La Vida Alcalaína

María Francisca Ulloa del Castillo brought hundreds of alcalaínos and alcalaínas into the world during her nearly forty years as the town's midwife, and she is fondly remembered in the pueblo.  But she was more than just a competent midwife - she was a feminist pioneer. María was born in 1887 in Utrera, in the province of Sevilla.  In 1914, at the fairly advanced age of 27, she married a carabinero  named Juan Rodríguez, and moved with him when he was transfered to Medina Sidonia in Cádiz.  There she set up an embroidery workshop, and they had four children. She became good friends with her neighbour Josefa, the local midwife, and it was through their friendship that María's vocation for her future profession was born.  It wasn't easy at that time for a married woman approaching forty to take up a career. She lived in a small isolated village in a society where a woman's place was very much in the home.  To complete the three years of training required to p...

In August 2004 Matthew Coman, an Englishman who had made his home in Alcalá, staged the town's first music festival.  He invited colleagues from a group of classical musicians, known as The Soloists of London, to spend a week in the pueblo and give concerts in the beautiful patio of the Sagrada Familia school (SAFA), a former convent on the Plaza Alta. The Soloists of London in the SAFA patio Poster from the fifth festival in 2008 In 2009 the festival including a performance by a group of young musicians from around the province, after a week of rehearsals under Coman's supervision. This  inspired a painting by the late Jesús Cuesta Arana, which was used for that year's poster. Poster artwork from the 2009 festival, by the late Jesús Cuesta Arana Young musicians rehearsing for their concert For the following few years the festival remained focused on classical music, even staging a production of La Traviata in the church. Tickets weren't available in advance in those da...