025 march 2016 pdf

Torrevieja Outlook

025 March 2016

Change clocks forward 27th March

025 March 2015 Foto by Raquel Lopez of the Christ in SS Ana & Roque Church at Acequion,

Fiesta calendar – Alicante fiestas – Fallas – Paddy words of wisdom – Colours and Splendour in Torrevieja Holy Week – Palms of Elche – Women’s Higher Education – An Extraordinary lady – An Eagle Tall Ship - Prado Online – ABC of Spanish Cooking – Europe Referendum – Quoting Shakespeare and Cervantes – Bookshelf Church of Spies – Sorolla in MUBAG – Drones are good for some things – Astrotourism – Rojales Jazz – What’s On Billboard – Jazz Wash – Father’s Day reminder aormi@icloud.com

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MARCH FIESTAS IN THE ALICANTE PROVINCE

by Andy Ormiston

This year Easter is a wee bit early falling at the end of March and coinciding with the changing of the clocks. So Semana Santa processions take up the main topic for fiestas, not only in Alicante area, but throughout Spain, with the spectacular ones in Seville and Granada and Andalusia in general. Alicante has three different areas for their processions and the Murcia and Orihuela processions are notable for the artistry in the statues that are the work of famous sculptors and their schools such as the Salzillos.

Another notable fiestas is that of Saint Joseph, foster father of Jesus as his feast date of 19th March,it is a holiday in many regions including our Valencia Communidad and Spanish Father’s Day. In the region a common fiesta is the Fallas, more sculptures that can be burnt easily, which happens after a week of music, dancing, flower processions,, exhibitions, gastronomy meetings and many other events.

A couple of days before that expatriate Irishmen and women are joined by others to celebrate on the 17th March the annual parade of Saint Patrick with the prominent wearing of the green shamrock.

6th March is UK Mothering Sunday 1st March

The fiesta of the Miracle of the Tear is held in Muchamiel (Milagro de la Lágrima).

8th March

Procession in Muchamiel.

2nd weekend

Villena 2015 the 14th medieval market over 160 stalls.

17th Marcch

St. Patrick is held in Lorca and parade in Orihuela Costa.

19th - 29th

The Moors & Christian parades in the district of Villafranqueza in Alicante are held.

19th March Calpe, Dénia

Father’s Day - Fallas de San José are held in Valencia, Benidorm, and Pego. They begin on the 15th but the cremà burning ceremony is held on the 19th.

21st March

Almoradi holds a San Emigdio remembrance service of the 1829 earthquake that devastated the town and others in the Vega Baja area.

On the Wednesday which falls in the middle of Lent the Festa del Nanos is held in Cocentaina. aormi@icloud.com

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FALLAS - These fiestas are well-known internationally as the most spectacular and important held in Valencia city with the crema on the 19th March or around 700 fallas.

Other places that celebrate with fallas are: Alicante city, Denia, Calpe, Guardamar del Segura, Pego and Benidorm. Also further afield in Castellon Province - Burriana, Vall d’Uixo, Peùiscola and Viver.

In the Murcia region Mazzaron has fallas.

In the Valencia area you have - Valencia city, Albalat, Alboraya, Alcasser, Algemesi, Algenet, Azira, Benaguasil, Benifaio, Betera, BuĂąol, Catarroja, Dos Aguas, Gandia, Manises, Oliva, Ontenient, Otos, Paterna, Picassent, Puzol, Sagunto, Silla, Sueca, Tavernes de la Valldigna, Torrent, Utiel, Xativa among others.

Although there have been talk over the years of making it a set date, Easter is a moveable festival dependent on the lunar calendar, so it can fall in either March or April. This year the Semana Santa processions and Easter Sunday fall in March. Someone is always invited to give the opening speech (pregon) announcing these celebrations. Each year someone is chosen as Capirote de Oro which is considered to be a very high privilege indeed.

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Valencia Fallas include a middle of the day mescleta, which is a computer controlled explosion of fireworks that deafens onlookers. Doctors warn about the effects of the noise and smoke, but it doesn't deter revelers. It is not a time to take the dog for a walk. With the present sectarian policies being mooted by new political parties some events such as the floral offering are under threat.

Another important event that takes two days (17/18) because there are so many people, is the Flower Offering, a procession of thousands of falleras. Every group dresses in traditional costumes, the women especially looking glamorous with the beautiful cloth that makes up the dresses. The flowers are picked for their color as they are attached to a huge wooden framework to build up a mantle of colorful flowers for the Virgen Mary image and there is a photo competition.

The Fallas grew out of a time when some Valencians, decided to start to burn old furniture, clothes, etc that already were not serviceable; but some maintain that it was the aormi@icloud.com

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carpenters who started the tradition by burning end pieces of wood on the feast of Saint Joseph, himself a carpenter. Little by little this anecdote developed as a tradition, as Valencians, began to manufacture the "ninots", a few dolls dressed in clothes that citizens did not want, and which became the basis of fallas back in the 18th century.

Today there are about 400 commissions of Fallas, each group commissions an artist (artista fallero) and his workshop to design its own falla. Actually fallas are usually not heavy wood, but built with materials such as cork and papier-mâchÊ. The theme is usually topical related to events that occurred throughout the year, or criticism of politicians, society in general, or memories dedicated to Valencian traditions. There is a Junta Central Fallera that oversees the fiesta in general and appoints judges that visit each commission and gives points for the best falla, depending on the category in which the falla is placed. They take into account the work of the artist, and also reward ingenuity and the beauty of the monuments. Awards are also given for lighting and decoration of the streets of Valencia, and a special prize is an indult from the burning for a chosen ninot that then becomes part of the Fallas Museum .

Color, music, fire, tradition and art flood Va l e n c i a during Las Fallas.

Do not miss them!

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The Fallas of Valencia begin on March 15th with the planting of the images in they streets and ends March 19th with the crema or burning of the fallas. During four days, they are exposed in the streets of Valencia, and the falleros celebrate festivities such as the offering of flowers - the more emotional for almost all of the falleros-, parades, awards collection, the awakens, Both the mascletĂ and fireworks at night are judged as well, and each Commission has a bar in a marquee that provides food and drink with a platform for musicians and an area for dancing.

