El Camino del Rey

Spain has many famous hiking trails and pathways. In the Picos de Europa is the famous Ruta del Cares which is a path the traverses a ravine that unites León with Asturias. There is also the Senda del Oso, also in Asturias, which winds through the mountains of Asturias along what was once a railway used by miners. Of course, the granddaddy of all is the Camino de Santiago. But there is a little known hike that is very different from the all the rest (and it's not only for its short length of not quite two miles) due to its decrepit state and the fact that it is illegal to hike it. Dangerous in Spanish is peligroso and this trail is about as dangerous as anything can get. In fact, if the police catch you on this trail you risk paying a fine of up to €6000 ($7760 US Dollars). The trail I'm referring to is the Camino del Rey (or The King's Way) located on the Costa del Sol right outside of the cosmopolitan city of Málaga in southern Spain. Fortunately paying a fine or paying with your life will soon be a thing of the past since the local government is in the process of reopening the trail for public use.

The Caminito del Rey was constructed in 1905 as part of the construction of the two hydroelectric plants that were constructed close by in a localidad called El Chorro. The path was used by workers to walk between the two plants as well as inspect the channel that unites the two. The name of this path got its name when, in 1921, King Alfonso XIII walked along the path during the inauguration of the Conde de Guadalhorce dam. Much of this 3 foot wide trail hangs almost 330 feet over the water—much of it in a state beyond disrepair. Even when it was in perfect condition this path must have sent shivers down King Alfonso's back, but today it is so deteriorated that there are some parts of the path where only the iron supports remain.   

Today, many people clandestinely walk the route, but with very serious precautions taken--since this has become an underground sensation climbers have placed guide wires along the route for hikers to use. The normal equipment necessary up to now for walking the caminito has been a helmet, harness and a kit via ferrata. Without these precautions, walking this path is an almost suicidal act. After accidents in 1999 and 2000 left four people dead, the local government clamped down on unauthorized hikers and demolished the accesses at each end of the pathway to hinder access to hikers. Of course, this has only led to more interest and mystery to this hike and people have not been deterred from taking on this mental and physical challenge.

Fortunately today the governments of Andalusia and Malaga decided in 2006 to restore the pathway. Today, the pathway is 70% completed and is ahead of schedule. In fact, they are starting to talk about a January opening instead of the scheduled opening in summer. Much of the rehabilitation work has been done by climbers, hikers and people from the world of caving who have been hanging from the walls of the ravine to recuperate this amazing pathway. The path that will greet visitors in 2015 will be wood planked (instead of concrete slabs) and in some parts glass floors will be used to permit hikers to appreciate the entire view.

Almost 100 years ago King Felipe VI's great-grandfather traversed this amazing path and the hope is that next year Felipe will follow in his great-grandfather's footsteps and re-inaugurate the Caminito del Rey. 

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Charlie Chaplin once called him the "funniest man alive" and many in the Spanish-speaking world would agree. Chaplin was referring to Mario Fortino Alfonso Moreno Reyes, better known as Cantinflas. Cantinflas was born in the Santa Maria la Ribera neighborhood of Mexico City, which today is located in the heart of the downtown, just a few blocks from the landmark Paseo de la Reforma. However, Cantinflas wasn't raised here, instead he grew up in the what continues to be the rough neighborhood of Tepito. Growing up in Tepito has never been easy, in fact the neighborhood from Luis Buñuel's masterpiece Los Olvidados could easily be Cantinflas' Tepito of the 1920's.  Overcoming this environment, Cantinflas would become the most important comedian in Mexico during the 20^th century, although this would come at price. Considered by some to be a puppet of the ruling PRI Party while others saw him as a danger to the status quo. What is not argued was his work as a philanthropist, a fervent Catholic and an artistic innovator recognized by his peers and audiences around  the world.

