Blacks as Figure of Negation and Difference in Spanish Golden Age Theater

Abstract

Modernity in Europe and America has negated the existence of Blacks, making them invisible. Spanish Renaissance and Baroque theater represents the Black figure in three ways. Some Black characters embody the negation of humanity; other Blacks attempt to erase their skin color at the physical and metaphysical level, and thus their presence in society as difference and as beings in history; lastly, and this is the exception, some are individuals who confront this negation and demand their freedom against a society that sees them only as slaves. This is the case of the play Juan Latino (c. 1625) by Diego Ximénez de Enciso. Its protagonist affirms his presence in historical memory.