La Vida Alcalaína

Fifteen Alcalá women, who have all been unemployed for some time, have something to celebrate this week. They have been selected to take part in a nine-month training programme on basic restaurant and bar skills, comprising six months' theory followed a further three months' work experience in local businesses. During that time they will receive a grant of €400 a month. At the end of the period they will get a certificate (but no guarantee of a job).  A further 125 Alcalá residents considered "at risk of social exclusion", including some with physical or mental disabilities) will get help from coordinators who will liaise with local businesses to find them placements according to their abilities. The Chosen Few (plus a handful of politicians) This project, known as CRECE-Empleo , is being funded 80% by the European Social Fund and 20% by the Diputación de Cádiz.   It is part of a further injection of EU funds to help the chronic unemployment situati

Alcalá's August fair is one of the highlights of the festive calendar, with friends and families getting together for four days of eating, drinking, loud music, dancing and general merriment.   But it wasn't always like that and it wasn't always in August.   Francisco Teodoro Sánchez Vera , an alcalaíno now living in Catalonia, describes the ferias he remembers from his childhood.   Read the original Spanish version here  During the years of my childhood and adolescence in Alcalá, there was no fair in August. It was celebrated in May, and it was very different to nowadays. In those days the girls didn't wear dresses with frills, and you didn't hear sevillanas 1 on the Paseo de la Playa. We had song and dance del gazpacho 2 to the rhythm of verdiales or pasodobles, played by local groups with well-known musicians like my friend Jésus Sánchez, father of the great Alejandro Sanz. 3 There were also f lamenco shows in the Cinema Gazul,