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Inventing Matamoras : Gender and the Forgotten Islamic Past in the United States of America

Inventing Matamoras : Gender and the Forgotten Islamic Past in the United States of America 12-N3024 4/5/04 11:27 AM Page 148 Inventing Matamoras Gender and the Forgotten Islamic Past in the United States of America d. a. spellberg Today, if you drive north on U.S. Highway 84 through Pennsylvania, just be- fore you cross the Delaware River into New York State, a sign for the town of Matamoras appears. When I first saw the name one summer en route from Texas, I assumed with surprise that people in Pennsylvania must have had some direct connection to Santiago, the patron saint of the Spanish Recon- quest since his miraculous military intervention in driving the Muslims from Spain had earned him the honorific Matamoros, or Killer of Muslims. Yet, I found it puzzling that the Pennsylvania town spelled the reference to this saint with a feminine ending, a gendered alteration that does not exist in the Span- ish-speaking world. Matamoras with an “a” seemed to embody a new saint, whose name as placed in Pennsylvania now meant Killer of Muslim Women. The forgotten Islamic past in the United States had, seemingly, been living under an assumed, invented name. Inventing Matamoras happened repeatedly in the nineteenth century in the United States. Between 1846 and 1849, four towns, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies University of Nebraska Press

Inventing Matamoras : Gender and the Forgotten Islamic Past in the United States of America

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Publisher
University of Nebraska Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 Frontiers Editorial Collective.
ISSN
1536-0334

Abstract

12-N3024 4/5/04 11:27 AM Page 148 Inventing Matamoras Gender and the Forgotten Islamic Past in the United States of America d. a. spellberg Today, if you drive north on U.S. Highway 84 through Pennsylvania, just be- fore you cross the Delaware River into New York State, a sign for the town of Matamoras appears. When I first saw the name one summer en route from Texas, I assumed with surprise that people in Pennsylvania must have had some direct connection to Santiago, the patron saint of the Spanish Recon- quest since his miraculous military intervention in driving the Muslims from Spain had earned him the honorific Matamoros, or Killer of Muslims. Yet, I found it puzzling that the Pennsylvania town spelled the reference to this saint with a feminine ending, a gendered alteration that does not exist in the Span- ish-speaking world. Matamoras with an “a” seemed to embody a new saint, whose name as placed in Pennsylvania now meant Killer of Muslim Women. The forgotten Islamic past in the United States had, seemingly, been living under an assumed, invented name. Inventing Matamoras happened repeatedly in the nineteenth century in the United States. Between 1846 and 1849, four towns,

Journal

Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies – University of Nebraska Press

Published: May 20, 2004

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