TALK: THE SPANISH/MEXICAN INQUISITIONS: TRUTH and FICTION

Presented by David Gitlitz

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 5 PM

MX$90 (M) MX$130 (NM)

Most of what we think we know about the Inquisition is a product of 16th-19th century Protestant anti-Catholic propaganda. Today it is often represented either as the archetype of evil or the butt of sick humor, as with Monty Python’s famous sketch. The truth, however, is both more, and less horrible, than the myths. This talk will cover what the Inquisition was and wasn't, why it came about, how it operated, who it went after, what it did to them (by the way, it invented waterboarding, and unambiguously labeled it a torture), and what were its long-term after-effects.

David Gitlitz worked for a number of universities in the US, Latin America, and Europe as a professor (literature, history, anthropology) and an administrator (program director, department chair, dean, academic vice president). His writing, some of it in conjunction with his late wife Linda Davidson, has been on topics of Spanish culture and literature, pilgrimages and holy places, Spanish-Jewish interrelations, and Renaissance cuisine. His first trip to Oaxaca was in 1960 (!), and he's been living full time in Santa Cruz Etla now for five years and considers it his home for the duration.

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