Embracing an 800 year-old giant
‘Los exploradores intrépidos’ at the sacred chestnut tree of Istán. Photo © Rafael Flores
“You haven’t seen the Holy Chestnut tree?” our friend Rafa exclaimed and immediately offered to bring us there. Somehow his spontaneous kindness did not surprise us, as this is not the first time we have experienced the heartfelt hospitality of the Andalucíans.
Two days later, our friend Mamen, her son Dawda, plus my husband and I were bumping along in Rafa’s jeep, following the narrow unpaved road chipped into the mountainside. After the takeoff from the San Pedro highway, it was just us and nature. There are no stores, fuel stations or inns along the way. Only the Junta de Andalucia who repairs the roads and handful farmers who have livestock in the area regularly use the route. Which was just as well, as the turning points were few and far between.
Once in a while, we stopped to take in the view, hear a story about a nearby mountain range, investigate an abandoned cortigo or admire a predator in flight. “I might get lost in town, but I know these roads like the back of my hand”, grinned Rafa, gesticulating with his hands while avoiding fallen boulders by steering centimeters from the unprotected edge, which wispy grasses separated us from the valley deep below.
We were on what they call a Via Verde, a 45 km long walking route between Ronda and San Pedro de Alcántara. We had often thought of setting out on this 13-hour stroll, which for thousands of years was the main connection to the sea used by fishermen, nobility, explorers and thieves alike.
En route, we hear the story of the historically important, yet hard to find Castañó Santo de Istán, just 37 kilometers from the bustling Costa del Sol.
The surrounding forest area was the place of Moorish rebellions in the 16th century. In the year 1501, King Ferdinand held a mass under its sacred branches. According to legend, they prayed that the sunset would be delayed to allow the safe return of the Catholic troops to Marbella. 69 year later, more than one hundred people was present when D. Luis Ponce de León, also known as the Duke of Arcos, held a mass here to give thanks after putting an end to the Moorish rebellion of September 1570. The fact that the tree was that important 444 years ago speaks for itself…
The Castañó Santo de Istán is an enormous, ancient chestnut tree situated in a forestall zone called Sierra Real de Istán. The name Istán may reflect the importance of the Arab settlements in this area for eight centuries. Istan or stān (spelled ـستان in Perso-Arabic script) is Persian for ‘place of’ and the word also means ‘place’ or ‘homeland’ in Urdu, Hindi and Sanskrit. Could not be a coincidence, could it?
At a fork in the road, an unassuming hand-carved sign indicated the Castaño Santo and pointed us in the direction of the friendly giant. The tree is on private grounds, but thankfully the public is still allowed access. Not that there were a lot of us. Other than the distant bell-sound from of a herd of sheep or goats, we detected no other humans or animals. Rafa jokingly said that if we would meet a wild boor, which actually do frequent the area, we must run and climb up a tree. But no such luck… The trail itself was worth the drive, leading us through an enchanted forest of ancient cork trees, some covered in thick layers of moss and large spider webs.
And then, there she was, the sacred chestnut.
She stands alone in a clearing, without information posts, visitor’s benches and other guest facilities. The tree is believed to be the oldest in the entire province of Málaga, with an estimated venerable age of between 800 and 1000 years. It is Spain’s 22nd oldest tree and 4th biggest when considering size. Her colossal trunk is at least five meter in diameter, with a circumference that in some places exceeds 22 meters. The tree is about 25 meters high, with the projected area of the spectacular leafy crown covering 510,02 m2. What magical potion does the underground water contain to grown such giants?
Due to it’s special growing power, in the past, visitors would dig out and bring with them some of the earth surrounding the tree, leaving the impressive network of roots exposed to the elements. Therefore, stone terraces had now been built to protect the roots and the tree for future generations to enjoy and admire.
There is a special reverence in approaching a near thousand-year-old giant. At first I watched her from afar, letting my co-explorers revel in her magnificence. Surprisingly, though her bark was like dark veined and weathered skin, her leaves were a shade of almost spring-like green, even in late July. Slowly, I approached her and finally put my hand out to feel the pulse of this living giant.
Once touching, I did not want to let go. Almost thousand years old! How many hands have touched exactly this gap of the weathered trunk? How many have climbed into her welcoming arms? What changes have this tree not seen and felt? Every piece of its bark and limbs was like a diary, telling stories of storms, drought and floods, thunderous nights, wars, abandonment, abuse, care, and love. As one can imagine, many weddings have been celebrated under her magnificent crown through the ages.
Though the sources are unclear, some say that the Castañó Santo de Istán has been declared a Natural Monument. I have found no official information to support this fact. Other sources claim that since there has been an application to consider the sacred chestnut as a natural monument, it is assumed that it has an inherent official protection. Rafael, who is Ronda’s elected environmental representative, told us that though the tree is listed and catalogued amongst Andalucía’s unique trees and forests, it does not have any means of protection, being on private land.
