THE CARMENES, TYPICAL HOUSES IN GRANADA

Leaving aside the Alhambra Palace, the carmenes are one of the biggest attractions when you visit the city of Granada.

The question of foreigners when they come to visit the city is to know the reason of the name of carmen. What does it mean? The general opinion is that the term derives from the Arab word carmen, karma, which in a broad sense meant in Spanish colloquial Arabic, "vineyard", ie a greater or lesser extent of land planted with vines. A carmen represents a closed house with a garden.

They were born after the expulsion of the Moors, in just two years, from 1568 to 1570, the Albaicín district went from populous neighborhood to neighborhood in ruins. And little by little, the carmenes were occupying the space left by the overthrow of Moorish houses.

Usually you can find the typical carmenes in the historic districts of Granada, they are in the Albaicin, the Realejo and on the slopes of the hill of the Alhambra. Mainly the carmenes are located in the high Albaicín resulting in unique perspectives and beautiful sights. In the part of the Albaicín carmenes try to follow the norm and are distributed in two or three terraces and they are surrounded by high white walls.

They have all the charm of a mansion in the countryside and are yet in the city. It is a combination of housing and nature that blends inspiration from the Renaissance villas and gardens of love for the Nazari. Nowadays some of them are Museums like the Carmen de los Mártires, others have been converted into restaurants and others have been restored as private villas. Really in some ways they reminds me of the Riads, the typical Moroccan houses in Marrakech.

The carmen has something of a little garden and an orchard, but it is not only a garden nor is only an orchard. It is intertwined with flowers and vegetables in a harmonious marriage. The trees do not only play an ornamental function, they decorate, they provide shade and coolness, and, in time, produce optimum fruit delight of eye and palate. The carmen is sucked by penetrating parfum of lilies, roses, jasmine, carnations, lilies, the violets, honeysuckle, valet and at the same time, collect shells, plums, figs, apricots and strawberries.

As Chateaubriand considered them “Carmenes are the everlasting garden, a sample and a remain of the paradise, one of the few privileged places still on earth."

Source:

http://www.cvc.cervantes.es/

MARIANO RAJOY, PRIME MINISTER AFTER A LONG AND HARD ROAD

Spain has voted today and Spaniards have punished the ruling Socialists and have decided to trust Mariano Rajoy Brey, the leader of the PP, who has been elected Prime Minister with a 16 percentage points over the Socialists (enough for an absolute majority in Parliament and a free hand to reform). The opposition leader was staging his third successive bid to head a national government, and this time, as all the opinion polls predicted, has got the Popular Party to win in a clear majority, after taking 186 of the 350 seats in the lower house. According to the official results, the PP has won the 45% of the votes and the Socialists 29% in Sundays’ General Elections.

Mariano Rajoy Brey was born 27 March 1955, in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, and graduated from the University of Santiago de Compostela. Aged 24 he passed the competitive examination required in Spain to enter into the civil service becoming the youngest ever property registrar.

Nobody has ever accused him of being charismatic, but he has surprised many in his own party for his survival skills, playing a waiting game since the crisis hit in 2008. Spain is going through a crisis of confidence, and what the country needs is a man it can trust. "At times of difficulty, people want sensible, realistic and prudent leaders," say his party colleagues. They also have said about him: "He is not a manipulator or a plotter, which is why the grassroots support him" and "He is where he is because of his own merits, his clarity, and his analysis of Spain's problems".

Rajoy has come a long way since the Socialists' surprise win in the 2004 elections. Defeat four years later unleashed a war of succession in the Popular Party that he has finally managed to contain, his enemies in the party were sharpening the knives, and there was open hostility toward him, questioning his leadership, but according to him now, it was one of those unhappy occasions that you learn from and that make you stronger.

His recently published autobiography, “En confianza” (In confidence), skips over this period of internal division within the party, referring sensitively to "breaks with party colleagues" and summarizing the whole episode as "painful." One senior colleague of the PP leader admits that there was a plot to get rid of Rajoy. But Rajoy knew where his support lay: in the party's grassroots. Rajoy won 84 percent of the vote at the 2008 party convention.

Embraced by his wife after defeat in 2008 General Elections

He is very intelligent and intuitive. Basically he is a good person, and a very human one," says Rajoy's protégé Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, the PP's spokeswoman in Congress. "He has avoided having to elbow people out of the way, or to have to fight. His career has been marked by discretion, patience, determination and perseverance. He is pragmatic, very smart and suspicious. And behind a wall of silences and courtesies hides a funny and sly type.

The key to Rajoy's survival is his ability to get the timing right. He is a master at this, because he seems to achieve his goals without seeming to do anything. He is sensible, frank, although some see him as hesitant and slow to react; but the truth is that he thinks things through," says Xavier Pomés, a member of the rightwing CiU Catalan nationalist bloc, and an old friend of the PP leader. Others who have worked with Rajoy from other parties agree that he is a man of his word, and that he would always meet his obligations.

