La Revista Issue 235

SOCIETY NEWS

La RevistaThe BritishSpanish Society Magazine | Issue 235 | Summer 2013

FernandoGutiérrez

The graphic designer invites us into his London studio

2 La Revista • Summer 2013

Welcome to La Revista! I am delighted to be your new editor and I look

forward to bringing you the magazine from now on. You may already have noticed that there have been a few changes; these are exciting times for the Society and things have been very busy lately as we go through this period of transition. Firstly, we have a new name: The BritishSpanish Society, which we hope is a more accurate reflection of our mis-sion to bring together the people of Britain and Spain by promoting greater understanding and friendship between the two countries. The Society’s chairman, Jimmy Burns Marañon, brings you up to date with the latest developments on page 5, where you will also find an explanation of the concept behind our new logo and website. As for the rest of this issue, we have our Society News pages, which give an overview of our events over the last few months, organised by our excellent voluntary events team. We already have many more lined up for this year, the highlights of which you will find on page 20, and I look for-ward to meeting you at some of them. We hear from two of the winners of last year’s scholarship grants awarded by the Society and its principal supporters, demonstrating that this initiative continues to be worthwhile. For our cover story, our deputy editor, Lourdes Gómez, has secured an exclusive interview with leading graphic designer, Fernando Gutiér-rez, who was born in the UK to Spanish parents. We also speak to Isabel del Río, writer and linguist, about her new bilingual collection of short stories. Tom Burns Marañon reviews British journalist, Henry Buckley’s, fascinating account of his time in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and Dominic Begg rounds up the best cavas to drink in the summer sunshine. Membership is growing and we want La Revista to be relevant to all of our readers, so please let us know what you think of the magazine and if there is anything you would like to read about which is not currently covered. We are looking for new contributors to write in English or Spanish, to illustrate and photograph for us, so please get in touch. And if you’re not yet a member and would like to be, what are you waiting for? Fill out the form on the back page of the magazine and send it to us, or log on to our brand new website for more information.

I hope you enjoy this issue and that you have a lovely summer!

Write to us at [email protected]

From the Editor

The next issue of La Revista is due to appear in Autumn 2013. Advertising inquiries should be emailed

to:[email protected]

The opinions expressed throughout this issue of La Revista represent those of the authors and contributors

and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the BritishSpanish Society or those of their supporters.

The BritishSpanish Society is a registered charity: 1080250

Amy Bell

facebook.com/BritishSpanish

@BritishSpanish

Cover image: Ione Saizar

Summer 2013 • La Revista 3

CONTENTS

SOCIETY NEWS

La Revista

Executive Editor: Jimmy Burns Marañón Editor: Amy Bell

Deputy Editor: Lourdes Gómez Corporate Supporters/Advertising: María A.

Jiménez-Riesco, María Soriano Casado Events: Beatriz Gago Vazquez, Lucia Cawdron

Membership, Finance, and Website: Virginia Cosano Design: Amy Bell

Distribution: El Ibérico

Published by the BritishSpanish Society

Honorary President: His Excellency

the Spanish Ambassador

Federico Trillo Figueroa

Chairman: Jimmy Burns Marañón

Vice-Chairman: Jaime-Enrique Hugas

Treasurer: Jaime Arranz Coque

Other members of the Executive Council:

Fidel López Alvarez, Paul Pickering, Albert Jones, Sara Argent, Julio Crespo MacLennan, María Victoria Yuste Gas,

Carmen Bouverat, John Scanlan, Lady Pilar Brennan, Beatriz Gago, Virginia Cosano, José Ivars-Lopez, Muir Sutherland, Sir Stephen Wright, Siobhan Songour, David Hurst, Lucia Cawdron, Amy Bell, Christopher Nason, Javier Fernández

Hidalgo

102 Eaton Square, London SW1W 9AN

www.britishspanishsociety.org

FEATURES

Networking event at Hispania45 Society update: a word from our chairman on

the Society’s new identity plus the concept for our logo and website by Haime & Butler

6

CONTENTS

Thoughts on Spanish football26Cava Cavalcade: Which bubbles you should be drinking this summer

27

Our annual scholarship awards ceremony

33 Catching the Wave of European Multilingualism: the state of second language learning in the UK and Spain

29 Writing in Two Languages: Isabel del Río tells us about her new collection of short stories

30 A review of ‘The Life & Death of the Spanish Republic’ by Henry Buckley

8 A Note from our Scholars: winners of last year’s grants report on their research projects

10 An evening of classical music at St.Paul’s in Knightsbridge, followed by Q&A with our musicians

13 Spanish highlights from Sotheby’s recent sale of 19th Century European paintings

15 ‘Spain: A Democracy Has Been Arranged,’ film screening at the Instituto Cervantes

16 An invitation to the Spanish Embassy: the Society’s annual summer party

18 ‘Managing Reputations in the Modern Age’ - a talk by PR and Communications expert, Patrick Harverson

Cover story: Interview with graphic designer, Fernando Gutiérrez

23

Contributors

Dominic Begg

Jimmy Burns Marañón Lourdes Gómez Santiago Díaz-Bravo

Estefanía Ruilope Tom Burns Marañón

Richard Barker Ione Saizar

Upcoming Society events20Obituary: Rod Younger21

London Life: Handbag designer, Mireia Llusia, reveals her favourite parts of the city

34

Kumar Rege

Issue 235

19 The Spanish Chamber of Commerce AGM


SOCIETY NEWS

Networking Event at Hispania

Photographs by the Society’s events team Javier Fernández Hidalgo and Lucia Cawdron

Beatriz Gago with guest and Diana Carrasco Guests

Silvia Domingo with guests Guests with Jorge Gallardo

Guests Riccardo Guido, guest and Beatriz Gago

Drinks and tapas at London’s new Spanish restaurant

Olivia Cockburn, Rafael Perez Echevarría and guest

Over one hundred mainly young guests attended the Society’s networking evening at Hispania on the 17th April. For the majority of those attending, this was a first time visit to the recently inau-gurated high quality Spanish food venue, and no one was disappointed. Co-owner Javier Hidalgo, his management team and staff were present to ensure that Society members and their friends felt welcome and could enjoy a delicious array of imaginative tapas and wine in Hispania’s ample upstairs facilities with its comfort-able furniture, generous spaces, impressive bar, and beautiful decoration.

Both Lucia Cawdron, the Society’s head of events, and chairman Jimmy Burns Marañón expressed their thanks to Javier and all at Hispania, as well as words of encouragement to existing Society members and potential new recruits to keep on supporting the Society and its fund-raising activities. As the chairman said, the evening successfully delivered on the Society’s mission: building bridges, socially and culturally, with a good mix of young Spaniards and British, several of whom met each other for the first time and clearly enjoyed each other’s convivial company.


SOCIETY NEWS

About Haime & ButlerWe’re an independent branding and marketing com-munications agency, based in London Bridge. We help our clients gain the competitive edge by applying logic and strong creative ideas across all delivery chan-nels - to get the right messages, to the right people, at the right times. Our clients vary in size and reach but all share a com-mon desire to be the best in their sector. We under-stand them and try to see things from their point of view, without losing sight of our own objectivity and creativity. We deal directly and responsively and take the long term view - by building solid relationships with our customers, we help them, in turn, to build fruitful relationships with their audiences. We work across all types of media, from identities and printed literature to digital communications, but always with our ethos that ‘the idea is fundamental’ at the forefront of our minds.

Working with the BritishSpanish SocietyWe were recommended to the society through a mem-ber and were delighted to be given the opportunity to work with the organisation. The decision to change the name of the organisation to the BritishSpanish Society has created the opportunity for some exciting chang-es. Foremost was the need for a new identity to reflect the new name. We worked closely with the team at the Society to ensure we encapsulated the nature of the Society: the promotion of friendship and the sharing of cultures of Britain and Spain. The chosen identity communicates a fresh, colourful and approachable logo, integrating the two cultures through their flags whilst subtly representing the ‘B’ of British and the ‘S’ of Spain. Our objectives for the website were to design a mod-ern and dynamic site that better reflects the organisa-tion, offering the user a more interactive experience with content and imagery that is informative and up to date. This will hopefully ensure that members will visit the site on a more regular basis and enable potential members to see clearly what the Society is about and what it has to offer. The homepage is the focal point with regular news and events offering easy access to other parts of the site. The calendar of events is a key aspect, where members can find out about both Soci-ety events and those of interest outside of the organ-isation, constantly promoting a sharing of knowledge and experiences. Social media has been integrated to better effect and there is also now the opportunity for external advertising to promote key events etc. Our primary focus was to deliver a site that not only looks great, but is also easy to update, as we’re aware that all input from the team is purely voluntary. We have ensured that the site is future proof which will al-low it to grow and become a tool that people use more and enjoy.

Our New Logo & WebsiteThe concept behind it, by Haime & Butler

Dear Reader,

I am delighted to welcome Amy Bell, an enthusiastic young mem-ber of the British-Spanish Society, as the new editor of La Revista. A graduate in English studies of the University of Nottingham, where she was design editor of the student magazine, 25 year old Amy has lived and worked in Spain as a teacher in Madrid, and, as a volunteer, helping restore and renovate the Covachas Fune-rias De Montoro as part of a large scale project intended to bring tourism to Montoro in Córdoba. Her jobs in the UK have included working for a public relations firm in London, writing articles and helping design the music magazine MOJO, and for the last three years widening her experience in media and events organisation as Content Editor at the Financial Times. During the last three years I have found it a huge honour to first launch and then edit La Re-vista with the help of an energetic pool of voluntary contributors and of Steve Bunn of the Royal College of Art, to whom the Soci-ety owes a huge debt of gratitude for redesigning the pages of the former Review with such flair. But with my appointment as chairman it seemed appropriate to seek the support of the Board of Trustees for a change in the edito-rial organisation –and Amy, with her skills and youthful enthusiasm for British and Spanish culture was the ideal candidate to take on the task of editing La Revista as we enter a new and exciting period in the Society’s history.This new edition of la Revista is the first to be published by The Anglo-Spanish Society under its new name of the BritishSpanish Society. This rebrand , which fol-

lows, a wide consultation, forms part of a reshaping of our organ-isation to cater for the interests of a growing membership, and deliver improved services to cor-porate and institutional partners, in line with our central mission and core values. We are in good shape thanks to my predecessor Denise Holt whose three years at the helm as chairman has been an example of sensible and inspirational management, presiding over a period of growth and innovation and laying firm foundations for the future as we approach in 2016 the centenary of our Society’s foundation. We remain dedicated to the task of helping foster positive cultural and social links between the peo-ple of Spain and the UK through a varied programme of events. And in the current climate, when many young people are finding it hard to pursue their studies or find jobs, let alone develop the skills that might help bring them fresh opportunities, we are deeply committed to helping where we can. It is a source of some pride that we can showcase our scholar-ship programme as an example of the positive outcome of our fund raising activities as a charity. It is also an opportunity to honour the talent of Spanish and Brit-ish post-graduate students who with their research and work are contributing to a better future for themselves and their co-citizens.

