Here’s an interesting little anecdote to add to my list of fake/bleached virgin stories:

Barcellona [sic] has always been celebrated for the zeal of its priesthood, and for the pains taken by them to hoodwink the people; and even in these days, religious bigotry is far more prevailing than might be expected in a city so near the frontier; and which has had so much connexion with foreign nations. In another chapter, I related a circumstance that occured [sic] eight years ago, when a peasant was condemned to ten years imprisonment in the citadel, because he said unthinkingly, that an image of some virgin was made of wood; and so late as the year 1827, another very flagrant example of religious superstition, and of the use made of it even in these days by the clergy, occurred at [Barcelona]. There was in one of the churches, or convents, an image of a Virgin, called I believe, the Virgin of St. Pilar, and this image was black. It was at this time, that an outcry had been raised against the liberals, who were called Negroes; … and the rumour got abroad, that the negroes went to this church, to pay adoration to the Black Virgin. Such being the case, the priests and friars ventured upon and concerted a miracle which might have the double effect of strengthening the faith of the people, and of bringing the negroes into still greater discredit. One morning it was publicly announced, that the Virgin of St. Pilar, had changed from black to white; and the good Catholics of [Barcelona] were invited to go and see the miracle with their own eyes; and they went by thousands.

If this is true it’s rather interesting. I’ve never heard of negro being used as a synonym for liberal in Spanish, but I suppose it could be a submerged reference to the articles in the 1812 liberal constitution which defined as Spanish nationals “Spaniards of both hemispheres”, including all free men born or settled in the dominions, to their sons, to naturalised foreigners, to all those resident for ten years, and, most controversially, to freed slaves. If correct, I guess that would make that particular use of negro the Spanish version of “nigger-lover.”

Categories: God, the angels and the orders of the faithful, Liberals & locals

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1. looby
   November 17th 2006 14:57

   Fascinating. That’s a very interesting piece of detective work about the derivation of negro as meaning liberal.

2. Javier
   November 22nd 2006 18:18

   Try Google with “Mueran los negros” and “liberales” and you will find that that negros = liberales was commonplace in the final years of the rule of Fernando VII.

3. Trevor ap Simon
   November 23rd 2006 13:14

   Why does Spain have to be so different? Even in Iran they know that black means conservative and probably clerical

4. Javier
   November 23rd 2006 19:01

   Well, we are different, but some guesswork is still possible..

   Black should be honored among traditionalists, as cassocks are black, so there must be some explanation for these anomaly.

   Perhaps black soldiers in regular army ( the stronghold of liberals), that were brought to Spain after the defeat in American colonies?

   Your theory sounds good too. I see some racial issue involved.

   I really miss Larry Kovaks .

5. Trevor ap Simon
   November 23rd 2006 19:16

   He will be back in a week, it says since July 28 2006. Maybe you should investigate.

6. gato
   May 13th 2007 13:49

   Andalusia was comprised of non-whites, and although it forms a substantial part of european history it has thus far been blanked out by establishments that would prefer spain to have been of greco-roman – blank – christian heritage. when the trinitarian armies burnt andalusia to the ground, those who fought back – the unitarians – including jew, muslims and unitarian christian (those who do not believe in the trinity) were slaughtered, extirpated etc The facade of a holy war by the roman catholic church was merely a pretext in which to rape and expropriate the wealth of andalusia…what has generally been seen as the dark ages in europe refers only to western europe – not the iberian pensinsula. Much of Christian Europes knowledge came from the works of the Jews and Muslim in Andalusia which saw a great many refugees flock to the Universities from those lands which suffocated the people by virtue of a Holy Latin language that was not taught to the people for fear that church cum state would lose control of those they considered to be their slave labor – they proclaimed that god created certain men to be the slaves of others, and this had to be divinely backed..the trinity then became a weapon created by men, originally constantine – a pagan from birth till death, who dreamt of the cross behind the sun…and moving quickly to consolidate the new religion within the folds of his empire, declared the trinity to be the word of gof.(with the subsequent implication that man could be a god, and thus solidify that kings and rulers can in fact be of divine origin even in the flesh)

   The black/moor/negro liberal essence thus stems from the collective memory of those moors who fought for the freedom of a land that had once lived, and lived with courage.

   The Spanish didn’t just bring death and the trinity to the americas and the dutch republic etc but first and most importently, to the base which had to be systematically cleansed, Spain.