The best way to see fallas is on your own feet. Guide maps are available from the tourist offices marking each falla and you can also use local transport, such as the underground or the bus.

From the 5th of February you can visit the Ninot Exhibition 2016, located in the room ArquerĂ­as Prince Felipe Museum of the City of Arts and Sciences. More than 700 ninots occupy the space dedicated to the exhibition . Enjoy the Fallas 2016 and be sure to consult the Program Fallas 2016.

Falla Queens: Prime place must be given to the position of a fiesta Queen as she represents the women (or girls) of the town and is noted for her beauty, grace and presence, with sometimes her intelligence and ability to deal with the media taken into consideration. Each year, the committees present their own failure candidate candidate fallera. A jury of the Central Board Fallera, makes the choice going through different tests, so that they are 26 Fallas; 13 of the higher commission and 13 children. Of these 13 girls and boys, will be chosen over the Fallas Valencia. The two lucky receive the news when they receive the call from the mayor of Valencia informing them that are the biggest Fallas.

The Nit del Foc and firework display starts in the early hours of San Jose, on March 19th.

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Many bridges in the city are closed to traffic and there are many people who come to see them, so it is important to be there early. Bus tours take people and park in a central location so that passengers can see several falls and choose which one they will attend

when the creme begins. The fireworks can be viewed from anywhere in the former river Turia on a level of the Alameda.

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And to regain strength, nothing like a horchata or hot chocolate with churros or pumpkin fritters.

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Irish Humour

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COLOUR AND SPLENDOUR IN TORREVIEJA SEMANA SANTA

by Andy Ormiston

These photos are taken from the 2016 solidarity calendar. Firstly I would like to thank Javier Torregrosa for sorting out the various costumes of the 14 different cofradias that take part in Torrevieja. This way it is easier to identify and relate to the guilds as they parade through the streets. As you can see by the names often a cofradia will host more images, such as the first one in red cape and black hood, all process with the figures of Christ Crucified, Maria Santisima and Jesus of Good Health. Another thing to fix upon is the symbol of each guild, in this instance a gold cross backed by an X cross that is actually a handful of the symbols of the crucifixion - nails. Although not in the photo there will be a special image on the staff of each group’s lantern that is carried.

This group started out on 1 May 1954 and most of the group came from the Acequion district. Manuel Hurtado Garre was the sculptor who made this new image as the other had been destroyed in the civil war period. Lilt us concentrate on this particular cofradia.

The throne of silver in neo-Baroque style, was completed in 2003 in Seville, becoming the most valuable throne of Holy Week. The throne also has four bronze lanterns designed

by Valencian silversmith Manuel Orrico, in Renaissance style, with a weight of forty kilos each. aormi@icloud.com

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In 1996 the guild was augmented by the sculpture of Our Lady of Silence, along with San Juan, the first work of sculptor Victor Garcia Villalgordo of Torrevieja. The pallium is carried by about 80 bearers, including the first woman.

The embroidered clothes are the work of Rosario Perez Conesa and Mercedes Mateo, who sewed along with Mari Carmen Virgin Villalgordo. The mantle is the work of Dolores Jodar, and the paintings that decorate it, along with the canopy, are the work of Victor Garcia. Sponsors include the parents of sculptor, Nicolas Garcia and Mari Carmen Villalgordo, who in 2006 donated a crown, the work of Aragon Goldsmiths of Motril (Granada). Orfebres are the craftsmen who make these marvelous pieces of metallic art.

In 2003 with the addition of Our Father Jesus of Health, another work of Victor Garcia Villalgordo, made of mahogany from Brazil, which shows Jesus in an itinerant attitude, on the road to Calvary, carrying the Cross. The goldsmiths' Manuel de los Rios of Seville, were responsible for the embossing in silver and gold plating. The scapular worn was embroidered by Rosario Perez Conesa.

The standard features two paintings, one is the face of Jesus and the other of the Virgin, both indicating suffering. They are on red velvet embroidered with gold yarns. The symbols represents the cross on which Jesus was crucified, pierced by the lance and a cane bearing the sponge soaked in vinegar offered to Jesus as he was dying on the cross.

The costume of the guild consists of a black cap and gown, with buttons, cingulate and maroon coat. They appear on theTuesday procession, but only carrying the image of Jesus of Health; on Holy Thursday, in the sombre Silent procession, with the other two images of Jesus Crucified and the Virgin Maria Santissima are carried then in the long procession of Good Friday when all three appear. aormi@icloud.com

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We don't have space to go through in detail all fourteen cofradias, but with these photos it can make identification easier and more interesting. Most of the cofradias, or guilds or brotherhoods, have more than one image and don't necessarily appear every night.

The international group of the Olive grove is that of the green hoods and tunics with gold capes. They appear on the Monday and the long Friday procession. If you would like to join them contact or E-mail: geoffwild@wildinspain.com Tel: 654634575

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Jesus Sanchez is president of the junta of guilds that organize the Semana Santa processions, which attract thousands of visitors. The present mayor and his close councillors are anti-clerical and see no need to provide public funding for anything that smacks of religion. A bit short-sighted as these processions are considered to be of cultural value and feature in almost every town and city in Spain. We should not forget the attraction for tourists and the economic affects of tourism in Torrevieja and other resorts.

The new Semana Santa Museum close to the bus station has been purpose built to show the various tronos and figures to the best advantage. Jesus Sanchez also pointed out, “They (the council) should remember that they are also representing Torrevieja residents who are believers, who freely show our faith in the streets at Easter and who want to feel represented by those who are running the town.�

I can add that not all those who participate in these processions are Catholic, or even believers, as many see these as an integral part of the Spanish tradition and culture.

The new intention is also to house the Sea & Salt Museum in the same building.

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Semana Santa processions begin on Palm Sunday morning 20th March and continue to Easter Sunday 27th March when the clocks change.

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Torrevieja Outlook 025 March of 2016 To enjoy the Semana Santa processions more, take time to look at some the details.

Each hooded person has a lantern that bears an emblem relevant to the main image.

