Mauricio Schwarz challenges Abascal: identity as a political weapon

Genealogy as a battleground: Schwarz stands up to Abascal

Mauricio Schwarz didn't need a boxing ring to challenge Santiago Abascal. "Abascal, come and get me," he wrote, and with that invitation he turned his biography into a manifesto: an immigrant, with indigenous roots, an adopted Polish-Jewish surname and an Asturian grandfather. The writer, who built a career as an author of fantasy and science fiction in Mexico, moved to Spain in 1999 to work for a newspaper and joined the skeptical circle of Luis Alfonso Gámez.

The paradox of Schwarz's DNA

Those who argue back point to the paradox: the same man who accuses the far right of obsessing over genealogy spent around 200 euros on a DNA test to claim a 14% Maya ancestry, alongside his Asturian and Segarro roots. Some read the "I'll be waiting" more as a calling card than an invitation to combat: a gesture designed to keep landing invitations to conferences and TV panels.

A double standard on migration

The exchange of arguments also leaves behind an uncomfortable contradiction for both sides. Schwarz exercised the right to choose where to live — moving to a country with better services and opportunities — the same right exercised by Spaniards who emigrate to Germany or London. He is criticized for seeking the first world; they, on the other hand, are usually portrayed as entrepreneurial talent.

The antisemitic background noise

The disinformation is there too: an antisemitic message tries to lump Abascal and Schwarz together in the same conspiratorial bag. A pamphlet with no data that any serious analysis dismisses outright, but which reminds us that identity politics always finds its sleaziest version.

For now, no answer to the challenge has come. No one in Abascal's circle has picked up the gauntlet of the 14% Maya ancestry or the Szwarc surname. In the end, identity works better as a headline than as a starting point for dialogue.