Society UpdateA word from our chairman, Jimmy Burns Marañón

By Nikki Saunders

This rebrand forms part of a reshaping of our organisation


SOCIETY NEWS

Scholarship Awards CeremonyOn the 13th May at the Spanish Embassy, the Ambassador, His Excellency Don Federico Trillo Figueroa, the Society’s Honorary President, hosted the awards for the sixth year of our Scholarship programme. Over 150 applications, many of the highest quality, made selection of the becarios more difficult than ever. However, those chosen proved them-selves well up to the standard of their twenty five predecessors. The acceptance speeches were eloquently given – as is the custom – in the language of the other country and again lived up to the best examples of the past. These Scholarships are funded by the five Principal Supporters of the Society, namely:

BBVA’s scholarship this year went to Nicole Crespo O’Donoghue, who is well known to members as a violinist, having played at both our Gala dinners and at two of our classical concerts. Although just completing the final year of her under-graduate study, professional engagements have already begun to come her way with the Royal Opera House and the English National Ballet at their winter production of the Nutcracker. Nicole’s talent makes her an outstanding candidate for a Brit-ishSpanish Society award which will enable her to study for a Master’s in Performance at the Royal Academy of Music. Nicole’s award was presented to her by Mark Flewitt of BBVA, here pictured alongside our Chairman, Jimmy Burns Marañon.

The BUPA scholarship was presented to Carmen Tur Gómez, currently a Neurologist at the Multiple Sclerosis Centre of Catalonia, who will be attending the Master’s course in Medical Statistics offered by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her object is to extend her mathematical skills as a tool in her epidemiological research into multiple sclerosis.

Carmen’s award was presented to her by Jimmy Burns Marañón, standing in for Yolanda Erburu of BUPA/Sanitas.

Representatives of each of these benefactors attended the event and met their respective becarios. Thanks to the generosity of the Society’s members, the various sponsors of events and Corporate Supporters, the Society was able to award four smaller – nevertheless welcome – bursaries. Special thanks also to Bar & CO and the Spanish Embassy for their help and sponsorship.

BBVA

BUPA


SOCIETY NEWS

Maria Casero of Ferrovial presented their scholarship to Beatriz Mingo Roman to support her PhD studies. Her thesis, enti-tled ‘Microstructure and corrosion of aluminum and magnesium-based materials processed via semisolid casting for transport applications’, is being produced in collaboration with other research groups (the University of Manchester and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos) as well as with a pri-vate research centre (Cidaut) and will allow her to carry out research at the University of Manchester, within the framework of the ‘Light Alloys Towards Sustainable Trans-port’ programme.

Luis Juste of Santander Universities presented the Santander award to Gonzalo Velasco Berenguer. Gonzalo is working on a PhD which will provide a reassessment of Philip II’s place in English history, using documents in archives throughout Europe. The project will also con-sider Charles V and Philip’s thinking on the potential role of England within the global strategy of the Spanish Monarchy. In his fascinating study, Gonzalo will illustrate Charles V’s careful prepara-tion of his son for the role he might play.

Mike Short of Telefónica presented their scholarship to Rodrigo García González. An inventor, Rodrigo seeks “to make the world better” through practical inventions. He was a finalist in the James Dyson Foundation Award in 2012 for ‘Hop! The Following Suitcase’ (a suitcase that follows the signal from the owner’s mobile phone) and ‘Aer, a flying solar desalinator’. He will be pursuing an MSc and MA in Innovation Design Engineering at Imperial College & The Royal College of Art.

Four bursaries of the BritishSpanish Society’s own bursary scheme were also awarded to:

FERROVIAL

SANTANDER

TELEFÓNICA

Marcus Davis, who will be undertaking an International Master’s Degree in Reconstructive Microsurgery in Barcelona and the UK.

Elizabeth Rahman, a medical anthropologist and ethnographer who was given the award to support her post-doctoral research on traditional therapeutics in Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. Elizabeth was unable to attend the ceremony but the award was accepted by Albert Jones who read her speech of thanks.

Catherine Sillitoe, who is working on a PhD in Modern Romance Lan-guages with an emphasis on Spanish. She aims to study a syntactic detail that is shared by most Romance languages in their oral registers, even if not always acknowledged in their grammars. Catherine’s research has interesting potential practical applica-tion both for teaching and for automatic translation.

Luis Gonzaga Martínez del Campo, who has already conducted research into cultural exchanges between the UK and Spain in the early 20th century and is now preparing a history of the BritishSpanish Society.


SCHOLARSHIPS

First of all let me express my thanks again to the Society for my award

which has greatly facilitated the prog-ress of the work I have been undertak-ing. The following provides a brief introduction to the work itself:

In May 1900, twelve skilled iron work-ers from the Sociedad de Altos Hornos y Fábricas de Hierro y Acero de Bilbao were recruited by the Dowlais Iron Works in south Wales in order to fill a gap in the workforce brought about through recruitment for the Boer War. The company in Bilbao according to Carr was, “with 7, 000 workers in its ironworks...the largest single concern in Spain” at that time. Within a mat-ter of months, family members joined the group and over the next decade a Hispanic community developed in the Dowlais/Merthyr Tydfil area (see illustration below of Dowlais c.1900). Today, many second and third generation families still exist within the community and, although there is evidence of some moving on, the majority have remained to make a life for themselves. It is these ‘stayers’ that form the basis of the investigation. The research was developed from an investigation into the descendants of Lancastrian cotton workers who had previously migrated to Massachusetts towards the end of the nineteenth century in order to work in the cotton mills. The project there considered the extent to which the current descen-dants had assimilated to American society and tried to identify what elements of Lancastrian, English or

Basque migrants and Spanish guitar: Two recipients of last year’s Society scholarships offer some in-sights into how these grants have helped to fund research in their chosen specialist subjects

Adiós a Chroeso: Spanish/Basque Migration to South Wales from 1900

FROM OUR SCHOLARS

British culture were still present within the group. Similarly, the current research is looking at pointers of assimilation (or its logical opposite-acculturation) within the Hispanic community still present in Dowlais. Using the term ‘Hispanic’ needs to be explained more fully. It is true that the first migrants left from Bilbao and the easiest term to use to describe them would be ‘Basque’. However, amongst those early migrants there is little evidence of Basque names, which doesn’t necessarily mean, of course, they weren’t born in País Vasco, but does suggest a non-Basque back-ground. From the middle of the nineteenth century in Spain many thousands of people migrated internally and the indus-trial areas of the north coast proved very popular locations for employment. The men that came to Dowlais were all skilled men in their trades and therefore would have had to spend anything between five to seven years learning those trades at the Altos Hornos company. Additionally, the research has found no evidence of the Basque language ever having been spoken amongst the Dowlais group either cur-rently or previously with the original set-tlers. But even with this in mind, it is still proving difficult to adopt a suitable adjec-tive, as there may have been migrants from Cataluña, Galicia or Valencia within both the original and subsequent migrants. Before receiving the funding from the BritishSpanish Society a lot of groundwork had already been carried out and a small group of descendants formed the basis of a pilot study. The oral interviews are still being analysed for pointers of any reten-tion of ‘Hispanicness’ still present within

the group but at this stage it would be reasonable to suggest that there is very little evidence of any. There is nostalgia of course and pride in their background, but nothing of any substance has ap-peared to suggest a measurable retention of any Hispanic characteristics. There are a number of reasons for this, including inter-marriage, the desire/ability to learn a new language, geographic concentration of the migrant group etc. But by under-taking the investigation there have been many surprising outcomes including a lady who lived in Dowlais for more than fifty years and who point blank refused to speak anything but Castilian to anybody, including the local Welsh-speaking com-munity. Not the best example of someone with a desire to assimilate fully. Recently, the funding has allowed me to make a trip back to Bilbao and district to carry on the very necessary back-ground work. To fully understand the characteristics of the Dowlais Diaspora today necessitates the fullest understand-ing of the background of the individuals who nurtured them. To that end I was given access to the Universidad del País Vasco in Vitoria and was able to discuss the whole area of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Hispanic migration with academics there. I am particularly grateful to Professor Oscar Gila, Profes-sor of Migration Studies at the university for his help and support. Furthermore, while there I made a first contact with the chief archivist at the Biblioteca Foral de Bizkaia who is making some enquiries on my behalf regarding the original twelve migrants. The archive is the depository of the records of the original company from which the twelve left in 1900. I am hoping that I can identify who they were (I know some already) and, most importantly, where and when they were born, although this will probably necessitate accessing a different archive.

By Stephen James Murray

A bird’s-eye view of Dowlais

Imag

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prod

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with

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mis

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from

Mer

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rary

Stephen’s grant was awarded as part of the Society’s bursary scheme


SCHOLARSHIPS

The Guitar: An Emblem of Spanish Music

I would like to begin by offering my sincere thanks to Telefónica for their

continued generosity in the field of clas-sical music and for supporting my Guitar Studies on the Guildhall Artist Master’s programme. One of my main objectives is to promote the Spanish culture through its ‘classical music’, as Flamenco has done in the popular sense, and what better way to achieve this than through the guitar, also known as the ‘Spanish guitar’ since the seventeenth century, the emblem of Spanish music. I am very interested in music written for the guitar during the Generation of ’27. The 1920s were for Spain a time of great cultural richness and during this period the guitar underwent an important change, emerging from popular circles to the Concert Hall. For the first time, musi-cians took an active part in artistic and in-tellectual Spanish society. The guitar used to be, to a certain extent, excluded from musical education because it was only considered a popular instrument. In fact, Albéniz and Granados, representatives of Spanish music in Paris, never wrote for the guitar, but they evoked its characteris-tics in music for piano and orchestra. As an example we have ‘Evocación’, a work that opens the pianistic series of ‘Iberia’ by Isaac Albéniz which employs a melody with guitaristic accompaniment. The gui-tar was often used as a point of reference to demonstrate the characteristic musical language of Spain. However, Manuel de Falla was a key person in the development of the guitar during the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in Cádiz

but moved to Madrid and later Paris, to continue his musical studies. In September of 1919 – two months after his success with the debut of ‘El sombrero de tres picos’ in the Alhambra Theatre in London – Falla travelled to Granada and there he composed ‘Homage a Debussy’, his only work for solo guitar which is considered one of the most significant works of the guitar repertoire – in fact, the first of the twentieth century. This short piece composed in 1920 and dedicated to Debussy is the key that opened the way to a new era in the history of the guitar. Thereafter everyone started to look at the guitar with new eyes and non-guitarist composers became interested in writing for the instrument. In this way, we have works by composers such as Antonio José, Salvador Bacarisse, Oscar Esplá, Joaquín Turina, Ernesto Halffter and Federico Moreno Torroba, amongst others. In addi-tion, there were transcriptions of Renais-sance and Baroque music for vihuela and lute, in particular music by J. S. Bach. We can also see the guitar’s new impor-tance in the period’s fine art and poetry, both of which were often inspired by the instrument. The guitar became a constant presence in the paintings of the Cubist style. These lines were written by the poet Rafael Alberti in honor of Pablo Picasso:

“…las guitarras y flautas de Picasso no se callan. Acompañándolo siem-pre, seguirán sonando a través de los siglos, y él las escuchará absorto con sus grandes pupilas, transformando

la música en sustancia pictórica desde lo hondo de la tierra”

Poets of the Generation of ’27 had a good relationship with music and this is reflected in their works. We can find a great number of refer-ences to composers and performers. Federico García Lorca, who was also a musician, dedicated to his friend and guitarist Regino Sainz de la Maza, his ‘Seis caprichos’ included in Poema del Cante Jondo. The first one is entitled ‘Adivinanza de la guitarra’:

En la redonda encrucijada, seis doncellas bailan.

