The Expulsion of the Old Gypsy Woman in La gitanilla of Miguel de Cervantes

Abstract

A widely documented feature of the works of Miguel Cervantes (1547-1616) is their problemization of the definition of marginal identities. But one marginal figure who deserves more consideration is the old gypsy woman, the grandmother of Preciosa in La gitanilla, who corresponds to all the stereotypical definitions of her age and profession. The stigma of old age in a woman alongside her despised identity as a gypsy permit categorical conclusions about her character, and even the text itself invites a clearly ethical judgment of her behavior. However, the social context portrayed in the short story as well as the linguistic construction of the character create interpretive possibilities that surpass a simplistic moral judgment. The detailed analysis of the old woman reveals that the supposed division between the vitality of the young Preciosa and the decrepitude of the old Gypsy woman is not as clear as has been supposed by most scholarship, and that in fact a bleak continuity connects the two.