You can see Cantinflas movies quite often on local television in the US thanks to the wide viewership of Mexican and Latin American immigrants in the United States. But at the end of August there premiered a new movie that takes another look at this prominent Mexican. The movie Cantinflas looks at Mario Moreno, the man, stepping out of the shadow of his alter ego—something we find that wasn't easy for him to do. This movie has also been selected by Mexico to represent the country in The Best Foreign Film category of the Academy Awards.  In the Cantinflas movie , we get to see two stories—one is the life and rise of Moreno and the other centers on the partnership Moreno had with producer Mike Todd. This relationship is key since Todd and Moreno teamed up together to make Around the World in 80 Days, a movie in which Moreno would win the Golden Globe for Best Actor. Although the movie looks at Moreno's life, it doesn’t show so many events and details that made Moreno/Cantinflas who he was. That would be impossible for any 2 hour movie, but I would like to point some things out that can help you understand this person a little bit better.

When Moreno was growing up he decided to abandon Mexico and look for other opporutnies elsewhere and far away from Tepito like so many other fellow Mexicans. Unfortunately for him (at the time), he didn't make it across and in an attempt to make some kind of living he began working wherever he could. Among some of the jobs he had in the 1920's were as a boxer, mailman, taxi driver and even a bullfighter! At the end of the decade, he would enlist in the army and become a soldier. Mario would have enjoyed a career in the military if it weren't for his father who pleaded with the army to have his son discharged. His father explained that his son had forged his birth date on the paperwork so that the army believed he was 21 instead of the 16 years he really was.

It is important to remember that while Moreno was growing up Mexico was in the midst of the Mexican Revolution, so now you can understand the preoccupation of Moreno's father. What began in 1910 as an agrarian revolt soon expanded into a popular revolution with conservative forces and loyalist on one side against reformers wanting social and economic reforms. Names like Zapata, Villa, Diaz and Carranza would be key in the outcome. Also, the United States, fearing the growing unrest with its southern neighbor would finally back presidents Obregón and Eías-Calles. Álvaro Obregón and his successor, Plutarco Elías-Calles, began to make broad reforms, even managing to put some limits on the church and wealthy landowners. It had appeared that the revolution was ending and and 20 years of bloodshed would be ending. Unfortunately, ex-president Obregón was assassinated in 1928 and the Cristero war was in full swing. This brief war was a backlash against the anti-Catholic policies that Elías-Calles was rolling out.

During this confusing and unstable time, the theater became a highly manipulated place with the government carefully manipulating the themes and messages going out to the public. While satire was absent from formal stages, it was very much alive in the carpas (tents) or traveling theaters. Here, in the carpas, is where Moreno began his career in show business. The carpas offered entertainment that ranged from puppet theater to political satire and they were a mainstay of middle and lower class Mexico City. For just a little money, people could go in and escape their surroundings by taking in a show of comedic monologues, skits or dances. Singular to this environment was the lack of scripting and the importance of improvisation; also, the need to connect to the audience immediately was vital. Thanks to Moreno's upbringing, his improvisational skills were better than anyone's. In a world of war, political instability, social unrest and inequality, Moreno was able to make magic and make people forget their situation whenever he took the stage.

With his career based on successfully over winning a crowd with very little time and his innate ability to manipulate the language was his key to success. In Spanish, Cantinflas has no meaning and to this day, no one knows how the name was created although there are some theories, but one of these is probably more credible than the others. The character of Cantinflas first appeared in 1929 in a carpa in the town of Cuernavaca about one hour south of Mexico City. The story goes that when Moreno went onstage, he was struck with stage fright. Unable to say his lines he began to speak gibberish, but this was no ordinary gibberish, this was an example of his talent that would prosper on the silver screen. He spoke in such that made no sense yet it was understandable and sublimely funny. Finally, someone yelled to him "Cuánto inflas" which is akin to "you're full of hot air" (inflar is Spanish for inflate).  Realizing that he could contract that expression, Moreno invented the name Cantinflas.

In the 1930's, Moreno met Jacques Gelman, a producer, and the two teamed up to begin making movies. In 1936, Moreno premiered his first movie as Cantinflas in No Te Engañes Corazón. While receiving little attention for his first productions, he finally shot to fame with the movie Ahí está el detalle ("There Lies the Detail"), which would also become his most recognizable line for the rest of his career. While influenced by Chaplin, there is a bit of difference between the two. While The Tramp's dream is to want to move up in the world, Cantinflas was a humble character that strived to remain that way. In one movie, El mago ("The Wizard"), he becomes a sultan in a far off land but takes with him an indigenous woman to make tortillas. This connection to the people of Mexico endeared him to all while at the same time he remained non-threatening to the ruling class PRI governments.