Every cofradia will have its standard peculiar to that representation and even the various costumes have details embroidered in on cloaks or sleeves.

As they pass note the skilled craftsmanship on the actual tronos.

Even the flowers have a message relevant to the image carried.

Some of the sweets handed out

Note the emblems on cloaks and the huge horn that mournfully sounds the news of the death of Jesus. Women parade in black mantillas that joyfully change to white on Easter Sunday.

Someone sings a saeta from a balcony as an

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Women play important roles in the processions, carrying some of the thrones, leading processions and cofradias carrying candles, while children add a fun element by handing out sweets as a form of almsgiving, an important element of Lent. On Palm Sunday the children of San Juan Evangelist cofradia carry a copy of the Gospels.

On the Saturday evening there is a drum parade with many children participating with all sorts of drums, announcing the death and resurrection of Jesus.

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There are two important meetings in these processions. The first is when the thrones bearing Christ and his Cross meets with the image of his suffering mother Mary.

The other procession is the joyful one of Easter Sunday morning.

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Palm Sunday

The processions begin on Palm Sunday reminding us of Christ entering Jerusalem. as people carry palm fronds and olive branches. Often the palms are woven into intricate designs and from Elche women make large ones that are sent to the King and the Pope among other dignitaries.

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The Easter Sunday early morning procession features the image of Mary in a mourning veil that is taken off as she realizes that her son has risen from the dead. Balloons and printed Alleluia tokens are dropped from balconies. Just as the Holy Week began with palms as a sign of triumph, so this day ends the week with palms as a sign of triumph.

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Women’s Higher Education

by Pat HYnd

During the last years of the 19th century women in the western world were beginning to make their voices heard and many individual women made very positive impacts in a variety of spheres. One of the most important and impressive enterprises in the early part of the 20th century in a Spain was an institution for training women. It was built in 1915 with the aim to educate women to university level, this in a climate when women were considered to be little more than chattels. In charge was the pedagogue MarĂ­a de Maeztu Whitney, born in Victoria, but in a very open minded and forward looking

family that appreciated her talents. Her father, Manuel de Maeztu Rodriguez was a Cuban engineer and landowner from Navarre who had married her mother, Joan Whitney, the daughter of a British diplomat in Paris, when she was sixteen. In 1889 the unexpected death of her father in Cuba led to confusing administrative problems and the family was left in ruins. Her mother, a fragile but enterprising woman with a strong personality, took her three sons and two daughters to Bilbao and, in 1891, set up a residential school for girls to study French and English and improve their cultural skills.

MarĂ­a started teaching at her mother's Anglo-French academy and then began to teach in aormi@icloud.com

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the public schools of Bilbao. María was an eloquent speaker and her knowledge of languages placed her in a position to represent Spain at international congresses and to import examples of Anglo-Saxon feminist associations. Without interrupting her work in Bilbao she studied Philosophy and Literature at the University of Salamanca as an unofficial student of Miguel de Unamuno. In the summer of 1908 the Board for Advanced Studies sent her as a delegate to observe the Education Section of the FrancoBritish Exhibition in London. Later she went on a lecture tour of the United States, Great Britain, Argentina, Cuba and other Spanish cities including University of Salamanca, where she became a disciple of Miguel de Unamuno, and the Complutense University of Madrid where she met Ortega y Gasset.

In 1915 María backed by the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios (Board for Advanced Studies) founded the Residencia de Señoritas in Madrid. Governed by the same rules as the Residencia de Estudiantes that had opened in 1910 for men, it became the first official center in Spain whose main objective was to encourage women's participation in advanced education, by providing accommodation for female students. But it was far removed from the women in finishing schools prevalent elsewhere, as it provided classes in science, had a library used to train librarians and had an important emphasis on sport for women. Maria was its first director and with lectures, poetry aormi@icloud.com

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readings, musical and theatrical recitals she attracted such intellectuals as Ortega y Gasset, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Victoria Ocampo, etc. as guest speakers.

There Unamuno read his play ' R a q u e l

Encadenada' (Rachel Enchained) and on March 16, 1932 Federico García Lorca read 'Poet in New York', his new collection of poetry not published until 1940. Lorca found the atmosphere pleasing and later held the rehearsals for his direction of Blasco Ibáñez's 'La Barraca¡ at their auditorium.

Other supporters and guest lecturers included Rafael Alberti, Luis Jimenez de Asua, Gregorio Marañon, and Ramón del Valle-Inclán.

The Residence was born just before WWI, which itself had such a strong influence on women's position in the work place and their intellectual formation. Maria was well prepared as she had been able to study in other countries aormi@icloud.com

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including England, Brussels, Germany and USA (1919) looking at other education systems. Today we are benefiting from this initial residence as their facilities included laboratories that opened the way for women to become pharmacists and if we look around us today we can see that many of our local chemists are owned by well trained professional women. As the pioneer university-type studies for women it was a great success. " I don't want a lot of weary intellectual, not even a suffragists' nursery. I wish a girls' house applied to study. The intellectual elevation is compatible with the maintenance of the moral virtues of the Spanish woman; her increase of racial culture and deep feeling of the honor and the dignity". A dignity in capital letters since she supposed it would be the first step for the integration of women. It is not possible to speak about equality without equalizing the education. This was no feminism but equality in education that opened up prospects for equality in work. 30 girls entered and for 20 years the classrooms managed to house hundreds of them in one course, which developed them as teachers: a large percentage finished in university jobs. At one time Marie Curie slept there when she gave a lecture.

