Governor Sancho and the Politics of Insularity

Governor Sancho's rule on the ínsula Barataria in Part II of Don Quijote has been read as evidence of Cervantes's endorsement of a more or less concrete political vision in response to the perception of Spanish decline. By focusing on Sancho's actions on the ínsula, however, scholars have overlooked the politics of the ínsula itself. This essay takes the Barataria episode as a point of departure for an analysis of the transatlantic politics of insularity in early modern Spain. In this context, insularity is necessarily a colonial matter. Filled with references to the practices of colonialism and specifically to the Americas, Barataria speaks to the legitimacy of possession and the spatial dimensions of governance. By reading Cervantes next to political theorists like Francisco de Vitoria, this essay suggests that the modernity of Barataria's politics lies in its insular ambiguity, a reimagining of the spatiality of colonial relations.