The Spanish series Valeria's second season is up on Netflix. I watched the first one some time last year, but watched it again because I had forgotten most of it. It's romance fluff set in Madrid with great costumes and production design. It makes liberal use of a soundtrack of both English and Spanish songs to comment on the action. The end of the second season featured a song by the catalana artist Rigoberta Bandini, "Perra," that really caught my attention. It turns out that they had used another of her songs as well, "In Spain We Call It Soledad." Immediate flechazo, I had to go look for her songs on Spotify and Youtube. She has only put out singles so far, not an album yet, but that may be because she is very busy as a writer/voiceover actor/director all-around-creative-person. I sent the songs to my daughter and it turns out she had already heard them, and recommended her videos to me as well.
I got back from my trip to Spain last night. The whole return trip was an ordeal. I took a bus at 2AM from Zaragoza to the airport in Madrid, about three and a half hours. The entire time a very large person who was sitting next to me was sprawled all over me, asleep. I had to carry my backpack on my lap while this person leaned on me--my legs hurt. I arrived at the airport at 5:30 AM, then had to wait half an hour for the bus from Terminal 4 to Terminal 1, then had to wait two hours for the check-in location to open up. I waited with a huge group of Cubans who were each carting six or seven bags wrapped in plastic. So glad I only had my one little bag. Luckily my check-in line was not theirs! I answered all the security questions, showed my very expensive covid test papers and got my bag checked. Then it was a long hike to the next security line. Then another line to have the police check my passport while looking at me sternly. Spanish security felt much more real than the TSA theater which always makes me resentful that they don't do a better job. Then there was another long hike to the gate where I had to wait two more hours for the flight. I was glad there was a Starbucks automatic kiosk so I could get a mocha because I was hungry. The flight to JFK was uneventful. At least the food was decent this time. I couldn't sleep so I read for almost the entire seven hours of the flight. Once in JFK, we had to retrieve our bags and go through customs. My Global Entry card paid off--I got to join the fast line and was through quickly, rechecked the bag, and then waited another three hours. I ended up at a bar having a beer and listening to a couple flirting loudly. When they left the guy next to me struck up a conversation and we ended up chatting about our kids and his wife's upcoming culinary school course in Barcelona. He picked up my tab--what a nice thing to do! More waiting. The flight was full and I had watched all the movies so I finished my book, and found myself still unable to sleep but nodding off and waking up over and over. I'm so grateful that my brother-in-law came to pick me up so I didn't have to take BART back from SFO. The whole trip took over 24 hours and involved too much anxiety about lines and checkpoints, but the alternative would have been not having enough time between stages and being freaked out about missing a connection. I won't say it wasn't worth it but it was so much more taxing than any previous trip I've ever made, more than the one on the way over. I really felt my age. I'm glad I went, but it was hard. There's another family wedding in the fall--I wonder how far along Spain will be with their vaccination efforts by then? It was interesting getting the news from Europe. We really are so fortunate that the Biden administration got vaccination efforts on track because it makes such a huge difference to feel safer.
The wedding was wonderful. Being with my family was wonderful. I experienced so many memories of my previous times in Zaragoza over the years. I was able to see my daughter's grandparents one more time before I left. They are frail. He is hardly able to see or walk, and his mind wanders, but he was lucid and recognized me and he loves seeing his granddaughter. She is much diminished but still sharp. It is really hard for her to take care of him, but there are social workers who come to visit on weekdays to help take him out in his wheelchair or help with the grocery shopping, and Blas goes to see them every day. I hope the situation here at home evolves in a more positive way. I'm not looking forward to trying to deal with it in the coming weeks.