Boston University link

In April, 1926, during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, Maria founded the Lyceum Club the first woman's club in Spain. Together with assistance from Carmen Baroja and Concha MĂŠndez they modeled it after the Lyceum Clubs that were in existence in Brussels, London, Milan, New York, Paris and The Hague. It was intended as a meeting place where women could exchange ideas and defend their social and moral equality as well as material interests. It opened with one hundred and fifty members who represented a well-educated group of professional women, including married women who wanted a broader horizon beyond the four walls of their home. With departments devoted to social issues, literature, the arts and music, science, as well as international

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affairs, the group sponsored lectures, concerts, exhibitions, and a variety of literary tributes. They advocated for reformation of women's legal status and the creation of daycare centres for working women. Members included Ernestina de Champourcin, Elena Fortún, María Goyri, María Lejárraga, María Teresa León, Carmen Monne Baroja, Margarita Nelkin and Mabel Pérez de Ayala. Isabel Oyarzábal and Victoria Kent were vice-presidents and the secretary was Zenobia Camprubí. Princess Victoria Eugenie and María del Rosario de Silva, Duchess of Alba held the honorary presidency. The Lyceum proved to be very popular and by 1929 its membership had increased to 450, prompting the establishment of a branch in Barcelona in 1931. Because of the conservative ideas by so many others the club was condemned for its liberal political ideas, its library and what was regarded as its threat to marriage, family, and the Church.

The Residence formed close links with a Boston University that provided more funding and organised a student exchange programme. Maria had taught in USA and had her visions of co-education enhanced. When the civil war broke out the building was aormi@icloud.com

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almost empty because of holidays and was requisitioned as a hospital. After the war it was reopened as a Women's College but much more limited in its liberal scope. It became Colegio Mayor Teresa de Cepeda, later Teresa de Jesus, and forms an integral part of the Madrid complutense university. María de Maeztu Whitney went into exile after the civil war. her brother, Ramiro, a right-wing intellectual and member of the Generation of '98, was shot by Republican soldiers near Madrid. Stunned, María left Spain for Buenos Aires where she became professor at the University of Buenos Aires. She returned to Spain just once in 1947 for the funeral of her brother, Gustavo. Her other brother, Ramiro, had been a strong advocator of Catholic Action principles and had been shot (executed) in 1936 at the beginning of the Civil War. She died in Mar del Plata on January 7, 1948 and her body was repatriated to the family mausoleum in Estella-Lizarra near Pamplona. Throughout Spain there are streets named in honor of María de Maeztu.

In 2006 the Ministry of Development (Ministerio de Formento) in Spain commissioned the Maritime Safety Agency (Sociedad de Salvamento y Seguridad Marítima) to build seven tug boats known as the Clase María de Maeztu.

In addition to towing vessels and helping boats in trouble, these tugs are used to fight fires at sea, combat marine pollution and salvage shipwrecks.

RTVE television made an excellent documentary of her life and work with emphasis on the Residence for Women.

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Rosa Mazón Valero An Extraordinary Woman

by Andy Ormiston

All the development of Torrevieja of the past three decades had its roots in the 1950’s with politicians and citizens who tried their best to lay solid foundations for Torrevieja. The town boundaries were altered taking in land from neighboring towns to make a more cohesive Torrevieja, which previously had been separated because land in between La Mata and the town centre belonged to Guardamar and other land parts of Rojales and Orihuela. In 1987 a General Urban plan was approved by the council, which became the basis for the town’s development as we see it today, although with many modifications.

In writing this I would like to thank Francisco Rebollo Ortega and Pedro Valero for their input to this article. One of the most extraordinary local politicians of the 20th century has to be Doña Rosa Mazón Valero who became Mayoress on 19th April 1979.

And before we go further I use the word mayoress rather than keep on writing lady mayor all the time. The town at this time was very socialist minded and the PSOE party swept in on these elections and again in 1983. She was born on 4th January 1926, daughter of Jose Mazon Aguiló and Concha Valero Perez. She married Pedro Valero Andreu and had two sons, Antonio and Pedro Alberto.

Rosa Mazon died at the age of 86 at 7.30 am on 30 June, 2012, and three days of public mourning were held. Her funeral was a massive outpouring of love demonstrated by all the local political parties and representatives from a wide variety of associations.

Although she died in the Torrevieja hospital there was a brief demonstration of respect as aormi@icloud.com

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her coffin was placed in the council chambers of the town hall, before being moved across the road to the Immaculate Conception church for a Mass sung by the Orfeón Municipal de Torrevieja Ricardo Lafuente. Her coffin was draped with the Torrevieja white and blue flag and as the cortege left the church a long round of applause greeted her on her last journey as the coffin was borne on the shoulders of local politicians like the mayor Eduardo Dolon and his predecessor Pedro Hernandez.

Rosa Mazón was well-known and respected because of her work as one of the town’s two midwives, having brought many of its citizens into the world and therefore known in many households. She began her working life at eight years of age, helping out in the aormi@icloud.com

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cantina run by her father at La Plasa. At the end of the Civil War in 1939, aged 13 she went with her brothers to Guardamar where she picked potatoes. At 15 Rosa began working in the Ca単amo factory and then with almonds. In her spare time she knit jerseys. She married Pedro Valero on 27 March 1948 and moved to Aun-Tereles in Oran, Algeria, staying with her brother-in-law Antonio Valero Rico. Here she worked sewing trousers and two weeks before she gave birth flew to Valencia to stay with her sister. On arrival at the airport she felt alone and had no money, but still determined, she took a taxi to her sister's house where the driver was paid.

Her first child was born in Valencia on 30 January 1949. At the age of 27 she started studying, learning to read and write, while her husband worked at sea as engineer, a job he stayed at the rest of his working life. She decided to become a midwife. It underlines what a determined lady she was once she set her mind on a course, first becoming an ATS (technical sanitary assistant) working in a residence and passed two courses in the same year thus receiving her degree on 30 December 1961. So she had received her formation at Valencia University followed by specializing in obstetrics.

After this she returned to Torrevieja practicing as a midwife and could be seen with an early type of mobile phone with an antenna, scurrying around the streets helping where she could.

She was undoubtedly one of the most forward-looking politicians who always put her town first and headed the PSOE election list in the first elections of the new democracy and became mayoress, the first and only one up to now. She initiated many new works in the town and one anecdote is when she went to Madrid to seek the necessary permission, aormi@icloud.com

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permits and money for a road. The national roadworks budget had already been made so she was refused. She asked the Minister of Works if he knew what a lapa was. "Of course its a mollusk that sticks to the rocks.." "Well that's what I am and I will stick to you like a lapa until my town gets its road." A deal was made and she received 10,000 pesetas loan, but ensured that Torrevieja's bypass was at the top of the list for next year's roadworks.

