Enrique Martínez-López
Contemporary history ostensibly steps into the space of fiction when the bandit Roque Guinart plays himself in Don Quixote, 1615. Cervantes, however, here as in other instances in which his texts suggest views not in agreement with the official (hi)story, transforms historical data into a fiction that ingeniously conveys indiscreet truth. First, Guinart is presented as a just and reluctant bandit in 1614, although he had been honorably serving the king since 1611. Then his criminal life is linked to Catalan dissent, and his ¿future¿ to the fate of the Moriscos (the Ricote family). Finally, both the bandit and the Moriscos' stories are constructed in the romance mode, a typical feature in Cervantes' ideological texts. The 1616 reader of the novel thus was able to perceive dissenting views on the Catalan and Morisco issues, both handled by the government in a disastrous manner.