While writing my second book, Night Wants To Forget, this song came in very handy, so much so it ended up playing at the wedding (won’t tell you whose!), and is so deeply relevant to the characters. Canna and her tall handsome darling are very much a by accident love.
Monthly Archives: April 2011
Keeping it Divo
The Il Divo Forum Lounge is currently running a poll, which three Il Divo songs would you like to see on the next tour, three songs NOT yet performed. David said last week they want to do a new show of their new pieces combined with old songs that haven’t been on tour yet. Yes, there are a lot of choose from, but the poll is looking for everyone’s top three songs. These are my three choices in order (and its hard to pick!) -
Sergio Ramos destroys the Copa del Rey
Did you watch Real Madrid beat out Barca for the Copa del Rey? No? tsk tsk. Anyway, this result after winning the competition probably wasn’t in the game plan…
A Sixty Year Search For Stolen Twins
Here is an article I was reading the paper last week. I am searching this subject in Spain at the moment for my third book. Scary that these things are not the work of fiction, and so prolific in Spain.
Málaga woman brings charges against city’s hospital for trafficking babies
J. DUVA / N. JUNQUERA - Madrid - 18/04/2011
Isabel Pacheco was just 16 when she became pregnant in late 1949 by Juan Pacheco, whom she would later marry and go on to have eight children with. Records show that she was admitted to the Hospital Civil in Málaga in June 1950, and that she gave birth to twin girls. She says that she heard the babies crying shortly after birth but that the pair were taken away immediately, before she could see them, and that she was told soon after that they had died and were already buried.
“My father wanted to stay in the hospital with my mother but he was told by the nuns working there to go home, because they did not know when the birth would take place,” says her son, Andrés.
The following day, his father returned to the hospital and was told by the nuns that the two baby girls and his future wife were well. “My father was very happy, and told his parents and my mother’s parents. Everybody then headed to the hospital,” says Andrés.
But when the families arrived at the hospital they were told by the management that Isabel was well, but that the two baby girls had died and been buried immediately. “My parents and grandparents were not happy with these explanations, and logically, they wanted to see the bodies of the twins. But hospital staff said that there was nothing else to be done. They even threatened them, telling them to leave, and that there was no more to be done,” says Andrés.
Juan Pacheco, the father, called the hospital repeatedly in the days that followed but staff refused to talk to him. After three days, he went to the hospital asking for Isabel’s admission forms. He was then told that there was no such documentation to prove that Isabel had been admitted to the hospital.
Juan and Isabel married soon after. In October 1951, Isabel was due to have another baby, and was again admitted to the Hospital Civil in Málaga. She gave birth to a baby boy, the first of eight children. In the section of her admission form referring to previous births, somebody had entered “twin girls one year ago,” which had then been partially scribbled over.
Andrés Pacheco has subsequently found the admission forms for his mother’s first birth. On it somebody has tried to scribble over the entry referring to “twins.”
“The family has always talked about this, because it has always been known that something terrible happened in the hospital that night in the summer of 1950. Something that we have never been able to explain and that we now want to clear up. I want to know what happened to my two twin sisters and I want them to know that we are looking for them,” says Andrés.
The admission forms for Isabel Pacheco’s stay in the hospital make no reference to the death of her twins, or to any problems during delivery. Andrés Pacheco says that staff said at the time that his mother had aborted. “There is a reference to an abortion but that is not true, my mother never aborted,” he says.
Málaga City Hall has searched its burial records at the city’s two main cemeteries for any reference to twin baby girls. “There are no clues. They are not on the registry. We know that they were born in June 1950, and we have widened the search to include the months before and after, but there is nothing,” says Andrés Pacheco.
“My father died having borne the burden all his life of not knowing what happened to his two girls,” he adds. Andrés believes that the twins were sold to adoptive parents, and the documentation relating to their births was falsified. The matter is now in the hands of the Málaga courts.
The Pacheco family’s case is remarkably similar to that of around 1,000 or so other people in Spain – parents who believe their babies were taken from them, and men and women who believe their siblings or they themselves were stolen. In each case, the woman gave birth to what she believed to be a healthy child, only to later be told that the infant had died and that it was impossible to see the body. Those babies were then allegedly sold to couples who paid, on average, the equivalent of $8,000. The people accused of doing the selling are in many cases the very doctors and nurses who had delivered the babies.
Like Isabel Pacheco, many of the women who believe their children were stolen were unmarried at the time, a breach of social norms during the strict years of the Catholic Franco regime, and which would have made them extremely vulnerable and unlikely to take their suspicions to the police.
This article is in the English section of elpais.com, yet only in English, the Spanish page seems to not exist, which I find interesting - http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/sixty-year/search/for/stolen/twins/elpepueng/20110418elpeng_4/Ten
Semana Santa in Spain
CAPUCHINS MARCHING AT NIGHT IN SPAIN
One of the most notable aspects to any Easter holidays in Spain is the appearance of the Capuchins. All of a sudden, throughout Spain, you can see gorgeous religious processions with the people concerned resplendent in costumes that mimic the Klu Klux Klan – albeit far more colourful!
Semana Santa (Easter week) is a very important time for anyone religious in Spain and is marked by processions of the Capuchins. These processions, in various forms, occur throughout Easter week but the most important processions are on Ester Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday.
The Easter Friday procession is a very important procession known as Santo Entierro and it is serious and solemn, as befits its remembrance of the burial of Christ. It is one of the most important processions and is marked by long processions of Capuchins slowly winding their way through the streets of most towns during the early evening. Effifies of a sepulchre are carried (or pulled) and the overall scene is reminiscent of something out of a medieval film. It is enchanting and quite astonishingly beautiful – with each Brotherhood (hermandad) of Capuchins in different, vibrantly coloured dress.
EASTER IN SPAIN
The Easter Saturday procession is also particularly moving, irrespective of your religious beliefs. Apart from the haunting sound of drums, it is a silent procession (called La Soledad) and it marks the death of Christ. Effifies of the Virgin are carried or pulled along within the processions.
The Easter Sunday procession is called the Rusurectión and is quite different from the days before. As it marks the resurrection of Christ, it is a ‘happy’ procession and is accompanied by bands playing joyful music. An effigy of Christ is carried by each Brotherhood and the processions of the Brotherhoods are divided into two and walk in opposite directions before both processions meet up. In Gandia (Valencia Province), unusually, sweets are carried by the Capuchins and are thrown at the crowds.
EASTER HOLIDAYS IN SPAIN – THE CAPUCHINS
Every church throughout Spain will normally have a Brotherhood of Capuchins and their own particular dress colours. This makes any gathering or procession of Capuchins a blaze of fabulous colours and makes the processions exceptional for their sheer beauty.
The Capuchin costumes cost around 600 euros and are comprised of a gown (vesta), a cloak (capa) and a hat (capucho) – from which the name Capuchin derives. Interestingly, membership of the Brotherhoods is normally defined by a person’s family. In other words, even if someone attends a given church regularly then they will more than likely be a member of a particular Brotherhood to which their family has been attached for generations.
CAPUCHINS IN FULL DRESS
Obviously, if you are religious and taking your Easter holidays in Spain then seeing the Capuchins is an absolute ‘must’. However, for the irreligious, the Capuchin processions are still something not to be missed under any account. If you want to see something truly moving – then drag yourself away from the beach and be treated to a spectacle that will have you marvelling!
http://www.culturespain.com/holiday-spain/easter-holidays-in-spain-the-capuchins