Tres de carne y tres de plata. Los sueños de ayer las buscan

pero las tiene abrazadas un Polifemo de oro.

¡La guitarra!

Spain, because of its historical, social and cultural character, kept a close relationship with popular musical expression that was always the point of reference in artistic works. Thus the guitar became a recurrent element in the poetry and fine art of the Genera-tion of ‘27.

‘Mandolina y guitarra’ by Pablo Picasso, 1924

By Isabel María Martinez Garrido

Isabel is currently doing a Master’s degree in Music Performance at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Professor Robert Brightmore.

Her grant was awarded by one of the Society’s Principal Supporters:


SOCIETY NEWS

Annual Classical ConcertSt Paul’s Knightsbridge, a Victorian

church at the heart of one of Lon-don’s most international neighbour-hoods, was the setting for the Brit-ishSpanish Society’s annual classical concert last April. Maite Aguirre from Bilbao brilliant-ly gathered and conducted a diverse group of talented Spanish and British musicians in an inspired repertoire with pieces by Mozart, Bach, Hayden, Tschaikovsy, P.Hindemith, and S.Barber. The musicians are studying at the Royal Academy of Music, The Royal College of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, all learn-ing centres of excellence in the world of arts. The musicians were welcomed by the guest of honour, the Spanish ambassador Federico Trillo Figueroa. The Society’s chairman, Jimmy Burns Marañón, described the concert as a perfect symbol of what the Soci-ety as a charity is proud of doing. “We are building a cultural, educational and social bridge between British people with an interest in Spain and Spaniards who are living in London”, he said. “I am delighted that one of London’s most beautiful churches at the heart of this wonderful capital city is one in which British and Spanish young people can find creative space.” The concert, which drew an enthusi-astic audience of members and guests, was generously sponsored by the Of-fice of Cultural and Scientific Affairs of the Spanish Embassy. Many thanks also to St Paul’s Church and Father Alan Gyle, and to the concert’s organ-ising committee: Mrs Lucia Cawdron, Lady Nicky Lindsay, Virginia Cosano, María Soriano, and Beatriz Gago.

Photographs by Kumar Rege

Jimmy Burns Marañón and Federico Trillo Figueroa with the concert musicians

Scott Young and Carmen BouveratMaite Aguirre, Beatriz Cazals and Angela García

St Paul’s, Knightsbridge Guest with Alejandra Díaz and Beatriz Cazals


SOCIETY NEWS

PROGRAMMEEine Kleine Nachtmusik (1st Movement)by W.A. MozartViolin Concerto in A minor (BWV 1041)by J.S. BachViolin soloist: Lucia VeintemilliaCello Concerto N.2 in D major by F.J. HaydnCello soloist: Alejandra DíazSerenade for Strings op. 48 (Vals and Elegie) by P.I. TschaikovskyTrauermusik for Viola and String Orchestra by P. HindemithViola soloist: Angela GarciaAdagio for Strings op.11by S. Barber

Jimmy Burns Marañón and Maite Aguirre

Lucia Cawdron and Kidge Burns Ruth Sherrat, Alan Gregory, Andrew Wallace and Angela Gómez Florit

Lady Lindsay

Lucia Veintimilla , Lourdes Taunton-Collins, Maite Aguirre with musicians and guests

Lucia Veintimilla takes the stage


SOCIETY NEWS

IN THE SPOTLIGHT Q&A with our concert musiciansName & Instrument

Where were you born?

Why did you decide to become a professional musician

Which teachers have influenced you the most?

Favourite composer?

What is your London treasure?

Maite AguirrePiano & Conductor

Lucía Veintimilla Macián Violin

Angela García Viola

Ana Laura Iglesias Cello

Javier Montañana Violin

Raquel López Bolívar Viola

Beatrice Cazals Violin

Irma Vastakaite Violin

Enrique Santiago Violin

Alejandra Díaz Cello

Guy Button Violin

Rodrigo Moro Martin Double Bass

Bilbao

Alcázar de SanJuan

Córdoba

Avilés

Valencia

Madrid

Bordeaux

Klaipėda, Lithuania

Seville

Galicia

Portsmouth

Salamanca

I couldn’t imagine doing anything else for the rest of my life

My love for music was too powerful to ignore

Because it was meant to be!

Playing the cello in a sum-mer music course at the age of 16 was such an intense experience that I decided to become a profesional cellist

It seemed like a very enjoyable lifestyle

Because music is my life - it’s the thing I love the most

I felt I wanted to live off my passion and share it with others

To be able to express myself through music and in doing so to influence others is very rewarding

I love music

Music has always been the biggest passion in my life

It gave me the opportunity to do something I love for a living

I cannot imagine myself without music

To mention only a few, Guadalupe Lopez, Vladik Bronevetzky and Christina Croshaw

My father

Claude Ducrocq and Rachel Roberts

Lagoba Fanlo, my professor in Madrid, and more recently David Strange

Those who see teaching as a malleable and evolving discipline

Josep Puchades, Thomas Riebl and Krzysztof Chorlzelski

Robert Papavrami, Aurelia Spadaro, Krzysztof Smietana and Maciej Rakowski

Every single person I have met in my life has influenced me in a unique way

Alejandro Tuñón and Tamara Becktemirova

Plamen Velev, Oleg Kogan, Tim Hugh and Alexander Baillie

David Takeno and Erik Houston

François Rabbath

Too many! But Chopin is a constant in my life

If I had to choose...Beethoven

Really difficult...Bach, Beethoven

Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Shostakovich

Brahms

Shostakovich

Beethoven and his symphonies!

Too many to list

Mahler

I’d have to say Brahms

Beethoven

Brahms

My home

Wimbledon Park

Walking along the riverside

The sunset from the Millenium Bridge

Any of the big bookshops

Parliament Hill

The South Bank when the sun is out

The people

My violin

Wigmore Hall

The Mug House pub under London Bridge

The Houses of Parliament


SOCIETY NEWS

Our sale of 19th Century European Paintings at Sotheby’s on the 23rd

May was led by Joaquín Sorolla’s dramat-ic masterpiece, ‘Niños en la playa’ (1916)which sold to a private collector for £2,770,500. Its appearance on the market followed the record price we achieved last November for the artist’s landmark painting, ‘Pescadores Valencianos’, of 1895, one of the first major works with which Sorolla made a striking impact on the international art scene of his day. ‘Niños en la playa’ was offered fresh to market, having remained in the artist’s family since the late 1950s, and had been widely exhibited over the years, featuring in the important Sorolla touring exhibi-tion in 1988-89 and most recently in the Sorolla to Picasso exhibition in Lausanne in 2009. It was notably selected to illus-trate a special edition of stamps marking the centenary of Sorolla’s birth in 1963. In this work, painted on Valencia’s El Cabañal beach, Sorolla expresses to full effect his emotion at returning to his native city. Returning to Valencia in the summer of 1916 gave Sorolla a welcome break from working on the panels for his Visions of Spain series, the monumental commission destined for the Hispanic Society in New York. Following his ef-forts that spring on the huge Valencian panel, Sorolla would produce four major paintings of startling creativity, of which ‘Niños en la playa’ is one. We also saw a strong price for a smaller, more intimate beach scene, depicting Sorolla’s two daughters: María, aged sixteen, and Elena, aged eleven. Sorolla painted this work while staying in Biar-ritz in 1906, following the success of his first one-man show in Paris at the Galerie Georges Petit earlier that summer. The

Atlantic light, and especially the different crowd at Biarritz, required a fresh ap-proach, and the figures in Sorolla’s Biar-ritz works reflect a more elegant, high-society clientele than the fishermen and frolicking children which characterise his Valencian works. This wonderfully Im-pressionistic painting sold for £386,500, on an estimate of £200,000-300,000. Two characteristically harmonious pieces by Joaquim Mir similarly sold for prices over the high estimate: ‘Soller’ and ‘Paisaje Mallorquín con naranjos’, both highly distinctive Mallorca landscapes of the same size, painted circa 1900-01. Mir’s Mallorca period of 1900-04, while the artist was in his late twenties, was the most decisive of his life. He became obsessed with the beauty of the dramatic vistas and distinctive landscape of the is-land’s coast, ever more drawn to its most isolated and inaccessible areas. The can-vases from this period reflect an expres-sive abandon that abstracts the beauty of the landscape, capturing the wild terrain through an explosive range of brilliant colour harmonies.

Sotheby’s Sale: Spanish Highlights

By Marta Enrile

Photographs courtesy of Sotheby’s

Do you have an interest in Spain?

Are you a Spaniard living in London?

Become a member of the BritishSpanish

Society today

Fill in our membership application on the back page of this issue, or visit our website:www.britishspanishsociety.org

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Annual General Meeting

Tuesday 15th October6.00pm

Sala Luis Vivesat the Spanish Embassy

39 Chesham Place, London SW1X 8SB

All members welcome!


