Arabs, Jews, and the Enigma of Spanish Imperial Melancholy

In Latin America more than once over the last few years, we have asked ourselves if the old Spain still exists; the Spain whose black humors crystallized in the Golden Age and were celebrated and/or deplored for centuries as integral characteristics of Spanish identity.1 Personally the enigma of Spanish melancholy intrigues me because I have continuously examined the myth of melancholy as an ingredient of national Mexican culture. It also fascinates me as the child of exiled Catalans in Mexico, and for that reason, I am tinged with indefinable longings. I have been able to prove, additionally, that in many European cultures the myth of melancholy has been intimately tied to identity. The English Elizabethans wanted to snatch away Don Quixote's melancholy to erect it as a national monument; Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1621 ) no doubt contributed to this movement. Certainly, one of the distinctive symbols of the German Renaissance is Durer's famous print that portrays the angel of melancholy. The French constructed the tristesse to emulate the English spleen , and the Romantics exalted melancholic sentimentalism as seldom before. It is possible that the Florentine Neo-Platonists first propelled the rebirth of ancient Greek melancholy in Europe, supported by the Arabic and Jewish philosophic traditions. And the long Spanish Golden Age most contributed to consolidating in the West the black humors as one of the propelling forces of politics and society. The era's immense Spanish melancholy shadowed all