Tuesday, November 11, 2003

Another Freddie lesson with Paco (Paquito). Rubina is here, sitting in a chair listening too. She made a delicious chicken soup out of what we had in the refrigerator. She had joined me at the end of my practice today and helped me put a counter-time step in the right compás. It was so nice to have some company in the studio. I felt tired and it was hard to get into it today. I practiced some of Concha’s Alegrías escobilla. It was hard to remember. But at least I was there, letting my body remember how to dance! And then Rubina came at the end. And it is so nice to have such a good friend.

To back track, I still have been so busy trying to deal with business from here, and needing to let more people know of our plans. Now I think I’ve done it. But it cost me so much time and energy!

Saturday we, Paquito, Pilar, Solea and Freddie and I, went to Paco’s father-in-law’s guitar making shop in Triana. It was wonderful. Then we walked around Triana until we decided to go to the Gypsy flea market that happens on Saturdays near there. Freddie needed a winter coat and he found a long one there for twenty-five Euros! I got a pair of Lycra jeans with embroidery on them. Pilar, Paco’s lovely tall, slender, longhaired Gypsy wife, is altering them for me. Freddie also got a great pair of striped Lycra pants for twelve Euros. He had seen similar ones in the stores for one hundred Euros (that we had not bought).

After the flea market we went to a restaurant in Triana that overlooked the Guadalquivir River. Then we stopped by our house briefly to drop off Freddie’s guitar and drink green tea and we proceeded to head for Paco and Pilar’s house just outside of Sevilla. Although they loved Triana, where Paco had been raised and where Pilar had spent a lot of her childhood, they wanted a safer place to raise their young daughter, Solea. When she was one, strong-minded Solea had wandered out into the street, scaring her parents to death. Right then they made the decision to move. Where they live now is on a dead end street where their house and the house next door are the last ones on the block. The kids all play outside together in the street, riding bikes, playing ball, and it is safe because the only cars that drive there belong to their families. It reminds me of the dead end street that I grew up on, and I remember its sense of community and safety.

Paco has converted his garage into a music room. Sometimes he lifts the garage door so that it is open to the street. He can watch Solea play from there. Solea is a Daddy’s girl and even looks like Paquito. She has her own guitar made by her grandfather. She has a little toy, plastic piano that works and a toy microphone she plays with. At less than five years old she can sing, for example all of the words in a Tango, and have the correct facial expressions as well as tones and compás. Of course she is accompanied by one of the best guitarists in Sevilla, her father Paco Fernandez. She can dance already too. Solea is being groomed to be an artist and shows every sign that she will be one. Her personality is strong, outgoing and gregarious. She is full of emotion, both happy and sad, and projects her feelings very well! She has a strong charisma and a charming personality. And she seems to love Flamenco. Sometimes she seems well beyond her almost five years of life. I think she is very intelligent and precocious.

We spent a pleasant evening with the three of them, including watching the video of Solea’s “baptismo” (baptism), which was a who’s-who-of-Flamenco celebration. Juana Amaya is the Godmother. Of course Curro Fernandez, Esperanza Fernandez, and Concha Vargas (all close family) were there, as well as Manuel Molina (of Lole and Manuel) and Luisito Peña, and many other Flamenco “figuras”. What a great video. What a great party.

Around eleven o’clock that night we made plans for the next morning to go for the horse and buggy ride that Freddie and I always talk about but never get around to. Solea was the most excited. Pilar gave me some earrings and a beaded necklace of hers to remember her by after I tried to give her my new Lycra jeans that looked better on her than on me. But, although they fit her perfectly, she insisted on shortening them for me! We almost had a fight about it. So I finally gave in. Later they drove us home and then came by the next morning and picked us up again to go for the horse and buggy ride.

Before we left, we all looked at some of the photos we had taken the day before. I had them already downloaded into the computer! Then we drove off to Parque Maria Luisa, the biggest park in Sevilla and very beautiful. We parked the car there and caught a buggy. When Paco asked the price he called the driver “Primo”, cousin. This is common among the Gypsies and Paco is full Gypsy. As we rode around Sevilla, Paco discovered that the driver he called Primo knew his family and was a close friend of some friends. Small world!

