« February 2006 | Main | April 2006 »
March 27, 2006
Flamenco and Peña Camarón de la Isla
On Saturday a week ago, my language class teacher invited us to go with her to the town of San Fernando to hear her mother sing flamenco. Most everyone in the class was interested, and we traveled the 15-minute bus-ride together at around 9:00 in the evening. It was a surprise to find out how big of a deal this event was.
Flamenco music found its beginning here in Andalucía and has been developed and spread nationally and even internationally. San Fernando has a special claim to modern flamenco music, being the city of the late Camarón de la Isla. Camarón, whose real name was José Monje Cruz, gained his nickname because of his light skin and his town, which used to be called Isla de León. He played guitar for years, and when he began to sing flamenco in the 1980s, he incorporated accompaniment in addition to the guitar and popular rhythms with his songs. At first he was looked down on by the traditional flamenco world, while young people were gaining interest in flamenco. In time more and more people began to honor his work, and when he died in 1992 the flamenco club Peña Camarón de Isla was founded.
When we arrived at the peña, we learned that entrance is free, but somewhat by invitation, so we were honored to be attending. We found a table towards the end of the main hall and ordered local drinks and tapas of cheese and fish. The walls were covered with memorabilia, paintings and pictures of Camarón. The first song began only at around 11:30, and afterwards, we had another surprise. Since the following day was José's saint's day, the peña celebrates annually by recognizing a few of their regular performers. Our teacher's mother was one of the recipients, and they let her and the two other recipients sign their book of honor. A journalist and photographer from local newspaper were there to document the event as well.
After the prizes, each of the three recipients preformed two selections. The singing is passionate, and to the foreigner's ear sounds almost more like hollering than singing, but the music is actually full of fairly complicated rhythms and melodies that the singer modifies throughout his or her performance. Locals and people who understand the art of flamenco singing can distinguish between the ordinary and the exceptional. I enjoyed watching the skills of the guitarists.
We actually left before the end, which carried on until around 3:00 a.m. I believe. Our teacher told us that this is where the roots of flamenco performance are. They aren't shows as fine-tuned as what you would see in the Cádiz Theater, but this is what real flamenco looks like. It was a real privelege to be able to be there for the event and experience flamenco in its hometown.
Posted by Derrick at 01:36 PM | Comments (1)
March 26, 2006
Cultural and religious diversity
When I left the US, I was aware of how Spain sits between a number of different worlds: Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas. While I hoped I would be able to learn about these other regions from the perspective of another country, I didn't know what I could really expect.
In Ceuta we had the opportunity to begin seeing something of Spanish history and culture, but I was especially intrigued with what I was learning about countries in West Africa. Mostly through the encounters with Sub-Saharan Africans I began to gain some basic understanding of West African geography, culture and current history. Since then, my contacts with people from outside of Spain have continued to be a surprisingly significant part of my time.
I had a wonderful visit during the last week of February with my former Bolivian host brothers who are currently living and working in Barcelona. I traveled in train across the country where I met them and one other Bolivian family with whom they now share an apartment. It was great to catch up with them and refreshing to be around a more familiar Spanish accent and culture. As far as studying immigration in Spain, it was also really interesting to see first hand some of the issues that immigrants face. The issues are often similar in the US: dealing with unfair employers, difficulty achieving residency or other political support, difficulty fitting in with the local community, and so on.
Here at the Cádiz University are a few hundred students who participate in Socrates-Erasmus program. The program, usually just called Erasmus, facilitates study abroad for students within the European Union. My course in grammar and language is made up of only 8 students, who come from France, Germany, Sweden, England, Czech Republic, Poland, and I’m from the U.S. In addition, I’ve had conversations with students from Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Norway, and Finland. I hope to keep learning more about world history and cultures as my time here continues.
A comment on religious diversity as well. In Ceuta and in my single trip into Morocco, I experienced more directly the worlds of Catholicism and Islam. In Andalucía, Islam and Judiasm both play an important historical roles too. In our visit to Córdoba, we toured the old Jewish quarter, which sits beside the famous Mesquita Catedral. This mosque began construction in 756, building on top of the site of a Christian basilica. Throughout the next centuries, the mosque was enlarged four more times, to support the growing city and to demonstrate the political power. When the city fell to the Christians, they chose not to destroy the great building, but instead to change the minaret into a bell tower, and build their cathedral in the middle of the mosque. The project finished in the early 1600's, bringing to an end a millenium of construction.
However, today Catholicism and secularized culture are the two relgious forces in Spain. I read a quote from a Spanish philosopher who said, “Here in Spain, we’re all Catholics, even the atheists.” From my experience, that saying does well in capturing the religious aspect of the culture. I saw part of the Carnaval celebrations (something like Mardi Gras) and the Ash Wednesday procession, and next month I will be especially interested in the events of the Holy Week before Easter, the Semana Santa.