The latter part of Moreno's life is not treated in the movie Cantinflas, yet it is just as dramatic as interesting albeit less "pretty" than his younger years. As time went on Moreno would continue to be a proficient moviemaker but Cantinflas was slowly losing touch with the times. A figure of the 30's and 40's, Cantinflas was a reflection of a Mexico that no longer was. An excellent example of this is his 1973 film Conserje en condominio (The Condominium Doorman). In this movie, an older Cantinflas takes on and defeats hippie neighbors. Cantinflas' struggle in this movie reflected the struggle that was happening within Mexico at this time between the newer and older generations. With Moreno's staunch support for conservative causes and PRI governments he was slowly losing his touch with the common people. Another glaring example of this was the movie he made that resuscitated the beloved figure of the gendarme that ingratiated Cantinflas with so many back in 1941.

Bringing this beloved figure back to the screen would be an epic failure and example of his willingness to "sell out". In 1976 the Cantinflas film El Patrullero 777 (Patrol 777) which ended up being more of propaganda film for his friend and Mexico City Police Chief, Arturo Durazo. In this film, he sugarcoated the actions of the police by taking on drug dealers, rescuing women and, of course, dealing with problematic hippies. What made this movie distasteful for many was that this movie intended to draw attention away from the skyrocketing corruption fueled by Durazo's demands for commissions from his police officers. Not much later, the FBI would arrest Durazo after fleeing Mexico on charges of corruption, extortion and money obtained cocaine trade. Also, during this time a new character emerged in Mexico which better reflected the ideal of the common person that Cantinflas was always known for. 

La India María

 La India María (María the Native) portrayed a poor, uneducated migrant worker who is subjected to racial discrimination, segregation and corruption. Like Cantinflas, La India Maria, solves her problems with the innocence of a rube and a quick mind. Unlike earlier times when the less fortunate still adhered to unwritten dress codes (European style dress), the less fortunate of the 1970s came en masse to Mexico City from the countryside and they had little notion or regard for dress codes from the first half of the 20^th century. Now, these indigenous migrants or Marías (pejoratively speaking) were populating the streets of the large cities wearing their indigenous clothing and challenging the perception of what modern Mexico really is. Using many of the same gags and humor (much like what Moreno did when he left the carpa) as Cantinflas, La India María quickly surpassed Cantinflas as the zeitgeist of contemporary Mexico.

Even though Cantinflas would end up a shadow of his former self, he is still fiercely beloved by virtually all Mexicans. When Cantinflas passed away in 1993 his funeral turned into three days of national mourning and was given a state burial. For all of his contrasts and beliefs, Cantinflas was remained a beloved member of the family throughout his life. What makes Cantinflas so remarkable is that he can different things to different people. For some, his movies are simply wholesome family entertainment. For others, he is a subversive who stands up to inequality and fights classism in way that only Cantinflas could. What is clear is that when Mario Moreno became Cantinflas and he would never be the same again.

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Christopher Columbus arrived to the Americas for the first time on October 12, 1492. The historic event marks an important change in the course of the history of the Western world, as it lead to permanent contact between Europe and the Americas. The day is officially observed in a variety of ways and called a variety of names in much of Latin America, the US and Spain. 

Read this article in Spanish

October 12 in Spain

Spanish law establishes it as the Fiesta Nacional de España, or the national day of Spain, although many Spaniards continue referring to it as Día de la Hispanidad, which was the former name of the Spanish holiday. The law goes on to explain that the day is commemorated because it symbolizes the expansion of Spanish language and culture beyond European borders. Spanish is spoken by 414 million native speakers, of which only 46 million live in Spain.

When the day was first celebrated in Spain in 1914, it was originally called “fiesta de la raza” in the hopes of creating a holiday that would celebrate unity between Spain and Ibero-America. Just a few years later, the Spanish priest Zacarías de Vizcarra proposed replacing the term raza with hispanidad, a new term coined for the occasion.