SOCIETY NEWS

‘Spain: A Democracy has been Arranged’

An enthusiastic audience gathered downstairs at the Instituto Cer-

vantes on the 11th June for an exclusive screening of this ground-breaking British documentary about post-Franco Spain and the beginnings of the move towards democracy. The BritishSpan-ish Society Chairman, Jimmy Burns Marañón introduced the film, having worked as a researcher and producer on the documentary, which was written and narrated by the late journalist and historian, Robert Kee. The film, which was made in 1976, clearly reflects the period of uncertainty which immediately followed the death of General Franco the previous year. On one hand there was a sense of relief and optimism in the air, reflected by a greater permissiveness in society, more freedom in the press and the early stages of wom-en’s liberation. Scenes of demonstrations in the streets showing long-held tensions being released were indicative of this, and footage of the newly crowned King Juan Carlos’ speech to Spanish citizens expressed a new hopefulness. However, there was still significant apprehension

among some parties as to what the future would hold, which was clearly shown in the film. A glimpse into a congress meeting held prior to the first democratic election planned in 40 years was a clear depiction of how many senior govern-

ment figures had not relinquished their support for the General. Indeed, many were sceptical of the imminent elections, and at one point a group of young intel-lectuals were shown on camera, express-ing their cynicism for the future of the proposed democratic government. In some ways, things had not yet changed much: continued violent suppression by the police of peaceful protests was an example of this, while interviews with insiders gave a clear insight into the inherent struggle of the move towards democracy. After the film, there was a highly infor-mative panel discussion with the partici-pation of Borja Bergareche, the London correspondent of ABC, Walter Oppen-heimer of El País and Emily Buchanan, the BBC World Affairs Correspondent. While the panellists were in agreement that the Spain depicted on camera is very different from its present state, there was recognition from Mr Oppenheimer, in particular, that there are still some similarities, such as the calls for self-gov-ernment from the Basque and Catalan regions and problems with unemploy-

ment. Ms Buchanan commented that the transition to democracy is still a very relevant theme today and drew compari-sons with the political unrest in Libya and Turkey. There was some debate re-garding the Spanish political system, with Mr Begareche observing that although the government model put in place at the time was designed to be a solution, it could now be seen as part of the problem, contributing to the current widespread disillusionment with politics in Spain. Before we retired for drinks upstairs, several questions were taken from the floor, allowing audience members to be fully engaged in the discussion. Some vividly remembered their own experi-ences of this period of history while others commented on the differences between politics and government at the time compared with now. All seemed to be in agreement that the film should be shown to a wider audience in order to raise awareness of this part of history and to provide some context on how Spain has developed since then to become the country it is today.

By Amy Bell

Before we retired for drinks upstairs, several questions were taken from the floor

Walter, Borja, Jimmy and Emily with Dr Julio Crespo MacLennan and Fidel López

Panellists: Jimmy Burns Marañon as moderator, Emily Buchanan, Walter Oppenheimer and Borja Bergareche

A special film screening at the Instituto Cervantes

Dr Julio Crespo MacLennan’s welcome remarks


SOCIETY NEWS

Annual Summer PartyThe Society’s annual summer party was

a great success. Following tradition, the party was hosted by the Spanish ambassador, Federico Trillo Figueroa, who warmly welcomed guests into his residence at the Spanish embassy in Belgravia. It was a sell-out event, excel-lently organised by the Society’s volunteer events committee, with guests filling the expansive drawing rooms of the embassy building. Delicious Spanish wines and cava flowed and an exquisite array of tapas and canapés was on offer, bringing a taste of España to the evening. There was even a full leg of jamón Serrano being freshly carved and served to guests on the spot, courtesy of Hispania, one of the event’s sponsors. Additionally, thanks to the dry weather, guests were able to make use of the terrace, chatting and drinking as the

sun went down against the backdrop of the embassy gardens. In his welcome speech, the ambassa-dor praised the continuing work of the Society and noted the important role that it plays in bringing the people of Britain and Spain together. Following this, our chairman made a few remarks, announc-ing that the Society is stronger than ever, demonstrated by the huge number of both younger and older members present. Throughout the evening guests were treated to wonderful live music from singer and songwriter, Siilhouette and her band, who made sure the party went with a swing. With special thanks to Hispania and Currencies Direct, our event sponsors, and also to González Byass and Wines of Spain for providing the drinks.

SiiLHOUETTEwith Roland Perrin, Emmanuel Oladokun & Hammadi Valdes

Photographs by Richard Barker

Guest with Lord Brennan, Carmen Bouverat and Iñigo Rubio

www.siilhouette.com

Ana Matilla, Andrew Velasco, Eduardo Velasco and Mavi Yuste

Juan Pablo García Denis with María Cid

Luis Sanz, Beatriz Santiago and Jacobo Roa

Guests

Guests


SOCIETY NEWS

Jimmy Burns Marañon and Federico Trillo Figueroa

Nel Martins Melero and Amy Bell

Borja de Pedro, Alba Menéndez, Carolina Posse, Elisabeth Alberola and Geoffrey Taunton Collins

Jeffrey Bromheim, Elvira Borroso, Almudena Jordá and Mila de Campos

Jason and María Heeg

Natalie Fudge and Sarah McCartney

Blanca Ereño, Sra. de López, Mamen Ruiz Koop and Sra. Juste with guest

David Hurst and Lynn Parotti

Eva Gil, María Soriano Casado, María Cid, Francesca Zanni and Maite Aguirre

Javier Fernández from Hispania with Lady Brennan

Fidel López and Federico Trillo Figueroa with guest and Luis Juste

Felicity and Richard Raines


SOCIETY NEWS

‘Managing Reputations in the Modern Age’

The upstairs private conference room at Hispania, the City’s best appointed

Spanish food place, and our sponsor for the evening, was the setting on the 2nd July for a fascinating talk to members and friends by the PR and strategy guru Patrick Harverson. A former FT journalist whose career also spans working as a communications strategy adviser for Manchester United and the British Royal family, Harverson drew on his professional experience to share some useful insights on the UK and Spain, with an audience which included diplomats, bankers and company execu-tives. In addressing the subject of managing reputation in the modern age, Harverson said a quote from Aristotle came to mind:

“While everything changes, everything remains the same.” What has remained the same, Harverson argued, was the basic principle governing the building of a reputation - that reputation remains largely defined by your behaviour. “It is what you do that counts. No amount of clever communications work will disguise the reality of your conduct and character”, he suggested. What has changed , he went on, was that the arrival of the internet and digital media has created this most acces-sible, transparent and public of all ages. Individuals and institutions with public reputations to manage have to operate in an environment where technology has created a universal, permanent, in-stantly available memory. Harverson then

quoted from the 17th century writer and satirist Joseph Hall : “A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was.” Thanks to the internet, the “crack” is visible and acces-sible to all, and for all time. Harverson was appointed Communica-tions Secretary to the Prince of Wales in 2004. In May this year he left Clarence House to set up a consultancy, Milltown Partners with D-Jo Collins, the former Director of Communications for Google in London. Milltown advises companies, individuals and families on strategic communications, reputation manage-ment and privacy protection.

A special talk by Patrick Harverson, PR and Communications expert

By Jimmy Burns Marañón

Questions were taken from the audience Jimmy Burns Marañón and Patrick Harverson

Guests were served top quality jamón from Hispania

With thanks to our sponsor:

Photographs by Richard Barker

Jaime-Enrique Hugas, Patrick Harverson, Enrique Ruiz de Lera and José Antonio Zamora


SOCIETY NEWS

On Wednesday 26th June, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce held its 126th Annual General Meeting at the

Four Seasons Hotel on Park Lane in London. The event, which is one of the most important in its calendar, gathered numer-ous guests who represented several of the Spanish Chamber’s member companies. The AGM afternoon meeting started with the presentation of the financial statements of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and the activities and events held through the previous year. This edition of the AGM was also important as half of the members of the Executive Committee of the Chamber had to be renewed. Members could cast their vote by post or on the day at the electoral table set up at the entrance of the AGM. The members of the electoral table were in charge of register-ing the received votes and counting them in order to ensure the smooth running of the process. The Spanish Chamber of Commerce congratulates the companies that have been elected to the Executive Committee, and which are as follows below in alphabetical order:

Aqualogy Solutions & Technologies UKBanco Santander

CaixabankColman Coyle LLP

H10 London WaterlooIberia

London & PartnersMeliá White House

NH HotelesRodantoUnicaja

After the meeting, attendees and the rest of the guests en-joyed themselves at the drinks reception. This was followed by the traditional dinner presided by H.E. the Ambassador of Spain, Mr. Federico Trillo Figueroa. Once speeches began, the President of the Spanish Chamber, Mr. Javier Fernández, opened the proceedings to highlight the achievements made by the Chamber since the Annual Golden Award in April. He then gave the floor to H.E. the Ambassador, who introduced our Guest of Honour. This year the Spanish Chamber of Commerce was honoured to have Mr Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros, High Commissioner for Marca España, as its Guest of Honour. During his speech Mr. Espinosa de los Monteros made clear that it is more than worthy believing in Spain as a provider of quality products and services. As he showed through different examples, there is a growing number of Spanish companies leading innovative and modern projects worldwide across different sectors. He went on explaining that supporting and developing the talent pipeline will result in growing businesses, improved economy and enhanced life quality in the long term for Spain. The Spanish Chamber thanks all attendees for their commit-ment and participation one more year in the Annual General Meeting and for sharing with the Chamber such a remarkable evening. Last but not least, the Chamber was also thankful to Bodegas Protos for having kindly provided the wines for the event.

The Spanish Chamber of Commerce AGMThe 126th Annual General Meeting in London

The AGM in progress, chaired by the Ambassador

Networking drinks reception

Guests enjoying the dinner

Mr Espinosa de los Monteros during his speech

Votes being cast at the electoral table


SOCIETY NEWS

elBulli: Ferran Adrià and The Art of FoodIn partnership with Estrella Damm and with the collaboration of Generalitat de Catalunya and Institut Ramon Llull5th July–29th September 2013, Somerset HouseA major retrospective dedicated to the world famous Catalan chef, Ferran Adrià, which takes a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the creative process behind El Bulli’s success.

One Day Visit to Cambridge University

Curated by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Cambridge, in co-operation with Cambridge University Library and the British Library

Including a lecture and visit to the exhibition, ‘Wrongdoing in Spain in the Long Nineteenth Century’

Date: Saturday 9th NovemberItinerary & Ticket Price: E-mail [email protected] or telephone 07903 801 576How to book: Please reserve your tickets by emailing [email protected] Event Description: Before the days of the internet, television and widespread daily newspapers, how did people find out about acts of wrongdoing, or get access to entertaining stories about crimes and criminals? Ephemeral publications known as broadsides and chapbooks were the equivalent of the modern popular press, and the examples in this exhibition were intended both to inform and to entertain two dramatically different audiences from the late eigh-teenth century to the early twentieth century.

