Historia y Arte

Out of all the places that we visited in Amsterdam, the Anne Frank House was the most moving for many reasons. First, to walk the hallways and passages of a place that I had read about and studied in school was heart-wrenching and eye-opening at a different level. Excerpts from her diary were placed throughout the house and her words really impressed me, not just because of the emotion they induced, but also because of how mature she sounded for being such a young girl. Perhaps, one of the most fascinating things about the museum was the end where we were faced with an interactive dialogue on freedom that forced us to think about 21st Century social, political, and religious problems. What was interesting is that some surprisingly and disturbingly seemed to share similarities to problems that were prevalent in Pre-WWII Europe. In general, we asked ourselves whether censoring/outlawing hate speech in all of its manifestations, i.e., in politics, music, facebook groups, public marches, etc. was worth compromising freedom of speech. Or whether or not implementing certain policies intended to promote equality was worth compromising freedom of religion. Or whether implementing policies to combat crime was worth compromising human dignity. I can´t do justice to the exhibit, but I just want you to know that it made a huge impression on me.

Afterwards, I went to the bookshop and bought a graphic novel of Anne Frank´s life by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón. See, I could have bought a special edition of The Diary of Anne Frank, or one of the story books that she had written, but I was also interested in learning more about the history of her time and I was also interested in how telling history might be enhanced through graphic novelization, or whatever the correct term is. Okay, to put it into plain English, I was fascinated by the marriage of Art & History in this book, ok?

Anyways, I had begun to contemplate this idea again after visiting the Vincent Van Gogh museum. The thing is that, for all of you who don´t know, besides being interested in history, I was also really into art in high school and I had even had aspirations to pursue it in college, but, as usual, nothing ever goes according to plan. I don´t regret not pursuing it because I probably wouldn´t be here right now, but at the same time I realized in Amsterdam that it is never too late to start something new, or pick up where you left off. Mr. Van Gogh helped bring me to this realization. I was shocked to find out that he was 27 years old when he decided to become an artist and that he was active as an artist for only ten years until his death. And today he is one of the most famous Dutch artists of all time. Personally, I love how he was never afraid to paint with think and bold strokes, nor with brilliant colors, something that wasn´t seen that often in his time.

Later on, I ended up reading the graphic novel about Anne Frank´s life in the Charleroi Airport in Brussels which caused earlier thoughts to resurface again. Apart from being infuriated by the story, I kept asking myself wouldn´t it be amazing to do this for a living: marrying history and art?

Hasta luego

Happy Groundhog Day!

Groundhog Day. Those two words conjure up a series of images that makes me laugh inside. Who celebrates a day dedicated to a furry animal who, let´s face it, is no better at predicting the weather than a rock? Americans do. But it is a tradition that, although kinda silly, is still fun. Besides, its a way of justifying the weather to come. So, in this spirit, I decided to share the tradition with my students and colleagues this week.

Some students were interested in what I had to say, others not so much, but overall I think each class enjoyed the presentation. I got each class energized with the famous woodchuck tongue-twister and then continued on with the history of the tradition which I did not know anything about until I researched it. We watched some video footage of past predictions in Punxsutwaney, Pennsylvania where America´s most famous groundhog, Phil, lives and we also watched that Geico commercial. In the end, some students associated Phil with Paul the octopus who had predicted Spain´s 2010 World Cup win in South Africa. So, I was glad that they didn´t think I was completely crazy.

There homework assignment was to watch tonight´s news which, believe it or not, did mention Phil and his prediction for six more weeks of winter weather. I laughed and sweared at the same time when I heard it. So, maybe I do believe in him more than I thought.

Hasta Luego.

The Benelux Countries

Hola a todos, hi everyone. It´s been a long time since my last entry but I think its safe to say that the holiday season keep me a little busy. I spent Christmas in Madrid and for the rest of the break I went up north with my friend Erika to the Benelux, an area of Europe that is made up of The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Believe it or not, these countries have historic ties to Spain as this area was once part of the Spanish Empire during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.

Antwerp, Belgium was our first real stop in the Benelux and it was beautiful despite the rain and cold weather. Everything about the riverfront -the park, the riverwalk, the old adjacent buildings- reminded me of Wilmington´s. The city center had a similar air as well, but its was obviously more ornate with beautiful Flemish architecture. The Cathedral of Our Lady was impressive and we were lucky to come across several beautiful altarpieces by the artist Peter Paul Rubens. My favorite dish was called Vol-au-vent; a hollowed out pastry filled with, in this case, veal and mushroomed cream...yummmm. A train ride away, in Ghent, (where Spain´s Carlos I was born in 1500) I tasted the most savory beer to date, Bourgogne de Flandres (Burgundy of Flanders). It was a dark beer with the perfect combination of sweet and bitter. I also visited one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever been to, the Saint Bavo Cathedral. A mixture of architectural styles in white marble and black onyx (I think) was what did it for me. Dank u fur dat, Ghent.

Before we knew it, we were in Bruges which seemed as if it had come out of a fairytale. Canals ran through the city and Belgian chocolate called our names as we walked her streets. My favorite part was probably the Belfry, the famous tower that I first discovered in the movie, In Bruges. While we were waiting in line we meet this interesting frenchwoman who amused us with her mélange of French, Spanish and English until it was time to go up the Belfry. It was like a never-ending staircase that got narrower the further up we went. I think I lost 10 pounds going up and down that thing. Anyways, at the top, the view was breathtaking.

-Many thanks to Kelly, our host in Flanders (North Belgium) who intrigued me with her obsession for everything related to Flamenco dance and music. Qué bonito, una flamenca aficionada al flamenco (In Spanish, Flamenco can either refer to the genre of music and dance or to someone from Flanders).

We spent New Year´s Eve in Luxembourg in the company of an incredibly nice Spanish girl who we had met her on on our flight from Madrid to Brussels. I happened to be sitting next her on the plane when I asked if she had been to Brussels before and she said that she had studied their but was now living in Luxembourg. No way, I said. We are going there for New Year´s Eve! Next thing I knew, she invited us to hangout with her on Noche Vieja. When the night finally arrived we were consumed in animated conversation with our new friend and her italian buddies who ended up cooking lentils for us (apparently its tradition to eat lentils for New Year´s in Italy). We all went outside at midnight to watch the fireworks which lasted about twenty mintues. Well, damn I told myself. Then again, it was Luxembourg and that city, to be honest, is loaded (it happens to be a huge financial and administrative hub). Anyways, Luxembourg is a beautiful city, but there wasn´t much life there (many people who live there are from outside Luxembourg), so we were lucky to have met our Spanish friend.

Our next stop was Amsterdam which bills itself as the city of freedom because of its tolerance for cannabis consumption in cannabis coffeeshops and its tolerance of prostitution in the famous red-light district which, interestingly, is a tourist attraction for its architecture alone. Anyway, during our stay we were mostly preoccupied with the Anne Frank House, The Vincent Van Gogh Museum, the food, the architecture, and the world famous canals that criss-cross the city.

To be continued...