• Pérez-Reverte's 'Sidi' "Pride keeps you upright"

Why did the Cid win all his battles? «That question had not been well analyzed and is essential to understand the character. Rodrigo Díaz won because he had a lot of learning ability and a lot of analytical ability of the circumstances, no matter how complex they were. He also won the hybridization he got in his contact with Muslims. Many of his troops were Muslim and with them he learned techniques and was able to form a permanent army that worked thanks to the spoils of reason and tribute. He had a global military vision: he used any resource at his disposal. For example, human psychology. Cohesioned his men, terrified the enemies, manipulated them ... In addition, he found a world conducive to that talent: that of Al Andalus fragmented. His success would not have been possible before a united caliphate ».

Who speaks is the historian from Extremadura David Porrinas González, author of El Cid. History and myth of a warlord (Desperta Ferro), the first academic biography of the Castilian warlord of the eleventh century since 1999. Did anyone stay wanting more after the Sidi de Pérez Reverte and before the series of Amazon? In the 421 pages of Porrinas you will find the opposite of a novel myth, but you can enjoy much relevant knowledge in the year in which Vox won 52 deputies.

«Rodrigo Díaz uses the ideology of the reconquest even though he did not know the term reconquest, which is from the 19th century. The word did not exist, but there was the idea of ​​the recovery of territories that had belonged to the Christians, the restoration of the lost ecclesiastical order. It was an ideology that circulated throughout the Peninsula, and had a sense of legitimacy for Christian kings . Muslims were the least, what really mattered was the struggle for primacy among Christians. The important thing was to say: 'I, as a divine agent, have recovered this city for Christianity, have founded a cathedral and this can no longer be taken away from me.' And tell other Christian kings. When Rodrigo Díaz, in a document of 1098, four years after taking Valencia, manifested the conversion of the city, the foundation of the cathedral and the appointment of Bishop Jerónimo, he used the same language of reconquest that Alfonso VI used in Toledo and Pedro of Aragon in Huesca ... They were the same reconquest arguments ».

That idea, existed 100 years before? «There was some notion, a memory of a past goth ... But it was not raised with that sharpness. It was only expressed when the Almoravids arrived on the Peninsula, who were much more aggressive enemies than the Andalusians. That required a rearmament of Christianity, including a moral rearmament. The Almoravids brought an idea of ​​holy war and the holy war was answered with more holy war .

The paradox is that the Cid that David Porrinas González portrays is not a Christian nationalist , but a frontier character, a pragmatic person interested in selling his merchandise to one another and in his personal benefit rather than in a great political / moral project. «The Valencia document is also a sample of pragmatism. El Cid adopted that language because it was the one that suited him. That sacralization of his work was a safeguard not to be attacked by the counts of Barcelona, ​​whose expansion route was Valencia. When he agreed to put on holy war, he did; when he agreed to behave like an Islamic prince, he did it ».

And the loneliness of the Cid? Porrinas' book is full of exiles, of enemies, of rejections and wanderings ... which seems to confirm the literary and melancholic image of " what a good vassal it would be, if he had a good lord ." «The solitude of the Cid is aquilatada in the Song of mine Cid . Then, that wandering life was exalted by the poets of 27, who revered him. Especially Rafael Alberti identified with that Cid that suffers injustice and cries. It is an image with a lot of emotional power, but it is not in the historical Cid . El Cid went to his own way as everyone went and there was a time when he went to exile as many were. His second banishment, for example, was a simple matter of law. He did not respond to his king's call, he did not heed the duty of ayuium and that had an expected consequence.

Let's talk about Alfonso VI, the villain of Cantar . «He has been a character unfairly treated by history and literature. In the Roderici History [the first Cid chronicle] it is already treated as manipulable and malicious. Actually, he was a great king, with a lot of strategic vision and a lot of diplomatic ability. He pacified his kingdom, created a network of very important border councils in the advancement of borders, stimulated pilgrimage and commerce on the Camino de Santiago ... If he collided with Rodrigo Díaz it was because Rodrigo had his own plan, to be lord of his own manor, being king ... That was the idea I had and hence the rhetoric of Valencia ».

And why did it fail? «Because he died and did not have time to consolidate. He conquered Valencia in 1094 and died in 1094. Think that in Sicily, with a similar history of warlords who succeed and try to legitimize their power, Roger II took 40 years to be recognized king .

Last question. What do we not know about Cid? «Del Cid we know much more than other characters of his time more important than him. We know more than Alfonso VI, the great lord of the Peninsula at the end of the 11th century. Still, there are gaps. I would like to have more certainty about his family and his social origin, about his childhood, about Jimena and about the Bishop of Valencia , I would like to know more about the author of the Roderici History ... I would like to know more about his only son, who died fighting against the Almoravids in the battle of Consuegra, and about his relations with the kings of Aragon. I still need to know who he related to during his five years in Muslim territory. What did he learn? We can intuit it but we don't know for sure.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • history
  • culture
  • Spain
  • Arturo Pérez-Reverte
  • literature

Culture Low culture spending in Spanish households by 5%

Culture Reading Day in Andalusia is celebrated on December 16 with the memory of writers who suffered exile

Literature The recovered tomb of Chaves Nogales