Visit to Eton College with Guided Tour Date: Saturday 14th SeptemberItinerary & Ticket Price: E-mail [email protected] or telephone07903 801 576How to book: Please reserve your tickets by emailing [email protected] Event Description: Through the six centuries Eton has been educating boys much has changed, but the essence of school life has remained as described in the mid-nineteenth cen-tury by William Cory, an Eton Master. He wrote that at a great school it is not just knowledge that is acquired, nor even the ”shadow of lost knowledge” that later protects you from many illusions, but most importantly the “arts and habits” that last for a lifetime. The guided tour of takes you into School Yard and the Cloisters, Lower School, College Chapel and the Museum of Eton Life and on to College Dining Hall and Upper school. The Chapel is a fine example of fifteenth century Perpendicular Gothic architecture and is basically very simple — a single unit of strikingly satisfactory proportions. The wall paintings are among the most remarkable mediaeval wall paintings in northern Europe, and the stained glass windows in the east end are equally remarkable.

The BritishSpanish Society Christmas PartyOne of the high points of our social calendar. Fun for all ages! Join us for festive cheer, fabulous tapas and wine and great raffle prizes. Our thanks go to the Instituto Cervantes for hosting the event this year following the closure of Canning House.

Date: Thursday 12th December, 7.00 - 9.00pmLocation: Instituto Cervantes, 102 Eaton Square, London SW1W 9AN. Tickets Available from 1st October: E-mail [email protected] or Tel 07903 801 576How to book: Please reserve your tickets by emailing [email protected]

Pliegos sueltos Diego Corrientes (S743.1.c.8.2), reproduced by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library

UPCOMING SOCIETY EVENTSKey dates for your diarySeptember - December 2013

This event has kindly been arranged by Sra. Mercedes Porcel Martin MA, Spanish Department, Eton College.

And don’t miss...


SOCIETY NEWS

Goodbye to our friend

Rod Younger, who died suddenly at his home on the Costa del Sol on

June 29th, aged 51, was a passionate An-glo-Spanish follower of Spanish culture, and dedicated to the cause of promoting a better understanding of it among Brit-ish visitors and residents in Spain. Despite his British nationality, Eng-lish accent and sense of humour, Rod was also proud of his Spanish roots, and always happy to share that his real name was Rodrigo Manso de Zuniga Domenech. His father changed it when he went to live in UK in the 1950s. Younger was his mother’s maiden name. As Rod once wrote of himself: “People frequently ask me how I have such an English sounding name, Roderick Younger, with Spanish parents. The answer is relatively simple: my father’s name was Rodrigo Manso de Zúñiga Younger, i.e. his mother was a Younger (though born in Spain too) and when he emigrated to the UK in the 1950s he de-cided the British might have trouble pro-nouncing Rodrigo Manso de Zúñiga and so changed Rodrigo for Roderick and dropped the Manso de Zúñiga, hence he (and I) became Roderick Younger. My mother was Catalan and was called Maria Josefa Domènech Peypoch so in reality my name is Rodrigo Manso de Zúñiga Domènech – but you can call me Rod!” His mixed roots (Scotland-Jamaica-Spain), bi-cultural education and thirty years of business experience in Spain led to the realisation of his dream: the founding of Books4Spain. In recent years he focused all his creative, and com-mercial energies in developing from his

ROD YOUNGER 1962-2013Anglo-Spanish publisher, dedicated to the causeBy Jimmy Burns Marañón

base in Marbella this online bookshop which marketed and traded a rich variety of fiction and non-fiction about or set in Spain, mainly by non-Spanish writers and in the English language. As he told me once: “I established the business in response to the explosive growth in online mass market “soulless” book retailers, such as Amazon, and the continuing decline of the traditional independent bookshop with knowledge-able staff and an interesting collection of books.” Rod had a Scot’s passion for adventure while the conduct of a perfect English ‘gent’- cultured and well mannered. He was also muy simpático, not just with friends but with people he met for the first time. He rarely showed in public the stress he suffered as result of developing Books4Spain in the midst of a major eco-nomic crisis. He struggled to get people to read, let alone buy books, and to get the finance to help him do it. Often he must have felt he was tilting at windmills, but, like Quixote, or indeed Shakespeare, he always tried to keep on dreaming, and was quietly persuasive in drawing people into his project. He did not easily give up, or show himself defeated. Always upbeat and optimistic, Rod never let chronic pain from a medi-cal condition interfere with his heavy work schedule or endless reading list.Rod was an enthusiastic supporter of the Anglo-Spanish Society, along with other institutions such as the Cervantes Institute and the Cultural Office of the Spanish Embassy in London, contribut-ing to the Society’s magazine La Revista, encouraging literary talent among our membership, and helping sponsor cul-tural events whenever he could. The last time we were together was in London last December at the hugely suc-cessful event at the Cervantes Institute where I shared a table with the author Marian Dueñas. As chairman of the Society, but also as a personal friend who hugely enjoyed Rod’s convivial and uplifting company, I will hugely miss him. May he rest in peace. Que en paz descanse.


CULTURAL PROGRAMME SEPTEMBER – NOVEMBER 2013OFFICE FOR CULTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC AFFAIRS

EMBASSY OF SPAIN

www.spainculturescience.co.uk

12 September 21 December

The Spanish Golden Age Season Theatre Royal Bath, Arcola Theatre (London) and Belgrade Theatre (Coventry)

16 September Book launch: What everyone needs to know: Spain, by William Chislett Instituto Cervantes Londres

20‐22 September Exhibition: Made in Spain ‐ Creating Fashion for the World Residence of HE The Ambassador of Spain

27 September 6 October

Spanish Digital video artist in Deptford X, Contemporary Art Festival Deptford

27 September 10 October

IX London Spanish Film Festival Ciné Lumière and Instituto Cervantes Londres

6 October Bristol Guitar Series 2013: José Torres with quartet and dancer Melisa Calero St George’s, Brandon Hill, Bristol

8 October Nobel Prize in Literature in Spanish: José Echegaray and Jacinto Benavente Instituto Cervantes Londres

8 October London Guitar Series 2013: José Torres with quartet and dancer Melisa Calero Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

17 October 17 November

Spain NOW! Various venues

24‐26 October Symposium on the Treaty of Utrecht Luis Vives Room, Embassy of Spain

25 October London Guitar Festival: Antonio Rey Trio with singer and dancer Mara Rey Kings Place, London

28 October North East Guitar Festival: Antonio Rey Trio with singer and dancer Mara Rey The Sage Gateshead

TBC October

Cunninghame Graham Lecture 2013: Antonio Muñoz Molina University of Edinburgh

29 October Bristol Guitar Series 2013: Antonio Rey Trio with dancer Mara Rey St George’s, Brandon Hill, Bristol

30 October London Guitar Festival: Rafael Aguirre Bolivar Hall, London

1‐7 November Peers Visiting Writers: Virginia Cantó University of Liverpool

2 November North East Guitar Festival: Duo El Tango: Carles Pons and Orlando di Bello The Sage Gateshead

3 November North East Guitar Festival: Rafael Aguirre The Sage Gateshead

11 November Symposium: III Centenary of the Real Academia Española Oxford

13 November Nobel Prize in Literature in Spanish: Gabriela Mistral Luis Vives Room, Embassy of Spain

14‐17 November Luz Interruptus at Lumiere Light Festival Durham

19 November Pérez Galdós Lecture 2013: Prof Elisa Martí López University of Sheffield

25 November 1 December

Spanish participation in Robot Zafari (Science Museum and EUNIC) Science Museum, London

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on our latest news and events www.spainculturescience.co.uk


The award-winning graphic designer, Fernando Gutiérrez, has worked on a wide range of prestigious international projects. Here he speaks to Lourdes Gómez about his current work and explains how new technologies have opened up even greater possibilities for design.

Photography by Ione Saizar

“DESIGNIS ALL

EMOTION”


COVER STORY

Fernando Gutiérrez has returned to his roots in West London. He has

anchored his award-winning graphic de-sign studio in the Bayswater area where he was born in 1963. As a child of Astur-ian and Galician immigrants he grew up in both cultures, moving from an English school in the daytime to a Spanish one in the evenings. In History classes at both institutions, he soon learnt the “contra-dictions” of two different views of the world, which have influenced him ever since. He assimilated those contrasting perspectives of the world with the same ease as he now develops design and cor-porate projects for Spanish, British and other international clients. Examples of Gutiérrez’s work fill the walls and desks of his HQ in Great Western Studios, a peculiar building that stands just underneath the Westway and is sandwiched between Regent’s Canal and the railway access to Pad-dington Station. Red wine from Galician and Catalonian bodegas, a stylish bottle of oil produced from the olive groves of Vicente Todolí, former director of the Tate Modern, are on view in two connected rooms that look onto a patio. A café on the ground floor functions as a social venue for the independent art and craft enterprises of the enclosure. On the shelves of the studio are columns of art books that he has designed over the years, first as partner of the highly influ-ential Pentagram international design firm and since 2006 as head of his own Fernando Gutiérrez Studio. On the walls hang posters with distinctive company logos and there are leaflets of old and recently opened exhibitions, such as ‘Estuary’, that marks the 10th anniversary of the London Museum Docklands. Gutiérrez is now working on the cata-logue ‘raisonné’ of the late Spanish artist, Juan Muñoz, while also researching designs and structures for a forthcoming show on Italian fashion for the Victoria and Albert Museum. But first of all he switches on his iPad to explain the flow and mechanism of a new application for the Prado Museum, in Madrid. He has acted as image consultant for the home of Velázquez and Goya for over a decade and has lately designed a digital version of its collection for tablets and mobile phones, that was launched a few weeks ago. “It is Apple’s favourite app”, he says with tremendous pride.

Do you feel British, Spanish or both?I definitely feel Spanish by blood. I am very grateful to my mother for forcing me to go to Spanish school as a child, which

gave me a great curiosity to later discover Spain. As a profession I chose graphic design very early on - when I was 13 years old I already knew what I wanted to be - and had a very good education in design in London. I moved to Barcelona when I was 27 years old and was able to put into practice everything I had learnt here. I had a very romantic idea of Spain at that time and it was a great journey of discovery. It was 1989 and there was genuine excitement about the Olympics that were held there in 2012. Design is about preparation, about the future, about seeing things and I could see what was being prepared and how everyone was on the same page, from product designers to architects, photographers and planners. They were all talking about a new city and a new country.

Am I right to think that El País news-paper’s youth supplement, Tentaciones, launched in the early nineties, was your big break?

Yes, Tentaciones was the beginning for me. I wanted to discover Spain and what better way to reach my dream than through a youth cultural publication. I still love magazines but I was obsessed with then at that time. I was very lucky; I had worked in a project in London that never happened with an amazing man, Bruce Bernard, the then picture editor of The Sunday Times. He wanted to do a magazine about the beautiful things that happen in this planet. He showed me how to work on the presentation of a magazine, why and how we were doing a special publication. There was no money, I was a student and didn’t get paid. But he gave me something better. He paid me with a passion for the image, the editorial world and the power of communication that has never left me. So when the El País project came along I was so hungry and had so much knowledge of maga-zine design that I got the job in the first interview.

