Level B2 · Chapter 78
Sancho Governs Barataria
A farmhand who cannot read is handed the keys of a town, hears lawsuits and dictates a set of ordinances that are still remembered.
What you will learn
- Read an official document without getting lost in the formulas.
- Issue an order in the language used for laws.
- Move from paperwork Spanish to street Spanish and back.
Before you read
Listen to how the paperwork sounds. Official Spanish almost never says who does anything: it says se ordena, se guarden, consta que. The doer disappears and a subjunctive does the ordering. Sancho keeps interrupting this language with his own, and the gap between the two is the joke.The story in easy Spanish
Pocos días después, el duque le dijo a Sancho que le concedía el gobierno de una ínsula.
A few days later the duke told Sancho he was granting him the government of an island.
Sancho, que llevaba años esperando aquello, se vistió medio de letrado y medio de soldado.
Sancho, who had been waiting years for this, dressed himself half as a lawyer and half as a soldier.
Se despidió de su amo y salió con un mayordomo y una docena de criados.
He took leave of his master and set off with a steward and a dozen servants.
La ínsula era en realidad una villa del duque, de unos mil vecinos, tierra adentro.
The island was in fact one of the duke’s towns, of about a thousand inhabitants, well inland.
No había mar por ninguna parte, y al lugar le habían puesto el nombre de Barataria.
There was no sea anywhere near it, and the place had been given the name of Barataria.
Los vecinos estaban avisados y tenían orden de tratarlo como a gobernador de verdad.
The townspeople had been warned and had orders to treat him as a real governor.
Lo recibieron con campanas, salió el regimiento a la puerta y lo llevaron a la iglesia.
They received him with bells, the council came out to the gate and they took him to the church.
Después, en la sala del concejo, le entregaron las llaves y lo sentaron en la silla del juzgado.
Then, in the council chamber, they handed him the keys and sat him in the judgement seat.
En la pared, enfrente de la silla, había unas letras grandes que él no pudo leer.
On the wall, facing the seat, there were large letters that he could not read.
Le explicaron que allí constaba el día en que el señor don Sancho Panza tomaba posesión.
They explained that it recorded the day on which the lord Don Sancho Panza took office.
Sancho contestó que él no tenía don, que se llamaba Sancho Panza a secas, como su padre.
Sancho replied that he had no title of don, that he was plain Sancho Panza, like his father.
Pidió que constase por escrito que no sabía leer ni firmar, para que nadie lo acusase luego.
He asked that it be put on record that he could not read or sign, so that nobody could accuse him later.
Aquella misma tarde le llevaron pleitos, y el primero fue el de un sastre y un labrador.
That same afternoon they brought him lawsuits, and the first was between a tailor and a farmer.
El labrador le había dado paño para una caperuza y luego había preguntado si saldrían dos.
The farmer had given him cloth for one cap and then asked whether two would come out of it.
Y tres, y cuatro, y cinco, y el sastre había dicho a todo que sí.
And three, and four, and five, and the tailor had said yes to all of it.
Sacó la mano de debajo de la capa y enseñó cinco caperuzas puestas en los cinco dedos.
He drew his hand out from under his cloak and showed five caps on his five fingers.
Sancho sentenció que el sastre perdiese las hechuras y el labrador el paño.
Sancho ruled that the tailor should lose his workmanship and the farmer his cloth.
Mandó además que las caperuzas se llevasen a los presos de la cárcel, y que no hubiera más.
He also ordered that the caps be taken to the prisoners in the jail, and that there be an end of it.
Los presentes se rieron, pero no había por dónde discutir la sentencia.
Those present laughed, but there was no way to argue with the ruling.
Otro día vino un forastero con un caso de escuela sobre un puente y una horca.
Another day a stranger came with a textbook case about a bridge and a gallows.
La ley del sitio mandaba ahorcar al que jurase mentira antes de pasar el puente.
The law of the place ordered that anyone swearing a lie before crossing the bridge be hanged.
Un hombre había jurado que iba a morir en aquella horca, y los jueces no sabían qué hacer.
A man had sworn that he was going to die on that gallows, and the judges did not know what to do.
Si lo dejaban pasar, había mentido, y si lo ahorcaban, había dicho la verdad.
If they let him pass, he had lied, and if they hanged him, he had told the truth.
Sancho dijo que, estando en un fil las razones, lo dejasen pasar libremente.
Sancho said that, the reasons being evenly balanced, they should let him pass freely.
Explicó que su amo le había mandado acogerse a la misericordia cuando la justicia dudase.
He explained that his master had told him to lean towards mercy whenever justice was in doubt.
El mayordomo dijo que ni el mismo Licurgo habría dado mejor sentencia.
The steward said that Lycurgus himself could not have given a better ruling.
Aquella tarde dictó unas ordenanzas y el escribano las fue poniendo en limpio.
That afternoon he dictated a set of ordinances and the clerk wrote them out fair.
Ordenó que no hubiese regatones de comida en toda la ínsula.
He ordered that there be no food profiteers in the whole island.
Mandó que se pudiera traer vino de donde se quisiese, declarando el lugar y el precio.
He ordered that wine might be brought from wherever one wished, declaring its origin and price.
Al que lo aguase o le cambiase el nombre le costaría la vida.
Anyone watering it or changing its name would pay for it with his life.
Rebajó el precio del calzado, sobre todo el de los zapatos, que corría con exorbitancia.
