In Search of My Roots

A filmmaker goes on a road trip to explore her Spanish heritage and learn about Moriscos, Christian Spaniards of Muslim origin. When Spanish director Paula Palacios embarks on a road trip across Spain to uncover her roots, she discovers her own Muslim past and a very different version of history to the one she learned at school. Her journey pieces together a centuries-old jigsaw and the largely untold story of Christian Spaniards of Muslim origin. In 1502, shortly after the fall of the last Muslim state in the Iberian Peninsula, Muslims in Spain faced a stark choice: convert to Christianity or be exiled to northwest Africa. Those who stayed formed a new social class, Christians of Muslim origin, known as the Moriscos. In 1609, however, a royal decree demanded that the Moriscos be expelled completely.