Behind the Mask of Silence: Criollo Dimension in Juan Ruiz de Alarcon's plays

Abstract

This study explores the criollo voice present in four of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón’s plays. Informed by the most recent studies on criollo literature, particularly of 17th-century writers born in New Spain, as José Antonio Mazotti’s and Mabel Moraña’s, I look into the strategies that Ruiz de Alarcón uses to introduce a criollo perspective in his plays. One relevant consideration in this study is the fact that the playwright was writing a product to be consumed by peninsular audiences unaware in some instances, indifferent and unconcerned in others about the issues that preoccupied the Spanish population of the American colonies. I focus on Ruiz de Alarcón’s use of the space of the popular comedia and common tropes of the baroque to reivindicate the colonial white population, argue in their favor, and articulate their concerns.