Inquisitorial process in Arturo Ripstein's film: 'El Santo Oficio

• Author: Erika Prado Rubio
• Position: Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Madrid
• Pages: 139-164

139

Inquisitorial process in Arturo Ripstein’s film:

“El Santo Oficio”

ERIKA PRADO RUBIO

Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Madrid

Summary: 1.- The shadow of the Black Legend; 2.- The process until the Holy

Office’s arrival to the New World; 3.- The processes of the Carvajal family in Mex-

ico; 3.1 Introduction of the film and Edict of Faith; 3.2 The beginning of the first

process: accusation, secret and detention; 3.3 Imprisonment and torment; 3.4 The

end of the process: crimes and sentences; 3.5 The auto de fe of 1596; Bibliography.

1. THE SHADOW OF THE BLACK LEGEND

As Juderías wrote about the Spanish Black Legend, “no es cosa de lo pasa-

do, sino algo que influye en lo presente”1. From this story that was spread

around the world and that still exists in the collective memory, emerges the

shadow of the court of the Holy Office as one of the Spanish’s Monarchy

most effective tools to steal goods or obliterate the enemies of Spain. This

institution serves the religious fanatism and destroys the life of those inno-

cents who captures. This perspective about El Santo Oficio is not limited to

1 Juderías, J., La leyenda negra. Madrid, 2007, p. 13.

ERIKA PRADO RUBIO

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just legends and myths about this court. There are literary works like the one

from Juan Antonio Llorente, that helps to perpetuate this version of the

court’s history2. According to Ballesteros, the scientific literature related to

the court’s history can be classified based on its objectivity:

“La historiografía en general, de la Inquisición se ha solido clasificar en ob-

jetiva o tendenciosa, y aun esta segunda tendencia podría ser dividida en favo-

rable o contraria, y explica el porqué de cada una de estas agrup aciones”3.

Although some of these myths about the Spanish Inquisition have been

proved false in the academic arena, this hasn’t been translated to other cul-

tural sectors.

The Spanish Inquisition has been represented countless of times in nov-

els, comics, movies, or TV series. On one hand, this institution has been

represented in works of a great variety of nationalities, which proves the

significance of this court not only in Spanish history but in the world’s. On

the other hand, it keeps grabbing attention not only from the historians, but

from the general public, which has caused it to transcend to all kinds of

cinematographic4 genres and formats. Productions like Las páginas del libro

de Satán by Dreyer and La loca historia del mundo by Mel Brooks can serve

as an example. Although they are very different from each other, they both

describe in their chapters, according to their authors, the most important

moments of the history of mankind. As expected, in both examples there is a

chapter focused on Holy Office and more specifically, on its activity in

Spain. As Consuelo Maqueda already pointed out, although this court wasn’t

a Spanish invention as it was already present in some other countries, the

Spanish Inquisition will be the one to make it “correr ríos de tinta”5. To

Cuenca, the Inquisition’s history has only been told with the purpose of ex-

alting its excesses:

2 Llorente, J.A., Historia crítica de la Inquisición en España, Madrid, 1981.

3 Ballesteros Gaibrois, M., La historiografía de la Inquisición en Indias, p. 41.

4 Videogames are one of the latest audiovisual media to show the sanguinary records of the

Inquisition. The RPG game the Inquisitor (2009) could serve as an example.

5 Maqueda Abreu, C., “Extranjeros, Leyenda Negra e Inquisición”, Revista de la Inquisición 5

(1996), p. 39.