What was it about the design of Tentaciones that made it have such a strong international impact?

Immediacy and directness. It was not pretentious and it was pure communica-tion. It had no style to begin with but of course that became a style at the end.

Co-operation with fellow artists and long term relationships with clients are two aspects that define your studio. Any reasons for this method of working?

Graphic design is always about working with people. You get a commission, nor-mally to sell or communicate something. It is not about me but about making that thing look beautiful and good. Other de-signers do it themselves. I prefer to work with good photographers, illustrators, programmers… I always hire different people because for me the relationships are what matters most. You nourish one from the other. At the same time, it is important to establish long relationships with clients. You improve and the job gets better and better. The Prado is a good example. When it all started in 2002 I didn’t think that I would still be working with them today. We have built a very nice relationship. I have helped them establish a very strong identity that works culturally and commercially for the mu-seum. It’s an identity that reflects integ-rity, clarity and an attitude. The Prado is an historic museum but it is bringing the past into a contemporary context as well.

How do you face the challenge of the digital world? Is it a big change?

Not really. For me the transition is even more fluid. Digital is about intuition, fluidity and naturalness. You don’t need anything complicated. In fact, the more uncomplicated the better. New technol-ogy has to be and feel natural. It’s got to flow and that’s what I do with my graphics. Whatever I work on has to be a natural flow. Sometimes it is a physical flow as in a book or an exhibition where you have to move effortlessly through the pages or the rooms. A bottle of wine is still a natural flow for me because you have to open the box and get the capsule out before you take out the cork. All these steps have to flow nicely. The labels, on the other hand, have to inform or to stand out. They are graphic and commer-cial flags that have to compete.

“A swimming pool of ink is dearer in price than a pool full of champagne”

“I have helped [El Prado] toestablish a strong identity that works culturally and commercially. It reflects integrity, clarity and an attitude”


COVER STORY

Tentaciones, El País newspaper’s youth supplement

An advertisment for the Museo del Prado’s Manet exhibition in Madrid

1

2

3

1

3

2

Paella, a recipe book for Phaidon

So basically just the tools have changed?

The tools and the technology have changed but the feeling remains. Design is all emotion. There is a basic emotion that we respond to as human beings. Man needs to express himself, needs to mark his territory, needs an identity… and the beauty of graphic design is that it is all about identity.

It surprises me that you work for poten-tially competing companies within the same sector. Isn’t that a problem?

I don’t think they should mind because I transmit what the client is and what they are thinking. I re-filter it but essentially it’s them, it links to their character, to what they are proud of. The character of each client comes through in each job we do.

It must be a difficult task to evaluate.

It is very hard to evaluate. For me, graphic design is a service. We are not artists, we are commercial artists. We get asked to work on something and we are not free. My talent in the studio is to communicate clearly whatever that service is.

Would it be the same whether it were an orange or an exhibition?

It requires thinking, an idea first. It is thinking graphically about how to sell the product and how to make it look beauti-ful. The work varies a lot in corporate identity but essentially each company has very clear values and also very clear aspirations.

You often talk about an exhibition as be-ing like a book in 3D. Can you expand on this concept?

An exhibition is like a book that you go into and discover things. If it is well done it is memorable and stays with you forever. I love exhibitions. It allows me to take things into three dimensions, which is very exciting. With online I feel the same; it gives me more possibilities. 2D is very dangerous today as it requires good printing, good binding and transportation, whereas in digital you do it and it is there on screen for everybody to see. You avoid a lot of steps that we worry about in the 2D arena. A client might like a design for a book catalogue, for instance, but that does not make me happy. At that stage we’ve only reached half way through the project. It makes

me happy when the book arrives and it is perfect. That’s when I celebrate. Paper is a luxury and will become more of a luxury. I don’t think we can afford to print on paper so often. It would soon be finished, so everything on paper is very valuable.

What about newspapers and maga-zines? How do you see the future of the printed media?

All that just goes online, onto the screen. We can’t afford paper. It’s not only that we can’t go on chopping trees, but mainly that we can’t afford people and that ink is the most expensive liquid in the world. A swimming pool full of ink is dearer in price than a pool full of champagne, wine or whatever liquid we might choose. Ink is the big rip-off at the moment. It is where the greatest expense goes. The other problem is the human side. Binding is finished. Good binding is like a hand-made suit and only certain people can buy a bespoke suit. A good book is almost impossible to get nowadays.

Have you ever felt an outsider in the professional sphere?

No, because I’ve always been in two cultures. At home we spoke Spanish but I went to an English nursery and had to learn another language. In graphic design the beauty is the same. There is something new to learn in every job. And not only the language. Language is not a problem. We’ve just done an exhibition in Qatar, with the layout in Arabic.

Is there a cultural difference between Spanish and British companies?

Yes, there is a big difference. They work in different ways, have different ways of being, of etiquettes, of protocol. It’s all done to culture. There are differences but essentially they all are cultural. LR

Examples of past projects

44 Telmo Rodriguez As Caborcas red wine


SPORT

THOUGHTS ON SPANISH FOOTBALLA brief history of Spain’s favourite sport by Jimmy Burns Marañón

Spanish football managers and players remain much in demand in the inter-

national transfer market, not least in the English Premier League. FC Barcelona and Real Madrid retain a huge global following, and Spain’s popular national team, La Roja, is preparing for next year’s World Cup in Brazil, as defending champion. The history of Spanish football, from its early days as pupil of the British to its modern success story as the most admired globally, is the subject of De Rio Tinto a La Roja (ContraEdiciones), the just published Spanish edition of my lat-est book already available in the UK and the US as La Roja (Simon & Schuster.) There follows an abridged version of some comments I made during an interview I gave this June to the Spanish magazine football literary magazine, ‘Panenka’, before the book’s presentation in Madrid and Barcelona.

A los ingleses les ha costado aprender de los mejores extranjeros de la Premier. En cambio, en España se ha asimilado bien la aportación del fútbol sudameri-cano (Di Stefano) y europeo (Cruyff)..

It’s taken the English some time to start learning from some of the foreign-ers who play in the Premier; Spanish football by contrast long ago success-fully assimilated the influence of South Americans, like Di Stefano and (north-ern) European footballers, like Cruyff...

Soy madrileño de cuna pero admirador culé y siento que puedo hablar con obje-tividad del Real Madrid y el Barça. Siem-pre han sido los equipos dominantes en España pero si algo ha cambiado recientemente es la explotación cínica de su rivalidad...

As someone who was born in Madrid, but who admires the way that FC Barce-lona play, I think I have an objective view of both clubs. They have always been Spain’s two top clubs but these days their rivalry is a subject of cynical exploita-tion...

Nací en Madrid, en el paseo de la Castellana, en 1953. Evidentemente mi primer impacto futbolístico fue Di Stefa-no. Subconscientemente quedé marcado por ese jugador, ese equipo legendario y esa catedral que era y sigue siendo el Bernabéu, especialmente de noche. Más tarde, cuando empecé a veranear en Catalunya y Euskadi, me di cuenta de que existe otra faceta de España y de su fútbol…

I was born in Madrid, on the Castellana, in 1953; evidently my first football sensa-tion was Di Stefano. Subconsciously I was deeply moved by that player, by that (legendary) team, by that cathedral which was and is the Bernabeu stadium, particularly illuminated at night. Later, when I took my summer holidays in Catalonia and the Basque Country I came to discover that there was a differ-ent side to Spain and its football...

Pertenezco a una escuela literaria junto a Simon Kuper, John Carlin y Nick Hornby que empezó a hablar del fútbol como un punto de encuentro entre el deporte y la cultura….Yo he aprendido mucho de la historia de un país a través del deporte…

I belong to a literary school, along with authors like Simon Kuper, John Carlin, Nick Hornby - which began writing about football as an encounter between sport and culture….I have learnt a lot about the history of a country through its sport...

De Franco se pueden decir muchas cosas, salvo que fuera tonto. Era muy oportunista y vio la posibilidad de convertir una victoria futbolística sobre la URSS en un triunfo propagandista...desde luego le habría encantado presidir el Mundial de 1982 en España…

About Franco one can say a lot of things, but not that he was stupid.; he was very opportunistic and saw the possibility of turning a football victory over the Soviet Union into a triumph of propaganda...he certainly would have loved to have been around for the World Cup in Spain in 1982...

De un espía nunca conoces su identidad ni para quién trabaja. Eso no se puede decir de Vicente Del Bosque ni de Pep Guardiola . En cambio, Mourinho no solo parece existir para sí mismo, sino además es un misterio porque no se sabe de dónde viene ni a dónde va. Algunos le consideran bastante conservador pero su estrategia me resulta casi marxista-leninista. Cree en la confrontación creativa…

The thing about spies is that you never know who they are or who they work for. You can’t say that about Vicente Del Bosque or Pep Guardiola. On the other hand, Mourinho is not only someone who seems to only exist for himself, he is also is a mystery as to from where he comes from and to where he is going. Some people say that he is quite con-servative but his strategy strikes me as almost Marxist-Leninist. He believes in creative confrontation...

¿El gran logro de Mourinho es haber evitado que Guardiola se convirtiera en el Ferguson del Barca? Quizá...

Was Mourinho’s greatest achievement in Spain to have prevented Guardiola from becoming the Ferguson of Barca?... Maybe...

• Spanish Edition De Río Tinto a La Roja (ContraEdiciones)• English Edition La Roja (Simon & Schuster)

EN

ES

Photography by Jimmy Burns Marañón


CAVA

CAVA CAVALCADEAfter 35 years in Catalonia, wine-enthusiast Dominic Begg lists 20 of his favourite sparkling wines

When I was a student in the late 60s, before supermarkets sold

alcoholic beverages, I used to buy my wine at Peter Dominic, a chain of popu-lar high-street off-licences. In those days they stocked just one sparkling wine from Catalonia, a Perelada. Fast-forward to 2013, by which time most people in the south of England will have bought or tasted supermarket cava when wishing to celebrate or alegrar el ambiente. The rise of cava is a success story, largely a result of advances in technology: the introduction of stain-less-steel tanks, temperature control, canopy management, soil analysis, etc. In the UK, cava is reckoned to be cheap and cheerful, which is all very well, but there is a superior echelon of Catalan sparkling wines that are rarely seen, even in the best British supermarkets. Add to that the numerous small grow-ers and producers in the Penedés, and it’s clear that most UK wine-drinkers are missing out on the Real McCoy (or Real McCava)… As for the domestic Spanish market, it’s instructive to go back more than 30 years, to when I attended the first Mostra dels Vins de Catalunya in Barce-lona. This was in 1980, with marquees stretching the length of Rambla Cata-lunya. Alongside innumerable whites, reds and rosés, 13 vins escumosos were presented, including Gramona, Masachs and Torelló. A year later that num-ber had risen to 21, with Parxet and

Raimat joining the party. By 1982, these sparkling wines were being described in Catalan as caves. The cava boom had begun. In 1992 our family moved from Barcelona to Sitges, partly in order to be closer to the Penedés vineyards, accord-ing to my wife! Anyway, here are some of the cavas I’ve enjoyed over the last 4 decades. I usually choose brut or brut nature; occasionally I opt for a gran reserva.

