Analyzing Narratives About the Camino: From Claims in Support of Local Elements to the Success of the Xacobeo

Abstract

This chapter deals with the construction of the idea of the Camino to Finisterre and Muxía and the narratives about it. It offers a chronological overview of the range of sources which discuss the Camino, establishing the decade of 1990s as a turning point. The number of books and articles devoted to the Camino to Finisterre and Muxía has increased since 1990 as a consequence of the rise in bibliographic references about the Camino de Santiago in general. Until the last decade of the 20th century, most references were written by pilgrims, who reported on the places, as well as by authors who explained the historical sites along the Camino and their relation to the Jacobean pilgrimage. After 1990, a wider variety of texts started to appear: from texts seeking to determine the route to memoirs and works of fiction that use the space of the pilgrimage to frame their plot, as well as works by historians and anthropologists.