Contradicción, aculturación y celebración en El negro del serafín de Vélez de Guevara

Abstract:

This article draws new attention to El negro del serafín, by Luis Vélez de Guevara, a hagiographic drama focused on the struggle for freedom and the rise to fame as a Franciscan friar of a Black protagonist. Despite evidence of enthusiastic reception at its time of composition and staging (ca. 1642–43), the comedia has remained obscure in recent times. In considering the historical and cultural contexts of the notion of Black sainthood in early modern Spain and Sicily overall and the theatrical subgenre of plays celebrating Black saints (comedia de santos negros), the article finds the comedia serves as a window through which to examine how religious beliefs and cultural practices informed representations of Blackness. Through a close reading of the play, I explore how Vélez de Guevara builds a hagiographic drama that epitomizes the fundamental duality of Renaissance and Baroque comedies that is the interplay of contradiction and celebration. As well, I ponder how the representation of the comedia's protagonist, Rosambuco, illustrates elements of the Franciscan order's quest to bring about the acculturation of Blacks in the early modern Spanish world.