I am going to Spain for two weeks for a family visit. The last time I was there was in 2015 --parece mentira. Spain has just opened up for tourism from the US for people with vaccinations. There's conflicting information out there about the requirements for entry. Up until June 7, US citizens were barred, and you could only enter with a negative Covid test taken within 72 hours of departure. Now, supposedly, we can enter if we have proof of vaccination. But the flimsy little CDC card I have does not state in print the country of vaccination, so I've been flailing around, trying to find a site I could reach without a car that would give me test results within that period, but every place I found said it would send the test out to a lab and results would not be available for days. Finally, I found a site at SFO which will give the rapid test for a hefty fee. I also found a statement on the Delta Airlines site, (only available through the app I downloaded because Delta's web site is the absolute worst) that said it was a negative test OR proof of vaccination. That syncs up with what I understood from the Spanish Health department site. But I don't want to show up to JFK and be refused boarding by some random gate agent who is confused about the requirement, so I'm going to pay the fee and get the test. Anyway. I used my frequent flyer miles to get a discount on my airfare, and that about covers the cost of the Covid test. I'll have to go to the airport to get the test the day before, on BART, and then I'll go to my sister's place in Daly City because my flight leaves at the crack of dawn the next day, and it's a lot easier to get to the airport from her place than from mine. If all goes well, I'll have the test results as well as the document the Spanish government is requiring. I'm trying really hard not to stress about all the ways this can go wrong. It's going to be a long trip since I'll essentially have to start the day before.
We were supposed to go to France and Spain last May and we all know how that worked out. I am sitting on a coupon for a flight with United and another one with Alaska Airlines from trips I had to cancel last year. When the government gave us all Covid money, I broke even on the airfare expenditures. For this flight, I was not able to use those coupons because I'm flying Delta in order to get on the same flight as my daughter and her dad. We'll convene at the boarding area of JFK and arrive in Madrid the next morning. From there, we have train tickets to Zaragoza. I haven't been to Spain for years now, and my daughter's grandparents are getting very frail. This will probably be the last time I'll get to see them so I really want to go. Her cousin is getting married and I want to be there. Things in Spain are still semi-locked down, so I understand that this trip will not involve any tourism, just hanging out with family, but that is fine with me.
Yesterday we drove from Zaragoza to the village (Portalrubio, in this case: Spaniards say "the village" the way Minnesotans say "the lake" or "the cabin").
The weather was unexpectedly warm, warm enough to pull a table outside and eat in the winter sun. Black and green olives, cheese, bread, morcilla, fuet, omelettes (one with tuna and one with perejil from the garden). We strolled around the village admiring the various reconstruction projects. There was plenty of water at la fuente, the miracle of water bubbling up from an aquifer in spite of the lack of snow and rain over the last few decades; Rosemary's grandfather talks about how there used to be abundant snow every year and now it hardly snows at all, the knife edge of climate change.
On the way back home, we meandered along a back round through neighboring villages: Pancrudo, Cervera del Rincón,
We saw buitres leonados (Griffon vultures, or gyps fulvus), riding the thermal currents in a gorge where we were walking. There were maybe 15 or so, sailing, circling. Their wingspan (envergadura) can reach 2 meters. This endangered species is making a modest comeback.
We also say two groups of cabras montañesas or (capra pyrenaica, also called cabra montés, cabra hispánica or íbice ibérico) from the road. It was so unexpected to see them because they are almost invisible against the landscape, their coloring so like the rocky mountainside.
We didn't get as close as in this video, but we really enjoyed how they stared back at us before moving on:
Spain is grateful for the distraction from its economic woes and the wildfires raging near Valencia: the national team has won the UEFA Championship--the Eurocopa--for the second time in a row. With the World Cup, this makes three major championships in a row. The level of play in the final, against an Italian team that had also performed brilliansly, left no doubts as to the team's ability to integrate the individual skills of its players into a apectacular team effort. Yes, they have one of the best keepers in the world, yes, they have gifted strikers, but the ticking heart of the team is the unselfish, amazing work of Xavi, Iniesta, Fábregas-who control the ball.
the humble, the amazing, always at the heart of the team, Andrés Iniesta. He and Xavi are amazing together, and Cesc Fábregas will be returning to play on a Spanish team.
mad skills, yo! gotta ignore the crappy music that seems to be rule for these tribute videos.
The players' kids on the field after the game were ADORABLE!
And, once the hard work and focused, disciplined team play was over, we had a repeat of the triumphant bus tour of Madrid, culminating in that beloved tradition, the "megabotellón" in Cibeles, complete with jokes, singing, and lots of noise.
