THE SCENE: In the scene below – from a 16th Century Spanish novel – interactions between white and black members of an interracial family are examined in a straightforward way that recognizes both the reality of racism and the essential oneness of the human experience.
THE TEXT: My widowed mother, finding herself without husband or home, determined to betake of herself to the good things so as to be among them; so she went to live in the city. She hired a small house, and was employed to prepare victuals for certain students. She also washed the clothes of the stable-boys who had charge of the horses of the Comendador de la Magalena. Thus she frequented the stables, she and a dark-coloured man, who was one of those who had the care of the horses. They came to know each other. Sometimes he came to our house late, and went away in the morning. At other times he came to the door in the day – time, with the excuse that he wanted to buy eggs, and walked into the house. At first I did not like him, for I was afraid of his colour and his ugly face. But when I saw that his coming was the sign of better living, I began to like him, for he always brought pieces of meat, bread, and in the winter, fuel to warm us.
This intercourse went on until one day my mother gave me a pretty little brown brother, whom I played with and helped to keep warm. I remember once that when my stepfather was fondling the child, it noticed that my mother and I were white, and that he was not. It frightened the child, who ran to my mother, pointing with its finger and saying, “Mother, he is ugly!” To this he replied laughing; but I noticed the words of my little brother, and, though so young, I said to myself, “How many there are in the world who run from others because they do not see themselves in them.”
– The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes, 16th Century AD
