Heart Of Old Spain Is Found In Seville

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28471, 28 December 1957, Page 2

Heart Of Old Spain Is Found In Seville

A tourist who is looking for the heart of old Spain should make straight for Seville in the sunny, windless south, according to Mrs Arthur Gordon, of Christchurch, who recently spent two months in Spain visiting relatives. There in the evenings the clicking of castanets and music of the guitar float out to meet the stroller in the narrow streets. Women live graciously, with plenty of help in their homes and abundant time for making themselves look elegant—that is, if they are in the “comfortable” income group. For those on small wages—and there are many of them—life in Spain is far from easy. Land of Extremes

“Spain is a land of extremes, and I would not like to live there on a low income,” Mrs Gordon said yesterday. But the friendliness, hospitality, and grandeur of the country made her feel she wanted to stay there indefinitely. The slow pace of living, particularly in the south, had an all-time-holiday atmosphere. Even the residents did not seem to do much work.

As Manuela. Banfield, Mrs Gordon left Spain as a small child, and could not remember enough about her birthplace, Cadiz, and her later home in Seville, to make comparisons on her return. “But my cousins in Seville appear to be contented with the present regime, though we did not discuss politics or economics,” she said. “Everyone talks to one another on trains and buses and in the pavement restaurants in Spain, and I did not hear anything to indicate antiBritish feeling.” Though she had not used any Spanish for 15 years, Mrs Gordon found she could speak the language fluently in Spain and she conversed with people from all walks of life, she said. Women in Black

Soon after her arrival in Seville Mrs Gordon noticed the large number of women of all ages wearing sombre black. They were in mourning, she found. A widow wears mourning for her husband for two years after his death. Black is worn for three months for quite a distant relative.

“I did not see one plain-looking young woman in Seville all the time I was there; they were all exquisitely burned out from their well-groomed heads to their pretty shoes, and obviously spent much time making the best of themselves,** she said. “Because there is no wind the women do not wear hats, and when they go into a church they place a small black lace mantilla over their heads. They also cover their bare arms, however hot the day, before entering a church.” Fans and Jasmin Most of the women used fans there, and used them gracefully, to cool themselves in the still heat They all wore sprigs of jasmin in their hair, even servants going to the open-air markets. The magnificent Moorish architecture seen everywhere in Seville (and in other parts of Spain) provided a fine background for the people, many of whom still showed a strong strain of Moorish descent Like most tourists in Spain, Mrs Gordon visited many theatres, night clubs, and art galleries in Seville and Madrid. She was also persuaded to see a bullfight. “But I did not feel one drop of my Spanish blood roused at the bullfight; I just did not like it” she said. In the Cadiz Art Gallery Mrs Gordon saw two paintings done by

an aunt and presented to the gallery by her shortly before her death nearly 50 years ago. All the old buildings she sawleft their own impression on her memory, but the first to come to mind is the Escorial, the grand monastery built of solid granite by King Philip II to commemorate the battle of San Quintin. The exquisite china, the tapestries, the paintings, and the enormous chandeliers in the Escorial typified the age-old appreciation of art in Spain, she said. Primitive Ways

Though Spanish cities, like Madrid, had adopted all modern facilities, for those who could afford them, the country districts still clung to promitive ways, Mrs Gordon said. In Azuaga, where Mrs Gordon stayed with another cousin she was amazed to see a washerwoman on her knees scrubbing the linen in a tub in a field. The woman spread out the laundry on the ground to dry, then came back the next day to rinse it and dry it again all for the equivalent of a few pence. Plumbing and water supplies were far from satisfactory in most parts of Spain she visited, except in first-class hotels. A daily bath was, apparently, not considered necessary.

The duenna system had been abandoned in recent times, and well-brought-up girls were now allowed to go out with their boy friends unescorted. But unless engaged they would not dare stay out after 10 p.m., though city life only began at that time. Mrs Gordon visited London and Paris as well as her mother country, but it is an old Spanish custom she has brought home—the siesta. “Since my holiday in Spain I find I can’t do without my afternoon nap,” she said.