He lowered the price of footwear, especially shoes, which was running out of all bounds.
Puso tasa a los salarios de los criados y prohibió las coplas deshonestas de noche.
He set a scale for servants’ wages and banned indecent songs at night.
Ordenó que ningún ciego cantase milagros sin traer testimonio de que eran verdaderos.
He ordered that no blind man sing of miracles without bringing proof that they were genuine.
Creó un alguacil de pobres, no para perseguirlos sino para ver si lo eran de verdad.
He created a constable of the poor, not to persecute them but to check whether they really were poor.
El escribano lo tituló todo «las constituciones del gran gobernador Sancho Panza».
The clerk headed the whole thing «the constitutions of the great governor Sancho Panza».
Y dice Cide Hamete que en aquel pueblo se guardan todavía y todavía se cumplen.
And Cide Hamete says that in that town they are still kept and still obeyed.
Vocabulary
Taking office
- tomar posesión
- to take office
- el concejo
- the town council
- el regimiento
- the town governors
- la villa
- the walled town
- las llaves del pueblo
- the keys of the town
- la silla del juzgado
- the judgement seat
- a secas
- plain, with nothing added
- el linaje
- the family line
Paper and law
- el escribano
- the clerk
- constar
- to be on record
- poner en limpio
- to write out fair
- la ordenanza
- the by-law
- el pleito
- the lawsuit
- la sentencia
- the ruling
- el juramento
- the oath
- el testimonio
- sworn proof
What is ordered and what is banned
- el regatón
- the food profiteer
- el calzado
- footwear
- la copla
- the popular song
- poner tasa
- to set a ceiling
- rebajar
- to lower
- aguar el vino
- to water the wine
- la caperuza
- the cap
- la hechura
- the workmanship
How an official document talks
Consta que el señor don Sancho Panza tomó posesión del gobierno.
Ordenó que no hubiese regatones en la ínsula.
Las caperuzas se llevarán a los presos de la cárcel.
Spanish officialese is not a separate language, but it does have a small set of habits that appear in every contract, town notice and court paper you will ever read. Learn the habits and the documents open up.
One. The doer disappears
| plain | official |
|---|---|
| El gobernador prohíbe las coplas. | Se prohíben las coplas. |
| Guardan esas leyes en el pueblo. | Esas leyes se guardan en el pueblo. |
| Bajamos el precio del calzado. | Queda rebajado el precio del calzado. |
Note that se prohíben las coplas has a plural verb, because las coplas is the subject. This is the pasiva refleja, and it is far commoner in Spanish than ser plus participle.
Two. Orders arrive as que plus subjunctive
An order in a document does not use the imperative. It uses que and a subjunctive, in the present for a rule in force and in the imperfect when the order is being reported: ordena que no haya regatones becomes ordenó que no hubiese regatones. The chapter is full of the reported kind because Cide Hamete is telling you what Sancho decreed.
Three. Fixed formulas worth knowing whole
| formula | where you meet it |
|---|---|
| hágase constar que | let it be placed on record that |
| a los efectos oportunos | for the appropriate purposes, the end of half of Spanish letters |
| el abajo firmante | the undersigned |
| en lo tocante a | as regards |
| so pena de | on pain of, still alive in legal Spanish |
| queda prohibido | is hereby prohibited, on every sign in Spain |
Sancho cannot read a word of any of this and rules better than the people who can. That is the argument of the chapter, and it is made in grammar as much as in plot.
An illiterate man who governs well
Barataria is a real Spanish town with the sea removed and a joke wrapped round it. The name plays on barato, cheap, and on baratar, to swindle. Every ceremony Sancho is given, the bells, the church, the keys, the seat, is exactly what a real new corregidor received on taking office in a Castilian town, which is why the parody works: the audience knew the script.
The ordinances are the surprise. A reader expecting a farmhand to make a fool of himself gets instead a short, coherent programme of municipal policy: control the middlemen in the food trade, allow free import of wine but make the origin and price declared, cap the price of shoes, set a wage scale, and audit the beggars so that the fake ones stop taking from the real ones. These are the exact complaints of Castilian town councils in the 1590s, when bad harvests and price inflation made food policy the central political question of the country. Sancho is not being funny here. He is being competent.
And then Cervantes does the thing that makes the chapter sting. He says the constitutions are still kept in that town, and still obeyed. The duke and duchess set this up as the biggest joke of the whole visit, giving a governorship to a man who cannot write his name. He turns out to govern better than they do, and the historian records it as fact. Nobody in the castle ever admits this, which is why the reader has to notice it alone.
Cervantes in the original
él ordenó cosas tan buenas que hasta hoy se guardan en aquel lugar, y se nombran Las constituciones del gran gobernador Sancho Panza
he ordered things so good that to this day they are kept in that place, and are called The constitutions of the great governor Sancho Panza
This is the last sentence of the chapter, and it quietly turns the whole joke inside out. The duke and duchess handed a governorship to an illiterate farmhand as entertainment. Cervantes closes the account by reporting, in the flat voice of a historian, that the man’s legislation is still in force. Two se forms carry it, se guardan and se nombran, both impersonal, both plural to agree with cosas, and both exactly the officialese this lesson teaches. The doer has vanished from the sentence, which is what documents do, and the effect is that the achievement belongs to nobody and to the record. Hasta hoy is doing the real work: it drags a fictional island into the reader’s present and dares them to laugh at it.