As the sun started setting and we bid her our good byes, I wondered how long our giant will be allowed to grow, unguarded and unprotected from vandals and land-developers. Most similar giants around the world are located in national parks, having designated visiting hours, ticketed entrance fees, mountain rangers ready to escort away anyone who poses a threat to the giant and signs telling visitors to ‘DO NOT TOUCH!’
Yet here she stood, alone and magnificent. And one can only hope that the Castañó Santo de Istán may be protected by the centuries of pilgrims and nature lovers she has allowed into her graceful, green and enormous embrace.
Rafael, our wonderful guide and troupe leader hugging the Castaño Santo de Istán. Photo © snobb.net
Mother Superior’s Mini Storage and other nun’s tales
Hands and cross adorning top of well. Convent courtyard, Barrio San Francisco, Ronda. Photo © snobb.net
In North America, nuns are usually a thing one only see in the movies or during Halloween, which is why I keep expecting the nuns we pass in town to break into a Monte Python song and dance routine. But of course, they never do. They are real nuns.
One may be right to think that the Catholic church changes at a sub-glacial speed, but when it comes to women of the habit, their life have changed drastically in the last couple of generations. Take our hometown Ronda. There are still seven convents in operation here, but just like most places in the world, the numbers of nuns have declined significantly. Our local ‘nunnery’ has seven nuns, compared to the twenty-four nuns who lived there just a few decades ago. The demographics have changed as well, with the average age of the nuns now seemingly well over 70. The younger nuns inevitably are ‘imported’ from Africa, Asia, or ‘the Americas’, like our friend, sor Clara.
Clara was a teacher in Mexico in her former life and took the nun’s habit only a few years ago. She is young, bright and ever so friendly. From what I understood, and of course I may be very wrong, she found her space at the convento through the Internet.
As their numbers decline, the nuns have had to adapt. Though the order is cloistered, these days they go outside to shop, visit doctors or deal with government offices. We met sor Clara one day on the street carrying musical notes. She explained that the nun who used to accompany their mass is getting too old, so she is taking classes to be able to fulfill this task. Somehow our conversation turned to food (a favourite topic of conversation for the Spanish…) and my husband offered to make sor Clara some chicken with mole sauce from her native land. Clara was ever so excited. However, she said, it would have to be this coming week, because she was going back to Mexico for her vacation in August, a perk she had never expected when she became a nun. I do not know if holidays are now an exclusive right for Dominican or Franciscan nuns, or maybe just a special arrangement for nuns of leisure-loving Spain? Or could it possibly be part of a new universal Catholic nun’s employment plan? Regardless, times have indeed changed when cloistered nuns have vacations…
Their role in society has changed, as well. Gone are the days when nuns and monks were responsible for virtually all education in Spain. Equally, distant are the days when you would call on a Hermano or Hermana to heal your ailing relatives. Though some nuns in Ronda still teach school children, they are few government approved and certified educators or legally qualified health practitioners amongst these ladies of the cloth. Just a generation back, cloistered nuns would grow most of their food and literally never be seen outside the cloister walls. They would refuse to see doctors, because they were supposed to take care of their own – and God would see to the rest. Today, the nuns of our barrio have annual medical checkups and receive outside care when needed. Ironically, last time they had their checkup, the only nun passing the test with flying colours was the ancient, tiny and ever-smiling Mother Superior, who makes my 83-year-old mom look like a youngster…
Of course with no more teaching or healing to tend to, the nuns have to think of new ways to bring in funds to keep up their benevolent work. We knew that our convent, like others in town, still make and sell baked goods to have a bit of cash flow, but we had no idea what their other business ventures entailed – until one day we decided to move…
My husband and I have spent two winters in a cold and drafty flat here in Ronda and finally decided to move into a smaller, warmer place before the weather turns this fall. People usually associate Spain with heat and though our summers see temperatures above 40*C, our winters can be very cold. For this reason, traditional Andalucían houses were built with thick stone walls and with small window and door openings. Unfortunately, many ‘modern’ buildings skimp on isolation, combine paper-thin walls with large windowpanes, without double of triple glazing to isolate against temperature dips and loud parties.
Looking for a place to rent in Ronda was easy this time around, in contrast to when we originally got here. We sent out a ‘What’s App’ message to a few friends and neighbours and were offered the future retirement flat of friends of friends. It is perfect and has doors and windows that actually close, so we wont be heating for the crows this winter. We asked our landlady if they had a storage for the 56 boxes of books and art that we brought from Canada, which shook her head. “Ask the nuns’ she said, as obviously everybody in our neigbourhood except us know that the nuns rent out storage space.
