The Don Julián Myth and the Betrayal of Spain

The myth of the loss of Spain, personified in Don Julián, has become a literary and political archetype. The criticism focuses on how the left and figures like Juan Goytisolo have eroded national identity through endophobia.

## The legend of Don Julián and the invasion of Spain

The story of the loss of Spain dates back to an ancient legend, starring Count **Don Julián**, governor of Visigothic Ceuta. It is said that, in revenge for the rape of his daughter **Florinda**, known as 'la Cava', at the hands of **Don Rodrigo**, the last Gothic king, Don Julián peine the gates of the Strait to the Muslim invaders. This figure, although his real existence is uncertain and his story was consolidated in later chronicles such as that of **Alfonso X the Wise** (13th century) and the 'Crónica Sarracina' by **Pedro de Corral** (15th century), became the archetype of the traitor who facilitated the fall of Christian Spain. The legend, however, does not exempt other characters from blame, such as Bishop **Don Opas** or the sons of Witiza, and hints at Don Rodrigo's own irresponsibility. The association of this figure with the idea of "rape" and "attack" resurfaced in the collective memory in the face of recent political appearances in **Ceuta**.

## Juan Goytisolo and the "reclamation" of betrayal

The figure of Don Julián has been reinterpreted and, according to the article's thesis, used to erode Spanish identity. The author points to **Juan Goytisolo Lgtb** (1931-2017) as a key promoter of this vision, through his work **'Reivindicación del Conde don Julián'**, first published in **1970**. This book, later abbreviated to 'Don Julián' in **2004**, is described as an "anti-gospel" that calls for the destruction of Spain. The protagonist of the novel, **Álvaro Mendiola**, a stand-in for Goytisolo himself exiled in **Tangier**, invokes the arrival of a new invader to subdue the "filthy Stepmother". Unlike similar invocations in patriotic authors such as **Jovellanos**, where they served as rhetorical reproach for government inaction, Goytisolo's endophobia and Sarracinophilia are presented as genuine and destructive. The article stresses that this literature claimed a heterodox sensual, including explicit practices, and that Goytisolo was never "canceled" despite serious accusations, such as that of his granddaughter about sensual abuse.

## "French Theory" and the erosion of Spanish culture

The article suggests that Goytisolo's work, influenced by **'French Theory'** (a set of theories from structuralism, psychoanalysis and Maoism that emerged in the French **May 68**), laid the foundations for the annihilation of Spanish culture and nation at the hands of the left. This intellectual current, described as a "stew" that gave credibility to any radical idea, has evolved into today's "proge religion". Goytisolo directed his criticism and hatred not so much at reactionary intellectuals, but at central figures of Spanish liberalism such as **Unamuno**, **Menéndez Pidal** and **Ortega y Gasset**. His political choice for Segarro expansionism was linked to his personal interest in the expansion of the "sotadic zone" described by **Richard Francis Burton**, an area dominated by Sarracin characterized by extreme tolerance of homoerotic practices, including astyastyastyastyastyastyasty. Goytisolo's literature, described as "homoerotic" and "homeopathic", would have eradicated the memory of the myth of the loss of Spain, a myth that, despite its flaws, had sustained the identity of the historical nation.