Suspect Moriscos
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Moriscos were Muslims from the Iberian peninsula who were forcibly converted to Christianity during the Reconquista. The term also applied to their descendants. While some continued to identify themselves as Muslim and practiced Islam after forced conversion, others indeed could have identified as Catholic. Some even practised aspects of both religions and did not necessarily adhere to one or the other. Islam itself was practised in a variety of ways that might even seem strange or antithetical, such as the arguments made by some Morisco authors that Mary was not a virgin, despite the Quran praising her for this quality, according to Cook (84). Nevertheless, “Morisco” was a term applied regardless of a person’s individual faith and status variances. It instead denoted a certain lineage “tainted” by Muslim blood.
As Cook explains, free Morisco emigrants sought refuge in Spain’s new Atlantic colonies in hopes of escaping suspicions of being “crypto-Muslims”, or Muslims that continued to practice their faith after being converted to Catholicism. In Spain, they were suspected of being loyal to the Ottoman Empire, but those who emigrated were also constructed as threats to the integrity of Spanish colonies. Inherent to the encomienda system–which upheld these colonies–was also a religious mission that aimed to Christianize and “civilize” the indigenous peoples that were forced into doing hard labour on them. This is why encomenderos like Diego Romero had to emphasize his devotion to Catholicism in petitions to the Spanish Crown as a Morisco (Cook 80). Officials like the friar Juan de Sotomayor was concerned with Catalina de Ibiza and her children disrupting Mass and throwing indigenous peoples off their path to a pure Catholic conversion (Cook 90).
Like we previously touched on in discussions before, the Muslim figure is seen as suspect in contemporary Western societies. In the way that Moriscos were seen as spreading heretical ideas to the indigenous populations and thus compromising the success of Spanish colonies, Muslim immigrants are perceived to carry backward values that threaten liberal democracies. Latine Muslims are no doubt included in this group, regardless of whether they crossed the border or if, as Morales says, “the border crossed over them” (Morales 65). He cites a Latino Muslim in saying that, after 9/11, someone yelled “Osama bin Laden” at him, which he speculates might have been because of his beard (Morales 71). In the way that Moriscos were identified by their clothes and customs, the Muslim’s position in society could be determined by their outward or public display of religiosity or perceived religiosity.