Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 April 2019
The notion of a shared history across the Mediterranean is central to a number of Spanish-Moroccan musical collaborations, which draw on the notion of convivencia: the alleged peaceful coexistence between Christians, Jews, and Muslims in medieval Spain. In this article, I explore the relationship between a ‘musical’ convivencia and Moroccan immigration in Spain, focusing on two prominent case studies: Macama jonda (1983) and Inmigración (2003). Spanning a twenty-year period, I argue that these two productions illustrate shifting responses to Moroccan immigration at distinct historical moments: the post-Franco era and post-9/11. These two productions illustrate the malleability of the convivencia myth, employing it for distinct social and political purposes. I argue that Macama jonda and Inmigración should be read as products of shifting political and cultural relations between Spain and Morocco, and Spain's negotiation of its Muslim past.
The research for this article was funded through a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship and as such I would like to thank the Leverhulme Trust for its support. I also extend my thanks to the European Research Council for funding my team-based project ‘Past and Present Musical Encounters across the Strait of Gibraltar’ (www.musicalencounters.co.uk), as the article has been finalised while working on this project. I would like to thank the various people in Spain and Morocco whose comments and insights have enriched this article. In particular, my thanks go to Jalal Chekara, Suhail Serghini, Amin Chachoo, Ángeles Gabaldón, Fernando González Caballos, and Raúl Comba. Special thanks go to staff members at the Centro de Documentación Musical de Andalucía in Granada for facilitating my research and locating a digital copy of Macama jonda. I would like to thank Jonathan Shannon for his advice on my research and comments on an earlier version of this article as a paper presented as part of an organized panel at the 2016 annual conference for the Society for Ethnomusicology in Washington DC. Finally, I am grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments, which have enhanced the article.