Ricote

Family: — · Role: Morisco shopkeeper · First appears: Part 2, Ch. 54.1

Ricote, a Morisco shopkeeper, was recognised by his former neighbour Sancho Panza in Part 2, Ch. 54, while disguised as a foreign pilgrim. He asked Sancho Panza not to betray him after secretly returning to Spain, having earlier left alone to find a place where he could bring his family comfortably. He offered Sancho Panza two hundred crowns to help recover and conceal buried treasure, but Sancho Panza refused, saying, “And I have told thee already, Ricote, that I will not.” Ricote also said that his wife Francisca Ricota and daughter Ricota were Catholic Christians, while Juan Tiopieyo, his wife’s brother, had gone where he could most easily.

In Part 2, Ch. 63, Ricote found Ana Félix and revealed himself as her father: “O Ana Felix, my unhappy daughter, I am thy father Ricote, come back to look for thee, unable to live without thee, my soul that thou art!” After her release, they embraced and reunited. Ricote then offered more than two thousand ducats in pearls and gems toward the plan to rescue Don Gaspar Gregorio from danger, while Don Antonio Moreno took Ricote and Ana Félix into his home and the viceroy offered them hospitality.

Two days later, arrangements were made for Ricote and Ana Félix to remain in Spain, with Ana Félix staying with Don Antonio Moreno’s wife and Ricote in the viceroy’s house. Ricote offered Don Gaspar Gregorio a thousand crowns, though he accepted only five crowns lent by Don Antonio Moreno, and he rewarded the renegade and the rowers who helped. He remained opposed to Don Bernardino de Velasco, to whom the expulsion of his people had been entrusted.