We went directly to the convent down the street, ringing the bell at the gate. From the not entirely state-of-the-art intercom system came an “Ave María Purísima” in a quivery old voice. My husband who thankfully was an altar boy in his youth answered ”Sin pecado concebida” and magically, things started happening on the inside. Amazing what can be achieved when one knows ones prayers… Two nuns, one tiny and old, the other more robust and double chinned (both perfect cast for “The Sound of Music”) came to the gate. Still wanting to assure that we were of pure intent, they inquired about our errand from behind the locked gate. Once it was established that my husband was Mexican and even knew Aguascalientes, where sor Clara came from, we were not only let in the gate and through the courtyard. Like long-lost relatives, we were kissed on both cheeks and lead to an inner sanctium and up to the second floor, while the nuns chatted happily on.
Where does one store things in a convent, one may ask? I imagined that we would rent one of the spare nun’s cell and that other unused cells where rented out as similar storage. Though this may be an excellent future business idea for the nuns, I was wrong, Instead, they took us to a large room on the upper floor, with food donations for the poor in one corner, beds and matrasses for single moms and other needy against another wall, broken furniture on the third and a spare corner in between that we could use. The rent was a bit more we had hoped to spend, but for their shining faces, so happy to help and frankly, to have visitors to chat with, and for the story in itself, it was truly priceless.
I mean, who else gets to keep their stuff in Mother Superior’s Mini Storage?
Cloistered nun on her way back from shopping, Barrio San Francisco. Photo © snobb.net
“Roll camera.” “Zet.” “MOTÓR!!!”
Wide shot with grips, hidden stars and Texas DP. Photo © snobb.net
Last week I had the opportunity to play a fly on the wall on a film shoot who shall remain nameless in a small Andalucian mountain village that also shall not be named. Having spent most of my work life in the North American film industry, I found it very interesting to observe this European hybrid production, with crews from three different countries working in at least as many languages, let alone all the interesting accents!
Casting lineup with rare June rains in Ronda. Photo© diariosur.es – http://www.diariosur.es/interior/201406/25/misterioso-rodaje-ronda-20140625000454.html
It all started when I was at a meeting at the Ronda Tourism office, helping organize an event called Natur@Ronda. Unbeknownst to me, a casting was organized the next day in the same Palacio and the casting director was looking for northern looking residents who could ‘play tourists’ for the movie. As a token foreigner, I was asked if I could meet her the next day. Knowing nothing about the project, I showed up the following morning. Coming around the corner, I saw a row of easily 500 locals eagerly lining up all the way across Ronda’s famous Puente Nuevo. As I had an appointment and were not about to line up for hours in the rain to be an extra, I went to front of the line, probably causing some racial slurs about guiris, the slightly derogatory name for foreigners.
I have worked with many extras through the years, but I have never been at an actual casting nor been an extra before. My work, by choice, has always been behind the camera. I would gladly have joined the crew, but the position on offer was not in the art department, but as a ‘foreign tourist’.
Most extras are blissfully unaware of how production staff perceives them. You are generally treated like cattle, as ‘bodies’ to be dispersed and flung about. Though many aspiring actors hope to and believe they could be discovered once they get to set, the truth is that as an extra you are simply a block of colour, or a fuzzy object moving about in the background. There is absolutely no glamour about it, though thankfully, for this particular production, the casting crew was exceptionally nice and treated us extras not only well, but indeed like real human beings.
As most productions go, the schedule was changed and re-changed, but finally ‘our’ big day came. We car-pooled to the village on the cliff, only getting lost a single time on the way. Once there, it was clear that the movies had come to town. Almost every street in the tiny town had a scattering of production vans, pop up tents, equipment carts or stacked camera gear. I noted that the gear was basically the same as what we use in Canada. They use dolley track, sand bags and wedges, just like we do. The camera gear say Arri and the high rollers looks identical to the ones used on the other side of the pond. I almost got ‘homesick’…
More interesting, the style or shall we say fashion of film crews is basically the same all around the world. The camera assistants and technical crew always seem to wear a freebee T-shirt from some shoot, cut off jeans or army pants and their gloves or roll of camera tapes attached with a pony clip to their belts. There is always lots of black, dusty black that is. Here as well the ‘pretty departments’, as in hair, makeup and wardrobe, are more originally dressed, sporting a slightly grunge look with no visible brand names. After all, we were shooting in the boonies.
As cast and crew emerged, I realized that this was no regular co-production. The directors and DP all spoke American, the latter surely from the deep South. The production crew was mostly Spanish and the camera crew was primarily Romanian, all heavily smoking and with a je ne sais quoi Eastern European style. Add to this that they just had come from shooting in Finland and one could not invent a more curious melting pot!
“Roll Camera!”, the AD would order. “Zet” was the answer from the Romanian camera operator, followed by the Spanish AD calling “Motór!” into her radio. And so the day progressed, shot by shot, retake by retake, with locals peaking out from windows and around corners. And we, the by now befriended-for-life extras, would be sent left and right and there and thither, to cross in front of the camera as a flashing bit of colour while the stars continued their dramatic lovers quarrel in a happy reunion of American, Spanish and Spanglish.
