Troubling Black Nobility: Racial Representation from Maria de Zayas’s Desengaños amorosos (1647) to Fernando J. Múñez’s La cocinera de Castamar (2021)

María de Zayas y Sotomayor’s Desengaños amorosos (1647) exemplifies the enduring human fascination with sex, scandal and shock, themes prevalent in literature and popular culture across centuries. Interpretation of race within Zayas’s cultural labyrinth has, however, seemed reductive, as if her black characters serve a singular, identifiable purpose. This essay explores how Zayas’s portrayal of blackness, when viewed through an intersectional lens, complicates historical narratives and prompts reevaluation of black life in seventeenth-century Spain. By examining Zayas’s short stories alongside a contemporary television adaptation of Fernando J. Múñez’s La cocinera de Castamar (2021), the essay illuminates the lasting relevance of the Spanish Baroque in shaping – and complexifying – contemporary racial representation. A range of historical periods (the seventeenth century to today), genres (text to film) and geographic regions are traversed, with the aim of encouraging scholars to draw more connections between the intentions and attempts of early modern (Spanish) authors and their counterparts today. This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .