Tag
Spain
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Toward the Next Century of Carmen Martín Gaite
A literary genius who remained in Fascist Franco Spain, she created new, hybrid literary genres, even while fluidly moving from fiction to nonfiction and back.
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Comics versus Franquismo
In the late 1960s, dictator Francisco Franco slowly opened Spain to tourism while continuing to obliterate public memory of the retributions meted out after the Civil War (1936–9). I spent those years studying in Madrid, living for two semesters with a Spanish family. My professors were among the most distinguished of those who hadn’t sought…
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Don Justo and the Never-Ending Cathedral: Mejorada del Campo, Spain
The 21st-century traveler is chronically late: the cathedrals are all built, or, if by some historical accident left unfinished, buried under …
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Monte Ulia, Euskadi
This is the latest installment of Public Streets, a biweekly urban observations series curated by Ellis Avery. You may have visited San Sebastian, Spain—Donostia, as the locals began calling it again after Franco died in 1975 and the street signs began to revert back to Euskera. Maybe you spent a couple summer days on the…
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Enrigue’s Backspin
Four-fifths of the way through Álvaro Enrigue’s Muerte súbita (Sudden Death), the narrator admits that he doesn’t know what the book is about. It’s not about the birth of tennis as a popular sport. Nor is it about the European conquest of the Americas, or about the Counter-Reformation. It’s more a book about how one…
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Sketches of Spain 2: A Simple Life in Salamanca
This is the latest installment of Public Streets, a biweekly urban observations series curated by Ellis Avery. “Go to Salamanca!” The open mic at El Rastrel—a vegetarian tapas bar in Salamanca, Spain—is so crowded that some of the spectators are standing on the stage. People pack the vestibule and the stairs that lead to the…
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Sketches of Spain 1: A Vegan Bunny in Barcelona
This is the latest installment of Public Streets, a biweekly urban observations series curated by Ellis Avery. Via Laietana, one of the biggest streets in Barcelona, a city where making or participating in grafitti warrants a 2,000 Euro fine, runs all the way to the sea. Just the other night, several young people dressed in…
