Paper short abstract:

This paper is analyzes the propagandistic portrayal of Iberian cooperation in the expulsion of Bahia's Dutch invaders of 1624 through Lope de Vega's El Brasil restituido (1625), along with the work's subsequent re-circulation via twentieth-century textual production under dictatorial rule in Spain.

Paper long abstract:

Among the most noteworthy aspects of Lope de Vega's El Brasil restituido is the persistent attention the iconic Spanish dramatist dedicates to the role of Luso-Hispanic cooperation under the Spanish crown against Bahia's Dutch invaders in 1624. In one of the few existing versions of the play, the 1950 edition of Galician scholar José María Viqueira Barreiro repeatedly insists upon the work's historical accuracy in transmitting the details of this event, including the sentiment of Iberian brotherhood between the Portuguese and Spanish against both the Calvinist invaders and Bahia's supposedly treacherous New Christians, alleged conspirators in their operation. Upon further scrutiny of the events of Bahia's recovery according to modern historians and first-hand accounts of the time period, however, the circumstances of this episode call for a reconsideration of both Lope's play and the historical context in which it takes place. Rather than an accurate reflection of the attitudes and events of the time period as Viquiera Barreiro asserts, El Brasil restituido serves as a propagandistic work which seeks to reconcile deteriorating Luso-Hispanic relations within the Iberian Union at the expense of the "heretic" enemies of the empire. Such a reading also sheds light on its re-circulation via Viqueira Barreiro's 1950 edition as a similar attempt at promoting Iberist sentiment, this time under the dictatorial rule of the Estado Novo and the Franco regime.