ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the annual Festa da Istoria, which takes place in Ribadavia, a small inland town of some three thousand residents on the Avia River which gave it its name. It draws on certain aspects of the Festa da Istoria and particularly on its appropriation of Moroccan and eastern Mediterranean Judeo-Spanish songs as part of local repertoire. The chapter discusses the use of music and folklore in the Festa da Istoria, explains it to some other events in Spain and Portugal, and examines how memory and recall work together with invention and reinvention to rework an image of medieval Spain. Identification of formerly Jewish or converso areas has often been a combination of scholarship and popular culture: historical and archeological research, local oral tradition, and at times tourism strategies, personal interpretations, or even wishful thinking. The two main “Jewish” aspects of the program are the “Sephardic wedding” performance and a 1996 innovation, an actual Friday night Sabbath service.
