Epilogue
November 19, 1999
Our guests from Spain, Paco, Luis, and Saturnino, have come and gone. It was an intense and full two weeks of Spain coming to us. The Saturday after their arrival Rubina, Freddie and I did a childrens show in Palo Alto with Luis and Saturnino in honor of Paco and satisfying Rubinas obligation as a dance instructor for the city of Palo Alto. I made beautiful and elaborate programs on the computer and finally got to dance the Siguiriyas to Luis singing and Freddies guitar. Saturnino played a solo. On the next two weekends we arranged and hosted two consecutive fiestas. The first was for friends of Pacos. Paco has befriended many of the Flamencos who have visited his famous Flamenco institution, La Carboneria, and so has friends all over the world. Luis sister Angelita, Remedios Flores (a Spanish Flamenco singer and old friend of Freddies), and their friend Marisol Lopez came and stayed in our yurt for a week (Mongolian tent which I use for shamanic work). Nina Menendez (another long tilme friend and Flamenco singer) joined them here for most of that time. Chris Carnes, the inspiration for Pacos visit, had another miraculous recovery due to the intervention (visits, letters, phone calls) of his many friends when he was dying (according to the doctors and his social service case workers), lying in a fetal position, over-medicated, and deeply depressed in the hospital. Chris now was able to drive himself from Eureka via Comptche to Santa Cruz in two days, although he was greatly exhausted when he arrived at Bobbie Markowitzs house where he stayed in Santa Cruz. However he was able to visit a number of times with Paco here at our house. Ironically, Chris father had knee surgery and so Chris had to continue south to San Luis Obisbo later that week to help his mother care for his father. But he did have some good visits with Paco and the rest of us and he appeared much more clear and present than he had been in years. Fortunately he was able to attend the first fiesta before he had to head down south.
The following week-end we organized a paid fiesta for Luis and Saturnino in which they both performed. At the end of the show Luis called me up and asked Freddie to play and again I danced the Siguiriyas to Luis singing, this time in my festive street clothes. It was fun and the fiesta was a success. Paco said later that his favorite part was after the official performance watching and listening to us local Flamencos dancing, singing, and playing music at the party. At seventy three years old Pacos mind is still totally sharp and inquisitive and his photographic memory never misses a thing. I still see him in my mind seated near the open door in my dance studio and later by the fire outside, intently watching the Flamenco partying that went on for hours into the night.
When we weren’t busy organizing events, Freddie and I took them sightseeing. We visited Capitola and Santa Cruz and one evening attended a local Flamenco show. We took Paco and Saturnino to meet my father at his Santa Cruz ocean side home. This visit, which they very much enjoyed, was more important to them than we originally realized, as family is so important in Spain. Concha even mentioned it to us when we talked to her later on the phone. We also drove them to Monterey and went to its wonderful aquarium. We visited Point Lobos, Big Sur, Sausalito, and San Francisco. We wandered through Chinatown, Golden Gate park and the Japanese tea garden. We drove down Lombard street, Mission street and we went to the wharf. We even went to Berkeley and heard Pacos old friend Kenny Parker play guitar at the Albatross. Many of Pacos friends met him there at the Albatross which gave those in the Bay area who would miss the fiestas a chance to visit with Paco. The morning of the day that Paco, Luis and Saturnino left, our friend Basilio flew up from San Diego to see Paco and went to the San Francisco airport with us and then stayed at our home another day. So our time with our guests was full and pleasurable as well as exhausting. However it was our great pleasure and honor to be able to repay the kindness that Paco showed us in Sevilla as well as to host Pacos first vacation!
And now the house is quiet and we have finally finished unpacking. The furniture we bought in Morocco and in Granada arrived just before our Spanish guests and it is now integrated in our living room. The box we mailed from Spain with things we couldn’t fit in our suitcases also arrived and now is finally put away.
In the new silence of just us in our house we are continuing to copy our Spain video tapes and to rest. We see/visit with Concha and Carlos (as well as with our other friends) as we watch those tapes and it feels as if we are with them again. So they, especially our wonderful and patient teachers Concha and Carlos, have stayed very present with us. I went through a week of sleeping ten hours and taking naps during the day, a sign of my utter exhaustion, but now I seem to be recovering, although I am still too tired to begin the practice schedule that was interrupted during the visit.
Freddie, on the other hand, has learned more of the falsetas that Carlos was teaching him in Spain. He practices every day, often with his tapes and he is mastering much of both the technique and the difficult new falsetas he only struggled with in Spain.
Every night we sit on the couch in our theater and watch a video tape or two of the Rito y Geografia de Baile (dance) series, programs about Flamenco dance made a while ago by Spanish TV. We ordered this twelve tape series shortly upon our return to California. One has Concha dancing with Mario Maya in 1980! We actually watched this tape with Paco who was present when many of the interviews on these programs were recorded, some of which actually happened at La Carboneria. Paco knows/knew everyone of course and filled us in on their names and history. Pacos knowledge makes him a living treasure of Flamenco history. It was fun to watch the videos with him in the evenings when we were all to tired to go out. And now alone for a while, Freddie and I are reclaiming our home and finding our lives here again in Soquel.
Two days after our guests left, the ocean, hidden by clouds even on the sunny days during their stay here, finally became clear again in the distance! The plants are growing inches in their last burst before winter (or is it in honor of our home coming?) and the Bowers vine with its white flowers still blooming is now past the top of the arch by our front door. The new roses planted before we left for Spain, which we carefully protected from deer on our return, are now growing higher on their arbors and blooming in yellows, reds, pinks, purples and whites. We have booked most of our wedding venders and have posed for and received copies of our incredible engagement photos. And we have bought/ordered our wedding rings.
We stroll arm in arm or hand in hand around the land looking at plants and sitting by my mothers memorial tree, its small purple flowers greeting our visit. We plan new projects, talk about everything, snuggle together, and listen to and play music. We arrange and rearrange the house, plant plants and are just now starting to call our friends. We are still mostly hibernating and enjoy spending our time together and supporting each others art.
Freddie is encouraging me to return to Sevilla for one month in February to learn my Alegras. He plans to stay here at the house and to work on his music. We have talked to Concha by phone who says she will pick me up at the airport. She and Rafael (her husband who tends bar at La Carboneria) have said that there is a big hole in Sevilla without us. Our friend Susa, a beautiful, long haired Gypsy dancer living in Sevilla for whom I did a soul retrieval while still in Spain, and I have been exchanging long distance shamanic/spiritual work and faxing each other regularly.
Freddie and I have also spoken to Carlos several times and he too misses us.
So the thread of Spain continues in our lives, even as we rest and settle back into our beautiful home here on the mountain, our Paradiso. And how do I write an epilogue when life continues like this? It is really just the end of this chapter of our first wondrous journey to Sevilla together, an extraordinary chapter in the extraordinary and blessed love and lives of Flamenco Romantico. We continue to be thankful for all of this.