Agustí Torelló Mata High-quality cava. You’ll need an ice-bucket for their gorgeous, lozenge-shaped Kripta bottle, as it cannot be placed upright.

Can Feixes Their white wines have always rep-resented excellent value in restaurants. Huguet remains their quality cava, but it can be hard to find, given the small output.

Gramona Respected for making cava the traditional way. Their reasonably priced Imperial brut is recommended.

Llopart Their brut nature is excellent.

Raventós i Blanc Historic cava house.

Recaredo Their gran reserva is one of Joan-Manuel Serrat’s favourite cavas. Highly re-garded.

Torelló Their brut nature has been a delight for decades.Vilarnau Part of the González

Byass group. Their brut impressed me in London (June 2013). Pale, well-bal-anced with perfect small bubbles and crown.

Colet Listed under the ecological D.O. Penedés denomina-tion, this small pro-ducer scores highly on the quality/price ratio. While their top sparkler, Assem-blage, has echoes of champagne country, ultimately I gravitate towards the younger Vatua!, which I buy by the case.

Mas Tinell This good-value cava was contro-versially chosen for a royal wedding reception. When the second Infanta got married, the top cava producers end-ed the squabbling by getting together and providing a joint blend.

Perelada Waitrose offers a decent Perelada, which I tasted in June 2013. Visit the ancient town and its winery if you’re travelling north from Barcelona.

They have some fine reds.

Raimat They were among the first in Catalonia to add chardonnay to the cava mix, while the bottle’s pale-green neck made it easy to pick out on the shelves. A regular favourite.

Félix Massana Reliable wines from beautiful vineyards around St Pau d’Ordal, where you also find some of the best peaches in Catalonia.

Sumarroca They make so many cavas it’s hard to keep up. Recently I tried their Insitu extra brut, which comes in a dramatic dark-pink bottle. Refreshing summer sparkler.

Rexach Baqués This cava house is based in the village of Guardiola de Font-rubí. While there, maybe pick up some of the local olive-oil, made by the dedicated Lluch family since 1770.

Juvé i CampsI was once told that this company is

the continuation of the legendary De la Serra, ranked as the top xampany in Franco’s day. Wheth-er or not that is true, their Brut de la Familia has become a benchmark for cavas. A good op-tion when shopping in airport departure lounges.

Maset del Lleó Originally a mail-order business, they now have shops and a winery that you can visit. Their top cavas are good quality.

Segura Viudas Al-ways reliable since I first moved to Barce-lona in 1978. Recent competition means it has become less ubiquitous.

Anna de Codorniú Its sensible price makes it ideal for parties and airport impulse buys. Some chardonnay in the mix.

Freixenet Cuvée D.S. This fine cava is a world away from their humble Carta Nevada, which is strictly for verbenas.

“There is a superior echelon of Catalan sparkling wines that are rarely seen, even in the best British supermarkets”

Colet, 2009


INTERVIEW

Isabel del Río, a writer and linguist living in London and a long–time member

of the BritishSpanish Society, has just published ‘Zero Negative – Cero negativo’, a bilingual book of 16 short stories in both English and Spanish (Araña Editorial, Valencia, 2013). Published under her full name, Isabel del Río Salvador, the book is both a literary and a linguistic exercise, described on the cover as a “journey of no return”. Here she is in conversation with Santiago Díaz–Bravo, the Spanish writer and journalist.

Your literary career has run paral-lel to your work as a journalist and as a linguist. Was your path as a writer paved by your interest in languages, or, should I say, your love of languages?

Yes, love is the right term to use; in order to write one has to be obsessive with words. I suppose you write using every-thing that you have at your disposal. In my case, this includes my two languages. The temptation to use both English and Spanish in my writing has always been irresistible. Having dedicated a consider-able part of my life to translation, with this book I decided to take poetic license and rewrite the stories instead of just providing a translated text. In some cases, I diverted completely from the original (whether it was Spanish or English, that is immaterial), and yet I produced two stories that are inextricably linked.

Bloodshed, even death, appears to be the recurring theme throughout the stories.

The main theme of the book is blood-shed, but of course I cannot avoid talking about death when exploring the subjects of war, murder, martyrdom, torture, and

so on. The book is an indictment against anything demanding bloodshed: from the story of an artist who practices his art by bleeding to death, to the old soldier from the civil war who refuses to talk about his tragic experiences, to the deranged char-acter solely aspiring to take someone’s life, to the biblical massacre of the innocents.

Some of your stories seem to finish with an open ending. Could we then say that your stories are unfinished?

Perhaps the endings in the stories are more rounded and complete, we could say, if the story is read in both languages. Sometimes the endings in the stories in English are very different from the Spanish endings, and sometimes the clue to a story in Spanish is provided in the equivalent story in English. And even though the book can be read solely in one language or the other if the reader is not bilingual, reading it in both languages re-veals a completely different narrative. An example of this would be the piece about Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville. In the story in English, I talk about how they came to write their first film script. But the equivalent Spanish story is the script itself, telling the reader about an uninten-tional killing (or was it unintentional…?)

I can attest that ‘Zero negative – Cero negativo’ is a piece of writing that could affect the reader emotionally. Was that your goal when faced with a blank sheet of paper?

I did not set out to disturb anyone, I can assure you. But I do know that sometimes I tend to draw the rug from under people’s feet. It may be an act of rebelliousness in my case, you never know! There must definitely be a before and an after when reading a literary text. The reader cannot remain indifferent, and so there needs to be a transformation. Writing is a two-way process: without a reader there is no writer and vice versa. I would like to think that the relationship with the reader is a kind of barter. Readers might imagine

WRITING IN TWO LANGUAGES - A PLOY OR A PLOT?Isabel del Río is interviewed by Santiago Díaz-Bravo about her latest book, ‘Zero Negative - Cero Negativo’. It was originally recorded in Spanish and then translated into English by Isabel and her daughter, Julia Sukan del Río

The temptation to use both English and Spanish in my writing has always been irresistible

“

”

a universe based on my book, and then they suddenly become creators in their own right –that is their contribution. For my part, I perhaps can contribute fresh ideas, new emotions, a solution to a prob-lem that had been perhaps unresolved for a long time. I could even plant the seed of doubt or dissent.

Are you present in any of these 16 mag-nificent stories?

When writing, everything you have ever lived and experienced comes into play. At the same time, other people’s emo-tions and experiences are taken on board because writers need to be empathetic to causes and problems outside their own private realm. It is as if the writer has been entrusted with matters that no one else can or wants to speak about. Thus, writing is an act of humility, because we are at the service of others at the end of the day, but it is also tinged with our egos as we are convinced that our views need to be taken into account, and perhaps even believed. But if you are referring to being physically present in my book, the answer is yes. I am present in one of the stories, not with my name but with my profession. And it is for the readers to find out in which story I appear…

Isabel was born in Madrid, but spent her childhood and adolescence in London. She has a five–year degree from Complutense University, and has extensive experience as a journalist, a broadcaster and a translator, both in Spain and the UK. She has worked for the BBC World Service, and for over the past two decades for the Inter-national Maritime Organization (IMO), a UN specialized agency in London, where she is head of the Terminology & Reference Section, part of the Translation Services. Isabel is a Fellow of both the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) and the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIoL), and member of many professional associa-tions. She has published fiction, language courses and poetry in both English and Spanish (or in both languages at the same time, as in ‘Zero Negative–Cero negativo’). Her collection of short stories ‘La Duda’ (published by Tusquets, Barcelona), was shortlisted for two literary awards. She is currently working on ‘Zero Negative 2’ and on two novels, one in English and the other in Spanish.

Photograph by Julia Sukan del Río


CULTURE

BOOK REVIEW: ‘The Life and Death of the Spanish Republic’, by Henry BuckleyAn eyewitness account of the Spanish battleground, reviewed by the Madrid-based author and journalist, Tom Burns Marañón

Posted by Reuters to Spain as a trainee correspondent in 1974 I found that

the presence of Henry Buckley, who had died two years earlier, loomed large in the cramped office. My mentor was a one-armed telex operator called Pedro: when I was doubtful about a story Pedro would tell me how Señor Bookli, whom he worshipped, would have approached it. Henry Buckley had retired in 1966 to Sitges, the home town of his wife Doña María, after seventeen years as Reuters Madrid bureau chief. But hardly a day went by without Pedro telling me some-thing about him. What most fascinated me was his talk of a book that never was: Buckley’s account of the ten years he spent in Spain, 1929 – 1939, writing mostly for the Daily Telegraph. Published by Hamish Hamilton in 1940, ‘The Life and Death of the Spanish Republic’ was ready for distribution when a German bomb hit the London warehouse where it was stored and destroyed the entire edition. One of the very few who possessed a copy of this extremely rare book was the historian Hugh Thomas who in his path-breaking ‘The Spanish Civil War’ gratefully acknowledged the “essential information” provided by Buckley’s memoir. A Spanish edition of ‘The Life and Death of the Spanish Republic’ ap-peared some years back and now, thanks to I.B. Tauris, it is finally available for English readers with an introduction by Paul Preston. “Every reporter,” Buckley explains towards the end of his account, “loves to feel that he is right up against the moving finger that is writing history.”

Numberless fingers have followed Hugh Thomas’ early lead and the bibliography of the Spanish Civil War is now huge. But, for obvious reasons, not one of them can match the humane intimacy and the informed immediacy – “so and so told me this”, “I saw that”, “I felt the other” – that Buckley confined to his notebooks and tapped out on his typewriter.

