Translated identities: writing between Morocco and Spain

摘要

Morocco and Spain share a history of mutual recognition and estrangement dating back centuries. Today, this relationship faces re-interpretation in an age of post-colonial migration, economic disparity, and ambiguous nationalities. The nebulous 'space between two coasts' is an important site of this re-negotiation, one that draws upon cultural links of the past in order to understand the present. Cuentos de las dos orillas [Tales of two shores], a bilingual Arabic-Spanish edition of eight short stories by both Moroccan and Spanish authors created in 1999, employs this cultural legacy in order to re-interpret the Hispano-Moroccan relationship as experienced on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar. The stories engage in an intertwined dialogue, each providing a window into how notions of 'Spanishness' and 'Moroccanness' are dependent upon one another. The author proposes that the result of this cooperative compilation is a 'traslado' (translation/transfer) of cultural memory, thus defining the exchange between Morocco and Spain as one of circularity. By analysing the stories 'Morir lo ms lejos posible' [To die as far as possible] by Antonio lamo, 'El safor' [The safor] by El Astillero, and 'Diario de un emigrante clandestino' [Diary of a clandestine immigrant] by Rachid Nini, this paper traces the ways in which the narratives both rupture and perpetuate the sociopolitical and mythical relationship between Spain and Morocco via the themes of brotherhood, the performance of identity, and departure and return.