Thursday 27 September 2012

Rain


This is Sánchez Gordillo, the mayor of a little town in Andalucía called Marinaleda. In August he was part of a crack team of outlaws which swept into the Mercadona supermarket in Ecija and swept out with a dozen trolleys loaded with food to be distributed among the poor. Members of the SAT union (Union of Andalucian Workers) also liberated trolleys full of essential food items from the carrefour supermarket in Arcos de la Frontera. Sánchez insists that he is not the brains behind the attacks and that he did not even enter the stores, merely carrying out 'diversion tactics'. This has not prevented him being hailed as a 'latter day Robin Hood'. More demonstrations and marches are planned throughout Andalucía as part of a campaign of protest against the Massive cuts programme imposed by the Rajoy government.
Mercadona has lodged a complaint with the police adding that it is very conscious that the current economic situation is worrying. Carrefour has agreed to donate twelve trolleys full of food to hungry people in three small towns.

It has been raining for two days. Big smiles from all the Spanish who have not seen the wet stuff since April. Our olives will be plumping up nicely now in time for the 'cosecha' in November. Everyone in town today carries an umbrella, but only Pepe Rojas was wearing a 'mack'. Rainwear is not worth buying here in Alora, but the Morroccan bazaar has sold out of 3€ umbrellas. Green shoots are sprouting up all over the campo and 5 months worth of dog  and horse muck is being washed down from the upper square to the lower square, providing a literal illustration of a popular Alora metaphor.

The posters have gone up for the annual ´Day of the Sopas Perotas'






More about this later. If you look at the bottom of the 'l' in 'la cuchara... you can see our house.

Is anybody reading this?

Sunday 23 September 2012

Back in the People's Republic of Andalucía

I've been back in Alora for nearly 3 weeks. My friend Antonio has died and I am still expecting to see him up in the Plaza de la Fuente Arriba (The Top Square). Who am I going to tell bad and badly translated jokes to now? I will never know the gist of the one he told me about a bird which he delivered completely in whistles. He always thought I got it and I hadn't the guts to tell him I didn't.

Spain, apparently is still in the shit and sinking deeper. Andalucía, 'the only socialist autonomous region' is holding out against massive cuts in public services. Some people still have jobs but construction was by far the biggest employer and it's stopped. When I see a cement lorry anywhere near town my heart leaps in the same way it used to sink during the 'big building boom.'
The foreman of the job to pave our patio and convert the stable is working as a waiter in Los Caballos Dos. He's got a job. He's lucky.
Tomorrow there is a march and demo in town  to collect signatures to try and stop 'desahucios' (evictions) of families who can not pay their rents and mortgages.
I'm going to try and upload some photos in order to make this blog more visually entertaining.

That was easy. This me with Terry Durham who is an artist that lives in Alora.  His stuff is beautiful and mysterious. Terry is on the left.
http://www.terrydurham-artist.com/

He's done a few hand painted t shirts and I'm showing mine off here outside El Madrugon, a small bar on the 'Square' which opens at 5.00am. Madrugon means 'the crack of dawn'. Manolo is the boss and he growls.