Among the historical characters of any period, those of heroic importance, whose reputation for bravery and courage makes them legendary, they are the ones that are most imbued in memory and stories popular. In the medieval period, many names entered this list of heroic historical characters. Joan of Arc is one of the greatest examples among the French. Among the Spaniards, the name of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, the Champion (in the sense of champion, winner), better known as El Cid, a term that derives from Arabic and means “the Lord”.
Rodrigo was born in the city of Burgos, in 1043, in the old domains of Kingdom of Castile, at a time when there were numerous political tensions in the Iberian Peninsula, both between the Christian kingdoms themselves and between moors (Muslims who had settled on that peninsula since the 8th century). The Christian kingdoms sought to conquer more space within the Iberian Peninsula and did this by promoting alliances with nobles and vassal relations with the so-called
taifas. At taifas were Muslim political factions that formed with the disintegration of the Caliphate of Cordoba, that is, an extensive Islamic domain that occupied the center and the south of the Iberian Peninsula from 929 to 1031.Rodrigo Diaz, El Cid, became well known among the Christian kingdoms (Castle, Aragon and León) and the taifas for having acted at the same time. as a mercenary, that is, he offered his warrior services to Christians and Moors who wanted to wage some war against kingdoms. rivals. He was also known, in his time, for having been the king's lieutenant Sancho de Castile and then for having been banished from that land after Sancho's death and the elevation of Alfonso VI to the throne. With the departure of Castile, El Cid established important contacts with Moorish leaders, among them Al-Cadir, from the taifa of Valence, with whom he became friends.
In 1089, Castile was invaded by Yusuf, Almoravid Muslim leader. King Alfonso would then have called for help from El Cid, who returned to Castile. However, the battle against Yusuf was lost and, once again, El Cid was banished by King Alfonso. In the years that followed, many clashes took place between Moors and Christians. The leader of the Valencian taifa, Al-Cadir, was assassinated in 1093 in a mutiny. EL Cid then decided to avenge his friend and invade Valencia, which occurred in 1094. He conquered the taifa and became prince of Valencia, reigning along with his wife, the also famous Jimena, until the year of his death, in 1099.
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One of the main sources that made El Cid a popular character was the Mio Cid Poem, written by anonymous from the 13th century. This poem builds a pious and mythical image of Rodrigo Diaz. This idea was reproduced over the centuries in Spain, starting with the realms of early modernity, such as Philip II, who tried to incite the Catholic clergy, in the 16th century, to canonize El Cid – which was promptly refused.
Furthermore, the figure of El Cid was highly praised by the Spaniards in the nationalist period of Francisco Franco, in the 20th century, who knew how to use the mythical figure of the hero as propaganda for his regime. This political use of El Cid was made possible, above all, because of enthusiastic studies such as that of Menéndez Pidal, as noted by historian Richard Fletcher in his work. In search of El Cid:
His view of the Cid overlapped with another view, already quite widespread, but by no means universally shared, about the role played by Castile in Spanish history as a whole. Castile's historic destiny was to unify Spain. The Cid thus offered a standard for all Spaniards to follow. In the Preface to the first edition of La España del Cid, as well as in its final chapters, Menéndez Pidal he honestly admitted that his work was pious as well as historical, and that it had the function didactic. Menéndez Pidal had lessons to teach his generation, perhaps in a very similar way to the author of Poema de mio Cid, who had lessons – quite similar, by the way – to teach Pidal's version.[1] P. 264
There was also the production of the epic film, El Cid, in 1961, directed by Anthony Mann, with Charlton Heston, in the lead role, and Sophia Loren, in the role of Jimena. The film focuses on the period of the Almoravid invasion and is developed with a focus, above all, on the romantic relationship between Jimena and Rodrigo. This movie classic helped further project the legendary image of El Cid.
GRADES
[1] FLETCHER, Richard. In search of El Cid. Trans. Patricia de Quiroz Carvalho Zimbres. São Paulo: Publisher of UNESP, 2002, p. 264.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes