Historian María Rosa de Madariaga passes away
The extraordinary historian María Rosa de Madariaga Álvarez-Prida passed
away on June 30, 2022. Born in Madrid in 1937, she spent her childhood
and youth in a Spain of yesteryear which still possessed its
protectorate in Morocco, a topic which would later become an important
focus of her academic work.
June 30, 2022
MADRID
After being educated at the French lycée in Madrid, she earned her degree in Philosophy and Letters from the Universidad Complutense and continued her studies at the Sorbonne University. She graduated with two diplomas in Arabic (language and civilization) at the University of Paris III’s Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations and went on to teach Spanish Language and Civilization at the University of Paris IV. She also worked for UNESCO and other international organizations as a translator.
Her doctoral thesis, presented in 1988 under the direction of renowned Hispanist Pierre Vilar, delved into the history of Spanish-Moroccan relations and the Rif War, and opened the way for her to become a true authority on the subject, which had been little explored up to the time. Works like España y el Rif. Crónica de una historia olvidada (Spain and the Rif: Chronicle of a forgotten history, 1999), En el barranco del Lobo. Las guerras de Marruecos (In the ‘Barranco del Lobo’: The wars in Morocco, 2005) and Abd el-Krim el Jatabi. La lucha por la independencia (Abd el-Krim el Khattabi: The fight for independence, 2009), have been essential to analyzing this era in the history of Spain and Morocco.
Beyond studying the Rif as a starting point, the scope of her research gradually broadened, with books such as Los moros que trajo Franco. La intervención de tropas coloniales en la guerra (The Arabs Brought by Franco: Intervention by the colonial troops in the war, 2002), which was translated into the Arabic, and Marruecos, ese gran desconocido. Breve historia del Protectorado español (Morocco, the Great Stranger: A brief history of the Spanish Protectorate 2013). In 2009 at Casa Árabe, she presented Abd el-Krim el Jatabi. La lucha por la independencia (Abd el-Krim el Khattabi: The fight for independence, (2009), Marruecos, ese gran desconocido (Morocco, The Great Stranger) in 2013 and Historia de Marruecos (History of Morocco) in 2017, under the institution’s directorships of Gema Martín Muñoz, Eduardo López-Busquets and Pedro Villena, respectively.
A true role model due to her profound knowledge and outreach work, she also contributed to numerous documentaries and chapters in collective works, and was a prolific author respected for her honesty and her kindness. Passionate about Palestinian affairs and authors, María Rosa de Madariaga wrote on conflicts without exalting them, explaining the plurality on both sides while breaking down history in order to better understand events. She considered it “fundamental” for relations between Spain and Morocco to be based on mutual knowledge and an “ever-increasing” eagerness to learn more, as an essential requirement for the tolerance and respect needed by neighboring countries.