Ana Felix

Ana Felix is Ricote’s daughter, a Morisco whose reunion with Don Gregorio brings a brief moment of joy into a story shaped by exile and uncertain belonging. Admired for her beauty and intelligence, she is welcomed into Don Antonio Moreno’s household; yet rescue does not resolve her family’s precarious position. The possibility of remaining in Spain depends on arrangements made by others, while separation from Don Gregorio threatens again almost as soon as they meet.

Identity and Introduction

Ana Felix enters the Barcelona episode as a young Morisco whose presence draws the attention of the city. Don Antonio’s wife receives her warmly, appreciating both her beauty and her intelligence, and the people of Barcelona come to see her in a crowd. The welcome makes her more than a private guest: she becomes a figure of public interest, visible and admired in a city where the consequences of the expulsion of the Moriscos remain urgent.

Her identity is inseparable from her father, Ricote. Their fortunes are bound together by the threat that they may not be allowed to remain in Spain, even though those around them regard Ana as a good Christian and Ricote as apparently well disposed. The distinction between personal reputation and collective policy shapes the limits of the protection offered to them. Individual kindness can shelter them for a time, but it cannot by itself undo the danger confronting an expelled family.

The Rescue and the Limits of Chivalric Intervention

When Don Antonio considers how to release Don Gregorio, Don Quixote proposes taking the matter into his own hands: he would go armed to Barbary and carry the captive away, imagining an exploit like Don Gaiferos’s rescue of Melisendra. Sancho Panza points out the practical obstacle that the earlier tale does not have to confront: the sea lies between Barbary and Spain. Don Quixote answers with confidence that a vessel can bring them to shore; Sancho instead favors the renegade, whom he considers trustworthy.

The actual plan follows the more practical course. Don Antonio says that Don Quixote’s expedition should be attempted if the renegade fails, but the renegade sails first in a light vessel with six oars a side and a capable crew. The episode thus places Don Quixote’s heroic self-conception beside a rescue conducted through planning, a boat, and the renegade’s actions. For Ana, the result is not a chivalric adventure of her own but the return of the person she loves. The gap between the imagined rescue and the one carried out also emphasizes how little her safety can depend on Don Quixote’s martial confidence.

Reunion with Don Gregorio

Don Gregorio arrives at Don Antonio’s house after he and the renegade have reported their voyage to the viceroy. During his captivity he had been taken away from Algiers in women’s clothing; aboard the vessel he changed into the clothes of a captive who had escaped with him. The narrative presents this change of dress as part of the circumstances of his escape, while stressing his youth, good looks, and intelligence. He appears to be about seventeen or eighteen.

Ricote and Ana come out to welcome him. Her greeting is marked by bashfulness, and the two lovers do not embrace. Instead, their eyes communicate what they do not put into words; those present admire them side by side. The restrained reunion gives feeling a visible form without making it a public display. It also joins Ana’s personal happiness to her father’s relief: Ricote receives Don Gregorio with tears, while Ana’s response is described through her shyness and the lovers’ silent exchange.

The renegade explains the measures by which he secured Don Gregorio’s release, and Don Gregorio briefly recounts the danger and difficulty of his time among the women with whom he had been kept. Ricote rewards the renegade and the rowers. The renegade, in turn, is reconciled with the Church through penance and repentance. The rescue therefore has consequences beyond the lovers’ reunion: it repays the people who made the voyage and restores the renegade to the religious community from which he had been separated.

Exile, Separation, and an Uncertain Future

Two days after Don Gregorio’s return, the viceroy and Don Antonio discuss how Ana and Ricote might be allowed to stay in Spain. Their good opinion of both does not make the question straightforward. Ricote warns that favors, promises, bribes, and appeals to compassion will not move the official charged with carrying out the expulsion. His account makes plain the conflict between the personal bonds formed in the episode and a policy applied to an entire community.

Don Antonio proposes to take Don Gregorio with him to relieve his parents’ anxiety and to seek a solution at the capital. Ana is to remain in the care of Don Antonio’s wife, or in a monastery, while Ricote stays with the viceroy until the outcome is clearer. Don Gregorio objects that he cannot leave Ana, but agrees to go to see his parents and to look for a way to return for her. The arrangement protects them provisionally, not permanently: it divides the lovers and leaves their future dependent on decisions not yet made.

When Don Antonio departs, Don Gregorio and Ana part two days later. Their farewell brings tears, sighs, fainting, and sobbing. Ricote offers Don Gregorio a thousand crowns, but Don Gregorio accepts only five lent by Don Antonio, promising repayment at the capital. The small accepted loan stands in contrast to the much larger offer: even amid wealth and generosity, the immediate journey proceeds through practical dependence. Ana remains with Don Antonio’s wife, while her father remains with the viceroy. Her story closes not with a settled homecoming but with a temporary shelter and a separation sustained by the hope of reunion.

Narrative Significance

Ana’s part in the episode connects a love story to the consequences of the expulsion of the Moriscos. Her public reception in Barcelona and the affection shown to her by Don Antonio’s household do not erase the political uncertainty that governs her prospects. The story sets individual recognition—she is welcomed, admired, and treated as deserving protection—against a policy that, as Ricote explains, makes personal appeals ineffective.

Her reunion with Don Gregorio offers an emotional resolution to his captivity but not a secure future for the couple. The narrative lets their eyes and their tearful parting register attachment, while the practical decisions about travel, shelter, and possible return remain in other hands. Ana is therefore both the center of a tender reunion and a reminder of its limits: a rescue can bring loved ones together, yet still leave them exposed to separation and exile.