Wandering the streets and callejones (alleys) of Spain, you are undoubtedly going to travel through, above, by, and beneath history of all kinds. Signages of varying shapes and compositions -- ceramic, tin, wood, tile -- will name the most celebrated individuals in local culture, take for example: Calle de Lope de Vega in Madrid or Calle Rojas Zorrilla in Seville. What were the Spanish authors of the 16th and 17th century drinking as they composed their most famous -- or quotidian -- works? Or what accompanied them as they crafted manuscripts and letters, and how might we know if some of those titles are yet to be translated and/or interpreted?
When I learned that Professor Erin Alice Cowling had recently written a book about chocolate, of course I was intrigued! When it became clear to me that her scholarship is based on the Spanish Golden Age of Theater, I was curious to connect the two seemingly disparate items: playwriting and the global trade of cacao. Yet of course there are crossovers. Where there is creativity and life, there has tended to be substances that drive us to such lengths of expressiveness. Tens of thousands of plays (yes, prolific!) from this time period offer more than an educated guess into life during that era. In juxtaposition, there are few primary sources and codices that we still have for review and investigation (or know of) from the lives and habits of Mesoamericans during and pre-Conquest. While that is a misfortune of epic -- imperial -- proportions, where might academics and modern storytellers see classical literature as an opportunity to witness -- and perchance decode -- the background characters, the lines removed from drafts, or the voices that finally receive their leading roles? And as we think beyond if Spain's cherished playwrights were drinking chocolate, which they most surely had access to -- who expertly prepared it for them, who served them with precision, and what labyrinthine journey was melted into every cup? Scholars such as Dr. Cowling, are allowing spaces for such dialogues to emerge.
Even if we lack the multitude of resources that share the history of Early Modern Spain, I am confident the Mexica people were much more complex, spiritual, and maybe some days (like us) outright apathetic. But much of the folklore that has reached laypeople has previously focused on how human sacrifice was — ironically — their raison d'être. Societies are tangled webs of order and chaos; so are our individual behaviors. I know we have altered the world around us to an unrecognizable representation of the world they once inhabited, and where living Indigenous communities still inhabit, but it does give me pause...maybe hope, that regardless of our distinct timelines, there was and is cacao. We continue to feel the heartbeat of cacao; and furthermore we are becoming more aware of its gifts, its origins, its disguises -- its edited screenplays and backstage realities.
In the creation of this episode, I found it very interesting to compare what I spoke about with Dr. Cowling to the contemporary writings of author and culture writer Jia Tolentino (pertinent quotes below). She has written and spoken about the performances we put on for various scenes of our lives, yet how the Internet doesn't seem to ever close its curtains and everything is on display. We are always manifesting some form of duality, our actions/acting and the observations made by others. On top of this, all scenes are seemingly recorded for present and future generations to decipher -- limitless and often ticketless performances on loop.
We might think we've evolved from early existences of earthenware, tabernas and paper goods to dynamic video reels and recorded audios, such as you might be listening to now, but I am newly prompted to consider what is curated or staged...and what is unrehearsed? For me, since I won't be moving to the woods without electricity anytime soon (to my knowledge), I require a little of both: the table nicely set and perhaps photographed for dinner one night, and the pizza ordered at eleven because there are still dishes in the sink (the knowledge of the latter only shared with my dinner companion). I can — and want to — have the possibility to withdraw to the dressing rooms when needed, to practice my lines, and offer the same privacy and sympathy to others. If “all the world's a stage” I think it's never about the wooden planks below, but the ability to input ourselves into, and likewise retreat from, the lives and eyes of others, whatever epoch we, or they, may be inhabiting. Now, go out there — or stay in — and break a leg!
Erin Alice Cowling is an Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of Humanities at MacEwan University (2017-). Previously she was an Assistant Professor of Early Modern Spanish at Hampden-Sydney College (2015-2017), a Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish at Grinnell College (2013-2015), and an Instructor of Gender Studies at Queen’s University (2012). Her research focuses on the Transatlantic Colonial Period, particularly how characters of the Other (women, Indigenous peoples, and other marginalized characters) are portrayed in Spanish Golden Age theatre. Currently, her work focuses on considering questions of how modern adaptations open up new venues for research and dissemination of early modern theatre.
To purchase Dr. Cowling’s book
Through the publisher: https://utorontopress.com/9781487527204/chocolate/
Amazon.es: https://www.amazon.es/Chocolate-Commodity-Conquered-Spanish-Literature/dp/1487527209/
More from Dr. Erin Alice Cowling
Twitter: @profecowling
- Blogpost: “Chocolate’s Transatlantic Journey from Exotic to Everyday” https://utorontopress.com/blog/2021/06/30/cowling-chocolate/
- Article “Chocolate: From witchcraft to miracle worker in early modern Europe” https://theconversation.com/chocolate-from-witchcraft-to-miracle-worker-in-early-modern-europe-167257
- Youtube link to the University of Toronto Press book launch
Mentions and links from the episode
Contemporary play companies in Mexico: EFE Tres, their Twitter &
Teatro de los Sótanos, their Twitter
+ ‘Empeños’ digital short by Teatro de los Sótanos of the first act of 'Los empeños de una casa' by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Santa Rosa del Perú (PDF of a manuscript)
Life’s a dream — La vida es Sueño - Calderón de la Barca
Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid
Archivo General de Indias in Seville
Translator who worked with Dr. Cowling is Ana Rodas Garza
Jia Tolentino quotes from Trick Mirror:
”Offline, there are forms of relief built into this process. Audiences change over—the performance you stage at a job interview is different from the one you stage at a restaurant later for a friend’s birthday, which is different from the one you stage for a partner at home. At home, you might feel as if you could stop performing altogether; within Erving Goffman’s (sociologist) dramaturgical framework, you might feel as if you had made it backstage. Goffman observed that we need both an audience to witness our performances as well as a backstage area where we can relax, often in the company of “teammates” who had been performing alongside us. Ideally, the outside audience has believed the prior performance.”
“The presentation of self in everyday internet still corresponds to Goffman’s playacting metaphor: there are stages, there is an audience. But the internet adds a host of other, nightmarish metaphorical structures: the mirror, the echo, the panopticon.”
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A Conversation with Dr. Erin A. Cowling