12×12 grip reflector against church wall. Photo © snobb.net
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BLOGGING TOUR – Passing on the baton
The last year we resided in Vancouver, in 2012, I was living vicariously through the sumptuous blogs of two Andalucia-based friends - writer Arpi Shively and French pastry chef and artist Lala Ema de Haro. When the heavy grey BC skies got me down, I escaped into their sinfully delightful epistles from the Spanish South, and it is thanks to these two women that I did not Shish Kebab myself with one of our many umbrellas during our last rainy months in Canada.
Last week, Arpy asked me if I would take the baton in a ‘blogging tour’. Without thinking, I said “YES, Of course. How exciting!” So here is my contribution to the tour.
How it works is that bloggers can share their reflections on what they are writing, why, and how, and then passing on the baton to other bloggers, thereby creating a virtual chain that keeps growing.
As I never can follow rules, I have moved the questions around.
Question 1 – What am I working on?
Well, that is a big question, since according to my husband, I do not know how to sit still.
Answer 1: Of course I should be working on my Spanish grammar, especially past-, future- and conditional tenses. But that was not the question, was it?
Answer 1, revised: These days I am frenetically working on restoring several pieces of bug- infested peasant style farm furniture, found, reclaimed or donated by friends and neighbours to satisfy my insatiable appetite for restoring and bringing unclaimed treasures back to life. I am also volunteering on another event, Natur@Ronda, happening next weekend and continuing my environmental work through Ronda Limpia. I probably ought to look for a paying job, but the employment prospects in Andalucía are so daunting that I feel my time is better spent helping where I can and hoping that through some Karmic intervention a real job will come my way…
As far as writing is concerned, I have never considered it work, as it is something I always have loved to do.
Question 3 – Why do I write what I do?
Living in Andalucía is an artist’s dream. Sadly I do not paint, as this landscape warrants, deserves and begs to be honored with a painter’s skilled brush. Thus, I write instead.
I write blogs because I, for now, have given up on writing novels and film scripts. In times past I started and abandoned mAny a book and movie script. The epic story of the killing of pope John Paul I, best-seller book adaptations and Indian ‘indie’ movies. Now, I have decided that I need to grasp what I can handle today and just write for the joy of writing.
Since I am not shameless enough to consider myself a writer or an artist, blogs are a nice way of writing without worrying about captive audiences, publishers and agents.
I write what peaks my interest, hoping that somebody out there will have joy out of reading it, even if it is ‘just’ my old mom back in Norway. I do not expect fame or fortune through my blogs, but it warmed my heart when at my father’s funeral reception, the mother of my brothers ex came up to me and said that she enjoyed reading my blogs and asked me to please continue writing. Similar comments have come from a wheat-free baker I used to frequent in Vancouver and well, a few other may I call them ‘followers’? So I write about the world as I see it and hope that the small snippets of reality I highlight may give enjoyment or food for thought, be it for one person or hundreds.
Question 4 – How does my writing process work?
I write ‘down the bones’, spew out my idea without breaks or concern for the content and then edit and pare down from there.
At any given moment I have dozens of blog posts half done and in progress, some in need of the perfect heading photo, others needing a finishing polish, a bit of grammar doctoring or a final point.
Though I am Norwegian, I write in English, the language I have lived with and primarily spoken since I arived to a university in Canada a lifetime ago.
My ideas and subjects come to me in the form of an image, a spoken line of a passer-by, a fly on a wall, a smell that brings back past memories or any other thought provoking impulse.
Like when I lived in Paris, Quebec City or LA, I am forever inspired to write about what I see around me here in Andalucía. Sadly I cannot say the same about Vancouver, which seemed to stifle my creative process. Southern Spain has the opposite effect. The unpredictability of life here, the picturesque characters (as picked out from an Almodovar movie…) and the stunning dramatic landscape seem to hold endless stories – yet to be told.
Question 2 – How does my work differ from others of this genre?
Heavens, how should I know… Well, here are some things I believe are unique about my blog:
* I do not write about mundane matters, day-to-day shopping lists of activities, as I do not think that is of great interest.
* I write stories from an insider/outsider p.o.v. from Andalucia, Norway or where else I may find myself.
* I try to research and bring some facts and figures to each post, though I cannot always wow for their validity.
* I attempt to end on a humorous note, or introduce a somewhat moral tale, even if it hints on the ironic.
* And, finally I never take myself or my writing too seriously!
Passing on the BLOG TOUR baton:
And now to introduce my friend who will offer the next stop on this blogging tour, this time someone from back across the pond:
Arleigh Wood is a fabulous young Vancouver artist, whom I met many years ago when I organized the art exhibit I am grateful. Arleigh has participated extensively in national and international exhibitions, has work in private and corporate collection and has been featured in various interior design magazines including Canadian House and Home. Her paintings have also been used in films and television shows like the Designer Guys.
Get to know Arleigh in this video and chck out her blog.
