Juan Latino
Juan Latino (born Juan de Sessa; c.1518 – Granada, c.1594<1597) was a Spanish black professor at the University of Granada during the sixteenth century.
Juan Latino | |
|---|---|
| Born | Juan de Sessa c.1518 |
| Died | c.1594<1597 |
| Nationality | Spain |
| Other names | Juan Lozano |
| Occupation | Slave, professor, academic, writer |
Life
Juan de Sessa a was the son of a black woman from Ethiopia, since 1520 slave of Luis Fernández de Córdoba (c.1480-1526), the second Duke consort of Sessa. He went to Granada where he was educated together with his owner's son Gonzalo II Fernández de Córdoba (1520-1578) (third of the same title), and with the grandson of another famous Gonzalo, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, called "Gran Capitán".
His literary and fiercest personal enemy, León Roque de Santiago, mentioned that Juan Latino was born in Baena, son of a black slave woman and his master, the Duke of Sessa, Luis Fernández de Córdoba, who was father of his childhood friend and protector Gonzalo II Fernández de Córdoba.
Juan Latino excelled in classical languages and music, and studied with the famous grammarian Pedro de Mota. The Duke himself commented on his dexterity: rara avis in terra corbo simillima nigro ("a rare bird, black like a crow").
The University of Granada had been opened in 1526, five months after the coming of the emperor to the city. After the papal bull, it began to confer degrees in 1533 and was set free on 1538.
In 1545, in the presence of the Archbishop, the listener of the Real Chancery, Conde de Tendilla, and many other gentlemen, Juan Latino received the degree of Bachelor. He was 28 years old at that time.
One of the houses he frequently visited to teach his varied grammatical teachings was the property of the Duke's administrator, Licenciado Carleval, whose young daughter, Ana de Carleval, was famous in the city because of her extraordinary beauty and fiancée (by her father) to Don Fernando de Valor (future Abén Humeya), received classes. He and the young white lady started a relationship and a marriage took place between 1547 and 1548. They had had 4 children. The playwright Diego Jiménez de Enciso (1585–1633) composed a comedy about him and his love-affairs with his student and future white wife, named Juan Latino.
On 31 December de 1556 in Granada, he received the Chair of grammar and Latin language of the Cathedral; he held that post for 20 years.
Retired on 1586, he died between 1594 and 1597, was buried in the church of Santa Ana de Granada, whose archive from that time was burned.
Works
Latino published three volumes of poems between 1573 and 1585.[1]
His poem Austrias Carmen, was dedicated to John of Austria after his victory over the Morisco insurrection in Granada, known as the War of the Alpujarras (1568–1572).
He has been hailed as one of the first writers to have used signifyin(g).[1]
Notes
- 'Gates Jr., Henry Louis. The Signifying Monkey. Oxford University Press. p. 90.
References
- Black Africans in Renaissance Europe ed. Thomas F. Earle and Kate J. P. Lowe
- Measuring the moment: strategies of protest in eighteenth-century Afro-English Writing by Keith A. Sandiford
- O. R. Dathorne. The Black mind: a history of African literature. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 1974.
- Aurelia Martín Casares. Juan Latino: talento y destino. Granada: Universidad de Granada, 2016.
- Elizabeth R. Wright. The Epic of Juan Latino: Dilemmas of Race and Religion in Renaissance Spain. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016.
External links
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