"el show de Pepe Reina" blew up Twitter (el megabotellón de Cibeles). His presentations of the players in order of their numbers are drunkenly hilarious and absolutely loved by the crowds.
Inside the first ring of fortifications you can see the walls of the second ring.
It's hard to realize just how far you can see in all four directions from this photo, but if you click on it to enlarge it, you can see that these rounded outcroppings are actually very tall rock formations rising from a deep valley below.
The red sandstone is covered with a soft green lichen.
This is the entry into the next level of fortifications, overlooking the valley. The wind was so strong, I was mildly terrified the whole time.
Between the villages of Villarquemado and Cella is an area that was a shallow lake until it was drained 300 years ago, for agriculture. A geologist, working with the mayors of the two towns, managed to get community support for a project to return some of this land to its natural state, despite the fears of some farmers. As of last year, the Laguna de Cañizar is now once again a "humedal" or marshy fresh-water lake. Thousands of cranes have arrived to overwinter, and dozens of other species of wildlife have returned or become more visible, including wading birds, ducks, swallows, raptors, frogs and toads, snakes, fish, otters, badgers, and other creatures. Because the canes can grow so quickly, an experiment with a few water buffalo is being conducted to see if they do well through the winter, and if their grazing will help keep the growth under control.
We had a wonderful walk, windy and cold, but with gorgeous clouds. Our lunch in Villarquemado was excellent. We went on to other adventures (a castle!) later in the day, but that's for another post.
This place is a birder's paradise. The most impressive sight for us were the clouds of cranes. My photos hardly give an idea of how many there were, or how loud they were!
Here's one TV clip that shows the water buffalo (which we didn't see) and some of the many bird species that have returned to the area.
This video gives more of an idea of the cranes we saw.
The death of Federico García Lorca was 75 years ago, on August 19. I met him first not as poet but as a musician.
Federico García Lorca did the musical arrangements to a series of popular songs. There is a recording in which he plays the piano with a singer called La Argentinita. But my earliest contact with Lorca, before I read his poetry and plays in high school, was through a record my mother had, of Victoria de los Angeles singing Spanish songs. Among them were these four:
-Anda jaleo.
-Los cuatro muleros.
-Las tres hojas.
Los mozos de moleón.
Victoria de los Angeles, soprano. Miguel Zanetti, piano. Many others have sung these songs, some of them arguably with better technique, but Victoria de los Angeles will always be the voice of the first words in Spanish I think of the first Spanish words I ever heard.
My daughter has now been to Mallorca two times. That is two times more than I have. *Sigh* She is there with her dads, and I hope they are able to get out of Palma to see something of the natural part of the island. Since I am stuck here in snowy Minneapolis, I must travel via YouTube! This BBC program on Mallorca is quite lovely. "El buitre negro" (the black vulture) has been an the brink of extinction, but people have been trying to keep their population going.
I'm collecting songs and videos about social media in Spanish. Here are a few songs that have become mega-hits in the Spanish-speaking world.
"No te metas a mi Facebook," por Esteman (Colombia) is that great combination of catchy and annoying that makes a summer hit:
"Que te borro del feisbuh" (viral hit in Spain)
Love song, SMS style by David Guapo, "Amor actualizado"
Not a song, but and ad for a book about Facebook (called FaceBOOM) in Argentina:
Another video where the online is made literal IRL is an episode about Facebook from a series that started out online and then got picked up by TV in Spain "Que vida más triste" (QVMT). Great for learning colloquial Spanish!
Flank steak was on sale at Lund's, so this is the first dish I have prepared with it. I marinated the meat in juice of an orange (didn't have lime), soy, ginger, garlic, salt, pepper. I left out the sugar because the orange is sweeter anyway. Instead of broiling it, I cut the piece of meat in half, and layered it with thinly sliced sweet onion in the slow cooker. I let it braise with the marinade until it was falling apart. I love it when onions are braised and soak up all the flavors. I ate it with moong dal.
Bittman also was part of the series "On The Road Again" with Mario Batalli, Claudia Bassols, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Food tourism in Spain sounds great after another snowy, slushy, gray January day.
Blas sent us these pictures from the village where he was with his parents. A wild mountain goat--I've never seen one! The blackberries were plentiful this year, and there are also some plums.