After the ride we went out to eat at a restaurant that used to serve bull’s tail stew (rabo de toro). From there we decided to visit the Bull Fighting Museum, which was nearby in the Bull Ring. It was interesting.

We have planned a trip to Ronda together and perhaps will also make it to Granada together. Pilar is a lovely person and we are so glad to be hanging around with Paquito and his family. Pili’s (Pilar’s) birthday is the nineteenth and we have been invited for dinner.

After the Bull Fighting Museum we drove over to the Maestranza, the biggest, most prestigious theatre in Sevilla. It is newer and bigger than the Lope de Vega theatre but doesn’t have the same kind of old-fashioned ornate elegance. We were trying to get two tickets for Pilar and Paco to see the long sold-out Farruquito show that night. Freddie and I of course had ours already, thanks to FlamencArte. Paco and Freddie went into the theatre to see what they could find (in the way of people needing to sell their tickets). Well first Freddie came back with one ticket. Pili and I waited in the car because it was raining. The one Freddie got was a cheap one, way high up. Freddie and Paco, sometimes with Solea, kept going back to see if anyone was selling a set of tickets. And finally they found two, fairly near us, in the same section. So we all went back to our house to rest and beautify. I called Rubina and we gave her the first ticket Freddie had bought. She met us later at the theatre. After a short rest at the house, the five of us piled back into Paco’s car and drove back to the Maestranza. The show, as expected, was wonderful. Rebecca was sitting in front of us. Instead of taking her boyfriend Alfonso, she had taken his mother, Esperanza (Concha’s sister). Esperanza’s husband died this last year. I thought it was a beautiful thing of Rebecca to do. She only had enough money for two tickets! After the show, in which Solea had fallen asleep, Paco and Pilar took us home. We were exhausted and happy. What a full day.

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Yesterday, Tuesday, Freddie had another lesson with Paquito. It was great. Freddie had scheduled one with Raul also, earlier in the day, but Raul had suddenly been called to Madrid and couldn’t come. He and his girlfriend had come by to visit on Monday, interrupting a nap Freddie and I were trying to take. Then I reluctantly left to go practice because I had already rented the studio. But, as it turned out, I didn’t practice because the key wasn’t at the bar and I was too tired to then go to Juana’s house to pick it up and then back to the studio. So I canceled. Of course when I returned home the music had stopped and the guests were leaving.

That night I had made an experimental CD of the photos we had taken Saturday and Sunday and I gave the CD to Paco on Tuesday and he called that night to say that it worked and they could see the photos on their set up. Freddie had taken some beautiful ones of Pilar, Solea and Paco on Sunday while I had rested in our bedroom for a few minutes before the show.

I can’t remember Monday clearly or some of Tuesday. I know that I saw Rubina on Tuesday. She came to the end of my practice and helped me. I wrote about that on Tuesday. And one day, it must have been Monday, Freddie and I went shopping. We left in the morning and ate breakfast out, near Mateos Gago street (near the Giralda Cathedral). We hadn’t intended to go shopping, but as we walked home after breakfast we passed a little store on a side street selling mantoncitas (little mantons, “shawls”). We bought some beautiful hand embroidered silk mantoncitas at a very reasonable price. I returned back there today to buy another one for a birthday present for Pilar. I asked the man how come he had such nice things at a reasonable price in such a tiny store and discovered that he is part of a bigger store. The big store on Calle Sierpes sells the big Mantons. We had looked at them in other years and they were beautiful but way too expensive to think about. Our taste was better than our pocketbook. But now we have discovered that what looked like just another “tourist shop” was in reality a gem. The man who runs it is very nice too.

On the way home we tried to get Freddie to the shoe store on Santa Maria La Blanca where I got my comfortable shoes. I got fixated on Freddie having comfortable shoes too. But the store was already closed for siesta by the time we arrived. So we went home, started napping and then Raul El Perla buzzed to announce his visit.

So that was Monday. And Tuesday I was still tired. Today, I couldn’t practice because I had a telephone meeting scheduled about some business from the States at four o’clock. But I had to meet Juana at two, after her class to discuss the new practice schedule. The class was almost finished. Pola was singing and Ryan and Ulrich were playing guitar with a third person. Lucy was taking the dance class. A student of Juana’s needs to practice at four, and it makes sense that Juana’s students should have priority in her studio. I am very lucky just to get to use her studio. So now I have an hour-and-a-half slot from two thirty to four.