“Open the cage of birds” © Arleigh Wood, Vancouver, Canada
“My work is conceived from the notion of glimpsing into an illusory world that exists below the surface of our known physical and tangible lives.”
Enjoy the blogging tour and thank you for taking the baton, Arleigh!
moving garden (4 of 7) © Arleigh Wood
The World Cup comes to the village
There are few things that bring out peoples nationalism like the World Cup. Soccer is to the Spanish what hockey is to Canadians and cross-country skiing is to Norwegians. Simply BIG! ‘Futbol’ is Spain’s national passion. Furthermore, Spain won the last cup, so expectations are running high and vulnerable victorious egos are at stake…
Personally, I rather watch a field of blowing grass than a television screen with people running after a ball for 90 minutes. Especially if you have grown men yelling uncontrollably at the TV-screen simultaneously, which is usually the case. However, when the World Cup descends upon us through all media channels, soccer ‘fever’ hits young and old. So though I do not care who wins, I have to admit that I do find the hoopla around the cup a very interesting social phenomenon.
The evening that Spain was playing their first game I left my husband by the TV, yelling interchangeably “GOAL!” and “Oh NO!” to the TV set. I met our neighbour Maria del Mar outside, telling me that her husband had told her not to cross in front of the TV. Happy to be out of the way, we walked together up the street, passing by other houses with more primal roars.
We live in a typical rural Spanish neighbourhood where everybody knows everything about everybody else’s lives and all seem to be somehow related, be it through blood, marriage, employment or fence lines. Like most Spanish villages, life here happens outside, in public view. Therefore, there was no surprise that the World Cup also took to the streets.
In our San Francisco plaza, the restaurants and bodegas had brought their televisions outside. Screens were hanging precariously from window shutters, roped onto walls or placed freestanding for public view in the plaza. The majority of our barrio residents were gathered in front of the screens, sporting their national flag, el Rojo shirts and other team paraphernalia. Cervezas and tinto de veranos were ordered in pace with the sport commentary, increasing in speed and velocity as Spain let in goal after goal, finally ending 1-5 against Netherland. The Spaniards ordered more beer to drown their sorrows.
Funny What’sApp messages started circulating. One was saying: Spain has 25.6 % unemployment and a minimum monthly salary of 666 euros per month. Netherland has 7.3% unemployment and a minimum monthly salary of 1301 euros per month. And we worry about 5 goals…
During Spain’s second game, people were back in the square in their red shirts, though the roars were somewhat dampened as it became clear that the national team would loose again. By the third game, even some of the Spaniards had to admit that their beloved players were not up to snuff. Most screens were moved back inside and many shirts seemed to have been left in the dirty laundry basket. Spain’s players were back on the plane and the last news was that the players fled through a backdoor at the airport to avoid the disappointed looks of their fans and the inevitable tricky questions of the press.
Except once, statistically speaking, the same country has never won the World Cup of soccer twice in a row. One has to ask oneself if being ‘the best’ makes the players less hungry for victory? I suppose if you are ‘on top’, the only way forward is down. As I said, I do not care who wins. To me the fact that a soccer player is sold for one hundred million euros (or was it dollars?) for a handful years, is simply sick.
However… I must admit that I was cheering on Ghana when they played against Germany the other day. If I am going to cheer on anyone, I’ll be cheering on the underdog!
When Ronda goes Rrrromántica…
Ronda resident dressed in classic 19. century peasant gear. Photo © Rafael Flores
Let me be completely clear, my husband abhors dressing up. In all the years I have known him, I have never seen him as much as paint on a fake moustache. To him, Halloween and carnivals are a waste of time, costumes are plain foolish, and the people within them even more so. But when Ronda goes romantic, there is no saying what people will do…
Ronda is admittedly and quintessentially romantic. With its dramatic natural surroundings, the echoes of it’s Arab and Roman ancestry, it’s notorious history of mountain bandits and the favoured site for visiting poets and artists, one can easily fall in love with the place. But of course, that is no reason for my significant other to dress up in a “silly costume”. So what is? The answer is Ronda Romántica.
To understand the tradition of Ronda Romántica we need to go back 500 years, just a few decades after the Moors were expelled from Spain by the conquering Catholic monarchs. The Arabs had established ‘Arunda’ as an important agrarian centre. Known as Los Montes de la Lana (The Mountains of Wool) the region was the biggest producer of sheep and goats in the entire Kingdom of Granada. New nobility and re-population by Spanish brought increased commercial activity here and hence a need for a local livestock fair. Ronda’s Feria de Mayo was established in 1509, making it the second oldest fair in Andalucía. Though the fair’s popularity ebbed during the end of the last century, it was reestablished with great success last year under the name Ronda Romántica.
