Isabella's Legacy

In 1492 what had only months before seemed an unlikely event actually took place in Seville. Through the cobbled streets, Christopher Columbus on his triumphant return after his first voyage to the 'Indies', paraded seven exotic-looking Indians who were accompanied by equally strange-looking green and yellow parrots. Imagine the confusion in the minds of these Indians as they walked through the city and the curiosity this spectacle had aroused among the local population for at this time, Europeans knew little about the people of Africa and Asia about whom they were largely informed by the travel literature of the 15th century. We should remember however that these 'Indians' were not from India, the place which Columbus had set out to discover and mistakenly believed he had reached. Fast forward almost five centuries to 1991 when I (the Grandson of an indentured labourer from India who had travelled to the West Indies to work on the sugar plantations) walked the streets of Seville on my way to deliver a Lecture at the University of Seville entitled: 'Towards 1992: Discovery... and Minorities in Europe.' I was born in Trinidad which was 'discovered' by Columbus on his third voyage to the New World, but I could not speak Spanish. Why? Therein lies a tale of the connection between language and Empire. European rivalry for colonial power resulted in Spanish Trinidad giving way to British Trinidad and so my direction of migration was to the 'Mother Country, ' as Britain was then known. But as I became more knowledgeable about Queen Isabella, Columbus, Las Casas, Seville and Granada, I realised I was only partially educated for both Britain and Spain were important. My first visit to Spain the year before my Lecture had set in train a growing desire to see and learn more about the country. Thereafter, the idea of writing Isabella's Legacy emerged, took hold and propelled me to travel through Andalusia and later to Catalunya. Isabella's Legacy is a unique book, a rare interweaving of travel, memoir, history, cultures and identities; a journey of surprises - stunning impressions, a meditation on world history and significantly on contemporary Europe. Above all, it is a narrative not only of my discovery of Spain which, in turn, has led to self-discovery, but also a book which will hopefully enlighten and enchant the reader.