LA CRUZ
By: Elliot Drake-Maurer
- Barbara Bretting Fiction Winner
T
he Moorish city of Granada had been besieged for half of the year
1491, and the tension in the streets was palpable. People went about
their daily lives, but the fact that they were trapped in their own city
hung like a parasite on everyone’s minds, reminding them that outside
their walls lay an army that wanted their city to fall. The granary floors
were beginning to show under the receding carpets of wheat, and the
only meats in the market stalls were dried fish and smoked beef, hard
food for hard times.
In a city where Catholic, Jew and Muslim had long coexisted in
peace, the bonds between the communities were being stretched thin
by war. Emir Muhammed XII, known by the Spanish as Boabdil, had
severed ties with the Catholic monarchs in the North, the young King
Ferdinand II de Aragon and his queen Isabella I de Castile. As a result of
Boabdil’s betrayal, the Catholic armies, bolstered by mercenaries from
all parts of Europe had closed in around the Muslim forces. They took
control of city after city until Granada became the last holding still under
Boabdil’s rule. “El Chico” they cal