October 12 in Latin America

October 12 is still known as el Día de la Raza in some Latin American countries including Mexico. Other Latin American countries however, that once commemorated the day as el Día de la Raza have in recent years changed the name to honor diversity or to celebrate indigenous heritage. In Costa Rica, the day is known as the Día de las Culturas (Day of the cultures), in Argentina it’s Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural (Day of respect of cultural diversity), in Venezuala Día de la Resistencia Indígena (Day of Indigenous Resistance), and in Bolivia Día de la Descolonización (Day of decolonization). In Cuba it is not observed as a holiday. 

Many US states also observe October 12 as a holiday, where it is usually referred to as Columbus Day, but not always; attitudes about how the day should be defined are changing there also. The state of South Dakota for example now celebrates Native American Day on the second Monday of October, and the city of Los Angeles has replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.

October 12 - Spanish Language Day

In 2010, the United Nations declared October 12 Spanish Language Day to celebrate cultural diversity and to encourage the “equal use” of all 6 of the UN’s official languages throughout the organization.

October 12 is observed in different ways in the US and around the Spanish speaking world, where it has been redefined throughout history. Today, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world in terms of native speakers and it is spoken as an official or main language in 21 different countries.

WE ARE CELEBRATING THE DIVERSITY OF SPANISH. HAPPY "DÍA DE LA HISPANIDAD"!

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Since Halloween is this week, I thought we could talk about those abandoned cities and towns that give us so much good storytelling material for this time of year. Ghost towns are present all over the world and in just about in every country. In the United States, there are famous places like Centralia, Pennsylvania (the inspiration for the Silent Hill videogame and movie), well preserved Bodie in California and numerous other spots in the west and Great Plains. Abandoned places in the UK are everywhere primarily due to the Black Plague while more recently others were abandoned during WWII like Tyneham and Langford.

In Spain there are also some very noteworthy towns where only some buildings, landmarks or vestiges of dwellings once were. In northern Spain, the County of Treviño forms a part of Castille and León. Due to agreements made in the Middle Ages between rival kings, this county is enveloped by the Basque province of Álava and is not physically connected to Castille and León. Due to the difficult geography of the area—rugged and irregular hills along with difficult farming conditions—Treviño has always been isolated from its neighbors like Álava, Burgos and La Rioja.

The Village of Ochate

However, in an area full of hamlets and half abandoned villages, there is one place that stands out—the village of Ochate. This abandoned village is known to have been inhabited since the Bronze Age thanks to discovery of flint and quartz tools in the fields nearby. There is also proof of Roman occupation since a funeral stele was discovered near a neighboring hermitage. Ochate's location, today remote and more off the beaten path than ever, was once positioned along a very transited road that connected Castille and León to what is known as the Route of Fish and Wine. This route got its name by being an important trade route between the fishing villages along the Bay of Biscay and the fertile fields and wine producing region of La Rioja.

Today, that route is nothing more than a hiking trail and with its decline, the enclave of Treviño also experienced depopulation which has dwindled the county's population down to 1461 inhabitants in 2011; a very small population for an area of 100 sq. miles or an area roughly the size of Sacramento, California. Vacío means empty in Spanish and this lack of populatoin coupled with an eerily remote region and unfriendly landscape combine to make this place very empty indeed and also an ideal location for a ghost town.

Through the middle ages to the 19^th century, Ochate was always a village on the edge; in fact it was previously abandoned at the end of the 13th century only to be revived again in the mid-1500s. Descriptions of the village from the second half of the 19^th century tell of a small and humble village populated with cattle farmers and laborers. The people here lived off of what they raised and they ate principally beef, beans, potatoes and cereals. Curiously, the ingenuity of the villagers for making the best of their situation were able benefit from their harsh  conditions by charging mushroom collectors a fee for foraging around their village. We know this thanks to the preservation of written contracts dating back to the 18^th century.

Why this village started to empty at the end of the 19^th century is still not entirely clear but illness, unfortunate weather and a murder all had a role to play. During this time there was sickness, especially the Spanish flu, which devastated the area and rain and hail that destroyed crops in successive years during the 1920s caused people to go search for a better place to live. In 1930 there remained only two families—one being a family of three and the other a single elderly man. Because a crazy pastor that frequented the village threatened pretty much everyone, the Aránguiz family decided to move to a safer village nearby. The elderly man, Eusebio, wasn't far behind. Their fears were later realized when the crazed shepherd brutally killed a fellow shepherd in one of the abandoned houses of Ochate in 1936.

