Resumen de Quixotic Equines: Beyond Rocinante
Cervantes portrays animals as individuals with a certain measure of autonomy, agency, voice and character. This article focuses on Sancho Panza's rucio, Dapple, tracing how donkeys were perceived, utilized, represented and valued in early modern Spain. Rather than depicting Sancho's ass as a conventional emblem of stupidity and ridicule, Cervantes treats this historically downtrodden creature with sympathy and respect, dignifying him as a hardy and resilient worker and companion. Dapple provides a positive example of interspecies devotion and friendship, and an authentic view of the centrality of Equus asinus to rural life at the time.
