El manuscrito carmesí

In the crimson papers used by the Alhambra Chancellery, Boabdil - the last sultan - bears witness to his life while enjoying it or suffering from it. The luminosity of his childhood memories will soon darken, as the responsibility of a hopeless kingdom falls on his shoulders. His training as a refined and cultured prince will not serve him well for the tasks of government; His lyrical attitude will be fatally annihilated by an epic call to defeat. From the quarrels of his parents to the deep affection of Moraima or Farax; from the passion for Jalib to the ambiguous tenderness for Amin and Amina; from the abandonment of his childhood friends to the distrust of his political advisors; from the veneration for his uncle el Zagal or Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba to the abhorrence of the Catholic Monarchs, a long gallery of characters draws the scene in which Boabdil el Zogoibi, el Desventuradillo, gropes. The evidence of living through a crisis that was lost beforehand transforms it into a field of contradiction. Always simplifying, History heaped accusations on him that appear unfair throughout his sincere and reflective story. The culmination of the reconquest -with its fanaticisms, cruelties, betrayals and injustices- shakes the chronicle like a destructive wind, whose language is intimate and humble: that of a father who explains himself to his children, or that of a man the drift that talks to itself until it finds -deprived, but serene- its last refuge. Wisdom, hope, love and religion only in bursts assist him on the path of loneliness. And it is this helplessness in the face of destiny that makes it a valid symbol for today's man.