright has placed Juan Latino and his epic poem (Austrias Carmen or The Song of John of Austria) in the historical period and the geographical place in which the poet lived and in the literary traditions into which he situated his poem. Juan Latino (circa 1571–94), whom Wright places in the forefront among the writers of the diaspora of sub-Saharan Africans, was a slave who gained his freedom, attained an education, and taught Latin for decades in the university in the city of Granada.
Whereas the basic outline of his life are clear enough, the details are elusive and lack full documentation. As a slave, he was an early companion of his master, Don Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, the third duke of Sessa. Latino himself suggests that he was born in Africa and then taken to Spain, although the traditions of the Fernández de Córdoba family held that he was born of black slave parents on the family's estates. He attained his freedom at some unknown time and gained his early education while a companion of the young duke, though perhaps in an informal or even clandestine fashion. [End Page 486]
Wright provides a compelling picture of the Granada in which Latino grew up and lived the rest of his life. Granada had been the capital of the last Muslim polity in Western Europe, lasting until its conquest by Christian forces in 1492. The terms of its surrender were generous and provided for the local Muslims to continue to live with their own religion, laws, and language. That situation did not last long, and, by the early sixteenth century, Granada's Muslims had to choose between converting to Christianity and adopting Christian customs, thus becoming Moriscos, or leaving Spain. Many Muslims in the city of Granada left, replaced by Christian settlers from Galicia and other northern parts, while many of those in the surrounding mountains tended to remain and convert. Harsh measures in the late 1560s by royal officials to force assimilation on the ostensibly converted Moriscos led to the second revolt of the Alpujarras (1568–70) and numerous enslavements of the rebels. Growing hostility against Moriscos and against those of sub-Saharan African ancestry increased concurrently with a series of confrontations in the Mediterranean world pitting Muslims and Christians against one another. These were dismal times in Granada. Then, in the east, John of Austria led the Christian Holy League in a stunning naval battle at Lepanto in 1571 against a formidable Muslim force.
The news spread rapidly, and Juan Latino used the occasion to prepare an epic poem on the battle into which he inserted pleas for toleration for racial and religious minorities. Able to secure a license for publication through his connections with the political elite in Granada, his epic poem in Latin appeared within two years after the battle. He could produce such a poem so rapidly due to his long years of study and teaching Latin and his close familiarity with the Roman classics, particularly Virgil's Aeneid and Lucan's Civil War. Despite the poem's success at the time, Latino's reputation was not long-lasting, suffering from anti-black sentiment among writers into the seventeenth century and from neglect by literary scholars until recently. Wright, who with Sarah Spence and Andrew Lemons published an English translation of Latino's epic poem in 2014, brings into view all of the known details of the poet's life and suggests plausible scenarios for the undocumented portions. She also shows Latino's many allusions in the poem to the classical works and his pointed calls for understanding and tolerance among all inhabitants of the Spanish Empire. Wright has produced an admirable and highly recommended study. [End Page 487]