I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño

First published: 1965

Type of work: Historical fiction

Themes: Friendship, the arts, race and ethnicity, and social issues

Time of work: The seventeenth century

Recommended Ages: 13-15

Locale: Seville and Madrid, Spain, and Italy

Principal Characters:

• Juan de Pareja, a young black slave who has come to live with Diego de Velazquez
• Don Diego Rodriguez De Silva y Velazqez, his owner, the painter to the Spanish Court
• Philip IV, King of Spain, Velazquez’s patron and great friend
• Dona Juana De Miranda, Velazquez’s wife, who is kind to Juan
• Bartolome Esteban Murillo, a friend and painter, who always treats Juan as an equal
• Dona Emilia, Juan’s first mistress, who teaches him how to write
• Paquita, Velazquez’s daughter, who loves all growing things
• Brother Isidro, a compassionate friar who nurses Juan back to health
• Lolis, Juan’s wife, more rebellious than he

The Story

I, Juan de Pareja is the story of two men—one a slave, the other his master. Juan is a young, rather pampered servant boy in the household of a wealthy Sevillian matron, when a series of sudden tragedies introduces him to the realities of life for a slave in seventeenth century Spain. First his master dies; then the whole household is stricken with fever. Juan survives but awakens to find himself alone, forgotten and starving, in a deserted house. He is rescued by a friar, Don Isidro, whose mission is to care for the sick and dying.

Juan wishes to stay with the kindly man, but he has no say in the matter. He is a slave; he now belongs to his mistress’ nephew and must go to him in Madrid along with all the other property. Juan is forced to grow up along the way. He is put under the control of a sadistic muleteer who whips and starves him. Juan runs away but is found and almost beaten to death. He is terrified to meet his new master, Diego de Velazquez, but the painter soon proves himself to be a kind and just man.

The Velazquez family is a close and happy one. Everything and everyone in the household is dominated by the painter’s absolute dedication to his art. Juan’s new duties consist entirely of facilitating the artist’s work, and what begins as a duty soon becomes an act of devotion to his master. Recognizing the slave’s intelligence and affection, Velazquez makes Juan his sole assistant when they transfer the studio to the royal palace, and it is Juan alone who accompanies the painter on his trips to Italy on the king’s behalf.

As the years pass, Juan is generally happy with his life. Yet, this contentment is marred by one secret torment. Velazquez has infected him with his all-absorbing passion for painting, and Juan’s only desire is to paint—and to paint openly alongside his master. There are severe penalties, however, for any slave who dares to practice any of the fine arts, and even harsher penalties for the one who teaches him.

Juan cannot help himself. He knows that he has a great gift. He begins to paint in secret, even though he fears that his actions may result in terrible punishment for himself and, worse, for his beloved master, and even in his soul’s eternal damnation. Juan finally reveals the truth before his master and the king and awaits his fate, but instead of punishment, he is given his freedom. Velazquez informs the king that he now has no slave, and any free man can paint.

Juan now has everything he wanted: a home, his art, and even a new wife, Lolis. Once again, however, unexpected catastrophe completely changes the direction of his life, as, one by one, the Velazquez family goes to their grave.

Juan now must start over. He decides to return to Seville, the city that he had left years before as a wretched slave boy. It pleases him that he has come full circle and that he can remember those days as if they were painted by another person.

Context

In I, Juan de Pareja, Elizabeth Borton de Trevino unites two favorite strands of her previous work—her love for the Hispanic people and her interest in their artistic heritage. In 1959, she had already attempted a novel about El Greco, The Greek of Toledo, but I, Juan de Pareja describes the complex relationship between two vastly different painters. Taking as her starting point the famous Velazquez portrait of Pareja which now hangs in the Museo del Prado, the author utilizes portraits of both artists to illustrate crucial moments in their lives. There generally is no historical basis for her interpretation of the genesis of the paintings, but the weaving of historical data, authentic artistic works, and fictional narrative is ingenious and well conceived. Of special merit is the final glimpse of Philip IV, painting, with Juan’s help, the red cross of Santiago on Velazquez’s breast in his masterpiece Las Meninas.

The year of the publication of I, Juan de Pareja, 1965, was one of racial turmoil in the United States. In the afterwords, Borton de Trevino alludes to this strife and expresses the opinion that her story of two men, one black, one white, foreshadows all that can be achieved in the present.

Yet there is no moralizing tone in the novel. The author lets the situation and actions of her characters—the slave afraid to be sold, the princess refusing to be in the same room with a black man, the cruel conduct of a gypsy who is himself an outcast—speak for themselves. If there is any tendency toward sententiousness, it lies in the pronouncements of Velazquez concerning his art.

Besides its interpretation of a past relationship used to prefigure possible harmony in the present, I, Juan de Pareja is original in its treatment of a Hispanic theme. Credible books on historical Hispanic figures are rare indeed, let alone one dealing with two painters of the seventeenth century. The author wished to open children’s (and adults’) eyes to the richness of Hispanic culture. This book is well read with copies of both Velazquez’s and Pareja’s paintings in front of the reader.