Journalists, diarists and letter writers are an academic´s prized source mate-rial. Buckley was a tireless newsman, as well as a considerate and generous press colleague, and his “I was there” account is a treasure trove for histori-ans. His report of a huge rally organized in November 1935 on a vast expanse of wasteland in the western suburbs of Madrid by Manuel Azaña, the most prominent of the Republic’s politicians (he was prime minister and later presi-dent), is poignant. Buckley says that tens of thousands had travelled overnight in open trucks from all over Spain to hear the great man and describes how, in a matter-of-fact and uninspiring voice, Azaña talked to the mass of workers and peasants about international relations and monetary complications. The huge crowd wanted him to announce ac-tion – land for the peasants, industrial reorganization, education for all and so on – and to promise short shrift for

all who stood in the way of essential minimum reforms. Instead it got “what would have been an excellent address for a Rotary Club luncheon.” What most interested me about ‘The Life and Death of the Spanish Republic’ is how Buckley instinctively understood that the well-intentioned middle class intelligentsia that in 1931 booted out Alfonso XIII and ushered in the Republic was utterly incapable, clothed as it was in its 19th century liberal values, of deliv-ering a New Deal to a society afflicted by what he calls “the sordid beastliness of poverty”. Buckley had a more than a sneaking respect for the “benevolent” dictator General Primo de Rivera who in the 1920’s launched a succession of public works programmes and liked his son Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera who created the fascist Falange movement with the intent of turning privilege inside out. Although a catholic, he reserved his unswerving admiration for the commu-nist icon Dolores Ibárruri, La Pasionaria, for Enrique Lister, a former quarryman who became the most fearsome of the communist party’s generals and for the wartime premier Juan Negrín who was Moscow’s pawn. Buckley exemplifies the radical conscience of the 1930’s that stuck up for the underdog and that, all too aware of the pervading rottenness, warned of the gathering storm. He brilliantly illumi-nates how Spain came to be the battle ground of that low and shady decade.

Buckley was a tireless newsman...and his “I was there” account is a treasure trove for historians

Photographs courtesy of Arxiu de l`Alt Penedés in Spain.

Henry Buckley with his driver during the first few months of the Spanish Civil War Buckley, on the left, interviewing an observer from the League of Nations

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LANGUAGES

I am just so annoyed about you English people…why should I have to learn

your language to get a job in my country? You all come here expecting everyone to speak English and I’m sick of it...” This is a part of a conversation I had a few years ago, during a student volunteer programme in Córdoba, with Jesus, a fellow volunteer from Valencia who was studying to be a journalist. Feeling mildly offended, I tried to explain that I was in Córdoba at least partly because I actually wanted to learn Spanish, but he wasn’t having any of it. While his attitude may have been unfair, I couldn’t help feeling a small amount of guilt on behalf of my compatriots for our collective lack of enthusiasm for learning languages. It is not difficult to see why we have such a poor track record. English is the most dominant language in business and one of the most widely spoken globally, which is why many would argue that na-tive English speakers do not really need to learn another tongue. It is certainly not seen as a priority in the UK and this is clearly reflected in the school curriculum; learning a foreign language only becomes compulsory once students reach second-ary school, and since modern languages became an optional subject at GCSE in 2004, they must continue with it only un-til the age of 14. The number of students taking French, German or Spanish at A-level has also dropped.

Elsewhere in Europe, initiatives to improve second language learning have showed an opposite trend. According to a report produced by the European Com-mission last year English is by far the most taught foreign language in nearly all European countries with children learning it from an increasingly younger age. Undoubtedly there is now greater recognition, particularly following the economic downturn, that language learn-ing is key as it increases career prospects abroad and in companies with a global presence. Things have certainly changed signifi-cantly in Spain since that trip to Córdoba and my conversation with Jesus. While

in the past English teaching in public schools may have been pushed to the sidelines, with students entering the workplace with little more than “Hello, my name is”, the Spanish education sys-tem has been overhauled in the last de-cade to prioritise second language learn-ing, with a particular focus on English. Students now start learning a foreign language in the second part of pre-pri-mary education, and as early as the age of 3 in most Autonomous Communities. Additionally, as one of many who have taken the TEFL route as a means of living and working abroad, I can testify to an increased awareness among Spaniards that English has become a necessary skill for those wanting to get ahead in business, with companies and individuals investing time and money in improving their English abilities. So why are so many people in both the UK and Spain still monoglots? A greater emphasis on foreign languages in the Spanish curriculum is encouraging as it should lead to younger generations growing up with stronger language skills than previous generations, and we can only hope that the UK will follow suit. But for those who have long since left school, it is still worth the effort. Every-one can benefit from learning a second language: it gives you a deeper knowledge of another country and its culture, while in turn helping you to understand your own, it can increase career prospects by providing more opportunities to work abroad and in multinational companies, and it gives you a greater appreciation

and respect for those who speak your language as non-natives. Of course, learning a language is difficult and per-haps the problem is that we don’t like to fail. No one likes to feel incompetent at something, and the feeling of trying out your new conversation skills only to have the other person respond to you in your own language can be discouraging. That said, challenges are there to be overcome and learning a new skill can not only be hugely rewarding, it also makes us more outward-looking and aware of the world around us. According to a report in El Mundo, the number of Spanish immigrants officially registered in London at the end of 2012 was 73, 659 (an increase from 57, 350 at the end of 2009), although since reg-istration is not always compulsory the real number is estimated to be closer to 150, 000. For the younger generation in particular, the reasons for moving here are not only the lack of employment options in their own country, but also because they are serious about learning English. In such economically fragile times, language is a universal skill which can always be depended on to set you apart on an individual level. And on a global scale, perhaps the UK should take note: when the whole of Europe is investing in foreign languages, the British would do well to keep up. We live in a multilingual continent and should em-brace any opportunity which can bring us closer to understanding each other.

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CATCHING THE WAVE OF EUROPEAN MULTILINGUALISMWhy we should all try to learn another language

The Spanish education system has been overhauled in the last decade to prioritise second language learning

By Amy Bell

Illustration by Amy Bell


LONDON LIFE

MIREIA LLUSIA

Londres es una ciudad que alberga a un gran

número de españoles y Mireia Llusia-Lindh, es uno de ellos. Nacida en Barcelona se siente hija adoptiva de esta gran urbe, ya que lleva viviendo en ella más de diez años. Hace dos decidió dar un giro a su carrera y crear ‘Milli Millu’, una marca de bolsos exclusivos que se carac-terizan por dos razones: La primera, que son fabri-cados en España, concre-tamente en Ubrique y la segunda, que son sofisti-cados en su exterior y muy funcionales en su interior (contienen diversos com-partimentos para ordena-dor, papeles, móvil… Todo está cuidado al detalle). En poco tiempo, ha conse-guido ampliar su campo de venta a multitud de países de Europa, entre ellos Es-paña y EEUU, y ya cuenta con fieles seguidoras de la talla de Kate Moss, Pippa Midelton, Eugenia Silva o Paula Echevarría. Hemos estado con ella en su bou-tique-estudio de Belgravia para que nos cuente qué es lo que le gusta de esta ciudad y de paso, nos haga una guía con sus rincones favoritos.

Si alguien busca buenos lugares para hospedarse,les recomendaría dos hoteles boutique: el Blakes y Number Sixteen. Ambos están situados en una zona céntrica muy residencial y se caracterizan por tener mucho encanto y person-alidad.

Uno de los puntos fuertes de esta ciudad es la am-plia oferta gastronómica. Puedes degustar comida de cualquier región del planeta, sin necesidad de desplazarte. Entre mis favoritos destacan el res-taurante Launceston Place, ubicado en una pintor-esca calle de Kensington. Sirven comida inglesa exquisita (tiene una estrella

Michelin) así que, para los es-cépticos que dudan sobre la co-cina de este país, seguro que les sorprenderá con alguna de sus delicias. Cuando busco comida francesa, mi lugar favorito es “La Petite Maison” en Mayfair. Aquí vas a encontrar suculen-tos platos en un ambiente ca-sual muy parisino. Igualmente me gusta mucho el restaurante Asia de Cuba (supervisado por el restaurateur internacional Jeffrey Chodorow), que ofrece cocina de fusión para morirse. Un consejo: las porciones son grandes, ¡es perfecto para com-partir! Otra de mis pasiones es la comida japonesa y, para eso, el mejor lugar de la ciudad es el restaurante Zuma en Knights-bridge. La comida es un 10 y el ambiente muy ‘chic’, sólo tiene una pega: es necesario reservar con mucha antelación. Si busco algo rápido y de calidad, me encantan dos cadenas: Por un lado, Busaba Eathai de comida asiática dónde sus calamares fritos y su pai-tai están deli-ciosos y por otro, Ping Pong perfecto para los amantes del

dim sum. Si queréis hacer un brunch mi favorito es Tom’s Kitchen en Chelsea, reco-miendo los huevos benedict y el pancake de arándanos - ¡los mejores de la ciudad! Otra oferta que abunda en Londres es la cultural, ¡no te acabaras los museos y galerías que hay repartidos por toda la ciudad! En mi caso, no me canso de ir al Victoria & Albert Museum y a la Tate Modern. Creo que en ambos sitios, tanto el espacio como las exposicio-nes, son inmejorables. Además, debo decir que la Tate es un gran lugar para que los niños entren en contacto con el arte. PD: En la cafetería de la azotea se descubren unas de las mejo-res vistas de la city.

Si os gusta ir de Shopping, Londres no os decepcionará, la oferta es inagotable. Si buscáis bolsos exclusivos, podéis venir a vernos a nuestra boutique-estudio de Milli Millu en el corazón de Belgravia, en 14 Grosvenor Crescent. Para

ver tiendas con encanto nada como ir a la zona donde Sloane Avenue, Brompton Road, South Kensington, Mayfair o West-bourne Grove en Notting Hill. Cualquiera de estos rincones es perfecto. Igualmente me apa-siona el multiespacio Bluebird en Kings Road donde puedes comprar las últimas tendencias en moda, tomarte un café o llevarte un plato delicatessen para cenar. ¡ Es genial!

Los mercadillos también se han convertido en señas de identidad de la cuidad. Hay millones, tal vez el más famoso es el de Portobello en Notting Hill, pero os recomiendo el más emergente, el de Spitalfields. Es el lugar perfecto para descubrir deliciosos alimentos, nuevos artistas y nuevos diseñadores. ¡Aquí encontrarás grandes tesoros escondidos!

Por último no quiero terminar este tour londinense sin acon-sejar hacer una de mis pasio-nes: perderse por sus calles. Me encanta la combinación de su majestuosa arquitectura de época con maravillosos jardines escondidos. Entre mis calles favoritas están The Boltons, Bramham Gardens y Cheyne Row, en Chelsea. Y reciente-mente he descubierto Meard Street, llena de arquitectura georgiana increíble, escondida justo en el centro del Soho… Sólo puedo decir que ¡esta ciudad nunca deja de sorpren-derme!

Londres en una ciudad increíble, después de 12 años aun me tiene enamorada

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Cuatro cosas más de Mireia:-Su último descubrimiento: el ilustrador de moda David Downton.-Una Película: ‘El Piano’ por sus metáforas, su escenografía y su música. - El libro: ‘La ciudad de la alegría’, de Dominique Lapierre - La canción: ‘Somebody’ de Depeche Mode.

Interviewed by Estefanía Ruilope

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La Revista Issue 235

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Transcript of La Revista Issue 235