It's a wise child that knows its own father

It's a Wise Child That Knows It's Own Father


I have been 'Man Not In Álora' for three weeks now  and I'm starting to miss the place a lot so I've had a look at the website of the ayuntamiento (town hall) to see what's been going on in my absence.
http://www.alora.es/Inicio/Default.asp

It's good to go through the photos and pick  out familiar faces. 'Look,  there's Mario. What's he doing there?' 'I didn't know Pablo had anything to do with the town council.' and so on.
The main headline today is:

"About 400 schoolchildren take part in the 'Pepe Rosas' Villancicos meeting. "



This is the eighth annual Christmas event where the schools get together to sing traditional Christmas songs (villancicos)  in honour of  Pepe Rosas the local folklorist and expert on Verdiales music and dancing who died in 2008. There is a street in Álora named after him, Calle Folclorico Pepe Rosas.

 

                                                                   Pepe Rosas
I have just found this short film about him on YouTube. Some of the footage is quite old and shows Pepe and Alora in the 50s or 60s. It also shows children singing villancicos and verdiales dancing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=7WH7XY6urGA&NR=1

Here's another shorter film;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkfOZXsaCkI

Pepe lost his sight a few years before his death.

I was introduced to him  in 2000 by Conchi Vila who was a close friend of Pepe and had a shop on the corner of  Paseo Martos. Pepe spent a lot of time sitting in Conchi's shop, which sold upmarket Moroccan stuff. In earlier years Pepe would go to Morocco to buy items for the shop. He always wore a flat cap and in winter a Burberry scarf; the same one he is wearing in the shorter film. Pepe spoke no English but had visited many countries including the USA and Japan in the 60s and 70s presenting the Verdiales of Alora to the world.

 He was always ready for a chat. I can't say that I understood it all but he would clutch my arm in Conchi's shop, and speak,  in a conspiratorial tone, about the years  of the Franco dictatorship. He once told me that he had been very friendly with one of the putas of the town. He used to sit with her in Cafe Central in  La Plaza de la Fuente Arriba watching the comings and goings in the square. She would point out this or that businessman, politician or policeman and describe his sexual preferences, performance and physical endowment.

He once told me that the street where I live, Calle de Benito Suarez (formally Calle Bermejo) used to be called 'la calle de los curas' because, being adjacent to the parroquia (parish church),  several priests lived in the houses, including ours. My Spanish was not good enough to make out all the clearly scandalous story he told me about our house but I'm sure it included a baby.
He was always adamant that he would not write down any of his stories; they were too dangerous. What a shame. What a loss.

Pepe's real name was José Rosas Hidalgo. I've only just found this out. I knew he was called José (Joseph) because all Josés get called Pepe  (pronounced 'peppy') or Joselito or Pepín and Josefinas are called Pepa or Pepita (little Pepa).
These are examples of the diminutives and apócopes used for names in Spain. Some are just abbreviations but others are more interesting.

Most of the men I know in Álora are called Pepe, Paco or Antonio with a fair number of Juans, Pedros and Diegos ; all saints' names. Often a surname, apodo or another distinguishing name is  added to prevent confusion , eg.

Paco Gordo...Fat Paco
Antonio Motosierra.....Antonio with the chainsaw business
Juan Alto......Tall Juan
Pepín.....Little Pepe


Apparently José becomes Pepe because Pepe sounds like P.P. (PePe) which can stand for 'padre putativo' or 'presumed father' when there are doubts about the identity of the father of a child. This was the case with Jesus and so Joseph was the PP, so Pepe.

Our alcalde (mayor) is called
José Sánchez Moreno but everyone (except me) calls him 'Epi'. I don't know why.



Franciscos are usually called Paco. I don't know why this is  either. A lot of Pacos prefer to be called Francisco, like Francisco Franco and Francisco who works in the planning department on Calle Negrillos.

Maria is far and away the most popular girl´s name in Alora  so many Marias have a second name which is compressed into an apócope.

Here are a few feminine apócopes;

Marilena.......Maria Helena
Maribel..........Maria Isabel
Maripepa........Maria Francisca
Marilu...........Maria Luisa 
Mafe.................Maria Fernanda
Mayte.................Maria Teresa

and so on. I may have made a couple of these up.

Here's a few more:

Meche.........Mercedes
Conchi/Cuca.......Concepción
Dori.........................Adoración
Inma..............................Inmaculada
Puri.....................................Purificación

Some masculine names are contracted in the same way.

King Juan Carlos 1st. becomes . Juancar but I wouldn't address him as such if you ever meet him.

17/12/2012

Olives

 

Olives

 

 

Olea Europaea

 

Paddy came round on Sunday and we discussed bottles. We are now serious olive oil producers and need some bottles. This is the first year that we have produced enough oil to have our own pressing and it deserves to be bottled. We have decided to call it Finca Caicune after the area where the the trees are. We have about a hundred trees near the town of Casarabonela which is 12 miles from Álora. We picked 1027 kilos this year , about a ton, which is more than twice as much as last year. (Total Spanish production last year was 1.59 million tons. Olive Oil  Times. http://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-business/spanish-olive-oil-harvest-sets-record/26303
From this amount we have 108 litres of oil. It takes about 5 to 6 kilos of olives to produce a litre of oil, depending on the variety of olive so that's a bit low.

                                                                      Olive Oyl

 

Mo and I picked 415kg. and Paddy and Laura picked 612kg. This has to be said because Paddy will read this. It also has to be said that they picked the best trees and we were working in very muddy conditions.



                                     Mo's Muddy Boots

Our trees are about 12 years old and so are babies. They should reach full production in another twenty or thirty years but we probably  won't be hanging around to see that. A mature tree in good condition should produce 20 to 60 kg. We got 40kg. from some of our trees this year: not bad.
Olive trees can carry on producing olives for hundreds of years and can be regenerated by cutting the trunk right down. New shoots will appear and will grow into good trees. There are olive trees around which are more than 2000 years old. Old olive trees are very valuable and can be moved without much harm. There is one in the centre of Álora which is at least 600 years old. It has been moved twice in the last ten years and is producing olives.

                                         
                                               600 year old olive tree with local talent
                                                           
If you have an olive tree more than 800 years old you could get 2100 €  for it. One more than 2000 years old would cost 9000€ plus postage and packing.

Interesting Olive  Fact (IOF)  All olives start off light green, then go dark green, then purple/black. Black olives are mature olives and contain more oil than green olives so it makes sense to pick the olives when they are black if you want oil. Eating olives are usually picked green as the flesh is firmer.

Finca Caicune is a fanega which is approximately 6500 square metres and we bought it from  Forbes and Mary who were hoping to build a house there. They fell foul of the planning laws, in particular the 'Ley del Suelo' of 2002 which prohibited house construction in the countryside; sadly a familiar story in this part of the world although thousands of houses were built round here and are  'illegal houses', many of which are threatened with demolition.
Our  trees had been neglected for  several years so needed heavy pruning, fertilisation and weed control. The weeds have been the biggest problem. Apart from robbing the ground of nutrients and water, they are a fire risk if left and the Guardia Civil can slap a fine on you. We have tried horses and sheep. The horses damaged the trees and the sheep ate the leaves (they can reach surprisingly high).
The views are fantastic and we  often see an eagle circling. We could see the sea if it wasn't for the mountains in between.

                                                            View from Finca Caicune

                             
                                                         The sheep with shepherdess

                          
                                                                   Finca Caicune


11/12/2012