Like an old-fashioned wedding, Ronda Romántica is a proper 3-day affair, not only inviting the whole town, but also fifty surrounding towns and villages sharing our same history. This popular May Fair celebrates the towns colorful past with parades, markets, period costumes and historical reenactments. Amongst the parades are horses with richly adorned carriages and donkeys pulling simple wooden carts, also decked out in period for the occasion. The entire historic quarter of Ronda is closed off to cars and transformed into a bustling country fair. Thousands of people dress up as 18th and 19th century peasants, nobility, courtesans, Goyescas (the women painted by Francisco de la Goya) and soldiers from the Napoleonic war, including several more or less successful versions of the man himself.
The big crowd pleasers are the historic reenactments. Take the reenactment of the battle of 1814, when, armed with pitchforks and wooden pistols, local peasants fought off the invading French soldiers. Or later at the town hall, when a bandolero (bandit) robs the treasury, gets caught by the police, and in the nick of time is saved from the awaiting gallows by an armada of bandoleros on horseback, disappearing into the sunset to storming applause. During Ronda Romántica we all cheer for the bad guys and even the most docile looking mother has a gun tucked into her skirts. After the figting is over, since this is make-believe after all, the dead, the injured and the victorious alike fraternize over cervezas in the nearest taverna.
The Ronda May Fair is more popular than ever and very much here to say. Though the official organizers are the town hall and tourist office, much of the credit should go to the locals who spend literally months sewing matching historical garments for themselves and their offspring, and to local businesses who decorate their stores and restaurants to create an unique and romantic ambiance.
In all this action we have lost sight of my husband. Where is he, the stoic non-dresser upper? We search along narrow lanes and cobbled plazas, beneath balconies draped with mantillas (embroidered shawls) and bursting with scarlet geraniums, through wooden market stalls serving local fare and the not entirely healthy best-seller ‘Choripan’ (an open-faced grilled chorizo sausage served on a thick slice of peasant bread) We continue through the commotion of dresses-up towns folks parading under the banner of their own village. Finally, we find him walking with his wood-carving fellows under the flag of the San Francisco neighbourhood.
Never in my life did I imagine seeing my spouse dressed up as a bandit, parading the streets while sharing a bota of wine with a vicarious passer-by. But when Ronda goes romantic, my husband joins the bandits…
Locals from fifty Serranía villages parading through Ronda’s Casco Histórico during Ronda Romántica 2014
Global goals & local action – our first annual ‘Ronda Limpia’ event
Hip Hop group ‘The Dreamers’ performs during Día Ronda Limpia. Photo © Medio Ambiente de Ronda
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Though it is debated whether it was the American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead who first spoke these much-quoted words, it cannot be disputed that they indeed are very true.
Little did I know last November when I presented an environmental campaign idea for the Ronda city hall that half a year later we would be celebrating our first annual Día de Ronda Limpia. Ronda Limpia is a community movement for a cleaner Ronda – as simple as that. It is the joint effort of the environmental delegation or Medio Ambiente of Ronda and a few dedicated volunteers. In the months since we started we have established weekly guerilla-style symbolic cleanups of public areas, monthly diplomas to the ‘green entity’ of the month, communication and education through regular press releases, social media blasts and blog posts on our Ronda Limpia web site. And finally, we have created not only Ronda’s, but also Andalucía’s first day celebrating, educating and inspiring the 3 R’s – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Having organized several art exhibits and non-profit fundraisers in Vancouver, BC, I was curious about how it would be to help organize an event here in rural Spain. Clearly the audience potential is much smaller in a town of 40.000 inhabitants than in a metropolitan city of Vancouver with more than 2.2 million people. But smaller certainly has it advantages. Take for instance the competition for local news. Regardless of how successful our event would be in Vancouver, with celebrity performers and five figures raised in one single evening, we would hardly ever be mentioned in the local press. We simply weren’t newsworthy enough.
Here in Ronda I am pleased to say that due to the lack of major crimes and other groundbreaking news, we have been amply awarded with local press coverage for every one of our press releases and public presentations. Equally, finding a decent event venue in a city like Vancouver is a very costly affair that slashes deep into many an organization’s fund- and awareness-raising efforts. Yet here in Ronda we were lent the city’s very best venue, the world-class Palacio de Congresos, in the busiest month of the year without having to pay a single céntimo.
Hearing this one would think that organizing events in Spain basically happens all on its own while one peacefully enjoys ones extended siesta, sangria in hand. Of course this is not the case.
Whereas in Vancouver I could find a hundred educated, committed and hard-working event volunteers by putting a single ad on ‘Go Volunteer’, here in rural Spain the concept of volunteering and the duty to ‘give back’ is not that deeply engraved in the public psyche. Added to this, the Spanish sense of time is a whole chapter to itself. So, though we had 27 volunteers signed up to help from just one high schools alone, barely a handful people showed up at our volunteer information meeting the wk prior to the event. Granted this is exam time for high school students, but I doubt that was teh real rreason. A couple of families (and friends, of course…) helped set up the entire event, while we feared we would never be ready on time. The morning of the event, the same group was still making signs and preparing the art exhibit until minutes before the doors opened. But we managed, and Lord and behold, as the event started and people bgan steaming in, so did the smiling volunteers, by the dozen!
