Spain

Kristen was in fourth grade, learning about California history, and needing to do a report on five of the Spanish missions. Of course, she had put it off to the last weekend before it was due. Because the missions are spaced an hour’s drive (or a day’s horseback ride) apart, I figured we could make it to five of them in one day. We took her friend Barbara, who had the same requirement, and left at 7:00 a.m.

Mission San Gabriel Arcángel wasn’t open yet when we arrived, but we wandered around the outside and explored the cemetery. At Mission San Fernando Rey de España, Barbara taught us how to use the holy water and cross ourselves. At Mission San Buenaventura, while we were in the garden, we saw a beautiful young woman dressed for her quinceañera. Mission Santa Barbara was the largest of the missions we saw that day. It took awhile to explore. We couldn’t go into the sanctuary until after we saw the wedding party come out. By the time we arrived at Mission Santa Inés, it was after they had closed, so again we only saw the outside. We returned home at about 10:00 p.m. We had fun, but I would recommend a maximum of three missions a day.

Kristen had a friend with her for our adventure to the Spanish missions, and I have also had friends with me every step of the way as I traveled to Spain while staying at home. It’s so easy to do here in California!

Vonnett, Kevin, and I ate tapas at Costa Brava in San Diego. The mushrooms, fillet mignon on skewers, rabbit, tortilla Espanola, and other items were all delicious. At Pata Negra, the Spanish store next door to the restaurant, I picked up regañas (crackers), piparra peppers, white asparagus from Navarre, a mix of olives, and three Spanish cheeses including Manchego to share with my Spanish friends Joan and Carmen. More ideas for tapas can be found here: https://gypsyplate.com/the-best-tapas-recipes/

Work colleagues took me to Wool Growers, a Basque restaurant in Bakersfield. Augustine insisted we try everything, including the cow’s tongue. I really enjoyed the food and the family style service. Wool Growers has posted some of their recipes here: http://woolgrowers.net/recipes/

Linda reminds me to include perhaps Spain’s most famous visitor, Ernest Hemingway. To support this blog, she read Papa Hemingway by A. E. Hotchner. The Spanish connection might have started with The Sun Also Rises found here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67138 but it continues with a review of the traditions of bullfighting in Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway’s friendships with bullfighters Antonio Ordonez and Luis Miguel Domenguin, the Spanish Civil War as fictionalized in For Whom The Bell Tolls, and his various visits in the 1950s.

I read and discussed Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes when I took a Spanish class. It can be found on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/996. Another form of the work is the musical Man of La Mancha, available on Hoopla, but if your library doesn’t participate, there is a version with ads here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8asmr9. What I enjoyed the most of the materials inspired by Cervantes is the documentary Lost in La Mancha covering a failed attempt to film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote: https://therokuchannel.roku.com/watch/d90173ad37a95aefa4da3d5386ef2575. The finished movie from many years later is available here: https://tubitv.com/movies/631121/the-man-who-killed-don-quixote

Kristen, who followed up on her fourth grade mission project by spending a college semester in Spain, recommends A Brief History of Portable Literature by Enrique Vila-Matas and a summary of medieval Spanish history found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=NJWjDVrxrhI

Albert recommends listening to Rosalía (he saw her perform last year in Inglewood): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpOcyc2vUG0&t=6s, visiting El Prado online: https://www.museodelprado.es/en/virtual-tours, and checking out Spain’s excellent public media, Radio Nacional España: https://www.rtve.es/radio/radio-nacional/directo/

Barb is willing to share the pictures from her motorcycle trip starting and ending at Cervantes’ hometown near Madrid, and circling up through northern Spain to the Camino de Santiago: https://www.edelweissbike.com/en/blog/?p=33817

I love my friends and am so thrilled with their contributions to this blog! I had a great time gathering these ideas from them! If you want to dig deeper into Spanish movies, music, and art, I have a few suggestions. For movies, find something by Pedro Almodóvar. As I am writing this, Amazon is offering a free viewing of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.3cb768c3-d8dc-40d3-bbfb-f1d79b4fb624

There many more Spanish movies, so I limited myself to what I could find free online. Goya’s Ghosts is violent due to being set in the Spanish Inquisition, but intensity might be what you are looking for: https://tubitv.com/movies/441263/goyas-ghosts. Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which showcases the Spanish actors Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, is not for kids due to the sexuality, but the scenery is incredible: https://tubitv.com/movies/582081/vicky-cristina-barcelona

There are so many options for Spanish music! Here are just a few:

· Classical guitar by Andres Segovia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9efHwnFAkuA

· A composition for guitar and orchestra composed by Joaquín Rodrigo and performed by Paco de Lucía: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9RS4biqyAc

· Flamenco lessons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUWO2o9h9oY

· Galician music with bagpipes and flutes with a discussion of Celtic instruments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBmhTKoCEMk

If you want to see Spanish art in person here in California, the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park has works by Murillo, Zurbaran, Cotan, Ribera, Goya and El Greco. If you are looking for Picasso, the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena has some, and used to have more (more details in the video on this page: https://www.nortonsimon.org/art/in-focus/picasso/#). Each of the links below will start you on a series of articles and videos for the artist by the Khan Academy.

· Goya: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/romanticism/romanticism-in-spain/a/goya-the-sleep-of-reason-produces-monsters

· Picasso: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/cubism-early-abstraction/cubism/a/cubist-sculpture-i

· Dali: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/dada-and-surrealism/xdc974a79:surrealism/v/salvador-dal-the-persistence-of-memory-1931

There are many wonderful places to go in Spain, including those shown here: https://www.thecrazytourist.com/top-25-things-to-do-in-spain/. Yes, I would love to go! I look forward to that time when we can travel broadly again. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Spain and throughout the world.

Photo credit: Saad Chaudhry https://unsplash.com/photos/uYMyUKL1QSU