Last night I attended my first Spanish festival. It celebrates the history between the Mores and Christians, who both have controlled this area. It is incredible to see how a town incorporates their history, and to see a place that has that much history. The castles we saw were built in the 12th century, and many of the houses in the actual town are 300 years old. Each house will fly flags from whichever group they came from, but within the Mores and Christians there are a lot of subgroups, like clans, so lots of different flags. Another interesting thing is that each group has a building in the town where they stay together while the festival is going on. All together there are about 20,000 people dressed in costumes for the festival, with some of the costumes costing around $1,400. They are so incredible to look at! There are even some costumes that have the designs hand sown on the back, and they are not simple either, the detail on the faces, and decor of the designs are incredible. One thing I found interesting is that each group had a band, and a leader. the leader controlled the speed they walked, Mores walk a lot more controlled and slow, and the Christians walked really fast. Pirates, and Templar knights were Christians, I was kind of surprised that Pirates were considered Christians though. They even had kids leading their own groups of Mores and Christians. They all did a really good job.
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All of the CMU students with
some of the parade participants |
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Flags hanging from the balcony
signify family ties |
I also tried some foods for the first time. Shrimp with garlic, was amazing at the first place, really fishy at the second place. I also had baby squid, okay I know that sounds strange, but it was amazing! it was not too chewy, and the flavor was great! Jamon Iberico, a famous Spanish dish. Russian salad, which is made with mayo and pickled vegetable, that was my least favorite, but it was still pretty good.
I have been getting closer to my host mom, and I really enjoy that we can sit down and have a conversation about anything, and she does not have to explain very much to me. We talked about life in general today, and I have really enjoyed getting to know her. I don't know their son, Cris very well yet, but the father, Cristobal, has been really kind. He has taken me all around the city, to make sure I can find my way around. He jokes a lot too, so that's fun except when I don't understand his jokes. When we went to the beach he even set my towel out for me. My host mom is just as attentive, always going out of her way to make sure I have everything I need.
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This is one of the costumes the women wore
it was beautiful, this horse went is front of her
group, the horses were incredible. They all
were so well trained to dance in place. |
Saludos,
Damaris
