La Vida Alcalaína

  The old town hall on the Plaza Alta Visitors to Alcalá will not immediately recognise this little white village as a city, but in fact it has had city status since 1876. This year celebrates the 150th anniversary of its change in status from Villa to Ciudad, and the alcalaínos have been celebrating. Some historical background During the decade leading up to 1876 Spain had experienced considerable political turmoil. In 1868 there was a revolution against Queen Isabel II, who was deeply unpopular. Known as "La Gloriosa", the revolt was led by two former army generals, Juan Prim and Francisco Serrano. It started with a naval mutiny in Cádiz, and following her defeat at the Battle of Alcolea, near Cordoba, Isabel fled to France. Serrano became president of a new Provisional Government but this was doomed to failure as it was comprised of a mishmash of Liberals, Moderates and Republicans with nothing in common except a desire to get rid of Isabel. They did however manage to dra...

I'm not sure how extensively International Women's Day is celebrated in England these days - most people had pretty much lost interest when I left 18 years ago, believing the job was done.  But here in the land of machismo it's a still a big thing and events go on all week in Alcalá, organised by the town hall in conjunction with the adult education centre (SEP Maestra Inmaculada Almagro) and the Asociación de Mujeres de Alcalá de los Gazules (AMAG).  To understand why IWD is still a big deal here, you need to be aware that women's rights arrived much later in Spain than in most of western Europe, held back by nearly forty years of fascist dictatorship under Franco and the influence of the Catholic Church which played a major role in supporting it.   IWD march in Cadiz March 2926 By 1975, the year of Franco's death, men and women in the UK had equal rights in the eyes of the law.  But in Spain adultery, divorce, homosexuality, abortion and owning contraceptives ...

 ... No, our provincial capital hasn't turned into Magaluf. We're talking about 1625, when Spain and England were at war over something or other. (If you really want to know see  Anglo-Spanish War (1625–1630 .) George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham and Lord High Admiral, wanted to destroy Spain's economy by raiding ships laden with gold and silver from the Americas and taking over the port towns such as Cadiz. Around a hundred ships and 15,000 men were readied for the Cadiz Expedition, led by Sir Edward Cecil - a proven soldier but with no experience of naval warfare. They left Plymouth on 6 October 1625 but bad weather in the Bay of Biscay caused delays and damaged many ships. By the time they reached Cadiz they had nearly run out of supplies.  Cecil was surprised by how well the city was fortified (after the English pirate Francis Drake "singed the King of Spain's beard" there in 1587, and Anglo-Dutch forces burned the city to the ground in 1596, the gaditanos...

Many years ago I read a book called "The Anarchists of Casas Viejas" by an American anthropologist called Jerome Mintz.  Casas Viejas was the old name for Benalup-Casas Viejas, about 15 km from Alcalá. Back in 1933 it was the scene of an event which shook the nation to the core and helped bring down the socialist government of the Second Republic. One of the key figures in that event was a young woman who went by the name "Libertaria", which piqued my romantic imagination. I vowed to find out more about her and one day write her story.  It's taken a while, but the book is now out and is available  on Amazon  worldwide, in paperback or Kindle format, at giveaway prices. The introduction to the book is reproduced below. Subsequent chapters cover the evolution of anarcho-syndicalism (also known as libertarian communism) in the area and why it was so attractive to men who could barely get enough work to feed their families; a detailed look at the events of January 1...

Most of the streets and squares in Alcalá have had several different names over the years. Indeed some are still referred to locally by their old names, causing confusion for visitors, postmen and delivery drivers.  The renaming often followed drastic changes in the country’s government, notably: The declaration of the 2nd Republic in 1931, when Spain was governed by elected representatives following the abdication of the King and the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera; The military-civilian coup of July 1936, when the Falange party took over the government of Alcalá at the beginning of the Civil War; The transition to democracy following the death of Franco - the first local elections were held in 1979. The following list, in alphabetical order, was compiled from the series  Las calles de Alcalá y sus nombres: Evolución Histórica I-VII on the blog Historia de Alcalá de los Gazules , and Por las calles viejas de Alcalá I-IV on Mi Alcalá . Alameda de la Cruz: The open space at ...

 I've just published a follow-up (prequel?) to my book Winds of Change  about Alcalá de los Gazules in the 20th century.  It covers events over the previous hundred years, including the Napoleonic Wars, and is available worldwide on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle format.   Alcalá de los Gazules in the 19th Century

 Today, 12 October, is a public holiday in Spain.  It is the date when Columbus (allegedly) discovered the Americas, and Spain reaches out to its former colonies to celebrate the notion of Spanishness.  It's also the day of Our Lady of the Pillar (aka Pilar), patron of the armed forces and the Guardia Civil, hence the grand military parades which take place on the streets of Madrid and other large cities on this date every year. Many people assume that the festival was invented by General Franco, and he certainly took advantage of it to promote his particular brand of nationalism.  But it dates back to 1914, just sixteen years after Spain lost the final fragments of its once vast empire.  It was dreamed up by Faustino Rodríguez San Pedro, Spanish politician and President of the Unión Iberoamericana, and declared a public holiday by the King in 1918 under the name Fiesta de la Raza - Festival of Race.   The Spanish Empire around 1600 An article pu...

Now and again you come across people who spend their lives fighting for magnificent but futile causes, and their names fade from the pages of history. Salvochea was one of those. He was committed to social justice for the labouring classes at a time when they had few rights and no political voice. The 19th century in Spain was marked by conflict between conservatives who supported the status quo, where the monarchy and the Catholic Church had absolute power, and liberals who wanted reform and a voice for the emerging middle class. Those at the bottom of the pile were largely ignored by both parties. Salvochea began by believing that social change could come through the existing political system, but towards the end of the century when the poor were still dying of hunger he changed tack and supported the anarchist idea that workers must take matters into their own hands and bring about change by whatever means were available to them. He died a frustrated and disillusioned man, his ...