The stories related to this towns cursed past began to surface in the 1970s and took off with the publication of an article in the magazine Mundo Desconocido, a monthly publication that dealt with the paranormal and extraterrestrial.   Within this article the telling of UFO sightings and persistent paranormal activity was uncovered as well as a telling of biblical plagues that affected this tiny hamlet through the years creating the basis for future misery and strange occurrences.

The story of a missing person from a neighboring village in Ochate in 1973 while on his way to plow his field along with farm animals mysteriously disappearing made the news around this time. Also there have been reports of lights that have been seen originating from the village at night and not just from the village. These lights have been found to originate from stone sarcophagi that are buried in the ground around the village that today lay empty and visible to the intrepid visitor.

Numerous other stories of happenings related to the supernatural have circulated among the curious. Iker Jimenez, the famous Spanish reporter of all things strange wrote:

I have to recognize that, with night having fallen over us, I was shaken to my bones when I heard those recorded voices (from Ochate) from January and June of 1987. The first was the scream of a little girl saying "Pandora!" Or maybe it was the voice that yelled "kampora" which in Basque means get out. This was voice was recorded inside of the bell tower and with total clarity that it was truly chilling. There was another voice recorded in the same place but higher up and has left in the air various questions. This last voice was that of a woman who in a lamentable and hoarse tone said: "Why is the door still open?"

Iker Jimenez,

Enigmas Sin Resolver I, Vol.I

It has been speculated that door refers to a door to other dimensions that the researcher, Alberto Fernandez, was trying to uncover. Unfortunately, and for reasons not explained, this researcher took his life on one of his visits to Ochate. The idea that this village is some kind of portal is also reinforced by the towns own name. In Basque, Otxate means Puerta de Lobos (The Wolves' Door) and Ochate means Puerta de Gog (The Door of Gog), Gog being a biblical figure associated with the powers of evil in the Book of Revelations.

There have been numerous groups of researches coming to Ochate over the last 40 years trying to unravel the mystery surrounding the once humble-turned-cursed village. One thing for sure is that this is a place with many stories to tell all within a region that is only 10 miles from Vitoria, the capital of Spanish Basque country, yet a world away. If you want to visit Ochate, you will need some good walking shoes since this village doesn't have access by road. You can park in the nearby village of Imíruri and walk a little more than a mile to the remains of Ochate. There you will find the remains of the church and the foundations and some remaining walls of what were once the houses and barns of the people that lived here. There is also the remains of a hermitage on a bluff overlooking Ochate that is also worth a visit. But don't forget a flashlight and camera, just in case…

Why don't you tell us about your favorite ghost town?

Alberto Aragunde: Ochate. Un pueblo de leyenda desde el aire.

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Spanish Influence

Spain has a long history of influence in Europe, all we have to do is remember that Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, was also the same Spanish King Carlos I. As ruler of Spain (and its American empire) he was also the ruler of most of central Europe and Italy. Today this influence is still seen in many parts of Europe, in fact there is an annual festival in Brussels called the Ommegang. In the town square, thousands of Brusseleers participate in this parade that recreates the welcoming of Charles V into the city that would be his principal home during his reign. Another part of Europe that pertained to the Spanish crown was Sicily. This Italian island was first part of the Kingdom of Aragón beginning in 1409 and later as part of the Spanish Empire. This territory would remain under Spanish control until 1860 with Garibaldi leading the charge for Italian unification. So after over 400 years of relations, something must have stuck as far as influencing the culture and life, right?

Sicilian is a non-recognized language that is spoken on the island and has been influenced by Aragonese, Catalán (thanks to the influence of the Kingdom of Aragón) and Spanish. The use of giganti, or large oversized figures in folkloric events, is a direct descendant from the same custom found on the Iberian Peninsula where it is known as Gigantes y Cabezudos (Giants and Big heads). Food also shows signs of Spanish influences. The fruit of the cactus known as the prickly pear which was brought over from the Americas is a popular after dinner snack known as fichi d'India (Indian Figs). Sicily also became the center for chocolate production, another import from the Americas, in Italy.