The road would cost 990 millions of pesetas of which the town hall had to find 20 million.

Therefore, Rosa had no choice but to borrow the necessary cash and once again went off to Madrid, this time to the Central Banco Español de Credito where she was impressed by the luxurious interior of the bank. Here again she showed her spirit and courage. Despite various attempts to see the director, Don Frederico Garcia Perrote, she did eventually and on the first meeting he said that she could not have the money. Doña Rosa replied, "Phone your wife".

"Why?" he asked. "To tell your wife to prepare a bed for me, because I am going to work as a maid or cook in your house: and if you don't let me in I will sit at your door, and everyone that asks me I will tell them why I'm waiting." "You are willing to do that?" " Try me and see". The director laughed and the next day a telegram arrived at Torrevieja to say the loan would be granted. Twenty rockets were fired off, one for each million of pesetas. Spain had a very macho reputation in those days and no doubt as a woman Rosa overcame many obstacles and opinions and on another similar occasion asked if she was being treated this way because she was a woman.

An example of her thinking is that in the August of that year she gave her own car to the local police to use. She obviously inspired others and was trusted, as can be seen in the example of Don Antonio Sánchez Llanos. Torrevieja was still using cesspits and in the hot August the town absolutely stank. Don Antonio bought a cistern truck and went around clearing up the cesspits saying that the town hall could pay him when they could afford to do so. By September the building of a sewerage plant was underway and in December 1980 it was functioning and the first houses were connected following a summer when the town stank again: water rates were put up from six to eight pesetas per cubic metre to help cover the cost. Under Rosa Mazón’s mandate potable water was piped to the Los Balcones urbanisation.

During her first year there were many labour disputes to contend with. First of all some members of the construction industry had a sit-in at the town hall. Then in December aormi@icloud.com

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local town hall functionaries went on strike. At the same time the rubbish collectors went on strike because the contractor had not paid their wages: as a result of this the town’s rubbish collection bill went from four and a half million pesetas to eight million. The boats had problems in the shallow harbour and the bottom was dragged and cleared of rubbish and debris. She presented her resignation in 1985 in what is called a debacle of the politicians of the PSOE group and headed an independent group - Candidatura Unida Torrevejense (CUT) and presented four councillors, allying herself with the Alianza Popular ( AP) that later developed into the Partido Popular and voted against her former colleagues in a motion of censure allowing the AP to take control under Pedro Hernandez the mayor for the next few decades.

Civil war effects

The civil war was far behind and there was still a certain recognition of keeping things quiet, but being the woman she was and given her family background, Rosa Mazón made certain changes.

With the Civil War finally ended and some democratic measures around, the main street in Torrevieja, Calle Quiroga, was renamed by the first Mayoress - Rosa Mazón - in an effort to redress an injustice, and is now known as calle Ramon Gallud.

A reminder of a young man and his fascist idealism that cost him his life in Alicante jail where he was executed, and the street is a reminder of a terrible period in Spanish history.

At the outset of the civil war in Torrevieja the father-in-law of Rosa Mazón, Pedro Valero, was president of the UGT, a strong trade union, who had been given a revolver at the beginning of the conflict “to kill fascists”, but he gave it back saying that he could not kill anyone. When it was obvious that the Nationalists had won the conflict, he said that he could not live under a fascist regime and took to his bed, where he died nine days later at the age of 54.

The uncle of Rosa Mazón was one of those Republicans who fled Spain and into France, but was arrested and sent first to one concentration camp, only to escape. Then he was arrested and sent to another German concentration camp to escape a second time and this time sent to Mauthaüsen. He was among those who survived the ardor of imprisonment and lived in France where he served as mayor of a small French town for forty years. The memorial plaque on the former Mauthaüsen camp wall, honouring the aormi@icloud.com

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Rosa was also a radio ham enthusiast. She also used the former Guardia Civil station as a base for a fire station. sacrifices of those who died, states that 7,000 prisoners died there. Many of these died in sealed prison vans when the exhaust pipe was fed back into the van so that the already weak men died of carbon monoxide poisoning. They had been told that they would be liberated before boarding the vans.

Rosa Maz贸n paid special attention to the problems of various entities and groups. Being a midwife she was particularly interested in health matters and ceded land to the newly formed Red Cross branch so that they could build an ambulance station.

Within a year this was completed and the town donated an ambulance, as did a couple of the banks. The town also committed itself to paying two drivers and a mechanic loaned from the military service. Over the ensuing years the Red Cross volunteers attended hundreds of road accidents and saved numerous lives. An emergency public clinic was opened in calle Azorin, staffed by three doctors and five nurses, paid for by the town hall. Land was offered to the government to build a clinic and other land offered to build a hospital. In 1982 an addition was made to the Carmelites residence for the elderly.

Law and Order

The local police was increased to 13 and now had a Land Rover and two motorbikes. In 1983 the first policewoman was introduced, Silvia Pati帽o: it is doubtful that given the aormi@icloud.com

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macho image of so many Spaniards that if a mayoress had not been around then this would never have happened. The Mayoress signed the deeds ceding offices for a courthouse. When Rosa Mazon was appointed she began looking for new premises and the court was moved to near the seafront. Finally, the court was raised in status and in the 1990’s a new purpose built courtroom was constructed alongside the new Guardia Civil station on the Avenida Habaneras. This was later enlarged and its category changed so that it could deal with most major cases relating to civil and criminal procedures, covering a wider area than just Torrevieja.

She also pushed for the setting up of a fire station in the old Guardia Civil quarters.

Traffic congestion was a major disaster in the town centre and she went to Madrid to plead the case of Torrevieja on several fronts, including the construction of an adequate by-pass road (N332) around the town to take away the every day blockages in the town centre.

Asturian connection One of the streets in the town is calle Urbano Arregui Merediz, a politician who first came to Torrevieja in 1957. He worked in the Ministry of Public Works in Madrid and it was he who assisted Rosa Mazón in her efforts with the central government in Madrid.

