It's a nice little event. This year it was half way up our "emblematic" salt dome hill near the Fatima chapel in a sort of wooded clearing. Lovely setting. There were some songs from Andreu Valor, and an unnamed musician, as a guitar duo before the awards for a couple of photo and writing competitions and then the big prize for the poetry competition. As I said all very gentle and very pleasant.
There was wine and there were snacks afterwards provided by the local bodega, Bodegas Volver, but I didn't stay. Maggie was watching Liverpool lose the Champions League final so I was alone. There is something pathetic about eating ham and drinking wine alone in a crowd but that was only half the reason for clearing off. There were plenty of people I'd nodded to in the audience. With a glass in hand they may well have tried to speak to me and that would never do. I took a few last snaps of the guitar duo, now augmented to a trio, and headed home.
Nice as it was I have to admit to being a bit cross with the event which is billed as being a National competition. The singers sang in Valenciano, the Mayor spoke in Valenciano. There was a lot of Valenciano. Fair enough I live in Valencia. Good on them that they use their local language. On the other hand it's also very exclusive. Say something in Castellano, the world version of Spanish, and any of the forty odd nationalities that live in Pinoso might have a chance. Speak in Valenciano and it's only for the locals. It even excludes the vast majority of Spaniards.
Quite a lot of the news on the local website and radio station is presented in Valenciano. There's plenty in Castillian too but I think the percentage of Valenciano may be increasing. Anyway I was listening to the radio as I drove into town the other day and I heard the shortlist for the Carnival Queens, in Castillian, for this year's fiestas. All of them were double barrelled, local, Spanish names. Not an Ecuadorian, a Moroccan or a Ukrainian among them.
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I are relocating to Culebron in the near future, our house purchase is going through now.
We are fascinated by your blog and gaining valuable insight into the area we are intending to spend the rest of our lives.
Maybe we will meet one day.
Jason & Patricia
It's just the nationalist craziness going further and further. In Catalonia it was like that 20 years ago. As you say, they go "local".
ReplyDeleteI have always wondered why you British people chose Pinoso instead of Yecla to move in. It's 28 km away. In Yecla, children learn in Spanish and everybody speaks in Spanish. Why Pinoso? Is maybe Yecla less open than Pinoso to expats? i see Pinoso is more expensive and People here is not so kind, etc, but Brits stay in Pinoso. So misterious!
To Culebrón? Really? Just in time for the annual fiesta. Get down to Eduardo's on a Wednesday morning at around 11am and say hello.
ReplyDeleteSpanish people often ask me why so many Britons chose Pinoso and I have no idea. We ended up here by chance.
ReplyDeleteBy chance? I thought some real state in UK could have brought most of you. How did you hear about Pinoso? It’s not the prettiest village in Spain, not famous, not anything. And Britons keep coming!
DeleteBut anyway it seems as if British people goes where other British people is, you create communities and end up having your shops, bars, eeal states, etc.... That’s to say: invading the place you land in. Haha A pity you don’t start schools too.
M.
The "A little about me" section of the blog - over on the right of the page - explains how we got here.
ReplyDelete