The Moriscos ask to be placed on the same level as the Sephardim and ask for Spanish nationality

If the Sephardim have obtained historical reparation from Spain, why not the Moriscos? The descendants of those Moriscos expelled from Spain in the 17th century do not hide a certain feeling of “exclusion” and demand the same treatment from Spain as that reserved for the Sephardic Jews. Their surnames are Loubaris (from Olivares), Bargachi (from Vargas) Buano (from Bueno), Sordo, Denia, Lucas… and they constitute hundreds of families in Tetouan, Rabat and Fez, the Moroccan cities where they were welcomed after their expulsion and where they soon became the urban “aristocracy”. These Moroccans of Moorish origin have paid close attention to the recent decision of the Spanish Government to grant Spanish nationality to the Sephardic Jews (also expelled from Spain in the 15th century) and ask that Spain should also make similar gestures towards the Moors. The Spanish Government approved last February 7 a modification of the Civil Code to grant Spanish nationality to all Sephardic Jews (Jews expelled from Spain in 1492) who request it and can prove such condition. The Sephardim were expelled from Spain by an edict of 1492, promulgated by the Catholic Monarchs, which obliged them to convert to Catholicism or, otherwise, to be exiled from the country within three months. “The Spanish State, just as it has announced the right of the Sephardic Jews to enjoy Spanish nationality (…) should recognize the same right for the rest of the expelled, the Moors; otherwise, its decision would be selective, not to say racist” assures Bayib Loubaris, president of the Association Memoria de los Andalusíes (as the descendants of the Moors were called in Morocco).
Individual initiatives Loubaris described as “very positive” the decision of the Spanish Government towards the Sephardim, since it supposes according to him a recognition of the “fault of expulsion committed by the Spanish State towards its citizens”.
The new reform of the Spanish Civil Code will allow the Sephardim to ask for the Spanish nationality without losing their original nationality, which seems difficult for the Moriscos of Moroccan origin, since Spain does not have an agreement of double nationality with Morocco.
Loubaris specified that the demand for Spanish nationality does not appear as a top priority of his association, but acknowledged that there have been individual initiatives of some of its members on this subject, who went so far as to send a letter to King Juan Carlos to request their right to be Spanish.
In reality, it is more of a recognition of historical memory.
Loubaris explained that his association, created a year and a half ago, is currently focused on raising awareness of the Moorish legacy, safeguarding the various manifestations of this heritage in Morocco and restoring the splendor of this historical legacy. Expelled in 1610 The Moors who were expelled from Spain in 1610, some 300,000 people, settled thereafter in North Africa, mainly in the cities of Morocco, and to a lesser extent in Algeria and Tunisia.
Although those Moriscos did not preserve -like the Sephardim- the Spanish language, they brought with them a way of life that is still recognizable today in the architecture (green-tiled roofs), clothing, culinary traditions or Andalusian music, among other things.
The settlement of the Moors on the southern shore of the Mediterranean marked a new era of refinement, elegance and development and gave a luster of “nobility” to a lifestyle that until then had been much more rough and peasant. In Morocco, the Moorish component has deserved a place of distinction over the centuries; in the same way, the Moors have always occupied high positions that guaranteed them a proximity to the circles of power.
According to the estimates of the president of the Association Mémoire des Andalusiens, Nayib Loubaris, there are currently some 600 families of Moorish origin who have settled in various cities of the country, of which about a hundred live in Rabat.
Loubaris says he is proud of his origins, as much as of his current identity in a country that “welcomed our ancestors after they were expelled by kings who should have protected them”, he concludes.   Source: ABC