For our very first public event, and with no prior track record, the 2014 día de Ronda Limpia went immensely well. We guesstimated having a couple of thousand visitors, all without printing a single poster to pollute our city! Aided and brought to Ronda by the Casa de la Cultura, a Cordoba based group called Vibra-tó gave an amazing musical performance with recycled instruments, as well as a workshop on how to make your very own clarinet, flute or string instrument from hoses, toilet plungers, dustpans and other discarded household items. The local Hip Hop group ‘The Dreamers’ sang “eres boootiiifooool” to a sea of whooping local teenage groupies and a procession of ‘clean’ dogs and recycling magicians helped make the day an unforgettable one.
The excibit of participating works from the recycled art competition showcased more than one hundred sculptures, utilities and drawings from local citizens and artists from as far away as Canada and the USA. We counted 783 audience votes for their favourite pieces of art. Even two members of my own furniture restoration class (and active members of the Ladies of Ronda Dumpster Diving Society…), Lola and Crescencia, held a workshop on how to knit baskets and othr items out of old plastic bags. By the way, Crescencia’s piece, a decoupaged chair covered in newspaper clipping, should have won the best name award, had we had it. Called ‘La Silla de la Crisis’ (the Crisis Chair), her piece was covered exclusively in bad news!
Alas, the event has been wrapped up until next year and what remains is to thank all the participants, artists, volunteers, public servants and dog owners who participated. Also a personal thank you to Suzy, Annie, Ruby, Jane and Lala who participated from further afield!
Our work for a cleaner town has only just begun. We still have garbage outside containers, pesticide use and dog ‘droppings’ in our alleys and, but Ronda wasn’t built in a day, so one cannot expect this venerable old lady to change over night either…
Call for entries: Exhibit your recycled art in a 14-century Andalucían convent!
Artist and non-artists alike are invited to take part in a recycled art competition on May 17th, El día Ronda Limpia in the Palacio de Congresos de Ronda – Convento de Santo Domingo by the world famous Puente Nuevo in Ronda, Andalucía, Spain.
Ronda Limpia is a public engagement initiative and volunteer community movement to encourage good environmental habits and promote the famous 3 R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. In addition to community clean ups and media releases, Ronda Limpia will host a free environmental event on May 17th, the international day of recycling. The city of Ronda is lending us the lovely Santo Domingo convent where most of the activities will happen in the open courtyard. The recycled art will be exhibited in the stunning adjoining chapel.
Built on Arabic foundations at the instigation of King Fernando II and Queen Isabel I in 1485 after the fall of Ronda to the Catholics, the building has been rebuilt over the centuries in Mudejar (post-Reconquest Arabic), gothic and Renaissance styles. It has been a Dominican convent, a private mausoleum for the Moctezuma family, a jail and even a tribunal for the Spanish Inquisition. Abandoned for years, it was reopened in 2005 as a museum and conference space. The convent has seen major exhibits, such as Goya, Miró and Picasso, and was the location for the worldwide launch of the Playstation game series ‘Gran Turismo 6’ earlier this spring. We are therefore excited to host the first annual day of Ronda Limpia at this special location!
The art exhibit has 3 categories:
- Recycled Art and Sculptures
- Drawings: ‘Mi Ronda Más Limpia’ (My cleaner Ronda)
- Utility pieces created by recycled materials
Presentation dates: All objects must be brought to the Santo Domingo convent between the dates of May 5 – 10, 2014. Together with the work, we require a note with the names of the creator/s, the name of the piece and if possible a list of materials.
Foreign entries may be sent to us by prior arrangements. Due to the Spanish economy and since this is a volunteer event, we cannot help with shipping of art pieces. All pieces will be carefully recycled afterwards, unless the artists wish to pick them up.
Who can participate: All individuals and groups of any age or ability are welcome to contribute recycled artwork.
Prizes: Three prizes in each category will receive a diploma from the city of Ronda, a Ronda Limpia T-shirt, bag and other gifts.
Exhibition: All art objects and drawings will take part in a collective exhibit on the day of Ronda Limpia on May 17th in the Palacio de Congresos y Exposisiones del Convento Santo Domingo, Ronda, Málaga, Spain.
If you like to participate, please contact:
Email: karethe@snobb.net
Phone +34 952 873 240 ext 3 (Spanish speaking only)
Phone +34 602 455 528 (my Spanish mobile)
For more information:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/255295777962796/
Our web site should be up in a few weeks: www.rondalimpia.com
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Who would have thought mom would move into a flat!