After I returned home and had my phone meeting, the buzzer rang and Pilar and Solea were downstairs. Freddie had left early in the morning to go to Triana string, tape, and guitar-stand shopping with Paco and still had not returned. Pilar, Solea and I hung out and then Paco and Freddie returned. Then I had to leave. I wanted to take Juana’s new class that she said was at a “softer” level (better for my ankle) than her two morning classes. I was excited because I had wanted to study with her. But I was still tired too. And I didn’t want to leave our company. (But they left shortly after I did).

Juana tried to start her new class today at six, but not enough people knew about it and showed up. So she just gave a class to her ten-year old daughter and her daughter’s teenaged cousin from Moron. The two girls already had footwork like bullets. They had only been studying this choreography for four or five days. This was the beginning of Juana’s daughter’s formal learning. She was somewhat reluctant at first, but by the end of her class she was dancing with more enthusiasm. The other would-be student and I watched the class. What a different world to grow up dancing Flamenco and not having to struggle with compás or for that matter, learning Spanish! Juana’s daughter is learning English. She is in her second year. And Lucy comes over and tutors her. I am learning more and more about the interrelations of people here. Of course Lucy, who is English, is married to Juan del Gastor who is from Moron. So is Juana from Moron. And, I think, they are related. That all counts. Sometimes I forget that Juana is from Moron because she is such a figura (famous and well respected Flamenco artist). But I am sure that she is the young Gypsy girl that Anzonini told me about in 1980, who danced so well and whose family, to his infinite dismay, had abandoned Moron and moved out of the Gypsy community to Sevilla. But Juana did not abandon her dancing and went on to fulfill her promise.

The other thing that happened was that the Carboneria was shut down. Sunday when Rubina passed it on her way home from the Farruquito show, it was closed with a sign from the government on the door. Today Pola told me that it was open again. Apparently the authorities had shut it down because the neighbors are always complaining and may have even gotten a lawyer. All these years Paco Lira has never bothered to get a business license for the entertainment part so they can close him down when they want to. I don’t know the full story yet, but it seems somewhat serious. The neighbors in Spain are scary when they don’t like Flamenco!

I have to go to bed. It is already past one AM. We are going to Ronda Friday and will spend the night. I looked up hotels on the internet but we will probably just go and see what we find. Paco and Pilar will leave Solea home for this one. We sure are having fun with them.

Thursday, November 13, 2003

Last night, after I returned from Juana’s class that didn’t happen, Freddie was cooking a stew. It was a little after seven and the stores close between seven thirty and eight. I put down my blue dance bag and told Freddie, that if he could take a break, I thought we should go to the shoe store before they closed this time and get him some comfortable shoes to wear to Ronda. So he stopped in the middle of what he was doing and we walked to the store where I had bought my comfortable shoes on Santa Maria la Blanca, less than five minutes away! I really enjoy the close walking distance of so many things here. This time they were still open and Freddie bought three pairs of comfortable and beautiful shoes. This year the styles seem to emphasize comfort and this store is into both quality and comfort. I ended up buying a pair of low, lace up boots that are as comfortable as my new walking shoes but support my ankle even more! I can wear them even with the sore on my foot. Of course everything in Spain takes longer, and we were starved, but happy, when we finished.

Since it was after eight, I suggested that we walk home the other way and if Las Teresas, a famous tapas bar in Barrio Santa Cruz near our house, was open, we could finally eat there. It was open and it wasn’t crowded yet and there was a table by the window. We have passed it almost every day this year and either it is closed or not serving food or so crowded we would have had to wait a long time. Miguel Ochoa had told us about it in 1999 but we had not eaten there. The food was exquisite. We felt like we were on a date. It was nice to be just the two of us eating out. So often we go with friends, which we love too. But this was romantic.

