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Clemente Cerdeira: An interpreter, diplomat and spy who served the Second Spanish Republic
January 29, 20187:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62).
7:00 p.m.
Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
In Spanish.
Mourad Zarrouk is presenting his latest book at Casa Árabe in Madrid. It
is dedicated to this unique personage, who eventually became the
Spanish Consul in Casablanca and Rabat.
Participating in the meeting along with the work’s author will be Bernabé López García, the honorary chair of Arab and Islamic Studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe’s Coordinator of International Politics, who will introduce the event.
Around the year of 1905, Clemente Cerdeira y Fernández formed part of a small group of Arabic interpreters who were needed to help clear the way for the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco as of 1912. Unlike his colleagues, this young interpreter proved to have an insatiable curiosity for political affairs in the Protectorate. The fight against Moroccan nationalism, after the creation of the Second Republic, allowed Cerdeira to develop his skills in the field of intelligence. And when the Spanish Civil War was unleashed, Cerdeira was to hold a role at the forefront. From his position at the Spanish Consulates in Casablanca and Rabat, he attempted to form an alliance with the nationalists from the French zone to create an uprising in the Spanish zone, though unsuccessfully. The conference will deal with Cerdeira’s unique career in Morocco and Spain, up to his final days in England and France.
Mourad Zarrouk has a PhD in Philosophy and Letters from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2002), a DEA in Political Science (UAM) and a bachelor’s degree in translation from Tangiers’ School of Translators. He is a tenured professor at the Department of Hispanic Studies in the University of Casablanca’s School of Letters. He has been a professor at the University of Granada and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He specialized in the history of translation, nationalism and politics in the Arab world. Some of his most notable publications include: Clemente Cerdeira: An interpreter, diplomat and spy who served the Second Spanish Republic (Madrid: Reus, 2017) and Translators from Spain in Morocco (1859-1939) (Barcelona: Bellaterra, 2009). He also translated the 1978 Spanish Constitution into Arabic (Editorial Castilla-La Mancha: Toledo, 2011).
Around the year of 1905, Clemente Cerdeira y Fernández formed part of a small group of Arabic interpreters who were needed to help clear the way for the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco as of 1912. Unlike his colleagues, this young interpreter proved to have an insatiable curiosity for political affairs in the Protectorate. The fight against Moroccan nationalism, after the creation of the Second Republic, allowed Cerdeira to develop his skills in the field of intelligence. And when the Spanish Civil War was unleashed, Cerdeira was to hold a role at the forefront. From his position at the Spanish Consulates in Casablanca and Rabat, he attempted to form an alliance with the nationalists from the French zone to create an uprising in the Spanish zone, though unsuccessfully. The conference will deal with Cerdeira’s unique career in Morocco and Spain, up to his final days in England and France.
Mourad Zarrouk has a PhD in Philosophy and Letters from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2002), a DEA in Political Science (UAM) and a bachelor’s degree in translation from Tangiers’ School of Translators. He is a tenured professor at the Department of Hispanic Studies in the University of Casablanca’s School of Letters. He has been a professor at the University of Granada and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He specialized in the history of translation, nationalism and politics in the Arab world. Some of his most notable publications include: Clemente Cerdeira: An interpreter, diplomat and spy who served the Second Spanish Republic (Madrid: Reus, 2017) and Translators from Spain in Morocco (1859-1939) (Barcelona: Bellaterra, 2009). He also translated the 1978 Spanish Constitution into Arabic (Editorial Castilla-La Mancha: Toledo, 2011).
