Level B2 · Chapter 82
Ricote, the Exiled Neighbour
Sancho meets some foreign pilgrims on the road, and one of them turns out to be the shopkeeper from his own village.
What you will learn
- Talk about exile, return and homeland with the exact words.
- Recognise at a glance which words open a subjunctive.
- Choose between indicative and subjunctive according to what you know and what you do not.
Before you read
This chapter is a review of everything the subjunctive does. There is nothing new to learn here, only something to see: which word in the sentence is calling for it. Wanting, doubting, feeling, purpose, an unknown place, a time that has not arrived. Ricote’s story is full of all six because his life is made of things that have not happened yet.The story in easy Spanish
Sancho iba solo por el camino, ya sin gobierno, llevando al rucio del cabestro.
Sancho was walking alone along the road, no longer a governor, leading his donkey by the halter.
Se cruzó con seis peregrinos extranjeros de los que piden limosna cantando.
He came across six foreign pilgrims of the kind who beg for alms by singing.
Se pusieron en fila delante de él y cantaron algo que Sancho no entendió.
They lined up in front of him and sang something Sancho could not understand.
Solo distinguió la palabra limosna, y por ella supo lo que le estaban pidiendo.
He made out only the word limosna, and by it he knew what they were asking for.
Sacó de las alforjas medio pan y medio queso y se los dio sin decir nada.
He took half a loaf and half a cheese out of his saddlebags and gave them without a word.
Uno de ellos sacó una bolsa y le pidió por señas que les diera dinero.
One of them produced a purse and asked him by signs to give them money.
Sancho se puso el pulgar en la garganta para darles a entender que no tenía nada.
Sancho put his thumb to his throat to make them understand that he had nothing.
Al pasar, uno de los peregrinos se quedó mirándolo y le echó los brazos al cuello.
As he passed, one of the pilgrims stared at him and threw his arms round his neck.
Lo llamó por su nombre, en voz alta y en castellano de Castilla.
He called him by name, out loud and in the Spanish of Castile.
Sancho lo miró bien y no lo conoció, hasta que el otro le dijo quién era.
Sancho looked hard at him and did not know him, until the other told him who he was.
Era Ricote, el morisco que había tenido tienda en su mismo pueblo.
It was Ricote, the Morisco who had kept a shop in his own village.
Habían sido vecinos toda la vida, y ahora traía la barba crecida y ropa de peregrino.
They had been neighbours all their lives, and now he wore a grown beard and pilgrim’s clothes.
Se apartaron los dos con los otros a una alameda, lejos del camino real.
The two of them went aside with the others to a poplar grove, well off the main road.
Allí soltaron los bordones y las esclavinas y comieron sentados en la hierba.
There they dropped their staffs and capes and ate sitting on the grass.
Pusieron pan, sal, nueces, rajas de queso y unos huesos mondos de jamón.
They set out bread, salt, nuts, slices of cheese and some bare ham bones.
Sacaron además seis botas de vino, una cada uno, y las levantaron todos a la vez.
They also produced six wineskins, one each, and raised them all at the same time.
Bebieron con los ojos clavados en el cielo, como quien apunta a alguna parte.
They drank with their eyes fixed on the sky, like men aiming at something.
De vez en cuando uno le daba la mano a Sancho y le decía que eran buenos compañeros.
From time to time one of them took Sancho’s hand and told him they were good companions.
Comieron y bebieron cuatro veces sin entenderse una sola palabra.
They ate and drank four times over without understanding a single word of each other.
Cuando se acabó el vino se durmieron todos encima de los manteles.
When the wine ran out they all fell asleep on top of the cloths.
Quedaron despiertos Ricote y Sancho, que habían comido más y bebido menos.
Ricote and Sancho stayed awake, having eaten more and drunk less.
Se sentaron al pie de un árbol, y Ricote empezó a hablar en castellano puro.
They sat down at the foot of a tree, and Ricote began to speak in plain Castilian.
El rey había mandado por pregón que todos los moriscos salieran de España.
The king had ordered by proclamation that all Moriscos should leave Spain.
Ricote se había ido con su mujer y su hija, y ahora volvía disfrazado de alemán.
Ricote had left with his wife and daughter, and now he was coming back disguised as a German.
Contó que había pasado a Francia y de allí a Italia y a Alemania.
He told him he had crossed into France and from there to Italy and Germany.
En Alemania lo habían tratado bien y allí cada uno vivía como quería.
In Germany they had treated him well and there each man lived as he chose.
Nadie le preguntaba por su fe, y había dejado tomada una casa cerca de Augusta.
Nobody asked him about his faith, and he had taken a house near Augsburg.
Había buscado un sitio donde pudiera llevar a su familia, y lo había encontrado.
He had looked for a place where he could take his family, and he had found one.
Y aun así había vuelto, y le explicó a Sancho por qué había vuelto.
And even so he had come back, and he explained to Sancho why he had come back.
Dondequiera que estaban, dijo, lloraban por España, porque en ella habían nacido.
Wherever they were, he said, they wept for Spain, because they had been born in it.
En ninguna parte hallaban el acogimiento que su desventura buscaba.
Nowhere did they find the welcome their misfortune was looking for.
Y en África, donde esperaban ser recibidos, era donde más los ofendían.
And in Africa, where they had expected to be received, they were treated worst of all.
Volvía además por otra razón, que era un tesoro enterrado fuera del pueblo.
There was another reason for his return, a treasure buried outside the village.
Le pidió a Sancho que lo ayudara a sacarlo y le ofreció doscientos escudos.
He asked Sancho to help him dig it up and offered him two hundred escudos.
