Time of year: Summer
Open a tin of El Artesano Alubias or white beans, drain them with abundant water and dry well. Cut the tomato into chunks. Halve, core and deseed the peppers, then chop into 1cm dice. Trim and very thinly slice the onions. Cut the eggs into relatively thin slices.
Mix in a bowl the alubias or white beans with all the other ingredients. Add and toss salt, olive oil and vinegar. Serve straightaway.
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Members of the Anglo-Spanish Society gathered at Sotheby´s on 28th May for breakfast and a private view of Spanish paintings which were to go under the hammer on the following Wednesday. Our guide to the rich and eclectic collection on offer, Marta Enrile, is Senior Specialist at Sotheby´s. What a pleasure it was to be taken on a journey of the imagination through Spanish fin-de-siecle and early twentieth century painting by one who wore her expertise so lightly.
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Football, Inigo Gurruchaga tells us in his journey across some of this country’s lesser known soccer grounds on the trail of a Basque journeyman midfielder, is a game which commences at three o’clock in the afternoon on an English Saturday.
Gurruchaga is a Galactico, as Real Madrid’s star chasing president Florentino Perez would say, in his own right: veteran war correspondent, distinguished father of the house among Spain’s London correspondents and a man who has written with elegance and flair on soccer for decades at international level.
So what on earth possessed him to turn his famous hawk-eye for the telling detail on a subject as esoteric as the ups and downs of a relatively obscure northern football club eternally caught in an existential struggle for survival?
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I came to work in Madrid in 1988, at the tail end of the Movida, the social movement that evolved during the transition from the Franco era to democracy. Madrid was a very different place to live in then and during these 22 years much has changed.
This is probably the most striking aspect about Spain and its people, the ability to adapt to changes and move fast. I find the car a useful indicator of change. I remember when I first came to Madrid, a taxi ride was a very stressful experience as the driver would never anticipate a red light. The taxi would accelerate, in bursts, until a few metres from the white line and then suddenly break. No longer so. The driving norms have improved beyond recognition and one only has to look at the road fatality statistics which demonstrate a society that changes: 9.344 deaths in 1989 compared with 2.668 deaths in 2009.
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This was the third year that the Society had met at the Embassy to award grants to students from Spain and Britain to enable them to carry out further studies and research into their chosen specialist fields.
Each year the number and quality of the applicants has increased, and the chairman of our selection panel, Albert Jones, has had a more demanding job in sifting through them and choosing winners. The areas of study range through the arts, sciences and humanities, and the Sponsors of these awards can see how well their grants are being used.
We are happy that the Society is able to bring together these two groups to their mutual benefit, and that of the Anglo-Spanish community at large. Members can read about the experiences of the becarios in future issues of the Quarterly Review (as this issue contains reports from the 2009 recipients).
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Opportunities to see Drama from the Spanish Golden Age performed in London are very rare and picking up a flier advertising this performance did much to take my mind away from the snow and freezing temperatures we have recently experienced in London.. Lorca has been performed in the National and Old Vic Theatres in the last few years, but to my recollection comedia works are rare treats in this part of the world.
Lope has been described in survey course of Spanish literature and drama as one of the greatest geniuses the dramatic world has known. His output was prolific. Equally he had an eventful life, which few of us could ever hope to match.
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I am a member of a fresh and vibrant ensemble, Farsa Monea, that brings new life to traditional and folk music of Spain and Latin America. We try to present our music with honesty, hoping to capture the stories that are told in each song. We focus particularly on a form of traditional Spanish music called Coplas. Outside of Spain this form of music is not generally known, but within Spain it carries a great significance. The emotive songs reflect the passion and dreams of the Spanish people after the Spanish Civil War, during the dictatorship.
Each copla is a small universe of circumstances, feelings, atmospheres. Each time we are told a different story through a clear narration which normally develops in two parts with a chorus in between and at the end, after the second narrative section. The main character is often a woman who endures tragic love, or experiences a beautiful but impossible love, and in any case deep, intense passion. Well-known titles include Ojos Verdes, Tatuaje, Lagrimas Negras and La Farsa Monea.
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Relations between our two countries have never been closer, healthier or built on so many levels, so could Spain really have an image problem in the UK? The idea seems virtually unthinkable to many of us, but the question merits exploration and an answer.
A panel of journalists from Britain and Spain addressed the issue as the Instituto Cervantes London launched its springsummer culture programme with a lively debate in front of a pleasingly packed house.
With proceedings moderated by a true Anglo-Spaniard, the Anglo-Spanish Society’s vice-chairman Jimmy Burns, we were assured of a fair and friendly discussion.
Anna Bosch, London correspondent for RTVE, made the point that Britain’s newspapers do at least mention Spain on a regular basis, unlike the press she was used to reading on her previous posting in New York.
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We are fortunate to have an official guide to the Palace of Westminster on our Executive Council in Paul Pickering. Many of us have enjoyed past visits and hopefully we may be able to arrange another visit sometime in the New Year that will also include a chance to see Anthony Oakshett’s 15Ft. x 12Ft. paintings inspired by the engraver John Pine’s 1739 published copies of the famous 10 Armada Tapestries that hung in the House of Lords from 1616 until 1834, when a wrongly stoked furnace caused the fire that destroyed the old Palace of Westminster.
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n the same week that the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruption in southern Iceland released its now infamous cloud of ash into the skies,writes Emily Cooper, Anglo-Spanish Society members who weren’t stranded across Europe like my husband were lucky enough to see eleven explosive talents take to the stage in South Kensington.
This year’s Classical Concert, which attracted young musicians from the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal College of Music and Barcelona’s Academia Marshall, took place In the beautifully intimate surrounds of the Brompton Oratory’s St Wilfrid’s Hall. The audience, which included both our chairman Dame Denise Holt and our President the Spanish Ambassador, was treated to a diverse programme of celebrated Spanish composers including Falla, Albeniz and Sarasate as well as Bottesini, Monti and Poulenc.
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