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flaws in Alemán's style. Other critics have
suggested that these homilies were deliber-
ately inserted to disarm the shocked
responses of conventional readers or to save
the topic from formal censorship. The moti-
vations of Alemán have been variously
analyzed by modern scholars, some of
whom say that as a member of a converso
family (one that had converted from Juda-
ism to Catholicism under fear of persecu-
tion), he transferred his own sense of being
a marginal figure in Spanish society into
identifying with the antisocial behavior of
Guzmán. Others dismiss this notion and
conclude that Alemán was simply pursuing
a theme whose boldness he felt would be
unusual and titillating enough to win him
readers and income. Whatever the source
of his story, Alemán's novel remains one of
the major works of Spanish literature, com-
pletely overshadowing his minor writings.
antry, the region was the object of special
attention by the radical reformers who took
power after the 1974 revolution. Many of
the great estates were confiscated by the
government and divided up into small hold-
ings for individual farmers. Those lands that
were reorganized as cooperatives usually
fared the best. The total area of Upper Alen-
tejo (capital at Évora) and Lower Alentejo
(capital at Beja) is approximately 9,000
square miles and includes a number of pro-
ductive quarries as well as small-scale copper
and sulfur operations. Although not as pic-
turesque as other of the country's regions,
Alentejo continues to play, as always, a vital
part in Portugal's existence.
Alexander VI (Rodrigo de Borja
[Borgia])
(1431-1503)
pope
Born Rodrigo de Borja of a noble family
from V
ALENCIA
and nephew of an earlier
Spanish-born pope, Calixtus III, this Spanish
occupant of the papal throne enjoyed the
patronage of his uncle and other members of
the family who were highly placed in Rome.
Archbishop of Valencia and cardinal at an
early age, he successively occupied major
offices in the Papal States. In 1492 Rodrigo
de Borja (now known under the Italian form
of his name, Borgia) was elected pope in a
notoriously corrupt conclave. As Alexander
VI he conducted an active political and mili-
tary policy in Italy aimed at strengthening
the secular powers of the papacy and the
personal advantages of his family. During
the opening phase of the I
TALIAN
W
ARS
(1494-1503) he alternately favored France
and Spain, although generally preferring the
interests of the latter. In 1494 he exercised
the papal prerogative to decree the division
Alentejo
This Portuguese province (divided in mod-
ern times into Upper and Lower Alentejo)
lies between the Atlantic and the Spanish
frontier. Its location guaranteed a prominent
place in the political and military events of
the nation from the Middle Ages onward.
The flat and unpromising terrain was ren-
dered productive by irrigation, drawing upon
the Guadiana and several other streams. The
cultivation of wheat, as well as various other
cereals and fruits, made the Alentejo region
Portugal's “bread basket,” and the extensive
growth of cork trees provided a source of
income in an era when virtually every wine
bottle in the world was stopped by a cork
derived from the Alentejo's forests. Long the
seat of an absentee landlord class that
exploited the labor of an impoverished peas-
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