La Vida Alcalaína

It's that time of the year again, when the people of Alcalá pay homage to Nuestra Señora de los Santos ( Our Lady of the Saints) at the nearby Santuario .  This lovely little video from ArteVisualCadiz captures the moment beautifully.  Thanks to Rosa Almagro Montes de Oca for permission to include it here.

Televisión Española (TVE), the state-funded Spanish TV network, is to start broadcasting live bullfights again in September, it was announced last week . This practice was stopped in 2006, under the centre-left government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, because it was feared that children might be upset by seeing a matador killed or seriously injured in the ring (and because TVE were being priced out of the market for the major festivals by private broadcasters).  The edited highlights were broadcast late in the evening. Last year TVE pulled bullfighting from its schedules altogether, saying it contravened its code of conduct for programmes before Spain's late evening watershed hour.  Bullfights mostly start at 6 pm, falling into children's viewing hours.   (Interestingly, there is no age limit on children attending the events in person.)  Furious fans accused the broadcaster of shunning a key part of Spanish popular culture. "This means that TVE, which bel...

Last week, coinciding with the 8th Festival Internacional de Música , Alcalá had its first Paseo de Galerías. It was organised jointly by the Town Hall and the Painting in Spain art school. Local artists and craftsmen from all over the region of La Janda were invited to display their works in bars, restaurants and empty shops around the town, for the public to drop in, enjoy a drink and  tapas, and hopefully purchase a painting or two. Despite taking place in one of the hottest Augusts on record, and the failure of some of the participants to show up, the event was reasonably successful with several paintings sold, and was enjoyed by locals as well as visitors. Here are some of the exhibits. Watercolours by Benito García Morán on the Calle Real: Acrylics by yours truly in the Peña Madridista (Real Madrid supporters club), hanging amongst the Cristiano Ronaldo shirts and trophy posters: Oils by María Gómez in the San Jorge Hotel: Oils by...

Inexplicably, we had never visited Alcalá's splendid municipal open-air pool until a week ago.  Now we are there every day.  So much less hassle than driving 50 km to the beach! The 50m pool is open during the school summer holidays, from mid-June till mid-September, between 1 pm and 7 pm every day except Mondays.  Entrance is around €2, a little more at weekends.  There is a separate pool for toddlers, a cafe-bar selling drinks and snacks, and plenty of shade amongst the pine trees to picnic or relax after your swim.  Everything is spotlessly clean and there are a couple of lifeguards to make sure people behave themselves. The pool is located at the bottom of the town near the El Prado housing estate, by the roundabout at the junction between the CA6200 and the A2304.  There is plenty of space to park.  You can walk there in ten minutes from the town centre, but be warned - walking back up the hill is only for the young, fit or insane. Th...

This is a translation of a statement posted on Facebook today from the Alcalá council employees, following a fruitless meeting with the mayor earlier today.  They are now owed three months' back pay by the Council, and are effectively working for nothing.  I urge you to read it, especially if you live in or have property in Alcalá.   “Lend me something till I get paid ...” In the past, we could have counted on the fingers of one hand the number of times we said this. These days, unfortunately, we say it a lot. Some of us can only eat thanks to our families. The letters arrive from the bank warning about delayed payments and increased overdraft charges, our phones are cut off for non-payment, cars are kept in the garage because we can't afford the new tyres needed to pass the MOT, and because the insurance ran out weeks ago - renewing it is out of the question. Our workmates can't afford to go on holiday, only to the beach with a sandwich lunch; others can't ...

At the heart of Alcalá de los Gazules, literally and figuratively, is the Beaterio de Jesús, María y José. It is tucked in between the church of San Jorge and the remains of the castle, at the highest part of the town. The entrance is in the narrow street which bears the name of its founder, a priest called Diego Angel de Viera. The Beaterio opened in 1788 to provide free care and education for those in need. Today, this takes the form of a hospice for the elderly, and a school with boarding facilities for kids who don't have a stable home life, both run by a small but energetic group of nuns and volunteers. There is also a delightful chapel and a walled garden with spectacular views over the town and the surrounding countryside. Last Friday we attended a concert there to raise funds for a well to provide clean water and irrigation for a village in Kenya, part of a project undertaken by three Kenyan nuns currently staying at the Beaterio.  It was a great chance to...

Greetings from Sunny Spain!   In fact it's so sunny and hot we can't go out in the daytime, so we've been staying in and watching TV.  There's so much going on!  Some coal-miners from Up North have walked all the way to Madrid to complain that the government has kept some money from the EU which was meant protect their livelihoods, and spent it on something else. How daft is that!  But they are making themselves useful by helping burn the rubbish in the streets, entertaining the crowds with fireworks, and giving the police some target practice for their rubber bullets. (PS did you know rubber bullets are nearly as big as cricket balls?!  I thought they were little tiddly things that just bounced off, but apparently they can do you a lot of damage!) The police will need lots of practice, because all the unions are coming out to demonstrate about tax increases, schools and hospitals closing, pay cuts etc etc. The public sector workers are cross because th...