Today I am going to tell you a secret for those who really do not know what our professional mission is, but which is not so much for those of us who dedicate ourselves to intercultural mediation, and this secret is none other than this: our profession is not a new thing.
Actually the figure of the intercultural mediator is not that recent, and it is not something that has to do only with the migratory flows and diversity management.
This profession has already been developed since the Middle Ages by people who by trade were in charge of mediating to free slaves and prisoners of war.
Intercultural mediators
These professionals appear in border territories where it is necessary to establish lines of communication with other communities and where logically people with certain qualities were necessary, such as negotiation skills, specialists in the border context and knowledge about their problems.
At first these qualities were developed by merchants who worked in those places and who already had these characteristics, but later some of them specialized in negotiating the freedom of prisoners.
These experts responded to a certain reality, which was the belligerence of a time in which many soldiers were involved and where the reality of captivity was very common.
For all this, the figure of the mediator It was so common that in the different kingdoms and territories of Spain there were terms to refer to the person who was in charge of said tasks.
So for example, we have three words left:
Alfaqueque
For example, in the kingdom of Castile the word was used Alfaqueque, which comes from the Andalusian Arabic “alfakkák” and has two meanings:
- Formerly, official commissioner to redeem captives or free slaves or prisoners of war.
- Man who served as a courier.
Exea
In the kingdom of Aragon another term was used for the same figure: Exea which also comes from the Andalusian Arabic “išší'a”, which probably had to do with another job that these people performed such as that of guide or explorer.
Mostolafs
And also in Catalan, for example, we find the word mostolafs, figure that in said territory it was articulated a little differently and where it could be developed by specific people or families, under the payment of a tax.
Let us remember that many ordinary people recovered a good as precious as freedom, thanks to the good work of these professionals, but also illustrious figures in our history who would not have been able to transcend, if the good work of this figure had not existed.
This is the case for example of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra who suffered captivity in galleys and later in Algeria, and whose liberation is closely linked to the office of the mediator or alfaqueque and also to a religious order whose genesis is in negotiation.
This religious order is that of the Holy Trinity and the Captives, commonly known as the the trinitarians who were dedicated to the release of prisoners in a non-violent way, that is, by exercising that job of alfaqueque, and negotiating the freedom of captives.
As you can see, in the Spanish Middle Ages and later in the 15th, 16th, and even early 17th centuries, we found a reality that was attended to by Alfaqueque professionals or now intercultural mediators, who sought the best agreement between the parties.
Therefore, intercultural mediators are nothing more than the heirs of a situation that returns, where border territories are now in our countries, in our cities and in our neighborhoods.
We have to respond again to that border reality where, far from having to negotiate people's freedom, we must minimize a factor that globalization has brought us, such as the natural impact generated by habitual contact with people from other cultures. , with other values, and with other experiences.
