Herminia Luque is the winner of the third edition of the Edhasa Prize for Historical Narratives for 'La reina del exilio', a novel about the Parisian microcut established by Elizabeth II in her exile. In the play, the protagonists are the monarch and the women who surrounded her (assistants, readers, apprentices) in a deeply unequal world.
The story begins in 1882 in the French capital with the arrival at the court of Julio Ucedo, a Don Juan character who brings with him some papers that threaten to compromise the moral image of Isabel again, who years earlier, in 1868, had been dethroned after the La Gloriosa revolution. " Already then she was betrayed by what had been her first lover , Francisco Serrano, the one who started her in passion and would end up instigating the revolt against her," explains the author.
In 'The Queen of Exile', explains Luque, two plots intermingle: on the one hand, the one starring the seductive Uceda, who will make her way until reaching her goal, the queen, and on the other hand, the difficult life of Teresa, a an orphan who struggles to survive in a world that does not offer her too many opportunities. Teresa will arrive at the court of Isabel II by the hand of Elena Sanz, a character who existed in real life and who was the lover of Alfonso XII and mother of two of his children , to the point of being considered by Isabel herself as his " daughter-in-law before god. "
Why Elizabeth II in exile as a theme? "I have been a great reader of the biographies that Isabel Burdiel has dedicated to the monarch and I have always been fascinated by the complexity of that period. It is true that it had more shadows than lights , but it was not as dire as it seems. Isabel has been very mistreated by historiography and literature. Everyone ridiculed her, Valle Inclán described his court as a grotesque. I think there is a component of misogyny in that gaze, "says Luque.
"It must be remembered that in the fall of Elizabeth II there were not only political components, but a fierce misogyny," says the author. "The queen suffered libel and attacks all her life like the obscene album by the Bécquer brothers in which they ridiculed The entire court and they portrayed her in pornographic snapshots. It is clear that Elizabeth II did not respond to the model of a woman of the time, that of a faithful and loving wife. But, to begin with, she was married to a cousin who was openly gay. She accepted that the men of the time, including kings and princes, had lovers or frequented prostitutes, but she, being the queen of Spain, had to be a model of the home angel. And she was not. "
The 89 illustrations by the Bécquer brothers portrayed the Bourbons and Elizabeth II in scenes ranging from onanism to zoophilia and caused a stir in their day. "They are fierce, brutal images, in which she appears naked, having relations with her confessor ... They are aberrant, what we would call pornography today but with the means of the time, elaborate vignettes in full color." " It is a very murky affair , the result of fierce misogyny. Her own husband and brother-in-law were able to participate in the financing of the album. In the end, as Burdiel affirms in his books, the lesson is that you cannot reign innocently. To Elizabeth II , her innocence ended up exploding, "reflects the writer.
It is the third novel by Luque, a teacher at a Malaga Institute of Geography and History, who believes that " history cannot continue to be told the same , it is necessary to make an effort and offer another look. Women cannot be ignored as they have been so far. " "It is a feminist novel avant la lettre . The characters are not, but as a writer and teacher of History I am interested in the gender perspective. Half of humanity has been denied. And now is the time to tell the contribution of women, "he adds.
For the first time, the Edhasa Prize for Historical Narratives has a finalist: it is 'Bellum Cantatum' by José Manuel Aparicio, an adventure novel set in the year 26 BC in the Asturian wars that for a decade shook the region , who fiercely resisted the Roman invasion. The protagonist, Sekeios, is caught between the two sides and will have to fight the hostility of the mountain resistance and the attacks of Augustus' troops.
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