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Colonial Relic: Gibraltar in the Age of Decolonization David Alvarez Grand Valley State University

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Colonial Relic: Gibraltar in the Age of Decolonization David Alvarez Grand Valley State University Grand Valley Review Volume 21 | Issue 1 Article 4 2000 Colonial Relic: Gibraltar in the Age of Decolonization David Alvarez Grand Valley State University Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/gvr Recommended Citation Alvarez, David (2000) "Colonial Relic: Gibraltar in the Age of Decolonization," Grand Valley Review: Vol. 21: Iss. 1, Article 4. Available at: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/gvr/vol21/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@GVSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Grand Valley Review by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@GVSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. by David Alvarez which it shares Colonial Relic: Gibraltar in the since 1713, whe territory to Brit< under duress, ~ Age of Decolonization attempted to rec out the 18th cen In Gulliver's 7 the stubborn sh; "The colonial world is a world cut in two." portrait of the tVI -Frantz Fanon, The Wretched ofthe Earth ( 1958) whose conflicts , be broken at the s the above epigraph by the celebrated out-satirize the s< Martinican anti-colonial writer Frantz and the Small ca A Fanon suggests, the specter of ain and Spain m Manichaeanism has often haunted monographs declarations and and manifestoes written in opposition to West­ suited in human old diplomatic c David Alvarez is assistant pro­ ern colonialism. Given the gross injustices that Western colonial rule entailed, it is hardly sur­ over a formidabl! fessor of English at GVSU. He political status. teaches courses in post-colonial prising that the myriad complexities of one country's dominion over another should often writing in English and in Latin 4 be reduced to simple dichotomies. In recent years, American studies. He was born however, scholars of colonialism such as Homi and raised in Gibraltar and lived Bhabha, Stuart Hall, and Mary Louise Pratt (who there until he left for England to were themselves raised in colonies) have pro­ attend college at age twenty. duced nuanced studies that depart from black-and-white dualisms to focus instead on the manifold intricacies of colonial situations. In what follows, I offer a personal reflection on one such situation, that of my birthplace, Gibraltar, a small territory located at the south­ ernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula, and one of the last remaining relics of Britain's former Em­ pire. Known as Calpe by the Romans, and as "Tarik' s Mountain" by the Moors, Gibraltar was ruled by the latter from the eleventh to the fif­ teenth centuries and by Spaniards until the early eighteenth century. ("Tarik's Mountain," named after the Muslim general who led the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, is "Djabal Tarik" in Ara­ bic, the toponym from which "Gibraltar" derives.) A scant two and a half square miles in size, Gibraltar's territory is mostly taken up by the Rock of Gibraltar, a porous hulk of limestone that rises sheer out of the Mediterranean Sea to a height of 1,400 feet and towers above the bay Colonial Relic which it shares with its Spanish hinterland. Gibraltar has been in British hands since 1713, when at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession Spain ceded the ~he territory to Britain in the Treaty of Utrecht. Insisting that the territory was ceded under duress, Spanish governments of diverse political stripes have repeatedly attempted to reclaim the Rock from the British, by shelling and by siege through­ out the 18th century and by dogged diplomacy ever since. In Gulliver's Travels, the 18th century Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift satirized the stubborn stupidity of the diplomatic wrangles of his age, most notably in his portrait of the two tiny and perpetually warring kingdoms of Liliput and Blefuscu, 1t in two." whose conflicts were fueled by incompatible claims about whether an egg should l of the Earth (1958) be broken at the big end or the small. Reality, however, is always threatening to out-satirize the satirists. While the absurdities of the battles between the Big Endians oy the celebrated and the Small can be laughed off as fiction, the real-life disputations between Brit­ ial writer Frantz ain and Spain over the Rock have generated Brobdingnagian reams of diplomatic he specter of declarations and memoranda. They have also, it needs to be said, sometimes re­ 1.ted monographs sulted in human anguish and suffering. For at the core of the three-hundred year position to West­ old diplomatic dispute over Gibraltar lies not only the question of sovereignty )SS injustices that over a formidable limestone mountain, but also the vexed matter of its