D&G's Spanish Influenced Collection

Another influence has recently been highlighted on the runways of Milan thanks to Italian fashion duo Dolce & Gabbana. Domenico Dolce was born in Polizzi Generosa in the northern part of the Island 60 miles east of Palermo. This past September they presented their spring/summer collection for 2015 and amazed and impressed even the most jaded fashion professional like Ana Wintour—who even cracked a small smile during the show—with an unabashedly Spanish influenced collection.

This collection has shown that traditional Spanish clothing can be easily adapted to the world of haute couture or alta costura in Spanish. Incredibly deep reds, brilliant whites and dark blacks were the colors of the day. Spanish and Sicilian motifs were everywhere in an incredibly show that highlighted the playfulness and irony that are typical D&G characteristics.

It is not unusual for D&G to use their Sicilian roots as inspiration for their fashion collections. For last year's presentation they presented a collection heavily inspired by the Sicilian countryside including Roman temples, typical Sicilian ceramics and plenty of gold. We also shouldn't forget that one of their most popular perfumes is named Sicily.

Not only have they been inspired by Spanish and Roman influences in Sicily, their fashion collections have also revolved around mythological, Byzantine, Norman and Catholic motifs throughout their career. All of this knowledge of the influences and history of Sicily is thanks to their never ending love affair with the island. Even though they live and work in Milan, their spiritual home is on the small island of Stromboli, a small volcanic island off the coast of Sicily. Sicily and Stromboli is where they go to recharge their batteries and get back in touch with reality.

For this Spanish-influenced collection, they have looked specifically at the period of Sicilian history from 1576 to 1713. It should be noted that this period was a time of great wealth and prosperity for Sicily, with wheat and silk exports financing spectacular growth—both economic and social—throughout the island. This time also marked a resurgence of feudalism and population movement from the cities back to the countryside. Towards the end of this period, strong families were taking over the power of the municipalities and later, the Black Death and an earthquake would take their toll on the people.

The spring/summer D&G collection presented in Milan is an incredibly bright and elegant collection that focuses on designs and prints evoking a strong Spanish link. If there was any doubt about the Spanish origins of this collection, the castañuelas hanging from the hair of some of the models should clear up any lingering uncertainty. Not only were there castañuelas; we were able to see white cotton bullfighter shirts combined with red satin bloomers embroidered with typical Spanish patterns and motifs. There were also black matador jackets and famous Sevillana-type polka dot dresses.

Some other interesting touches were shoes with transparent heels that opened up revealing a heart inside. There were also crucifixes, veils and gold embellishments. One of the highlights of the show was when some models paraded down the catwalk carrying transparent boxes with dolls dressed in D&G for an "ironic and funny" touch.

Once more we see how Spain has not only influenced the past but continues to be an important mover of European culture. With Dolce and Gabbana's newest collection we see that Spain has an important in influencing the people that influence culture. We've seen it with literature and film lately and even though Spain has a thriving fashion industry, there are few that speak fashion more than Dolce & Gabbana. Hopefully with this collection people will take another look at Spanish fashion and the people driving that industry from within like Amaya Arzuaga, Maya Hansen and Alvarno to name a few.

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Spanish as a Second Language

British students are increasingly choosing to study Spanish as a second language.

In the last ten years the number of British students choosing Spanish as their second language when taking the General Certificate of Secondary Education exam has risen by 50%.  The vice-president of one UK exam board has attributed the phenomenon to the popularity of Spanish speaking personalities such as FC Barcelona striker Lionel Messi, who is often celebrated as the world’s greatest footballer (soccer player). There has been a clear “Messi effect” she has stated. Another exam board exec has asserted that it was only a matter time “as to when the most popular language taught in the UK is Spanish”.

As of four years ago, more UK students are already opting to take the exam in Spanish than in German, and it is expected to overtake French in the near future also.

Messi, who is from Argentina, won the coveted FIFA Ballon d’Or award an unprecedented 4 years in a row. Just to give you an idea of Messi’s popularity, consider his 50 million Facebook followers. He has also been featured in Time magazine’s top 100 most influential people in the world.

Many observers also attribute the recent success of Spanish in schools to the popularity of vacation destinations; Brits have been flocking to Spain’s Mediterranean coast for years to spend their vacation time there. Others point out that now students have a choice of which language they want to study while in the past French and German were assigned to students. Students with a choice are opting for Spanish, the second most spoken language in the world in terms of native speakers (after Mandarin Chinese).

