María Teresa León: Recuperating the Past, Refashioning the Present Available to Purchase

This article examines León’s rewriting of two Castilian legends through a feminist reading of Bakhtin, which demonstrates the narratives’ capacity to deconstruct patriarchy and create multiple points of view. Doña Jimena Díaz de Vivar resurrects the voice of the Cid’s wife, whose role in history was eclipsed by her larger-than-life husband, while La bella del mal amor challenges the double standard and status quo of the romancero tradition. Both serve as a window into women’s lives in the past, while exploring issues that still resonate today.