The popular phrase “Turning the blanket”used today to refer to the revelation of hidden secrets, has its roots in a gloomy era in the history of Spain. Its origin dates back to the fifteenth century, in a context marked by the persecution of those who were descendants of Jews, Muslims and penitentiated by the Holy Office of the Inquisition.
Imagine that a former minister, investigated for corruption, decides to break his silence and reveal how high positions diverted public funds to finance campaigns. This symbolic gesture of betrayal and exposure of secrets would be summarized, in popular terms, in which the former minister has “Tying the blanket”.
Although today the expression can evoke the image of a bed blanket, its original sense is far from that. In its beginnings, The “blanket” refers to a great canvas hung publiclywhich served as a record or census of suspicious people of not being “pure” Christians.
An expression born in the era of the Inquisition
After the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, many chose to become Christianity to avoid exile. These “Converts” They were under constant suspicion. In regions such as Navarra, according to Documenta The history of legislation From Marichalar and Manrique (1868), lists were prepared that distinguished families of “clean blood” from those with Jewish or Muslim ancestry.
These lists were hung in visible places, such as parishes, on large fabrics known as “Mantas”. Hence the expression: “Turning the blanket” meant reviewing those lists, investigating and bringing possible false conversions to light. And yes, there were real cases.
The case of the tudela blanket
One of the best known examples occurred in Tudela, in 1610. As stated in the General Archive of Navarra (AGN), the city council presented in the cathedral a blanket with the names of the converts, with the aim of preserving the “cleanliness” of blood and that the memory of the family origins would not be lost. Those records not only distinguished the nobles of the “new Christians”, but also served as a basis for legal disputes.
A famous case was to Francisco de Aibar and Gorraizwho ended up being declared as “Viejo Christian, clean of all bad race of Jews, Moors and prisons for the Holy Office”a surprising resolution given the discriminatory practice of the time.
The tudela blanket not only remained exposed until the nineteenth century in the cathedral, but today can be visited at the Tudela Museum. Is famous, among other reasons, because originated more blood cleaning lawsuits than others in the kingdomas the AGN points out: “In this king more than in others the pleytos that are introduced by trying some people from him who are descendants of old Christians are frequent.”
This expression, which we use without thinking today, connects us with a past of exclusion and social surveillance, where identity could be public, judged … and hung from a blanket.