Marginalization, from a historical and anthropological perspective, is an intriguing phenomenon due to the dynamics that develop among those who, for various reasons, are excluded from society. A clear example of a community created by marginalization is that formed by incarcerated individuals who are separated and segregated from social contact, transitioning from freedom into an institution that measures every minute, object, and exchange they establish with the outside world (Cabrera, 2002: 83-120). This does not differ much from what happened during the Modern Age, a society where marginalization had a strong presence. Anyone who was homeless, vagrant, or abandoned without family or community ties was considered marginalized—not poor (Beunza, 2004: 53-77)—so the existence of these people outside and parallel to social order was not unusual. Imprisonment was another form of marginalization and social control through which a person could be separated from the collective due to their actions, either temporarily or permanently, and end up in the hands of an executioner. However, it is debatable whether, while a prisoner leaves one community, upon being incarcerated they enter another community formed by fellow inmates.
Thanks to Father Pedro de León, a Jesuit who traveled through Andalusia at the end of the 16th century and beginning of the 17th century and acted as a confessor in the Royal Prison of Seville, we have a very detailed portrait of marginalization in these lands. His work, Compendio de algunas experiencias de industrias en los ministerios de que usa la Compañía de Jesús con que prácticamente se muestra con algunos acontecimientos y documentos el buen acierto en ellos, is a written compilation of everything he saw during his long journey in the south of the peninsula. In its second part, it speaks precisely about what he witnessed in the Royal Prison. This prison was just one of seven prisons in Seville and the only one along with the Audiencia Prison that fell under royal jurisdiction (Copete, 1990:105-125). There were usually between 800 and 1000 prisoners here, but never fewer than 500 (De León, 2020) spread across an area of 1667 square varas (1393 m²) (Caro, 1945:309-332). But beyond the numbers, how was life in prison?
To start with, it depended on the prisoner's financial status. Greater purchasing power and prestige could guarantee preferential treatment from guards and the warden themselves, leading to what was called the "golden door," preceding the two large iron grilles that led to a less luxurious area (as luxurious as any prison can be) through which prisoners of noble lineage and "full pockets" passed. Additionally, subsistence in prison depended on the prisoner's own funds: there were shops inside the prison selling food, paper, and other goods, rented out to vendors for fifteen reales per day, where inmates could spend money earned from performing paid work within the prison such as being a guard (Caro, 1945:37-85) (a kind of security guard). Of course, charity also played an important role in the survival of prisoners, who depended partly on food and clothing donations from Sevillians (León, 2020: 112, 115).
The perception that the rest of the population had about prisoners was, to a certain extent, contradictory. On one hand, prisoners were seen as potential objects of charity, but at the same time they were feared and considered impure even by confessing priests who often refused to climb the stairs with them out of sheer disgust (De León, 2020: 143,145). The shouts that came from the prison helped generate a vision of it as a spooky and unclean place (Márquez, 1996: 157-170). However, Cristóbal de Chaves mentions in his Relación de la Cárcel Real de Sevilla that there was a "constant flow of visitors" (Chaves, 1983: 14-15), because the doors were only closed at night. Who came to visit prisoners? Their families if they had any, religious figures, and especially prostitutes who pretended to be friends and had encounters with inmates (De León, 2020: 105-107).
The general atmosphere in the prison was a hyper-masculine environment, as women were kept separate in another prison (De León, 2020: 201), and very violent. This last point reflects a much more violent society than today's, where moral or physical assault on oneself could come from anywhere (Sánchez-Cid, 2011: 37). Violence of both types was frequent in the prison. The most impactful example of verbal violence is an anecdote told by De León about a man named Francisco who was to be executed and spent his time insulting everyone present, increasing in gravity and intensity until he threatened to give "the bastard Buenrostro a crucifix blow that would break his head" (De León, 2020: 157) with the crucifix he would carry on the day of his execution. For safety reasons, on the day of sentencing, Buenrostro was assigned to guard another door (De León, 2020: 157).
Physical violence was also common and often linked to games and diversions that took place in prison. There were games involving the exercise of violence for its own sake, similar to how schoolchildren might play by hitting each other. An example is The Snake, a game where all candles are extinguished and prisoners chase others with a thick rope, whipping them while shouting "The snake is coming!" (De León, 2020: 110), or The Dove, which simply involved placing a piece of paper between the fingers of a sleeping prisoner and setting it on fire to wake him up with burns (De León, 2020: 110). There was also violence stemming from card games and other gambling activities, and fights in the courtyard that seemed to arise out of nowhere and ended as quickly as they began, leaving prisoners injured by knives smuggled into prison by prostitutes (De León, 2020: 108). We are not talking about simple pocketknives: inmates had access to daggers, knives, and even swords (De León, 2020: 108), which makes sense considering that there was an extensive arsenal in the hands of the population (Sánchez-Cid, 2011: 38).
However, this violence did not prevent there being a certain sense of community among prisoners. For example, it was very rare for there to be denunciations between inmates, as evidenced by the case of a young man who hid inside the prison to escape justice with full confidence that other inmates would not reveal his hiding place (De León, 2020: 105), or another where injured prisoners from a courtyard fight, despite having "a wound in which one hand could fit at kidney level," insisted nothing had happened and there were no culprits (De León, 2020: 206). Cooperation among inmates to try to gain freedom was also not uncommon. On one occasion, a group of prisoners, fraternizing with guards (something that should not have been unusual, according to De León), took the key to the door and pressed it onto a wax tablet discreetly. Another prisoner passed the wax tablet, which was a perfect negative of the key, to a locksmith who made a copy of the key so they could escape (De León, 2020: 202).
In conclusion, I would like to highlight that despite being profoundly violent, the prison community was still a community. It cannot be said that prisoners knew they were part of an excluded collective, but they did know they all found themselves in an unfavorable situation. They were lawbreakers, yet they respected the unwritten laws of the community they entered upon incarceration and integrated into the schedules and rituals of their new world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Beunza, J. M. I. (2004). The social and political framework. In History of Spain in the Modern Age (pp. 53-77). Ariel.
- Cabrera, P. J. (2002). Prison and exclusion. Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs Review, 35, 83-120.
- Caro, C. P. (1945). The Royal Prison of Seville: Historical Study. Archivo hispalense: Historical, Literary and Artistic Journal, 4(11), 309-332.
- Caro, C. P. (1945). The Royal Prison of Seville.:(Continuation). Archivo hispalense: Historical, Literary and Artistic Journal, 5(12), 37-85.
- Chaves, C. (1983). Report on the Royal Prison of Seville. Clásicos El Árbol.
- De León, P. (2020). The Bad Life in Seville of 1600: Secret Memoirs of a Jesuit. Renacimiento.
- Márquez, T. F. (1996). The Royal Prison of Seville. Laboratorio de Arte: Journal of the Department of Art History, (9), 157-170.
- Sánchez-Cid, F. J. (2011). Violence Against Women in Golden Age Seville (1569-1626). Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla.
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