Yes, many theories trace it back to Muslim origin. It is believed to have migrTed to Peru in the times of the Conquistadores. Many Muslims escaped persecution in Spain getting in ships to the New World.
I'd say this Moorish influence goes much farther back, to the centuries of occupation by North African Moors (Moroccans) and so-called 'barbarians' (Berbers). Those southern cultures were not at all barbarian, but contributed significantly to Iberian (and Sicilian, etc.) peoples during Europe's dark ages. Of course, they also helped end that bleak era of superstition and ignorance, as their libraries helped reintroduce the Ancient Greeks, mathematics – even proto-science in the form of alchemy, a faith in the reliability of evidence-based facts, etc. Certainly the architecture of Spain has never yet been equalled, let alone exceeded, maybe until Gaudi’s days. All this now said, I think that the repression of woman in Roman Catholic Europe -- one of whose last visible signs was La Tapada -- has as-yet unexplored links to the presence of Muslims throughout southern reaches of the continent. Like flamenco, however, it's hard to extricate some of what we regard as typically Spanish traits with what was bred into the bone by the Muslim civilization over so many centuries.
Did you ever consider its Muslim origins??
ReplyDeleteYes, many theories trace it back to Muslim origin. It is believed to have migrTed to Peru in the times of the Conquistadores. Many Muslims escaped persecution in Spain getting in ships to the New World.
ReplyDeleteI'd say this Moorish influence goes much farther back, to the centuries of occupation by North African Moors (Moroccans) and so-called 'barbarians' (Berbers).
ReplyDeleteThose southern cultures were not at all barbarian, but contributed significantly to Iberian (and Sicilian, etc.) peoples during Europe's dark ages. Of course, they also helped end that bleak era of superstition and ignorance, as their libraries helped reintroduce the Ancient Greeks, mathematics – even proto-science in the form of alchemy, a faith in the reliability of evidence-based facts, etc. Certainly the architecture of Spain has never yet been equalled, let alone exceeded, maybe until Gaudi’s days.
All this now said, I think that the repression of woman in Roman Catholic Europe -- one of whose last visible signs was La Tapada -- has as-yet unexplored links to the presence of Muslims throughout southern reaches of the continent.
Like flamenco, however, it's hard to extricate some of what we regard as typically Spanish traits with what was bred into the bone by the Muslim civilization over so many centuries.