31 Friday May 2024
Posted in culture, events, gastronomy, sevilla
This is the second Caracolia – aka Sevilla Snail Festival – with 13 bars from Sevilla city and province participating serving up both caracoles and cabrillas. The former are a smaller snail cooked in spicy broth, cabrillas are bigger and usually cooked in a cuminy tomato sauce. It’s a fun event and lovely that it’s down by the river to catch a cool post-dusk breeze. We had a great time and even caught a spectacular sunset on the way home.
29 Wednesday May 2024
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You may recall that last year Corpus Christi got rained out (for the first time ever) so this year I was keen to haul myself out of bed at ridiculous o’clock to walk the procession route before it started. BUT… I had a tapas tour booked this evening and I realised that I’d be lucky to get to sleep before 2 am (always need to wind down afterwards) and so on my way home I walked a part of the route and took a few pics. The altars still weren’t totally set up but the shop windows and balconies had their displays up. And I caught a virgin making her way through the arches on her way to the Cathedral. And that’ll be it for me, I’m afraid. Still, something new as I’ve never seen the route at almost midnight. Pics below…
08 Monday Jan 2024
You all know how much I love living in Spain. I love the country, the people (well, mostly), the culture, the food and wine, the pretty much everything… except the bit about it being so casually racist. To the point where almost nobody will admit to it. And every year this becomes glaringly apparent during the festival of Los Reyes Magos – The Three Kings – on January 6th. This is traditionally when kids receive their presents over the holidays, just as the baby Jesus received gifts from the three wise men. On January 5th there are massive parades everywhere with floats and lights and music, culminating with the final float of the Kings. WITH BALTHAZAR INEVITABLY WEARING BLACK FACE.
Above you can see the usual depictions… Gaspar from India, Balthazar from Arabia and Melchior from Persia. Their gifts had special symbolic meanings: gold signified Jesus’ status as “King of the Jews;” frankincense represented the infant’s divinity and identity as the Son of God; and myrrh touched upon Jesus’ mortality. So far so good. EXCEPT that during the cabalgatas (parades) and other festivities Balthazar is always a white guy in black face. And somehow most Spanish people see absolutely no problem with this. Just like the people running the new 5 star hotel in Triana see nothing wrong with keeping racist tiles on their building. Why? Because IT’S TRADITION.
This caused a bit of a stir over the weekend on Twitter with both Spanish natives and non-Spanish residents (including me) posting comments and/or photos of black face Balthazars all over Spain. Mostly us non-Spanish were met with “go back to your own country” (those were the polite replies) as if somehow after 32 years I don’t understand Spanish culture. I’ve probably lived here longer than some of these commenters have been alive. Meanwhile, the thing about traditions is that they can evolve like anything else, otherwise we’d still be burning non-Christians on the stake here. I mean if Spain can embrace Santa Claus, Halloween and fucking Black Friday then I think there’s some wiggle room for removing racist “traditions” such as this. Of course, the obvious solution would be to just get a black guy to be Balthazar in the processions… except… there aren’t any. Or at least not many who are allowed to assimilate here in any meaningful way. And that is also racism, but you know what they say… the first step to solving a problem is admitting it exists. ✌️
30 Monday Oct 2023
Hearing about this made me feel sick and sad and, yes, fucking angry. A week or so ago a 16th century sculpture in a tiny hidden away square next to the Cathedral was brutally vandalised. After existing in this tiny spot for centuries some fucking asshole (or assholes) thought this was the thing to do. Now… not placing blame on the recent influx of less than desirable tourists in our fair city, or the hoards or football fans from abroad who were in town for two big matches that weekend… but it’s also hard not to.
Meanwhile, this was lovely. Someone put up a floral cross as a memorial while the original one is being restored. That’s the real Sevilla.
02 Monday Oct 2023
Which means it should not be 35º and I should not have to put on the AC in the late afternoon because it’s 29º in my living room. These past two years have been so fucked up here. Way too hot for far too long and NO RAIN. Or at least not enough to make any difference. I mean, you all know l like sandal weather to last as long as possible, but that doesn’t have to be at these crazy temps.
And (here comes the rant) I’m getting so tired of people commenting on how LUCKY we are because it’s all rainy, cold and miserable where they are. Well guess what? It’s actually miserable for us when our reservoirs are down to less than 25% capacity, our crops are dying (olive oil production is half of what it should be this year… for starters) and it’s actually too hot to comfortably take a walk or sit outside. Water bills are going up by 35% starting next month, electricity is already off the charts, and in some cases basic food costs have almost doubled in the past couple of years. Yet our incomes have not increased.
Of course people coming here on holiday think it’s all a fabulous bargain as things are still cheaper than back at home, but do they even give a thought about us? More and more I feel resentful towards tourists who only think of us as their “cheap sunshine break” and especially when they come here, and if we are very lucky and it rains, then omg they feel hard done by because their holiday has been ruined.
And yes I know some of my work is reliant on tourism, to an extent. But my food tour clients tend to be the kind of travellers who fit into my rather niche offering. Which means they are conscious of what’s going on and, I think, travel with a bit more awareness and respect than the average tourist. Because once Sevilla turns into a desert and daily summer temps hit 50º and there is NO WATER… well, that’ll be it for tourism. I don’t think I’ll live to see that day, which I don’t think is that far off, but it still hurts to watch people being so uncaring and selfish. Same old…
casa azahar 