Yesterday, during the day, after they were done shopping, Paquito took Freddie to some Flamenco bars in Triana and he met some really nice Gitanos there. Freddie drank near-beer (Cerveza sin) and socialized (practiced his Spanish). He says he was really into people yesterday, talking to them. Freddie’s Spanish (and mine too) has improved in leaps and bounds this year. He is picking up more and more phrases from Paquito.

Thursday, November 13, 2003 Night

Solea calls Freddie her “Amiguito Fredito”. Like all kids, she is madly in love with Freddie. Paquito, Pilar, Freddie and I went to Triana shopping this morning. Solea was still in school so she couldn’t come with us. Then they dropped me off at our house at two PM because I had scheduled a practice in Juana’s studio at two thirty and Freddie went with Paco and Pili to their house to eat and play guitar. They all returned about eight at night. We are packing to go to Ronda in the morning. We will spend the night there.

Souren came by today. He said that he had come to visit a number of times but we had not been home. Souren, Haig and Polly had been in Granada for several days and had just returned to Sevilla. They leave Spain on Wednesday. Souren said that La Carboneria is open again but has entertainment only in the little room, not the big room. How are all the people going to fit? We haven’t seen Paco Lira for a while. When we return from Ronda we will visit Paco and call all our friends.

Saturday, November 15, 2003

We had a magical stay in Ronda. After checking on the internet and calling one hotel, we decided to just go there and see what was available. We drove to the Tajo, the deep, vast canyon that is a landmark of Ronda and runs right through it. We walked into a fancy three star hotel that faced the Tajo but we didn’t like the rooms that they had left. None had a view and none had a double bed. And the hotel was fairly expensive. They assured us that the other hotels with a view were four-star and would be a lot more expensive, so we didn’t even try them. Instead, we looked at the Tajo and took photos. Then we got into the car, which was parked in a temporary spot of the hotel that we didn’t take, and started to look for a place to stay that night. We crossed the bridge. There were little souvenir shops and restaurants on both sides of the street. We passed the museum. Then on the right, at the second street, we saw a hotel sign and turned up the hill. A beautiful, fancy old house, on our right was the Hotel San Gabriel. We were ushered into a little office inside the elegantly appointed house. The short- haired blond woman who was in charge showed us three rooms, two with double beds. We fell in love. It was like being in a fairy tale. Each room was different but beautiful. So of course we all unanimously decided to stay there.

After we put our things in our rooms, we went for a walk with the video camera and the digital camera and later we stopped at a restaurant to eat. We explored the museum and the shops. In one shop Paco ran into someone who knew him. In another shop we met another person who knew his family and then he recognized the daughter of the famous Flamenco singer, Rancopino. The daughter, Ana, was to perform there that night with her cousin Rosie and with Ana’s fifteen year old brother playing guitar. The friend of Paco’s said he would take us first to another place and then to hear Ana and we arranged to call him at eleven thirty that night. Meanwhile we located the local Peña, the local Flamenco community club, and found out that a singer would be performing there that night.

We went to Peña Flamenca Tobalo de Ronda that evening around ten o’clock. When we arrived at the Peña, of course more people knew Paco and his family. Paco had even performed there in Ronda with his family when he was younger. Freddie and I really enjoyed the singer. Everyone seemed excited that Paco Fernandez was there in the audience.

We ate some tapas, including Freddie’s favorite grilled shrimp, and cheese and olives too. Then Paco’s friend met us there and during what I assume was only the break, we left for the next place. This was a dismal bar that reminded me of a western bar. The taped music was loud and boring. The smoke of the cigarettes made my eyes water. When the entertainment started it was still boring and I said that I wanted to try the next place. I was tired and ready to go to bed, really, but I wanted to see what else there was. I think we were all glad to get out of there.