She first met him in 1980 when a street in Pola de Siero in Asturias was named after Torrevieja and since then the two towns have twinned. It was her doggedness that helped to raise the money to bring some form of drainage system to the town with the support of Urbano Arregui Merediz. It was through contacts like this that people from Asturias came to live in Torrevieja and over the years a very good social club has developed. In 2008 Oviedo was also twinned with Torrevieja and a miniature monument of the

Calle Torrevieja in Oviedo and engineer Urbano Arregui Merediz.

cathedral can be seen in the railway station park. aormi@icloud.com

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By this time in the early 1980’s there were 6,000 houses paying local taxes and in another stroke of the pen the town hall demanded that constructors part with 10% of their land to the town hall for public use. The urban plan called for residential tourism rather than the hotel format of Benidorm. One example is the former football ground at Torretas, which was paid for by the MASA building company (later developed as common use land with the Norwegian centre, public clinic built). For some constructors this has meant altering their house plans making houses smaller than previously planned. This ten per cent may not be land, but also included ground floor locales being ceded to the town, which were used much later to house many of the town’s social services and non-governmental

associations. Among those groups Rosa Mazón had a special affection for the disabled of the town and helped the formation of a group to open a teaching centre for the disabled, which eventually became the ALPE College.

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Sports were not left out and in 1981 La Mata opened its own sports centre, although now superseded by more modern facilities. The town’s budget for the year was 216.000.000 pesetas. A couple of years later the Mayoress cut the symbolic ribbon for a new Municipal Sports Pavilion in an area that was designated to become a City of Sport and has brought in another aspect of tourism - that of sporting activities.

Second mandate and national crisis

Rosa Mazón was re-elected in 1983 when the PSOE socialist party obtained an overall majority with 12 councillors. A new college was built in the Acequion area, which some people wanted to call the Salinas, a title that was kept for one of the later further education Institutes.

There was an attempted coup d'état in Spain on 23 February 1981 that ended on the following day. It is known as the 23F or El Tejerazo after Antonio Tejero, who led the failed coup's most notable event when a group of 200 armed officers of the Guardia Civil burst into the Spanish Congress of Deputies during the vote to elect Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo as the country's new Prime Minister. It was planned that army units would rise up in rebellion and take over principal cities and Valencia actually had tanks patrolling the streets. Fears were rife that once again Spain was facing another civil war. The young King Juan Carlos I gave a nationally televised address where he denounced the coup, called for the rule of law to be upheld and for the democratically elected government to continue in place. The coup soon collapsed when army officers recognised the king as supreme head of the armed forces and withdrew back into barracks. After holding the Parliament and cabinet hostage for 18 hours the Guardia Civil surrendered the next morning without having harmed anyone, some of them climbing out through windows. The Torrevieja Mayoress, Rosa Mazón, sent a telegram to the King congratulating him and assuring him of the support of the town. She also issued a public notice thanking the populace for their trust

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Family members with a copy of the street plaque

and serenity during the crisis. The town council actually proposed that the King should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Residential tourism

The town that had relied on fishing, the salt industry and some boat building required new industry as technology and market trends had reduced the work force drastically in these traditional areas. So plans were put in progress on all fronts to attract tourists. For the first time the town was represented at the Berlin Tourist Fair and progress was made on rebuilding the old Torre del Moro as a symbol of Torrevieja. The present Masa Hotel was originally named the Berlin Hotel. Subsequently the town made itself known at various tourist fairs in many countries. The luxurious Hotel Fontana was built in the

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town centre offering 150 bedrooms. The town requested that the old Eras de la Sal buildings be handed over to the town as well as some old machinery with the long-term view of having a salt museum. Today the Eras de la Sal is an open air theatre used principally as a showcase for the International Habaneras and Polyphonic Competitions and Concerts attracting choirs from all around the world. The Sea & Salt Museum is still in temporary buildings but with plans to build a more permanent building on the site of one of the Eras de la Sal sections.

Officially for health reasons, Rosa Maz贸n resigned her post in January 1984 and in March 1985 there was obvious dissension among the PSOE members. In November 1986 she resigned from the party itself and stood as an Independent in the spring elections of 1987.

Joaquin Garcia S谩nchez took her place as Mayor was also reelected as Mayor at the 1987 elections with a small majority.

These elections enabled the opposition the Alianza Partido to have more councillors and one of these was Pedro Hernandez Mateo who became mayor, and when the new La Loma 24hour clinic was finally opened, put on free buses for pensioners so that they could go and see it. A motion of censure against the socialist Mayor had meant his departure and a vote led to the election of Pedro Hernandez Mateo as new Mayor and the AP taking control. At the next elections the AP had an overall win led by their Mayor and later the national party was revamped and renamed as the Partido Popular.

Post-political

After her political career Rosa became midwife at an Alicante Hospital. Rosa Maz贸n deservedly received many plaudits from every section of the community for her work and was La Loma 24-hour clinic inundated with awards. When the La Loma clinic was opened Pedro Mateo took her to inaugurate it and did the same with the opening of an extension to the sewerage plant. She did much for the community and during her time the recently founded AECC cancer association was helped along, the radio hams had a centre at the Salinas Club and she became a member, and the revival of several fiestas was encouraged largely through the support of the Diana Club. Pedro Hern谩ndez aormi@icloud.com

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was able to push along many of Rosa Mazón’s ideas and projects for the benefit of the community, such as a new town hall, an athletics track, a new purpose built Guardia Civil station, the town’s by-pass road, and the construction of a public hospital. In 2007, when the good lady was beginning to suffer from the effects of Alzheimer’s, the local firemen made a special award of a fireman’s hat with her name on it in recognition of the work she did to permit the town to have a professional body of men in this type of rescue work.

One of her children, Pedro Mazon Valero, also became a local politician, quite different from his mother and grandfather in that he was in the conservative party of the Partido Popular.

A large part of his work, as councillor was involved with the foreign community, partly because he could speak good English. He served as councillor for Tourism and then the new post for integration with an office dedicated to dealing with mostly Europeans. This office was spearheaded by an Englishman, David Graham Knight, who has been a key pin in integration, especially of the British into the town’s infrastructure, particularly at a cultural and sporting level. In 2007 after the municipal elections another office was set up that dealt mostly with all other nationalities assisting them in the various stages of bureaucratic documentation.