Britain’s international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities, the British Council, has announced in a report they published last year that Spanish is the most important language for British people to learn, citing indicators such as emerging markets and the value of the language in terms of British business activities.

Messi may be the biggest star of the world’s biggest sport, but he is relatively unknown in the US. According to Forbes magazine, he was known by less than 20% of US consumers in 2012. Although soccer is gaining in popularity in the US, many American football and basketball fans seem to remain quite uninterested in the world’s most popular sport.

Spanish is by far the most studied second language in the US, where over half of all university students studying a foreign language are enrolled in Spanish. It makes sense in a country where 37 million residents 5 years and older speak the language, that’s over 12% of the entire population. In fact it is expected that by the year 2050, the United States will be the country with the largest population of Spanish speakers.

Britannic World Data estimates that by 2030, 7.5% of the world population will speak Spanish, and it comes as no surprise that Spanish study is gaining in popularity around the globe. The Cervantes Institute estimates that some 20 million students study Spanish as a foreign language. Aside from the statistics, Spanish speaking stars such as Lionel Messi will also continue influencing students’ decision when choosing a foreign language to study.

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Top 10 Film Festivals in Spain

You could say that Spain is a country you’d see in movie and a country in which you’d see a movie: its scenic landscapes have not only been captured in an impressive number of famous films, but they also capture a big variety of Spanish film festivals. You can find film fests here on just about any genre imaginable, from documentary, feminist, environmental, short film, gay/lesbian, fantasy, horror, advertising, international film… Spain holds more than 80 film festivals every year. That’s almost 2 per week.

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A small town story of a botched albeit well-meaning attempt to restore a small historic painting unexpectedly went viral back in 2012, inspiring an international flurry of memes, tweets, comedy sketches and even an opera. Today, over two years after the episode occurred, some 150,000 tourists have flocked to observe the painting, paying €1 a piece to check out the curious cultural phenomenon in person. 

Here’s a quick recap of the famous restore fail:

2012

A small 1930’s era fresco painting in a church in the small Spanish town of Borja (pop. 5,000) starts to peel. The painting features a rather lifelike image of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns and a burgundy tunic. In August, local resident and amateur painter Cecilia Giménez makes an unskilled attempt to restore the painting without permission, leaving a crude and decidedly un-photorealistic image in its place. The surprisingly unsatisfactory restoration, bungled beyond recognition, quickly becomes an internet sensation. Cecilia is lampooned and scorned to shame on the internet and in the media. The first tourists begin arriving to view the painting.

2013

Bodegas Ruberte announces new special edition wine “Cecilia Giménez”

2014

Two years after Cecilia’s intriguing restoration, 130,000 people had visited the painting, that’s some 2,000 per month. A full-fledged fiesta celebrating the 2^nd anniversary of the restoration is thrown in the sanctuary surrounding the church, which surrounds the painting. Cecilia announces that she’s “very happy, everyone supports me…”

A Blessing in Disguise

And so it seems that Cecilia Giménez, the seemingly naïve 80 something amateur restorer of fine arts has unwittingly generated incredible tourist interest in her work and in the town of Borja itself as the curious flock to the  previously off-the-radar destination. Amused visitors who’ve made the journey make their way into the church that houses the work where they anxiously await, on the verge of uncontrollable giggle attacks, their coveted first-person peeks at the undeniably funny restore. A strategically positioned donation container reminds observers that the town of Borja is silently laughing too; all the way to the bank.

It’s really impossible to know if Cecilia’s fantastically clumsy work was indeed a fantastic master stroke carefully designed to prompt the shower of “pennies from heaven” over the village. She insists that she made the repaint attempt “with very good intention” asking for forgiveness if she’s sinned by painting over the masterwork.

Conan O’Brian included a sketch about Cecilia’s restoration on his show. The New York Times published an article about the story last December.

Wikipedia lists the “Hedgehog-like figure of Jesus” renovation as one of the town’s main sights, along with a Baroque convent and an 18^th century temple. 

