Actually we didn't know what we were heading to as we drove up into the mountains. Primarily the idea was to enjoy the cherry blossom, show my friend the small villages and beautiful scenery, and have some time out.
It was a case of my friend having been invited by a friend of a friend! yes one of those situations..
Given my friend is something of a horticultural enthusiast, we were under the impression the local fiesta was connecte in some aspect.
The first person I spot on arriving, is an acquaintance, (another friend of a friend situation!)who can only be described as looking like a mad professor, with his unruly hair and bulging eyes and completely manic behaviour. A nice guy, but manic
nonetheless!
He greeted us enthusiastically and asked what we were doing there, to which we replied, we had no bloody idea.
Given that everyone already seemed well oiled and excitable, i could pretty much assume this was not a horticultural event!
My friend Lori had muttered something about the fiesta of the onion??That's the great thing over here, you can find any excuse for a party, be it an onion celebration or whatever else takes your fancy.
This is the point where it all becomes rather more surreal..it later transpires that Onions, Spring onions to be exact,
are at the centre of this celebration but the underlying reasons behind the fiesta is to revive a tradition that in this area at least ( Communidad Valenciana) has slowly died out. Ultimately it a communal celebration of the land, eating together,
sharing together.
We were greeted by a wall of sound as we turned the corner: Hundreds of people sitting, drinking, celebrating, carried along by a band playing traditional music, not to mention the free flowing beer and Sangria which evidently added to the party atmosphere. To be honest, Lori and I were somewhat bewildered at first. Him still recovering from the flu and me still recovering from my emotive week fearing the worst over my uninvited ovarian guest.
Good old Boli took control and thrust us into the crowds, towards the bar. A quick scan of the surrounding posters,
confirmed what i suspected, and knowing Boli, this was more than a good old piss up using the excuse of a spring onion!
Maybe it was the hammer and sickle that gave it away, or the pro palestinian posters or...
Actually, I began to relax pretty quickly, as I looked around and realized there were many other bemused looking faces around us who, onions aside, were perhaps as green as us to what was actually going on.
Our eccentric friend pushed his way through the crowds and made a place for us at the table, where he then shouted enthusiastically that we were friends, and were welcome because we respected their beliefs and traditions. Also that
we were friends of the
MISTELERA which had similar (though non political) ideals.
Most of this was in drunken Catalan which i understand little of, though punctuated by the odd word in English or Castellano.
Lori translated the bits which went over my head.
I gathered they are a
pro Catalan organisation, though apparently non political (only meaning they don't stand
for election), and, here we go again, want independence from "
Spain " for they are
Catalan, not Castellano.
Now, I believe, if there is a
GOD, that he or she has a rather ironic sense of humor,knowing how pissed off i get over the politicizing of language, my irritation with the hardcore narrow minded viewpoints of many extreme
pro Valencianos,
but slowly I find myself surrounded by them more and more.
This is me in the midst, learning, listening and observing. Now I would be lying if i said i wasnt moved, as i listened to the stirring, traditional song, amongst a sombre crowd, some with raised fists, eyes closed.
The "
red" in me rose slowly to the surface, only to slowly subside again as i returned to reality.
For there is one simple truth here, too much division and not enough unity.
The outcome of the civil war taught us that simple truth (The lack of international support aside) Facism need never have succeeded here. Division being the priciple cause of failure.
I've been to the
Basque country briefly. I understand and symapathise with their cause, their fascinating history, but evidently NOT with their ( physical) fight.
I heard Sinn Fein mentioned once here yesterday and....my answer is this:
Political division,
religious division, has man learnt nothing from history? prejudice, bloodshed. We have simply not evolved and have learnt nothing from past and present conflicts.
Nothing has changed, how depressing is that?
I simply cannot bring myself to show any interestin the libyan conflict because it reppresents hypocrisy to the extreme on all sides.
Give me a leader, free from all these negative human traits and i will kiss their feet! I bow to no one and follow no one,
because i'm simply not convinced. I refuse to be a sheep. I refuse to vote because i simple believe in noone. Hmm, that sounds abit negative and cynical..but if someone proves me wrong...
The problem in this country is that you seem to be only one or the other, Left or right, with little middle ground.
I've done my reading on the
Spanish civil war and i'm hugely thankful to have never lived under that level of oppression and control, though saying that, i can recognize the level of control exercised by this present so called socialist democratic government. Ive seen the changes over here, gradually, over many years and i can honestly say they are not all for the best.
This is where being an outsider, an observer on the fringe, is a fascinating though frustrating place to be:
What we've observed is an embracing of capitalism to the extreme. Extreme being the operative word.
Greed is to blame for much of what has gone wrong here, for me it is a fantastically obvious example of the rise and fall of
Capitalism at its worst.The ridiculously expensive cars, the most modern of all gadgets, indeed the biggest and most expensive of everything. Too much too fast.A disaster waiting to happen. and oh boy is it happening.
With an almost non existenst welfare system there are now people going hungry. I personally know of many who have left the country , or, as mature adults, have had to return to their parents as they have nothing. My mother's church is currently feeding 15 families.
For me personally the changes dont mean as much as we have very little on a materialistic level: I have no plastic, no loans, lost my home, and we live simply.This makes the transition much easier.
Those who are adaptable will survive.
As for the onion fest, well I had a great day, amongst friends and strangers alike. I enjoyed the atmosphere, the "feeling" of
unity and for a brief moment, a collective belief in "something". And yes, if invited again I shall return.
Next time though, i might lay off the Sangria. Ahhh, if only everday could be like that....
