INTERVIEW WITH A MORISCO

1-Hi, my name is Alejandra and I´m going to be your interviewer today, what´s your name?
 Hello, my name is Aribah and I am 27 years old.

2-Tell us something about your previous life.
Well, firstly, I have a husband called Kamil, and two little kids whose names are Munir and Suud; they are 7 and 9 years each.

3-Where did you lived and how did you earned money?
I lived in Valencia like most of the moriscos including myself and a lot of generations before me, my husband worked as a doctor but I didn't, I was dedicated to take care of our children, going to the market, keep our home decent etc. We survived with Kamil´s earnings, then he had to change of job because christians decided to disolve some guilds and he started to work in the countryside.

4-How long have you been living in Spain?
That´s easy to answer, I have been living here since I was born as well as my husband, moreover my family has been also living here for several generations. That is one of the causes why we are so bewildered.

5-What were your feelings with the Christians before they expelled you?
It depends, for example, since I have lived in Spain my whole life I have met very different people, I even had Christian friends but there were also people that made fun of my faith or despised me just by looking at me, it was really uncomfortable.
I felt dissapointed as they were my neighbours and they had lived with me for many years. They repeated that it was impossible for us to become ``good and faithful´´ and the previous months before the ejection the tension was notorious.

6-Did you asumed Christianism? 
That´s a very difficult question, well, I could say that I asumed it completely but it wouldn´t be true. Instead, I´m  going to say the reality for most of us: we openly adapted to Christianism and some of us changed our names to others more acceptable (I hate to say that) but in the privacy of our homes we still did some of our muslim traditions.




7-What ways the Christian used to expelled you?
Firstly they tried to convert us to Christianism, then they thought they failed and because the didn´t want to admit it, they said we won´t be ever good enough believers. Finally as an excuse they said that we wanted to align with Ottoman forces so they dropped us in North-African beaches.

8-Where are you going?
My family and I are moving to Morocco where Kamil has some friends that may take in us into their house for an undefined time.
           

9-What do you expect to happen in your way to Morocco?

To be honest, I´m scared, a lot of rumors have passed through me and all were horrible. Moriscs have been robbed, raped or even murdered in their travel by vandals. Some boats have drown in the middle of the sea, killing whole families that still felt Spaniards and didn´t understand the expulsion.
Overall I hope to finish the trip with my children and husband but I´m very sad to live the place
where I have always lived by force.

10-How do you feel about the expulsion?
I think Philip has committed a huge mistake and I hope he meditates enough to stop this insane process. I believe the expulsion will bring economic problems for Spain and we all feel upset and terrified, they are expelling us from home!