"He also likes to talk about other things than politics. At Christmas, he likes to spend a little time with us just having a drink and chatting things over." "He is a moderate conservative, with a vision of the world influenced by his origins in Galicia, a vision that looks out to the Atlantic as well as being provincial. He has been able to run the party because he has been able to hold on to his centralist vision.

“It's not the system that has failed, but our leaders for not having controlled spending or implemented the changes that the euro required. The private sector has been allowed to slide into debt and now that money has to be repaid. We have lived beyond our means thanks to easy money. We live in a world in which thought has been replaced by spectacle”, he says in the book.

On a personal level, he is married to Elvira Fernandez (“Viri”, as friends call her) since 1996 after four years dating her and they have two children aged 12 and 6 and his wife, aged 45, lost a girl when she was six months pregnant. Elvira is a beautiful and intelligent woman, economist, discreet and a very good support for his husband.

This man who is defined as very familiar, says that what makes him laugh out loud are the wisecracks of his children. He loves cycling and is a big fan of Real Madrid football team.  What he likes to do most at the end of the day is to read a good book in bed. He loves Police and The Beatles and the historical figure he most admires is Leonardo da Vinci.

In his book he talks about the need for structural reforms in the labor market, about education,... Rajoy is part of the moderate center right, distancing himself from the hard right that uses its position to stir up confrontation over issues such as abortion, same-sex marriages, or religious education. He identifies with entrepreneurs, even if it is a bar owner who only provides work for one other person. “We need big companies, but we also need small businesses. We need fewer rules, but ones that are respected”.

Related to his plans about the new government, when it comes to appoint a Minister, he has said age isn’t a problem for him. Rajoy has vowed to make cuts everywhere, except for pensions, so as to meet Spains’s target of cutting the public deficit to 4.4 per cent of gross domestic product in 2012 from 9.3 per cent last year and last Friday said that the country is going to comply with its deficit obligations.

Today, as the polls have talked today, this quietly spoken man, with his old-fashioned manners and politeness, will finally get the opportunity to show whether, as his supporters insist, it is true that "Mariano will make a better head of government than leader of the opposition." When he is called to ask for three wishes, he replies: employment, employment and employment.

Today the feeling of the 11 million people who have voted PP is a feeling of hope and illusion thinking that things are going to change for better.

It has been a long and hard road for this quiet politician to become Prime Minister, but now he has ahead a new and twisted road to cover. Congratulations and the best of luck to the new Prime Minister. For him but mainly for the sake of all Spaniards.

Fuente:

Telegraph.co.uk

Elpais.com

Wikipedia

THE SPANISH SIESTA AND NAPPING IN PAINTING

Raimundo de Madrazo



Although the Spaniards have been traditionally very famous about being quite good at taking long siesta (word that comes from the Latin for sixth hour, by the way), the truth is that is a myth that has been banished nowadays (statistics say that only 16% of the Spanish population practice it), it is curious that it is currently practiced by most tourists and foreigners living in Spain more than by own nationals (and those who practice it are more people over 45 years).

But it happens that doctors recommend that a nap of 20 minutes (even on the sofa) after eating is very healthy, reducing the risk of death from heart disease, particularly in young healthy men, experts say napping help people to relax, reducing their stress levels.

And the fact is that today in Spain many people are unable to take a siesta ("our national sport", as it has always been said) and their lives (our lives) haven't collapsed around them. Big supermarkets and department stores also stay open during the siesta. Though still there are differences among different cities in Spain and so, for example, the siesta hits Madrid and Barcelona much less than in Granada or Salamanca. Today's hectic lifestyle does often not allow people the time to sleep, but many still do their best to fit a little nap in when they can.

It seems is not a Mediterranean invention, but it is just happens that they are who preserved this tradition. In fact before the industrial revolution it would have been perfectly normal in northern Europe for people to take an afternoon sleep after a big evening meal. Did you know that Churchill, Napoleon and Leonardo da Vinci used to nap, by the way?

Besides there are other countries where napping seems to be very popular too, in Japan, for example, employees have desk pillows and napping rooms (!!!) meanwhile Spanish offices have never been equipped with a bed yet (I promise you!).

Nevertheless, tradition is tradition and last year the Spain’s First National Siesta Championship took place in Madrid and it awarded for how quickly competitors can get to sleep, the duration of their siesta, any interesting sleeping positions or choice of pijamas and the style and substance of their snoring.  Among others, there was a 1000 euros award for the best twenty minutes nap (see the link HERE).

So since the doctors recommend to take little naps to keep us fit and healthy I have thought to enclose today a few paintings on the subject, from different artists, styles and countries, just to encourage you to practice this good habit.

Frederick Arthur Bridgman



Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida



Pedro Lira Rencoret



Paul Gauguin

John Sargent

Jose Maria Rodriguez Acosta



John William Godward



Guillermo Collazo



Antonio Gattorno



Franz Xavier Winterhalter

I hope you have liked the paintings I have chosen for the post  and I just want to wish you all to have nice little naps with big and sweet dreams! ............zzzzzzzz.................

Fuente:

Gospain.about.com