Spanish Cultural Production on Western Sahara

Abstract

Interestingly, the twofold rhetorical move that characterizes the nomadic paradigm that I described in the previous chapter can also be appreciated in the Spanish cultural field. Good examples of this are the statements to the press made by Luis Leante when he won the Premio Alfaguara for his novel Mira si yo te querré in 2007. Although, most of the novel is set in Western Sahara during the final days of the Spanish colony, in an interview with El País, Leante made sure to clarify that the Saharawi nomads do not define the constellation of his novel, or, in his words: “the central theme of the book is not the Saharawi problem, but a love story” (“En dos horas”). In an interview with the daily ABC, Leante clarified his statement to El País saying,

I tried not to write a political novel … However, at the present political moment, one cannot be indifferent, and just saying that [the Saharawi] have been abandoned in the desert for thirty-five years in such a shameful way entails a political position.

Western Sahara, consequently, is and is not the object of the novel. Leante is, in this sense, one of the most cautious representatives of the effort to rearticulate Spain’s cultural discourse on Western Sahara. His comments, however, are relevant in that they indicate the coexistence of two constellations of desire in the discourse of Hispano-Saharawi fraternity.