THE RACIAL LIMITATIONS OF FREEDOM IN SANTIAGO RUSIÑOL’S LLIBERTAT!

Santiago Rusinol’s 1901 play Llibertat! is known as a harsh critique of Catalan liberalism. Little scholarly attention, however, has been devoted to the racialized nature in which Rusinol frames his satire. This article will demonstrate that the play uses the rejection of the racialized Other (Jaumet Negre) not only to highlight the hypocrisy of liberal Catalan political rhetoric but also as a way to critique the notion of freedom as a societal ideal. As Josep Maria Mestres’s 2013 mise en scene demonstrates, freedom does exist in Catalonia, but only for some, thus establishing a connection between the racial injustice experienced by Jaumet Negre and the racialized tension that has emerged in contemporary Catalonia as a result of immigration.