My mother, bless her heart, has always looked at apartment living with distain. Dad and her enjoyed separate floors in their house, which possibly can account for their long life together. When I would mention that they ought to consider moving into a smaller abode, my mom would look at me in horror and tell me the same story about how some friends had sold their lovely family home and moved into a flat, instantly regretting it. Apartment living, according to mom was like being confined to live in a rabbit cage. Moving into such limited quarters would invariably lead to sadness, depression and early death. Apartment blocks were veritable eyesores, particularly the hyper-modern triple complex piercing right out onto the fjord in the center of their picturesque town. Nothing would ever change her mind. She planned to leave their house feet first!
The problem with living in a big house is that one tends to fill it, especially if one lives there for more than 40 years, which was the case for mom and dad. We moved into our house when I was in primary school in the 1970’s. Small Norwegian towns didn’t have many apartments then and those that did exist were only considered suitable for bachelors, widowers and the working class.
Our new house was not a Modern Scandinavian Design showpiece, but it was big and comfortable and suited a young couple with three kids, as they were at the time. It had views to fields and hills and even to an old ski jump, and mom loved to sit in her favourite chair and watch ‘her painting’ as the sun disappeared on the horizon. 70’s houses had an abundance of storage, so every room had a wall of floor to ceiling closets. As the years passed, each closet was filled to the brim, as was the attic, the basement and the garage. Especially since my dad, bless his soul, had a certain affinity for buying ‘stuff’, acquiring an enormous collection of maritime antiques and rarities, old gym equipment and, amongst his oddest collections, hand-held vacuum cleaners. Is there any reason my mom thought that moving into a two bedroom flat was simply impossible?
When my father passed away last fall and mom fell a month later, needing by-weekly hospital care, she may have started to wonder about living alone in a large house with too many rooms, an unused indoor pool, a cavernous double garage, as well as a lawn to cut and driveways to clean. It is quite possible to live with uncut grass, but snow is a whole other matter. November came and so did the snow, as is to be expected in Norway. Mom had to get help to make a trail to the street and onto the garage. The next morning the snow would be back again and she would have to find help to remove what she calls the ‘Berlin wall’, which appears after the snowplow passes. If not, she would be stuck. Recently she told me that her car was caught in a snow bank. Luckily the mailman passed by and could give her a push. Norway in winter is not for the weak of heart. Maybe, just maybe, my mom thought their house on top of the hill wasn’t completely ideal for a lady in her advanced years?
Then one day my mom admitted to having gone, PURELY because she was curious, to a flat viewing. Of course she said afterwards that the flat was way too small and had no view and no space for her dining table for 18 and… In other words, it was official, flat living was not for her! Yet, a few weeks later mom said she had met a lady in church who had moved into a flat and loving it. Mom was invited to see the wonder and declared afterwards that if she has that amount of space it would not be too bad to live in a flat. Not that she planned to move… Only days later she met a former neighbor who spoke excitedly about her new abode. My mom went to see it and came out claiming this is where she wanted to live. Sadly it wasn’t for sale. Mom is evidently not the only old widow in our hometown looking for simpler living. But this flat-thing had now peaked my mom’s interest, she was on the hunt.
Mom called one day asking me to go to a real estate site to look at the photos of a flat for sale. To my great surprise, the apartment was located in the infamous ‘eye sore’ complex that mom always had been complaining about. Looking at the pictures, one saw the other side of the coin: a lovely, sunny, clean and modern flat with a big balcony looking out over and indeed overhanging the fjord just above where some brave Vikings take their daily morning dip. The flat came with heated floors, underground parking (no shoveling!) and ample storage. It even had its own boat mooring spot! I asked mom “What is there not to love?”
Knowing that mom would not manage to envision living anywhere if she saw the flat at the same time as dozens of other interested buyers, my brother arranged a private viewing. (Old ladies should be allowed a few perks) As expected, mom came out saying that even though it was a nice flat, the kitchen was painted too dark and that the underground parking would be hard for her to navigate and… She wasn’t sure. Being a Libra, my mom can only buy a dress after bringing the two contestants home on loan and trying each on several times. But when it comes to buying a flat, there is no time for such dwelling. It was a situation of now or never. In spite of all her misgivings about flat living, my mom bought the fjord view apartment, which proves that one thankfully can learn to appreciate new things at the age of 83.
And as far as her mooring spot is concerned, she can always get a speedboat and take up a new hobby.
Postcard from Sierra de Líjar, February 2, 2014
Spring is here! Well not really, as we have had some rather cold and rainy days lately. But when we went for a hike in the Sierra de Lijar region this Sunday, we witnessed our very first almond blossoms, as well as wild-growing daffodils and a very rare pink orchid, whose Latin name has escaped me.
Sierra de Lijar is located between the white villages of Algodonales and Olvera in Spain’s southernmost province of Cádiz. The area is a favoured launching-spot for para-gliders, as well as Griffin vultures, neither of which seemed to mind sharing the same air space. Lovely site!
With more rain in the forecast, we still have to wear Gortex coats and sport wind-worn umbrellas. But as the fields have taken on a shade of light green and the almond trees in our back yard are bursting their buds, we know that warmer days are just ahead.
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