Posted by Derrick at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2006
Granollers and Barcelona
On Januray 22, I took a 10 hour train ride across the country to the city of Barcelona. My two host brothers from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Marcos and Miguel, have been living and working there for a number of months, and I thought it would be a good time to visit and catch up with them.
I met Marcos and his future brother-in-law Orlando at the central train station, and we rode together from there around 40 minutes to their town of Granollers. On the train we began to share our stories from the last year and half since we’ve last seen each other. In short, the relationship that he was in while I was in Bolivia ended not too long after I left, and he became interested in Silvia, from Montero, who had lived in their house at one point to study in the city of Santa Cruz. Her brother Orlando, his wife Cilena and children Jonathan, 12, and Jennifer 10, had been living in Granollers for around a year and Marcos and Silvia decided they should take advantage of that connection to travel to Spain. Orlando and Cilena’s goal in Spain is to earn money within a number of years to return and buy a house in Santa Cruz. Similarly, Marcos and Silvia would like to save money for a house in Bolivia, but Marcos also has interest in taking some courses in video production to continue in the work he had been doing before leaving the country.
Silvia left last fall, and in order to do some “tourism,” her brother’s family sent her to the Spanish Mediterranean island of Mallorca, where she spent a week for 300 euros. Marcos came a month or so later, also as a tourist, and within a few months, his brother Miguel followed. Silvia and Cilena have been working with cleaning homes, Marcos and Orlando work construction and Miguel works in a furniture factory. Each have their stories of trying to settle in, finding places to stay and jobs with decent employers and fair pay. When I arrived, Marcos, Silvia, and Miguel were living in an apartment around the block, but they moved in with Orlando’s family at the end of February to keep costs lower.
I stayed in Orlando’s family’s place for the week, and really enjoyed getting to know another Bolivian family. Even in Spain, they showed me that the cruceño motto still applies: Es ley del Cruceño la hospitalidad, The Cruceño’s rule is hospitality. It was refreshing to hear an accent I understood, eat cultural foods I recognized, be with two familiar faces and others who seem like they easily could be old friends too.
My first evening Marcos took me down the street to the locutorio where he makes his calls to his parents for 15 cents a minute. Walking into the store, one recognizes immediately that the neighborhood is full of immigrants. There were half a dozen African faces playing checkers and listening to Bob Marley, and signs all over the wall about phone call and money transfer rates to Latin American and African countries. It was wonderful to make the call to Santa Cruz and hear the voices of Don Tito and Yolanda on the other side. They were really glad to catch up too and also glad to hear from someone they trust that their sons are alright and have enough to eat.
During the days while the others were at work and the children in school, I went into Barcelona by train to visit the downtown and the sites. They say Barcelona is maybe the most southern European city, with lots of similarities with Paris. As the capital of the Catalonia region, the Catalán language symbols represent pride in their nation are ever present. The Catalan nation still is in conversation with Spain, desiring to be an independent state, but it doesn’t appear like that would happen anytime soon.
Barcelona is a tourist city, a port city, an Olympic city. One of its special features is its arts, especially Antoni Gaudí’s famous buildings, including the Sagrada Familia cathedral still under construction. There are museums celebrating the works of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and the National Museum of Art. Around the National Museum of Art is the Fira de Barcelona which holds significant international conferences regularly. On my last day in the city, the Fira’s staff was in gear putting up tents, building temporary display buildings, hanging signs and so on for the Alimentaria conference on foods. They said it should bring in around 150,000 professionals, of which maybe 90,000 are internationals.
While the Barri Gotic has lots of history, and the Rambla has interesting shops, I found the park Montjuïc to be the most enjoyable part of Barcelona. The park sits on a hill in the southeastern part of the city and hosts the primary Olympic buildings and several public gardens. At the top of the mount sits an old castile with a beautiful view of the port, the city, and the surrounding mountains.
In the evenings I would return to Granollers and relax with my friends. On Saturday and Sunday, I helped some as we moved Marcos and Silvia’s things over to Orlando’s apartment. Monday was a day off from school celebrating Carnaval, so I spent some time with the Jonathan and Jennifer. They favorite thing by far is playing video games, and I couldn’t count how many laps our four wheelers made that day.
When I said my goodbyes on Wednesday morning, we all said that the next time we would meet would be in a few years in Bolivia once again. I boarded my train at 11:30 and spent the rest of the day traveling to Cádiz.
Posted by Derrick at 06:02 PM | Comments (1)