Views from the City: The Madrid Marathon

Although all Fulbrighters come to Spain to teach English or conduct research, we have found different ways to translate our interests and talents into new means to integrate ourselves into Spanish society. In my case, volunteerism and guitar lessons have offered new insights into the dynamics of the rhythms that mark professional life and the performance of jazz music in Madrid. Other Fulbrighters have taken to language classes, dance lessons, church groups, and, in one case, capoeira classes to meet similar goals.

One individual, however, took it upon herself to prepare for her first marathon in Madrid. Seeing that I have never been to a Marathon, much less one in Spain, and wanted to support a friend and fellow runner, I took the chance to hang out around the Atocha Train Station in the south east area of downtown Madrid to cheer her on and make some observations about the 2009 Madrid Marathon.


A few things: there were 1800 total runners with only 500 women participating in the race. I cannot state a concrete reason for the lack of female runners in the event other than it seems that Spanish schools do not emphasize sports as a viable extra curricular activity for girls throughout their childhood and adolescence. As a result, it was impressive to see women of different ages pass by me on their way to the finish line. Age did not seem to be much of a factor in the demographics; people of all ages were running the race.


As for the observers, it was obvious that many people were enthusiastic about supporting their friends and the runners in general. In addition to a percussion band blasting out beats before the crowd and runners at my part of the race, it was common to hear people shouting 'animo' - literally cheer up/liven up - or 'venga,' which is a distinctly Spanish phrase used as an affirmation along the lines of 'yeah' in the States. My friend said she heard these phrases over and over during the race, which travelled throughout the center of Madrid. Needless to say, she appreciated hearing our cheers in another language aside from Spanish.

It was also touching to see the reactions of the family and friends of the runners at the end of the race in Parque de Buen Retiro. Some people were posing for photos, other people were carrying food for their loved ones, while a few individuals were standing next to their friends as they stretched out. Although I am quite sure these sights are quite typical at the end of a marathon, I will not forget one runner who, in true Spanish style, walked out of the participant's tent with a cup of Mahou beer. (Apparently a keg was set up for the runners at the end of the race; no word if a table of tapas was set up nearby.)

In our case, we simply greeted our friend with cheers and feliciations over accomplishing an incredible feat of endurance and discipline. So my hats off to Kristen, a job well done!

Photos from Lisbon

Here are the photos from my time in Lisbon and Sintra, a small town north west of the city. There are too many highlights to list, so please check out the photos to get a glimpse of an incredibly beautiful country.

Two things of note:

I had an incredible pastry known as the Pasteis de Belém, which comes from a small north next to Lisbon. The cake is a variation of a Pasteis de Nata (cream cake), which is a common Portugese pastry, and has an incredibly rich and sweet taste that is perfect for a cold, wet, and weary traveler. (It rained the whole weekend while I was in Portugal).

I also had a chance to check out fado, which is a traditional Portugese song form that emerged around 1820 in Lisbon. The genre features guitars and a stringed instrument known as the Portugese Guitar accompanying a male or female vocalist. Although some have compared the genre to flamenco, the form, which reflects Brazilian, and Moorish influences, does diverge from flamenco in several ways:

• First, the singers do not use glissando notes and altered minor scales (e.g scales that sound 'middle eastern') that define flamenco singing.

• Further, the Portugese guitar, which is a 12 string instrument (double strings for six pitches), plays a central role in each song; traditional flamenco simply uses a guitar although Paco De Lucía has introduced modern instrumention into his performances.

• Thematically, Fado songs tend to reflect suadade, a sense of longing for someone or something such as a lost moment in time. Although this sentiment is similar to the notion of duende in Flamenco music, fado songs tend to revolve around life at sea or the life of the poor, reflecting its origins from sailors and individuals in docks who spent time away from their loved ones or worked long hours with little pay. In recent times, the music also commented on politics and components of modern urban life.

The end result is a unique genre music that reflects Portugal's unique presence on the Iberian Peninsula and beyond.

Lisbon Photos Coming!