Sancho dijo que no, y no porque le sobrara el dinero, que le faltaba.
Sancho said no, and not because he had money to spare, which he had not.
Dijo que no quería ser codicioso ni hacer traición a su rey ayudando a los suyos.
He said he did not want to be greedy or commit treason against his king by helping his enemies.
Le prometió que por él no sería descubierto, y le pareció que con eso bastaba.
He promised him that he would not be given away, and it seemed to him that this was enough.
Se abrazaron y se separaron, uno hacia su pueblo y otro hacia su escondite.
They embraced and parted, one heading for his village and the other for his hiding place.
Cada uno siguió andando por la misma tierra, uno como vecino y otro como extranjero.
Each went on walking over the same land, one as a neighbour and the other as a foreigner.
Vocabulary
Exile
- el morisco
- a Muslim convert’s descendant
- desterrar
- to banish
- el destierro
- exile
- expulsar
- to expel
- el pregón
- the proclamation
- el decreto
- the decree
- la patria
- the homeland
- el acogimiento
- the welcome
The pilgrim disguise
- el peregrino
- the pilgrim
- el bordón
- the pilgrim’s staff
- la esclavina
- the short cape
- la bota
- the wineskin
- la alameda
- the poplar grove
- por señas
- by signs
- la barba crecida
- the grown-out beard
- el compañero de camino
- the fellow traveller
What Sancho does not do
- codicioso
- greedy
- la traición
- treason
- descubrir a alguien
- to give somebody away
- el escondite
- the hiding place
- el cuñado
- the brother-in-law
- faltar el dinero
- to be short of money
- hacer traición
- to commit treason
- bastar
- to be enough
The subjunctive, all of it at once
Buscó un sitio donde pudiera llevar a su familia.
El rey mandó que todos saliesen de España.
Dondequiera que estamos, lloramos por España.
Nothing in this lesson is new. The point is to see the whole system at once, because by now you have met all of it in pieces. A subjunctive is never chosen by the verb itself: something earlier in the sentence opens it, and there are six kinds of opener.
| opener | from this chapter | why |
|---|---|---|
| influence: querer, mandar, pedir, rogar | El rey mandó que todos saliesen. | the leaving is wanted, not stated |
| emotion: alegrarse, doler, pesar, temer | Le pesaba que lo hubieran echado. | the fact is filtered through a feeling |
| doubt or denial: no creer, dudar, negar | No creía que volviera. | the return is not affirmed |
| purpose: para que, a fin de que, sin que | Se disfrazó para que no lo conocieran. | the purpose has not happened yet |
| unknown antecedent | Buscaba un sitio donde pudiera vivir. | the place is not yet identified |
| future time: cuando, en cuanto, hasta que | Cuando vuelva, sacará el tesoro. | the moment has not arrived |
The same words, both ways
Most of these openers are switches, not rules. Change what you know and the mood changes with it.
| subjunctive | indicative |
|---|---|
| Busco un pueblo donde nadie me conozca. (any village) | Busco el pueblo donde nací. (that one) |
| Cuando vuelva, lo sacaremos. (not yet) | Cuando volvía, lo sacábamos. (habit, past) |
| No creo que sea de aquí. | Creo que es de aquí. |
| Dondequiera que vayamos, seremos extranjeros. (unknown) | Dondequiera que estamos, lloramos. (fact) |
The -quiera family
Dondequiera, quienquiera, comoquiera, cualquiera. In modern Spanish these almost always pull a subjunctive, and Ricote’s line with the indicative is the older usage, kept because he is stating something that is happening now, not imagining a case. In your own Spanish, use the subjunctive: dondequiera que estés, quienquiera que sea.
The expulsion of the Moriscos
This is not a fable. Between 1609 and 1614 the Spanish crown expelled the Moriscos, the descendants of Muslims who had been forcibly baptised a century earlier and who were by then, legally, Christians and subjects. Around three hundred thousand people were put on ships or marched to the border. Valencia and Aragon lost a quarter of their population and their agriculture with it. Cervantes published this chapter in 1615, within months of the last convoys.
What he does with it is careful, and readers still argue about it. Ricote defends the expulsion out loud. He calls it a just punishment and describes the king’s decision as divinely inspired, which is what a man in his position would have to say in print in 1615 and what any published book would have to contain to be licensed. And then Cervantes gives him the other sentence, the one about weeping for Spain wherever they are, and lets it sit there unanswered. Germany appears in the passage as the place where a man may live as he chooses without being questioned about his faith, which is not a neutral thing to write in Counter-Reformation Spain.
Sancho’s answer is worth measuring precisely. He refuses the money, on two grounds, greed and loyalty to his king, and he does not offer to help. But he does not report his neighbour either, and he says so plainly: by me you will not be given away. It is the smallest possible act of decency, performed by a man who has just walked away from power, and Cervantes does not dress it up as anything larger.
Cervantes in the original
Doquiera que estamos lloramos por España, que, en fin, nacimos en ella y es nuestra patria natural.
Wherever we are we weep for Spain, for after all we were born in it and it is our natural homeland.
A man Spain has just expelled says this about Spain, in Spanish, in the middle of a field, to a neighbour who will not help him. The grammar is worth stopping on. Doquiera que estamos takes an indicative, not the subjunctive a modern speaker would use, and the reason is that he is not imagining a case: this is what happens to them, every day, in every country they reach. Then que, en fin, which is spoken Spanish for because, when it comes down to it, and finally patria natural, the homeland you get by being born rather than by choosing. That last phrase is the argument in two words. The decree treated the Moriscos as foreigners who had been allowed to stay. Ricote answers that nobody chooses where they are born, and Cervantes prints it four years after the last ships left.