Another interesting trip to Spain, driving south from Santander, and visiting the site of the battle known to the Brits as Salamanca, but to the Spanish as Arapiles, that being the name of the little village to the south east of Salamanca near the two rocky hills that figured so prominently in the engagement. There is now a small information centre devoted to the battle that is well worth a visit.
On the way back to Santander another historical diversion – to the little town of Medellin in Estremadura, birthplace of Hernan Cortes the conquistador of Mexico, the story of whose exploits can be read on Wikipedia. The suggestion that Cortes was a bit of a bandido in the manner of Pizarro (who was born up the road in Trujillo) was not well received at the tourist office. The story goes that Cortes massacred thousands of unarmed Aztec nobility at Tenochtitlan. Whether the Spaniards were any more cruel, exploitative and ruthless than their Anglo-Saxon equivalents, and whether there is indeed something amounting to a black legend, or leyenda negra misrepresenting the situation and perpetuating a gringo cultural calumny is an interesting question. Clearly there were conflicting perspectives even at the time, as reflected in the Valladolid debate of 1550-51 between the humanistically inclined Bartolome de las Casas (author of the Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies) and Juan Gines de Sepulveda – who was of the opinion that native peoples were natural slaves.
Apart from the history, some kitesurfing enjoyed – though not as much as one would have liked, due to prevalence of the dreaded howling levante which (so Rafael assured me at the churreria) scrambles people’s brains by agitating the hairs on their head. Extraordinary how the storks seemed to cope, though, or rather those untidy looking nests they build on exposed roofs and telegraph poles. How come the most ferocious blasts don’t dislodge them?
Kiting in strong offshore levante winds is not for the faint hearted. On 14th April watched Cesar Portas, the Spanish champion doing huge leaps on the Atlantic side of Punta Europa, along with Jo Castillas and the Brazilian Bruna Kajiya. Impressive stuff. Worth checking out the videos of these guys on Facebook.
Spanish studies didn’t advance as well as they might, due to having left dictionary at home. However, some little bits of colloquial Spanish taken on board, such as puto jefe and puto amo, epithets applied by the Barcelona coach, Pep Guardiola, to his Real Madrid counterpart, Jose Mourinho. In fact, the terms aren’t as offensive as they sound, and simply denote controlling personalities, as in the fairly neutral phrase “Ni Mourinho ni Guardiola. El puto jefe, el puto amo del derby, del futbol mundial, del universo, es Lionel Messi.” This (not surprisingly) from the Lionel Messi website.
To conclude on a sad note – learned of the untimely death of the Australian kiter Peter Toft – of a heart attack, apparently, aged only 46. Peter was a nice guy. Condolences to his family and friends.