My daughter's father is Spanish, but he does not follow football or enjoy football culture in Spain, probably for the same reason that I don't follow major league sports in this country very closely although I love athletic competitions: corrupted by money, hyper-masculinity of an unpleasant variety, homophobia, etc. But in this World Cup, I have been rooting for Spain to advance to the semi-finals because I actually know something about the players and the team from having spent time in Spain every year for the last fifteen years. If you read the papers or watch TV, even just the comedy shows, you can't help but learn about the club rivalries, the names and personalities of the players (and their nicknames), their girlfriends, the coaches, how the national side have never advanced past the quarter-finals before, bla bla bla. So even though for professional reasons I root for all the Latin American teams, and for admiration of their play I enjoy watching the Dutch and the Germans (two of the best matches I have seen have been theirs, and their handsome coach Joachim Loew has not been allowed to clean his "lucky blue sweater"!), I have to root for La furia roja to go to the final round.
Yesterday I attended a workshop with colleagues and students about the exhumations of mass graves in Spain that are going on now, uncovering the bones of those killed during the Civil War and also in the years after by the Franco regime, or the "nationalists." I learned from the reading we did for this workshop that the fascists had already performed their exhumations and reburials; this is not the first time that bodies have been dug up from mass graves, but previously it had only been those of nationalists killed by republicans during the war. Now, it is the victims of state-sanctioned violence who are being brought to collective sight and whose stories are being told in public after being kept secret or only whispered for decades. This is a national scenario of story-telling and performance of collective memory.
"This Colloquium Series and International Conference will explore the role that the recent exhumations of mass graves from the Spanish Civil War and subsequent dictatorship have had in the emergence of the movement for the “recovery of historical memory” in Spain. At the beginning of the 21st century, over 30,000 bodies were still interred in mass graves throughout the country. Subsequently, the emergence of civic associations, created by ordinary citizens to undertake exhumations of these graves, has had an enormous impact on Spanish society. In part, the media impact of the exhumations has led to pressure to pass the “Law of Historical Memory” by the Spanish Congress in October 2007, a significant, if insufficient, step towards confronting the legacy of the war and dictatorship in contemporary Spanish society. We will analyze the multiple and complex relations between bodies and knowledge that arise in such exhumations and discuss their political, social, cultural and legal significance, in Spain and in other post-authoritarian or post-conflict settings."
The article we read, but didn't really have time to discuss at length, was "Cries and Whispers: Exhuming and Narrating Defeat in Spain Today" by Francisco Ferrándiz. First, though, we talked to each other about the history and context of these events because many of those gathered are scholars of other national contexts. Some were people born elsewhere who have been living here for many years, but have personal connections to traumatic collective histories: in Chile, Germany, the former Yugoslavia.
"With the assistance of these human rights organizations, since the summer of 2007 several teams of graduate students have been recording audiovisual testimonies of militants, witnesses, and victims of the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist repression."
The UCSD site exists in English and Spanish, so it's a good place to go for background. The Spanish transition to democracy after Franco's death was relatively peaceful, but one of the costs was a collective silence about what the legacy of the dictatorship. It's important to remember the difficult and painful process of creating the pacts, legal and social, that have made possible the emergence of a democratic civil society in the last thirty years, however critical of that process one might be.
After much negotiation, a law was approved a few years ago that makes possible a series of actions that allow engagement with the past: reparations or pensions for Republican soldiers, removal of at least some public monuments to fascism, and the exhumations of graves. The official site for the "Ley de la memoria histórica" explains the parts of the law. Non-governmental groups, such as the Asociación para la recuperación de la memoria histórica" have played a major role in bringing about these actions.
