When one thinks of resistance to ecclesiastical authority, one does not think first of Spain. Yet official reputation and popular reality have only rarely converged on the Iberian peninsula. This study of religious attitudes in contemporary Spain illustrates the peculiarly Spanish paradox of a reputation for conformity accompanied by a will to act independently of institutions.
During two extended stays in Granada, the author amassed hundreds of tales concerning the ubiquitous Capuchin candidate for canonization, Fray Leopoldo de Alpandeire (1864-1956). Her interlocutors are identified by every key demographic variable (all of which varied enormously), including self-designated degree of participation in formal religious activities. Some generalizations do emerge from the heterogeneous oral corpus. Many of the tales are but vehicles to express opinions about the Franco period per se. As such, they demonstrate the importance of the methodology that has guided the best hagiographical work over the past decade: that saints’ cults can only be understood against the specific temporal and spatial backgrounds of their evolution. The relationship between the popular narratives and Leopoldo’s official Life by the vice-postulator of his process was also illuminating. When respondents were aware that Slater was conducting research, they tended to recount incidents from the Life, yet when they were not aware of her purposes, they tended to contradict the Life outright. Furthermore, Slater’s analysis of those oral tales that did parallel the Life often revealed critical divergences from the official version, divergences that belied the teller’s apparent endorsement of the institutional stance.
This work is useful for anyone interested in modern European popular culture, particularly folklore, and in the hagiography of any region or era. As for Latin America, the subject of the author’s previous monographs, we learn that the popular religious imaginations of Spain and Brazil “se parecen como un huevo a una castaña” (p. 195).