My first concern when I heard about the financial and popular success of the phenomenon was the possibility of copycat towns looking to cash in by artistically ruining their own historic pieces of art. I haven’t heard of that happening, but in an unrelated side note, it does kind of remind me of a 2011 story of the mayor of the Turkish town of Batman who announced plans to sue Warner Bros. for using the name of his town without permission, asserting that “there is only one batman in the world”.

A little soul searching and a curious question of values may float in the air for observers considering attempting to prompt their own shower of pennies from heaven: how valuable is art? For many, destroying a small and obscure piece of art may seem like a small price to pay in exchange for converting their town into a profitable tourist trap during difficult economic times. Who knows, maybe people have even tried but have failed to be successful with their purposely failed restoration attempts.

Another question the story raises is how we value art. Many professional painters who’ve dedicated their lives to mastering their craft dream of attracting the amount of people and generating the amount of excitement that Cecilia Gimenez’s unskilled restoration has.

 For now, as always, many people will continue dreaming of being successful, or dreaming up ways to be successful. Hopefully they’ll do it “with very good intention”.

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The Cathedral of Mejorada del Campo

Justo Gallego Martínez has spent over 50 years absorbed in an intriguing one-man mission: to single-handedly build a cathedral from scratch. It’s all part of a seemingly impossible dream that materialized after his period as a young trappist monk. A deeply devout Don Justo had spent 8 years with a trappist monastery when he contracted tuberculosis in 1961. For the safety of the community, he was forced to leave. Devastated, the former monk returned to his home town of Mejorada, Spain and promptly went about building what he calls “an offering to God”.

Today, the Spanish countryside surrounding Don Justo’s property has undergone dramatic change since he positioned the first bricks of his personal cathedral over half a century ago. Don Justo’s incredibly determined ambition to construct his ideal temple has not changed.

His massive unfinished structure, towering 131 feet into the sky, has been described as both beautiful and baffling. Complete with imposing spires, a wonderful dome made of plastic food tubes and structural columns made of empty oil drums, the cathedral is composed mostly of recycled stuff, or junk as the BBC referred to it in their piece entitled Madman Builds Cathedral from Junk. Even more remarkable is the fact that the unassisted building madman has, in his own words “never had any training in the building profession”, nor has he had any construction plans or even building permission. The striking construction has not received any church blessing. 

Equipped with recycled tools, building materials such as old bicycle parts, and inspiration extracted from a hodgepodge of monuments such as the White House and St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City, Don Justo has asserted that he will continue to build “until the end of his days”. Donations and occasional volunteer support help construction continue.

His life and work have earned a curious mixed bag of reactions from observers. Many see the lone constructer and his enormous shrine as a source of inspiration, looking to his impressive architectural achievement with great admiration. Others see him as blurring the line that separates self determination and sheer madness, a clear case of when devotion spins hopelessly out of control. Some neighbors consider the one-man monument-in-progress an eyesore, as it dominates the local landscape and overshadows the surrounding apartments. Some have also questioned the safety of the unlicensed building made of scraps.

Don Justo appeared in a 2005 TV commercial for the sports drink Aquarius, turning Don Justo into a brief sensation. In 2003 the cathedral was mentioned in an exhibit at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The 2009 film The Madman and the Cathedral offers a personal portrait of this unique figure. 

It’s not clear if he will ever achieve his dream, it’s not even clear if his dream involves completing the colossal structure, the work of which seems to give his life meaning. The cathedral is nowhere near completion. Don Justo has also affirmed that if he had his life to live again he’d build the cathedral again, only bigger “twice the size, because for me, this is an act of faith”.

The work is paradoxically one of selfless devotion and one of self absorbed toil, one that reminds us that many of us are building our own cathedrals. It seems that many of us remain lost, enclosed, indeed closed off from the world within our own constructions, perhaps having long lost sight of why we began them, in our determination to reach a horizon that never gets closer, constructions that nevertheless can serve as inspiration, or at least touch the lives of others in some way; the Cathedral of Mejorada reminds us that we all have an instinctive desire to leave our mark on the world.

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Spectacular Caves in Spain

Intense summer heat often lingers on as summer draws to a close, inspiring us to seek a little cool break from the sun. Scenic caves and grottos offer an unexpectedly refreshing itinerary option. Here’s a quick round up of Spain’s ten most attractive caves; intriguing places that have quietly awaited our presence since pre-historic times:

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