Blanca 1600

Blanca 1600-1700

Blanca: the last and largest remaining Morisco village in 1613 in Spain

The history of Blanca can simply be unfolded as follows. After invading the Moors in Spain in the year 711 they settled in the Ricote Valley in the same century.  There they formed six villages until 1609. The current names of these villages are Abaran, Blanca, Ojos, Ricote, Ulea, and Villanueva. The village of Blanca was in the 17th century the main village of the Ricote Valley.

Blanca was the last and most important Morisco village in Spain in 1613. All the Moriscoes had to leave the country in 1609. The residents of Blanca, one of the six villages that belonged to the Ricote Valley, could postpone expulsion until 1613.  However, at the end of the year 1613 the sad announcement came that the Moriscoes of the Ricote Valley also had to leave the country. This was finally the case on December 13, 1613. About 25% of the population of 1,000 inhabitants of Blanca went on foot to the port of Cartagena where the Moriscoes had to be embarked.  A small portion of the 1,000 inhabitants of Blanca had escaped and withdrawn in other villages or in the high mountains of Ricote.  After 10 - 15 years many came back.  Finally around 45% of the former inhabitants of Blanca and the Ricote Valley could continue staying in their territories. These people married in the course of time to the Christians, and today Blanca is one of the most pious villages in the province of Murcia. This movie shows you the old Morisco neighborhood, the small winding streets that ran to the castle, and the very old houses of centuries ago. 

Expulsion of the Moriscos of Blanca

                                                        (c) Painting of Luis Molina of Blanca

The expulsion of the new Christians of the Ricote Valley - now suddenly called Moriscoes - decreed in 1613 by Philip III left the lands of Blanca in ruins. Blanca was left with only 300 people (5), due to the forced exodus of its inhabitants. However, 10–15 years later 45% of its inhabitants returned to their lands (6). Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra wrote at length about the Moorish Ricote Valley through the figure of Morisco Ricote (7). Many authors thought that the Morisco Ricote came from Esquivias or Albacete, but Govert Westerveld, one of the two chroniclers of the town proved that the Morisco Ricote came from the Ricote Valley (8) as confirmed in 2010 by Professor Francisco Márquez Villanueva (9).  

 Cervantes, the Morisco Ricote and his daughter Ana Felix

                                                                     Drawing of Álvaro Peña

Unfortunately, the peace of 1569 was shortlived, because on April 9 1609 (on the same day, an important one given the requisite troops, the Twelve Year Truce with the Netherlands was signed on the initiative of the Royal Council) it was also decided that all Moriscoes had to abandon the country.  The mass deportation of the baptized Muslims covered 3 percent of the total Spanish population, from 250,000 to 300,000 people of a total of 8 to 9 million people.

 
                                                                The Castle of Blanca - Drawing of Álvaro Peña

Each kingdom had to ensure that the deportation was arranged. It started in Valencia on 22 August 1609. This was followed on 29 May 1610 by Aragon and Castile during the same year. The entire process lasted a total of approximately five years, from 1609 to 1614. Moriscoes upset came in their new home ports.  They were North Africa, France, Italy and the Ottoman Empire.  Some also experienced it as a religious liberation and,  on the one hand,  they experienced brotherhood in the Islamic countries. But on the other hand they had major difficulties in adapting, and even they came  in contact with hostilities.

The inhabitants of the villages in the Ricote Valley protested intensively and managed to postpone the ediction until 1613. With 1,000 inhabitants, today 6,000, Blanca was the main town in the Ricote Valley. Although they were baptized before 1502 and were entitled to the title of new Christians, in 1613 they were suddenly also unlawful and dubbed as Moriscoes. This great injustice resulted in Madrid announcing in early December of 1613 that the Moriscoes of the Ricote Valley also had to leave the country. This led to haunting situations where the residents of Blanca were weeping and directed themselves to the Catholic bishop in Murcia to avoid expulsion. Despite all the good will of the Catholic Church in Murcia, who stood for the residents of the Ricote Valley, the deportation took place. The reason given for this deportation was, strangely enough, national security. On December 13 1613 the day finally came. About 40% of the population of the Ricote Valley, including Blanca, walked on foot to the port of Cartagena to be embarked there. 

 
                                                              The Moriscos leaving Blanca on the road to Cartagena
                                                          Painting of Luis Molina of Blanca
 

Some of the 1,000 inhabitants of Blanca had withdrawn to other villages and to the high mountains to escape the deportation.   The shipment finally took place in January 1614. In the three weeks when the residents of Blanca and their children stayed in Cartagena  different elders succeeded  to marry their daughters  to Christians  in order to avoid deportation. This is why we see about 20 marriages between the daughters of the new Christians of Blanca and male Christians of other regions. Only the women were willing to marry in that way. I could not find marriages of male new Christians to Christian women. That was really not in the nature of these former Moors of Blanca, some of whom even had  2 or 3 Moorish women before 1580.

Many Moriscoes buried their gold before they left.

                                                                      Drawing of Álvaro Peña

Thanks to the baptism and marriage registers of  the 16th and 17th centuries I could see that many new Christians of  Blanca then came back after 10 to 15 years. Eventually 45% of the former inhabitants in Blanca and the Ricote Valley could continue to live in their territories. The fact that we still possess in Blanca all  the baptism, wedding, and death registers can be regarded as something unique. Due to the Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939) a lot of records had been destroyed or simply burned. By the time the former Moorish population mingled slowly with the Christians.

Mayors of Archena, Cieza and the Ricote Valley

remembering the expulsión in 1613

                                                                   Photo: Govert Westerveld