A Marrano in Montezuma's Court: An Oblique Reading of La conquista de México by "Fernando de Zárate"

Despite the recent revival of interest in Enríquez Gómez alias Zárate, little attention has been paid to "Zárate's" La conquista de México. The play has been cited in passing as an example of "Zárate's" "flag-waving Christianity," and it has been ascribed to Lope de Vega. A careful reading of the play, however, reveals distinct traces of a Marrano voice, and suggests that Enríquez Gómez was using both the older text by Lope and the Zarate pseudonym to mask his discreet dramatization of the Marrano predicament. The character of Montezuma, in particular, may be a veiled portrait of Enríquez Gómez's own capitulation before the surrounding forces of the Christian world. (MH)