I just spent the last weekend in Lisbon heading around various sites of astonishing beauty and splendor. In spite of the bad weather - it was raining the whole weekend - I managed to pull off some decent shots, so expect them along with another post this week.

Views from the City: Semana Santa

Seeing that I live in a predominantly Catholic Country, Holy Week is an incredibly important holiday for many Spaniards for various reasons. On a secular level, educational institutions grant their students a week's vacation while firms and public institutions will shut down on Holy Thursday and Good Friday for that week.

On a religious level, the holiday marks the return of the procesiónes, processions, that form the foundation of the Holy Week celebrations of Spain. The processions have various components that deserve some attention. At the center of each procession is a paso, a statue or image of the Virgin Mary or Jesus in the midst of the passion, crucified, or buried in his sepulchre that rests on a trono, a throne. These images have distinct names and historic assocition with a particular civil group, parish, or brotherhood that takes on the task of organzing the process each year.

A paso being crowned by a priest

Members of civic groups, brotherhoods, and parishes carry these images while bands consisting of woodwinds, brass horns, and drums play solemn music accompany them as they travel along a set path in the city. The age of the participants is quite diverse among the cadre of musicians in these processions. It appeared that older men dressed in military garb tend to lead the processions with elderly women wearing mantillas walking at their side.

A group of drummers from a procession on Easter Sunday

In many cases, the individuals carrying the image are dressed in nazarenos, which consist of a capirote, a mask with a conical tip and a long robe. Although many Americans associate this garb with the KKK - ironically, an anti-Catholic organization - the uniform came from medival Spain where individuals would wear these garments as a means to repent for their sins while remaining anonymous. The color of the nazarenos various from procession to procession, often time reflecting a group's historic use of a color for cultural and religious reasons.

Individuals wearing the nazarenos

In Madrid, where I witnessed this event, the processions travel along a path in the city center that includes the historic main square, plaza mayor, and the streets along Sol, the center of the city. The pace is slow; the procession will walk for five minutes before stopping in place for a while to allow the men dressed in the nazarenos to rest. This practice also allows bystanders to focus on other processions that are moving ahead or walking behind the group. Once the procession is over, the participants carry the image to a Church in the city center for display as bystanders either follow the image or return to the path to watch another procession.


In other cities such as Sevilla, which is famous for its Holy Week processions, the groups travel around the Cathedral from neighborhoods around the city in a coordinated act of piety that engulfs the city's streets in a sea of bystanders and participants carrying the images, many of which trace back hundreds of years.

It is a truly moving sight, considering the solemn nature of the proceedings and the restraint grief that grips the faces of the participants in the processions. Given that mass displays of religious devotion is not a common sight in the public sphere in the States, moreover, these processions give us a dramatic glimpse into the the complex relationship between the Catholic Church and Spain's civil society that has shaped its culture since the Middle Ages.

Photos from Valencia

I was in Valencia over the weekend and have posted up some photos from my trip. A few things to note:

Valencia uses a dialect of Catalán known as Valenciana, which essentially preserves most of the traits used in Catalán. As a result, it is common to see street signs written in Castellano ('Spanish') on one block and appear in Valenciana on another.
The city features the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (City of Arts and Sciences), an architectural wonder designed by Santiago Calatrava, a world renowned architect and Valencian. The compound hosts a science museum, a planetarium, an IMAX cinema, an aquarium, and a concert hall.

The city is also home to paella and orxata (horchata in Latin American Spanish). For those of you who don't know the wonders of one of the signature dishes of Spanish cuisine, Paella, allow me to explain. Paella is a simple rice dish prepared with seafood (or other types of meat) and spices; it is cooked over a wood fire and served on a heavy cast iron pan. The dish emerged from the Albufera, a lake near the city where fishermen would prepare simple rice dishes with fish after they were done working for the day.

Orxata is a milky, nutty dish made from Chufe, a nut the size of a peanut, which is ground up and mixed with suger and water to form the drink. Incidentially, the drink made its way over to the Americas: Mexican horchata, which is popular in the States, is made from rice; Salvadoran horchata, which I drank as a child, is made from another seed that grows in the rain forests of Central America.