inhabitants' , it is hardly sur­ political status. lplexities of one ther should often Aerial view ofGibraltar from the south. .es. In recent years, The airstrip at the territory's northern \s sm such as Homi end lies on a sandy isthmus that Louise Pratt (who physically connects Gibraltar to the 1lonies) have pro­ Spanish mainland. just north of the lat depart from airAeld there is a mile-long fence that >cus instead on the marks the political frontier between U. situations. Spain and Gibraltar. Beyond the fence personal reflection lies the border-town ofLa Linea, whose of my birthplace, men helped build Gibraltar's naval :ated at the south­ dockyard at the tum of the zo'h century, linsula, and one of and whose women often worked as ·itain' s former Ern­ servants in Gibraltarian homes. Those e Romans, and as homes are mostly located on the Rock's oors, Gibraltar was western slope, which descends gradually eleventh to the fif­ into the Bay of Algeciras. Because space ards until the early is so limited in Gibraltar; land has been Mountain," named reclaimed from the sea beyond the old city walls, and the town has thus grown 10 led the conquest considerably in size. ~abal Tarik" in Ara­ lhich "Gibraltar" 1.alf square miles in nostly taken up by 1s hulk of limestone :editerranean Sea to wers above the bay David Alvarez British by nationality, the British forever? which, self-st Gibraltarians (gibraltareiios in t the turn of the 20th century, a British im­ eclipse all thE Spanish) are in ethnic terms nei­ A perial official, Sir C. E. Howard Vincent Land as well < ther straightforwardly British K.C.M.G., C.B., M.P., author of the preface to a Gibraltar, "th nor Spanish but a complex amal­ multi-volume State of the Empire series, scanned Sir Howard's gr; gam of both these and other the sweep of Britain's imperial sway and pro­ was a minuscul1 elements. One of the many pe­ nounced himself satisfied that it should last into the chain of ouq culiarities of colonialism in a glorious and indefinite future: perial territories Gibraltar is that during a time Whether it be surveyed by its territorial extent, unparalleled rea1 when colonized peoples around by the numbers of its peoples, by the diversity indeed have see: the globe were attempting to of its climates, by the magnitude of its com­ ends of world r free themselves from colonial merce, by the liberty and loyalty of its "British Empire rule, the overwhelming major­ inhabitants, nothing that has ever been in the the time I was b ity of Gibraltarians insisted on past, nothing that appears possible in the fu­ feverishly being ] remaining loyal subjects of the ture, can in any way compare to it .... Our the world, and th British Crown. Our ambivalent chance is now. The occasion is ripe. The fruit has jocularly dub cultural and political location as is ready to our hand. We grasp it, and leave for from the perspec a people is the overarching sub­ tomorrow an Empire in the homogeneous ing to an untirr ject of the following essay. strength of which that of today shall pale and however, old emF some of us had t 6 up in one of the lc perium. "British We Are, Whilst few men 1 Into their bunks t1 Of the old homes But with the risin: Bugles sound, du; The Empire calls ' -Leopold P. S; (The Calpean Son n 1954, when the I Queen Elizabeth royal tour of the E ter with Union Jac decade later, two In the foreground, we see the gently rolling hills ofGibraltar's Spanish hinterland, El Campo de Gibraltar. In the middle ground, we see the Rock flanked by the Bay of Algeciras to the right, and by the Mediterranean Colony of Gibralta Sea to the left. In the background, we see the northern-most mountains of Morocco and the Strait which bemused members separates them from southwestern-most Europe. Its strategic and commanding location at the entrance to Committee on Dec the Mediterranean has bestowed upon the tiny territory ofGibraltar a historical prominence out of all colonized peoples proportion to its size. This crossroads has been the scene of much violence, from the invasion of the Iberian from the colonial F 11 Peninsula by Moors in 711 CE, through the Spanish sieges of the 18' century, to the German bombing much closer ties to "1 campaigns of World War II. In peacetime, the Straits constitute one of the busiest commercial waterways in the British governm the world. Colonial Relic which, self-sustaining, self-supporting, shall termine whether Gibraltarians eclipse all the world and be Mistress of the uy, a British im­ wished to continue under Brit­ Land as well as, now, Mistress of the Sea. -Ioward Vincent ish rule or to pass under Spanish the preface to a Gibraltar, "the key of the Mediterranean," in sovereignty. 12,182 voted to re­ re series, scanned Sir Howard's grandiose evocation of British rule, main British whereas only 44 ,1 sway and pro­ was a minuscule yet strategically crucial link in votes were cast in favor of Spain.
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