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Showing posts from 2019

Zambomba in Bar Cristobal (now el Piojo) around 2006-2007

Francisca Pizarro Torres 1910-1989

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In the brutal suppression of civilians that followed the Nationalist uprising in July 1936, women were not spared.  It was enough simply to be related to a Republican sympathiser.  This is the story of an incredibly courageous Alcalá woman who saw her family members gunned down by firing squad and who only survived by the skin of her teeth.  It was written by her granddaughter, Juana María Malia Vera, and published in Apuntes Históricos de Alcalá de los Gazules 2006 .  The original is also available on the blog  Historia de Alcalá de los Gazules . My grandmother Francisca was born in Alcalá in August 1910 to Francisca Torres Amador and Antonio Pizarro Álvarez.  She had three brothers, José, Antonio and Francisco, and one sister, Maria.  Her mother died when Francisca was only nine years old, leaving her in charge of the household and her four siblings.  The youngest, Maria, was only two.  At that point she started to wear black, remaining in mourning for the rest of her life

Miguel Fernández Tizón: "El Cartucho"

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In the early 20th century in Alcalá de los Gazules, Antonio and María had five sons and a daughter.  Then in July 1936 the country was torn apart by a nationalist uprising and a civil war, which inflicted tragedy on this family as on countless others.  One son died at the Front in a bomb blast.  One escaped to France and never returned.  One was executed by firing squad.  One had to hide out in the hills for years. One, Miguel, spent most of his adult life in prison - this is his story.  Of the daughter, nothing is known except her name, Catalina. L-R: Miguel, Cristóbal, Francisco "Miguelillo", born in 1915, was the youngest and most daring of the brothers.  He used to say he had so many narrow escapes on and off the battlefield he must have had his own guardian angel. The nickname Cartucho (rifle cartridge) was inherited from his grandfather, who as a boy had liked to hide and explode cartridges to frighten the girls.  Miguel adopted it when he joined the Resistanc

Homage to the Muleteers of Alcalá

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The Alcornocales Natural Park is one of the last places in Europe where mules still work for a living.  During the cork harvest, which takes place in the summer months, they are used to carry the strips of cork down steep narrow tracks through dense woodland to a clearing where it can be loaded onto lorries.  The rest of the year they graze peacefully on patches of open space in and around the town.  They are cared for year-round by a dedicated team of arrieros (the dictionary translation of that word is muleteer, but as you will see, the are more than just drovers).  Last weekend during the feria, the arrieros of Alcalá were honoured at a special event in the caseta la Gloria .  Here are some extracts from the tribute speech, written and presented by local anthropologist Agustin Coca. "Today ... we acknowledge the professionalism and wisdom of a handful of people who weave their lives in with those of their animals, through good times and bad, through rain, wind and

Diego Valle and the birth of socialism in Alcalá

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The source of material for this article is a paper by Ismael Almagro Montes de Oca, "El Movimiento Obrero en Alcalá de los Gazules en el Último Tercio del Siglo XIX", published in Apuntes Históricos y de Nuestro Patrimonio 2019 , and online at  historiadealcaladelosgazules.blogspot.com . Alcalá de los Gazules is known as the “ cradle of Andalusian socialism ” mainly because of the work of those who rebuilt the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) in the dying days of the Franco dictatorship.  But its socialist history dates back to the 19th century, with the Agrupación Socialista   founded by Diego Valle Regife and his comrades in 1886.  It was only the second such group in the whole of Andalucía , and the first in a rural context. The first signs of workers’ organisation in Spain came with the foundation of the Asociación Internacional de Trabajadores (First International) in 1864, and the Glorious Revolution of 1868 which led to the rapid spread of anarchism amon

"When I die, don't let anyone touch my things" - R.I.P. Juan Carlos Aragón

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Cadiz is mourning the death of one its best-loved Carnival characters, Juan Carlos Arágon Becerro, aged just 51.  Philosopher, writer, poet, singer and musician, Aragón was the brain behind more than forty of the colourful singing groups that participated in this unique festival over the past 25 years, writing lyrics, designing costumes, and performing in many prize-winning  chirigotas and comparsas .  Aragón was one of the generation that made the Carnaval de Cádiz famous across Spain and beyond. It's up there with Mardi Gras in terms of ingenuity, if not scale, and has now been nominated for inclusion on the UNESCO Cultural Heritage list. It's impossible to describe the harmony and colour of a comparsa in full flow: the video below, his contribution to this year's Carnival, gives you a hint of the flavour. A few years ago Aragón wrote a poem, " Testamento ", giving instuctions on what to do after his death.  I enjoyed it so much I translated it i