Pedro Valero was also responsible for investigating new technologies that could keep the town in the forefront of computer-based technology. Pedro relinquished his political career in 2011, returning to further studies and work a Aguagest. An avenue was dedicated to her on 15 June 2011 by Mayor Eduardo Dolon - Avenida Rosa Mazón Valero.

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In 1936, the Nazis were in power and their Kriegsmarine ("war navy") was growing fast. To train sailors in the ways of the sea, a magnificent barque was commissioned - the flagship of the training fleet.

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Eagle Tall Ship

by Pat Hynd

Hitler was present at her launch and Rudolf Hess gave a speech. She was christened "Horst Wessel" after the storm trooper "hero" whose song HorstWessel-Lied became an anthem of the Third Reich.

The eagle on her prow was the Nazi Party's eagle, the Parteiadler. "The Eagle is an emblem of force, strength and bravery - I'm not surprised it was chosen," Tido Holtkamp said. He was one of the early sailors on board and after the war he emigrated to America. He wrote a book about his time on board the Eagle – “A Perfect Lady”.

In April 1945 the British arrived at the docks, seized the Horst Wessel and hoisted the Union Jack. Holtkamp, meanwhile, was handed over to the Americans. While he had been in the PoW camp, the Horst Wessel had become a war prize. The Allies were dividing up the spoils.

"My father told me the ship was in Bremerhaven. The whole town was totally bombed-out, but there was my ship” said Tido when he saw it in USA. It seems

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that when the Allied commanders sat round the table in 1946 to divide up the spoils from the German fleet they did so by drawing names from a hat.

Three pieces of cardboard were folded up, popped in a cap, and the American, British and Russian commanders took their turns at lucky dip.

The Horst Wessel was indeed drawn by the Russian commodore. But secretly, under the table, he agreed a swap with the US officer - who was desperate to bring the tall ship back to the US.

Another book about the ship is “The Skipper & the Eagle” by Gordon McGowan who in January 1946, as a Commander set about refitting the former German training vessel for her return to America as a war prize. With a carry-over crew of German seamen and neophyte Coast Guard personnel, the barque found new life and a great adventure under the calm and gentle leadership of a Coast Guard officer.

Capt Robert Papp republished this book with more up to date information and it is in its third edition. Another book on the same theme is “The Barque of Saviors: Eagle's Passage from the Nazi Navy to the U.S. C o a s t Guard” was published in November 16, 2001 by R u s s e l l Drumm.

Born in northern G e r m a n y, T i d o Holtkamp joined the G e r m a n Navy during World War II. In 1944 he served six months as a cadet on board the training ship Horst Wessel. After the war Holtkamp came to the United States and settled in Connecticut. One day he aormi@icloud.com

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found his ship again in New London; she had become the Eagle of the U. S. Coast Guard. Holtkamp has sailed on board Eagle many times and has become friends with many captains and crew, and is an avid admirer of the Coast Guard.

This year the ship will sail from USA to Germany as part of the 70th (or 80th) anniversary celebrations of this tall cutter.

The Eagle is the flagship of the Coast Guard, and the only tall ship on active service in the US military.

Since 1946 every single new cadet undergoing officer training has begun his or her career by learning to sail on her - the old way.

"It may look old-fashioned but the lessons you can learn about the sea and the wind and the currents and yourself - and your fellow shipmates - you cannot learn better on any platform that floats on the lakes or oceans around the world," says Captain Ernst Cummings, one of the ship's former US commanders.

Rather than a symbol of war she has become an emblem of peace and partnership between the two nations.

"When the Germans launched her back in 1936 they built her as a training vessel. And here we are 80 years later and it's doing the same great job they designed it for," notes Capt Cummings. “The Barque of Saviours� is another tribute to this wonderful sailing vessel, written co-jointly by Capt. Eric C. Jones USCG, Lt. Christopher Nolan USCG. One of the most recognizable and majestic vessels on the high seas today and the only active square rigger in the U.S. fleet, Eagle draws huge crowds in any port that she calls. Each year, over 100,000 guests tour Eagle's decks; countless others follow her journeys throughout the world on her website and Facebook page. As America's emissary to the tall ship fleet and a goodwill ambassador to nations around the world, Eagle makes training and representation voyages each summer to destinations such as Europe, the Caribbean, and both coasts of the North America.

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Prado Museum Online

by Dave Stewart

Thanks to the miracle of internet it is now possible to visit many parts of the world from your armchair. El Prado Museum has now introduced a online version of some of the many works of famous painters.

The Museo del Prado, dates back almost 200 years and one whose origins and unique nature are largely due to the collecting tastes of Spain’s 16th-

and 17th-century monarchs. Collecting at that period differed from the present day. Rather than aiming at comprehensiveness, collectors aimed to assemble as many works as possible by their favourite artists. This explains why the Prado has been described as a museum of painters not of paintings, given that its artists are represented in a superlative manner with, for example, the large collections of Titian, El Greco, Rubens, VelĂĄzquez and Goya. This type of instinctive collecting also resulted in gaps and explains why some periods are less well represented than others, either because they were not of interest, for example the Italian Primitives, or for historical reasons, as with 17th-century Dutch painting.

The Prado and its collections reflect the history of Spain, whose waning role on the international stage in the 19th century reduced its appeal for foreign artists. aormi@icloud.com

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Spanish artists now trained and worked abroad: in Rome at the beginning of the century, and from the mid-century onwards in Paris, the new world capital of art.

The nationalistic fervor that characterized the entire century, reflected by Spanish artists in canvases celebrating the country’s peoples, landscapes and history, and the ecclesiastical collections from the Museo de la Trinidad, significantly enriched the original collections. Although primarily oriented towards painting, these collections also include outstanding examples of sculpture, the decorative arts and works on paper, from antiquity to the 19th century.

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The Museo del Prado has the largest and most important collection of Spanish painting in the world, numbering more than 4,800 paintings and dating from the Romanesque period to the 19th-century. The museum has a number of apps that can be downloaded, and there is their own webpage Prado Museum new website @museodelprado https://t.co/ It is possible from the comfort of your chair to enter into various collections and explore them, sometimes with suitable music accompaniment, and usually with a brief explanation and a choice of language.