One of the questions that was asked at our meeting by a colleague from Spain: "what does it mean to the children of those who lived through the Civil War to confront this past and ask themselves if their parents were involved in the repression, if they were members of the Falange?" The exhumations are focusing attention now on the families of victims, but no family in Spain is untouched by these stories. Stories and speculation surround the fate of one of the most famous of these victims, whose body does not lie alone but with others murdered with him: this week begins the exhumation of the possible grave site of that of poet Federico García Lorca, and , in a story has even made The New Yorker. Author Jon Lee Anderson writes,
"In a recent story I wrote about the drama, the late poet’s niece, Laura Garcia Lorca (who is also the director of the Federico Garcia Lorca Foundation, which exercises control over the poet’s literary estate), told me that she and her relatives didn’t want Lorca’s body moved because they feared his exhumation would become an unseemly spectacle, “a circus.” Laura shuddered as she conjured up the image of Lorca’s bones being exhibited on YouTube."
It's not just the dead whose memories were stolen; it was also the living. You MUST read this post by entrenomadas about "los niños robados durante el franquismo" [children stolen during Franco's regime].
It´s summer, and time for the fiestas en los pueblos de Espana! But what will be this year´s hit song, that will get all the kids up and dancing in every village? This year´s song may actually be a case of musical recycling, a mash-up of flamenco pop and Beyonce´s "Single Ladies" known as "Paco Paco Paco."
¿El fenómeno que arrasó en España y que igual se convierte en la canción más bailada de las fiestas de verano es la remezcla del baile de Beyonce con una canción de "flamenco pop" de Encarnita Polo, de hace 30 años
Como dijo alguien en los comentarios al videoclip: "Ahora todo el mundo se sube al carro del paco paco jaja. Lo k hace la crisis, madre mia k mal vamos a acabar jaja."
Last week, Jean-Marc Genereaux, that savvy showman, choreographed a paso doble for Jason and Caitlin that was... a hot mess. Sorry, but I hated it. The costumes have been compared elsewhere to Disney's Aladdin (or I Dream of Genie meets Princess Leia) while the music (the same overblown music from Carmina Burana that Brandon used for his audition) was a crime against the paso doble because it simply was not the right rhythm. The poor dancers were told that they were supposed to hate each other and were given a lot of stomping and flailing to do, but whatever tenuous grasp of the character of the dance the non-ballroom public might have picked up over the last few years of watching SYTYCD (or even DWTS) was stamped out. I got so annoyed I couldn't enjoy a thing about it, even how ridiculous it was. I don't expect dance purity from SYTYCD, or even an attempt to educate us about the origins of various dances. But if they weren't going to even gesture toward the Spanish popular origins of the pasodoble at least they could respect more stylized conventions the ballroom paso! The dancers can't be faulted for their performance; Jean-Marc is a generally a crowd pleaser, but in this case I think he went too far trying to sell a spectacle to a non-ballroom audience instead helping his dancers understand something about the character of the dance that would make their posture, arm gestures, head position, promenades, poses convey something about the paso doble and look like something better than a kind of pompous hustle. I think that's why they ended up in the bottom 3 last week.
So, to rinse out my brain, I went looking for some REAL pasodoble, both Spanish and ballroom. Disclaimer: I'm not an expert, but enjoy dancing ballroom as an amateur, and I have spent a lot of time in Spain in the last fifteen years because my daughter's dad is Spanish. I thought I'd share some of my ideas about the paso doble, not as prescriptions for the show, but just to take us beyond what the show is able to show us about the dance.
Start with the rhythm. This 1902 composition "Suspiros de España" (presented on Spanish TV with reverence by opera tenor Plácido Domingo) is a Spanish example of the song genre called the pasodoble, Listen to the rhythm: this is the essence of the pasodoble whose very name tells us what is basic to this genre of music; translated as "two step" or "double step", the music that gives origin to the dance has the 1-2 1-2 rhythm of a quick march, but it's not a stomp stomp stomp.
The singer here, Rosa, doesn't camp it up like some of the copla singers of the past (Isabel Pantoja , Rocio Jurado are wonderful examples of great popular singers of the pasodoble) but gives it to us simply and from the heart. Spaniards are incredibly fond of this kind of song and see it as a part of their cultural heritage. This particular song is so iconic in Spain that it has been used in the soundtrack of two films about the Spanish Civil War to convey something about the conflict: in Soldados de Salamancathe song was reinterpreted in a slowed-down style that brings out the North African/gypsy elements of Spanish heritage, while in Ay! Carmela, Carmen Maura sings it when forced to perform for the Germans and Italians who were the allies of Franco. In both cases, the words and rhythm of this pasodoble are supposed to communicate something important about what it means to be Spanish, however complicated that might turn out to be.
