WELCOME to the latest edition of This Week in Spanish History, written by Michael Coy.
22 AUGUST, 2016 – ‘Bubblegum’ strikes
Jose Abuin is a convicted murderer who is widely known by his nickname ‘El Chicle’, or ‘Bubblegum’.
In August, 2016, in the Galician hamlet of A Pobra do Caramiñal, an 18-year-old girl vanished. Her name was Diana Quer.
More than a year later,‘Bubblegum’ was being questioned by the police about a different sexual attack.
Bizarrely, he explained that he couldn’t possibly be guilty of the second offence, because he was busy at the time – killing Diana Quer!
When detectives asked him to prove it, he took them to Diana’s body!
27 AUGUST, 1635 – Lope de Vega
The Spanish dramatist Lope de Vega was almost exactly the contemporary of William Shakespeare. In his sphere, he was just as famous.
However, while we have only 37 plays by the Swan of Avon, Lope left us five thousand! And novel-length poems.
To say he was a genius at time-management is an understatement: as well as all that writing, he juggled no fewer than five girlfriends.
And he was a Catholic priest!
27 AUGUST, 1664 – Zurbaran dies
Francisco de Zurbaran, the baroque painter, is sometimes nicknamed the ‘Spanish Caravaggio’, because of his almost photographic realism and dramatic use of shadows.
A native of Extremadura, Zurbaran spent his working life in Sevilla, where he was contracted to the Dominican order of monks, and where many of his finest canvases are now to be seen in the Museo de Bellas Artes.
27 AUGUST, 2014 – Peret dies
When you think of the Seventies, what comes to mind? Larry Grayson? The late ‘Carry On’ films?
For Spanish people, it’s those movies they now show on TV on Sunday afternoons – brightly-lit, impossibly colourful, in which a big, handsome gypsy guy with spectacular sideburns plays ‘rumbas catalanas’, holding the guitar up near his left ear.
The guy is Peret, and he invented a Barcelona subset of flamenco: and he is dearly missed.
29 AUGUST, 1913 – Ambros is born
There are not many cartoonists that we can mention who were so respected that their work featured on postage stamps. ‘Ambros’ was granted that honour.
Miguel Ambrosio Zaragosa of Catalunya, to give him his full name, qualified as a teacher in the early 1930s.
Such a post was considered a path out of poverty, but he refused to teach Franco’s ideas, and went to work in the fields.
His talent eventually won out, and he went on to dominate graphic art in Spain throughout the 20th century.
His character, ‘Captain Thunder’, remains a favourite with children.
29 AUGUST, 2023 – Costa statistics published
Today, thanks to worrying global events, we are a little nervous about travelling.
As recently as three summers ago, the airlines were purring with enthusiasm. The Costa del Sol was an insatiable tourist magnet.
Flight capacity was increased by 23 per cent to more than six million plane seats dedicated specifically to Malaga Airport.
Optimists point out that British people make up 1 in 3 of the non-Spaniards in southern Spain, and that’s not going to change any time soon (one in seven is German, and one in eight is French).
31 AUGUST, 1887 – Zenobia Camprubi born
Zenobia Camprubi Aymar of Barcelona was the wife of writer Juan Ramon Jimenez. She was also famous in her own right.
Poet, diarist and translator, she made a name for herself in the USA, where she lectured at the University of Maryland.
She was a few weeks short of her 70th birthday when she died in 1956.
However, she hung on just long enough to hear the news that her husband had won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
31 AUGUST, 1982 – Pepe Reina born
British football fans will remember Pepe Reina as the goalie who starred for Liverpool twenty years ago.
In a memorable FA Cup Final which went to penalties, Reina saved three out of four – effectively winning the cup for his team.
In Spain, he is famous as the son of revered goalkeeper Miguel Reina, and he represented Barcelona and Villareal.
After he finished at Liverpool in 2014, he went on to play for Napoli, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Aston Villa and Lazio.
Now in his mid 50s, Pepe is on the Villareal coaching staff.
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