The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain is presented as the decisive repudiation of a promise that conquered communities would live safely under Christian rule. Within three months of pledging coexistence, the victors expelled the Jews and threatened the Muslims; Catalina’s later reflections expose the human and intellectual costs of making religious uniformity a condition of belonging.

Promise and reversal

After the Christian victory, the rulers solemnly promised Boabdil that Muslims would be as safe under their rule as Christians had been under his. The promise of convivencia offered a shared life in which Moor, Christian, and Jew could live with quiet and self-respect as “People of the Book.” The trust placed in that pledge made its reversal more than a change in policy: it turned an assurance of safety into a betrayal.

The narrative gives the reversal a stark measure of speed. “We betray our word in three months,” Catalina recalls, as the Jews are expelled and the Muslims threatened. The two groups face related but distinct outcomes in the account: expulsion for the Jews, and pressure on Muslims to abandon their faith or face the consequences. The promised truce is thus replaced by compulsion almost as soon as it has been made.

Religious uniformity as rule

The policy is justified as a means of making one nation and one people from the religious diversity of al-Andalus. Palace servants must give outward assent to the Church’s beliefs, the mosque’s call to prayer is silenced in Catalina’s mother’s hearing, and those who disagree are told to leave for Africa, convert, or face the Inquisition. Conversion alone does not guarantee safety: any remaining suspicion can bring a person’s faith under examination. Religious identity becomes a test imposed by the state, while the threat of exile and judicial persecution enforces the appearance of unity.

Catalina’s account places that coercion beside the rulers’ claim to victory by force of arms and the will of God. The gap between the solemn promise and the measures taken against the conquered makes the political logic visible: coexistence is acceptable as a pledge when it serves the victors, but is discarded when uniformity is treated as the foundation of rule.

Catalina’s later judgment

Looking back, Catalina connects the expulsion of the Jews with the later removal of Moorish learning and expertise. She condemns the loss of Jewish skills and courage alongside the expulsion of Muslims and their scholarship, and sees the resulting persecution as a wrong committed by a ruler who had also valued learning and fought for justice. The policy’s consequence, in her judgment, reaches beyond those forced from their homes: it deprives the realm of knowledge and talent.

Her interpretation also marks a change in her understanding of religious difference. Remembering the compassion of a Moorish physician, Catalina can no longer dismiss Muslims as barbarians or regard their faith as proof that they are enemies. She comes to reject a crusade against them and persecution for either belief or skin color. The broken promise at Granada therefore becomes part of her wider reassessment: the expulsion is not simply a victory enforcing one faith, but an act of cruelty whose costs endure in both human lives and the loss of learning.