The pasodoble is also a rhythm associated with the promenatde of the bullfighters, the entrance of toreros, because it's often played by brass bands (its probable origin in the 19th century is as a military march, later played by bands for popular entertaiment). This march was made internationally famous by Bizet in his opera Carmen, and even today famous pasodoble songs are performed on TV by some of the most iconic diva singers of Spanish pop culture. The social dance called the pasodoble (which, of course, looks almost nothing like they highly stylized and athletic dance of International Dancesport competitive ballroom dance) is danced socially in Spain (and in some other countries like Colombia) at events like weddings where families get together. I have dance the pasodoble at weddings in Spain--it's a hoot.
What is the "character of the dance?" In this clip from Carlos Saura's film of García Lorca's play Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding), you can see the wedding band playing (and singing) a pasodoble as the wedding party poses for a photo, drinks a toast and begins the first dance. The bride (the splendid Cristina Hoyos) dances first with her groom, but then with the man she really loves (Antonio Gades, he of the wolfish eyes). The entire film tells the story using flamenco-based dance, but what I love about this scene is that is conveys the intensity that ballroom paso doble wants to convey, but using entirely Spanish cultural, musical and dance idioms.
The character of the dance is not just its basic rhythm, but also the posture, the gestures, the emotions: here the love that is a mix of lust and resentment, the danger of dancing with a former lover at your own wedding in front of everyone, the pride of both the man and the woman, is not just danced by the couple but by the entire group.
To convey the character of the dance, the choreography and performance of woman's part in the pasodoble should give us the FEELING of Lola Flores singing "Pena penita pena."
When ballroom instructors who don't know much about Spanish culture try to explain to students what the paso should look like they often fall back on the analogy of the bullfighter: the man is the bullfighter the woman is the cape (NOT the bull, please!) but what does that really mean? Here's an example of the movement of a bullfighter who is a master of the cape, the current idol of Spain's bullfight aficionados, Morantes de la Puebla (WARNING: don't watch this if you will feel sorry for the bull!). Look at his posture, the quality of his movements, the incredible stylization of this bloody ritual that survives in spite of the protests of those against animal cruelty because of its amazing artistry and danger.
This of the best ballroom paso doble as an extremely stylized set of moves, always set to a few basic Spanish paso doble songs. Although it no longer has much direct connection to its Spanish roots, it is almost always danced in competition to the pasodoble song "España Cani" (aka the "bullfight song") which preserve the musical rhythm of the popular genre, and attempts to capture some of the spirit of the Spanish attitude and movements that come from the bullfight, flamenco, and Spanish popular culturel. Here's a fairly straightforward example, danced as a showcase by international champions Michael Malitowski and Joanne Leunis:
Our SYTYCD dancers aren't going to be able to do this, but the judges need to have a talk with Jean-Marc. crossposted at SYTYCD 5 Social
Growing up in San Francisco, we sometimes ate in family-style Basque restaurants. I later learned that Basques had immigrated to California and the West to work as shepherds, but didn't know much about this history of three generations. As it turns out, now Basques in California own the herds, and immigrants from other countries such as Chile or Mongolia are hired to do to do this hard, lonely work (see these pictures in a BBC feature). Since 2001, laws have been put in place to ensure minimum pay and better living conditions, and herding sheep continues to compete with other land uses for water and resources. A little know chapter of this history is that a smaller number of immigrants from the Pyrenees came from Alto Aragón, the villages of the northern mountains of Aragón, between the '30s and the '70s. Like the Basque-speaking immigrants from Spain, they too settled in the United States. Carlos Tarazona has filmed a documentary called "Borreguerros" in which 18 of them (including a man who has just turned 100!) tell their stories. The film will premier in Ansó, one of the towns from which they came, according to this story in El Heraldo de Aragón. Here's a clip (h/t Purnas) In the category of "I did not know that" also falls the fact that the breed of dog known as the Australian shepherd is actually a dog bred by Basque shepherds in U.S. that then was brought to Australia.
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