We walked several minutes through the streets of Ronda to another bar. Shortly after we arrived there, Ana and Rosie started to sing. They sing mainly rumbas, very light Flamenco or Flamenco-Pop, and Paco requested at least one Bulería. The performance was geared to young Spanish people in general and not to Flamencos particularly. Ana’s father, Rancopino, is a true Flamenco singer and very well respected. But Ana’s singing entranced us, and as far as I was concerned, I didn’t care what she sang, only that she sang and I got to listen to her! Her voice had so much control, depth, softness, strength and feeling. She was just incredible. There she was, I think still a teenager, certainly not very old, her head slightly forward, her back slightly slumped, in front of a microphone. She wore a white fashionable tee shirt with half of each sleeve cut out except for the thin material attaching it to the other half of the sleeve. Her low-waisted hip hugger wool pants looked like jeans from far away. This young Gypsy girl, normal looking and nondescript, stood up there, next to her older cousin Rosie, and opened her mouth. Out of her mouth came music that woke me up and made me excited! I couldn’t believe it. Ana sang the most beautiful music and I just couldn’t get enough. She sang well with Rosie too and Rosie sang well too. Ana’s young brother, the guitarist, sang well also. But it was Ana’s voice that went deep into me and thrilled me. The whole night was worth hearing her sing. We had photos taken with all of us in them and we told her that we would get a copy of the video we had just made there to her after we returned to the US. This experience made us all feel even better!

We arrived back at the hotel exhausted but happy and satisfied and we all got to bed around four in the morning.

The next day I woke up first and Freddie and I went for a short walk to buy some cheap and very nice leather change purses I had seen the day before. Then we packed our red suitcase and found out that check out time was at noon but we could stay a little longer if we needed to. “No pasa nada”, said the boy in charge in the morning. (Nothing will happen if you don’t leave exactly at twelve). Finally we woke up Paco and Pilar, who were embarrassed that they had slept so long. But they needed the rest, without a child to take care of. We went out for breakfast and then it started pouring rain. We walked to some shops and bought a few souvenirs we had seen the day before, but the rain made it difficult, especially because none of us had brought raincoats because the day before had been sunny and relatively warm. Pilar and I both had our warm clothes packed safely in our suitcases, which were in the trunk of the car.

After battling the rain outside, Paco put on Freddie’s new coat and went to get the car while the three of us waited in a store. Next we tried to drive down to the bottom of the Tajo. Paco, especially, really wanted to see the bottom of the Tajo. I couldn’t walk that far because of my ankle, which is slowly healing. So we tried to drive. The road took us down, but far from the Tajo, to someone’s private home. Pilar got scared because we were isolated and driving on curvy roads, but the drive was beautiful.

After getting up to the top without getting stuck, we decided to drive on to Grazelema, one of the white towns, and supposedly the most beautiful, that dot the countryside of this area and make it famous. The roads wind up through the mountains, old, curving and narrow.

Before we got to the turn off for Grazelema, we saw a sign that said Gastor. This was the little mountain town that was the birthplace of Diego del Gastor, the famous guitarist who lived most of his life in Moron de la Frontera. We decided to pay homage to Diego and to visit Gastor, which none of us had been to before. We ate a late lunch there in a very typical restaurant. It was still raining hard. We were told at the restaurant that we could still reach Grazelema before dark so we started out again.

We started to sing about Grazelema as we approached a beautiful white pueblo nestled stereotypically into the side of a hill. It was a picturesque postcard type of pueblo. It turned out to be Zahara, which is on the way to or near Grazelema. We never did figure out which.

But the dark overtook us before we actually got to Grazelema and we found ourselves driving these narrow, curvy roads on the side of a huge mountain, in the dark, in the slippery rain. We felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. Pilar got very scared and started praying and held on to my hand tightly. We were in the back seat. Paco did a marvelous job of driving us. He loves the country. Pilar is a city girl and seems to get scared easily. When we finally arrived in Grazelema it was way too dark to see it. So we got directions to get to the road to Sevilla and took off again. When we came down off the mountain and back to a highway Pilar relaxed.

It was a wonderful trip and we didn’t want it to end.

We stayed at Hotel San Gabriel,
C/. Marqués de Moctezuma, 19 Ronda, Spain
Tel: 952-190-392 Fax: 952-190-117
e-mail Sept 14 – 15 Writings
Sept 17 – Oct 4 Writings
Oct 5 -12 Writings
Oct 17 – 20 Writings
Oct 25 – Nov 2 Writings
Nov 4 – 9 Writings
Nov 11 – 17 Writings
Nov 23 – 24 Writings
Nov 25 – Dec 2 Writings
Dec 5 – 8 Writings
Dec 10 – 14 Writings