Ni chivato ni carnero: La construcción de la diferencia étnica en Los moriscos de Hornachos

The anonymous play Los moriscos de Hornachos is a product of the propaganda campaign which was launched to justify the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain in 1609. This work identifies in some detail the chief cultural and religious characteristics that were alleged at the time to differentiate the Moriscos from Old Christians. In this article I argue that this conception of difference becomes problematic for the playwright to sustain where the Moriscos are shown to be involved in tending sheep—for the dramatist reveals both a reluctance to accept their occupation as shepherds, and an eagerness to parody them for being involved in that activity. By contextualizing the play in terms of the religious and political attitudes displayed towards Moriscos in Golden-Age Spain, I show that the playwright's reluctance to accept that Morisco shepherds could exist stems from the idealized image of the Old Christian that was then predominant, since this image was repeatedly associated with the figure of the shepherd.