If you are going to Madrid this year you may interested in seeing these special exhibitions:

From 23 February to 12 June there is an exhibition of Georges de la Tour including work from the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. From 31 May until 11 September a centenary exhibition of Bosch. aormi@icloud.com

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of Spanish Cooking

by Pat Hynd

Continuing our alphabet theme we are now among F words.

Fabada Asturiana Asturian haricot beans As the name implies this dish comes from the green and mountainous region of Asturias.

Like all good recipes it makes use of local produce and this is one dish you can not only find in Spanish restaurants, but canned in supermarkets. Fabada Asturiana is a aormi@icloud.com

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renowned stew of haricot beans, chorizo, smoked ham, salt pork and beef. It is really a hearty stew for a cold winter’s day.

1/2 kilo of dried white beans soaked overnight.

You can also buy these ready for cooking in tins or in the freezer section of the supermarket.

200 grams bacon (salted cured pork) A piece of ham or a pig’s ear.

100 grams of Asturian morciall (black pudding) 1 longaniza (pork sausage) 1 litre of water Salt/pepper/saffron Put the beans in a saucepan with cold water and once simmering add all the other ingredients except the saffron. Cover and simmer, or put in the oven, for three hours.

Halfway through add the saffron; cook until the beans are tender. Do not add salt until near the end of cooking as this can toughen up the beans.

Faisán al Modo Alcantara is a marinated pheasant dish with a stuffing of truffles and livers.

Faramayas are fried sweet pastry squares from Galicia, eaten hot or cold.

Favas a la Catalan is a stew of broad beans, pork ribs, black blood sausage and garlic.

Favas a la Gitana are charcoal grilled broad beans with a barbecue sauce.

Favas a la Mallorquina is a dish of broad beans cooked in wine with onions, tomatoes, ham and herbs.

Fideos are fine noodles and used in many soups and other recipes. Often you can find them on Costa Blanca restaurants as an alternative to rice in paella style dishes.

Fideos a la Catalana is a recipe of pork ribs, chorizo with noodles and tomatoes in a casserole.

Fideos a la Marinero is a dish of noodles, w i t h s h e l l fi s h , sometimes cooked in squid liquid. The fish i n g r e d i e n t s w i l l change depending on the cook and what is in season.

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Filetes are cuts of meat or fish, not fillet steaks which on the Costa Blanca is normally called solomillo de ternera.

Filetes de Espada are fillets of swordfish deep fried in a baWer. Filetes Rellenos: these are finely sliced serrano ham, rolled and stuffed with roasted peppers; then thin beef fillets are wrapped around the ham rolls, and breadcrumbed with flour and egg wash, and fried.

Filloas are sweet pancakes with cinnamon.

Flan is normally a custard based dessert, with various regional differences. Probably the most popular dessert in Spain in what would be known as crème caramel elsewhere. It amazes me that bread and buWer pudding is still relatively unknown. Calatrava uses a cake base.

Flan de Leche is a baked egg custard with a caramel topping.

Flan de Naranja is an orange flavoured egg custard. It can also have coffee flavour.

Ibiza Flan de Pascua (Easter Tart)

This is an unusual sweet cheese and egg tart famous in Ibiza, particularly for Eastertime. aormi@icloud.com

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You need a cheese that is a mixture of goat and sheeps’ milk. Line a pastry tin with shortcrust pastry. Place thin slices of the cheese on top of the pastry. Sprinkle with sugar and break six eggs, one by one, on top of the cheese, once more sprinkle with sugar. Beat another egg together with 2 tablespoons of chopped mint and pour this over the eggs.

Bake in the oven and decorate with sprigs of mint.

Flan de Queso is baked egg, cheese and ham moulds.

Flan de Tomate is baked egg and tomato in a mould.

Frangollo are thin sweet pancakes.

Frito is a term for something fried, the most famous being the commercial tomatoe frito.

Frito de Pechugas de Pollo are deep fried chicken breasts.

Fritos Dulces is a dessert of day-­‐‑old pan bread soaked in a beaten mixture of milk and egg, cinnamon flavoured and fried.

Frutos Escondidas is a rich pastry shell with slices of fruit.

Mona de Pascua

In Costa Blanca area Easter is associated with mona. The word mona comes from the Arabic word ‘máwna’ meaning a cake garnished with eggs that have been cooked along with it in the oven. It is associated with Easter and in Orihuela was a common snack during the Lenten period as it was a bun with a boiled egg.

For those pilgrims in Orihuela walking up to the hill behind the town there is mention of the mona in 1887.

There are two types of mona de Pascua: one is a cake adorned with elaborate chocolate figures that godparents traditionally give to their godchildren on Easter Sunday. Especially in the Catral area you will find this with cartoon characters in chocolate, animals, houses, farms castles of princesses from fairy tales. The other is a cake with a boiled egg inside and with sugar encrusted on top.

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Gachas Malagueñas are small potato and garlic pancakes of Andulacia.

Galletitas de Miel -­‐‑ honey flavoured chocolate nuWy biscuits.

Gallina en Pebre is chicken in a garlic and herb sauce.

Gallina en Pepitoria is chicken with a lovely almond, saffron, herb and egg sauce Gallina Rellena is chicken stuffed with ham, veal and vegetables.

Gallo is John Dory fish, baked or fried whole with lemon, onion and garlic.

Gambas a la Plancha -­‐‑ one of the most common ways to cook large prawns is to griddle them brushed with oil and garlic. A la plancha is a style of cooking with a griddle.

Garbanzos are chickpeas and one of the staple ingredients of the Spanish kitchen.

Garbanzos Salteados are casseroled chickpeas with tomatoes, ham and chorizo.

Garbanzos con Fritada de Pimientos -­‐‑ chickpeas cooked with sliced roasted green and red peppers, onions, leek and carrot, topped with a fried egg.

Garbure Béarnaise is a thick vegetable Basque stew or soup containing dried haricot beans and ham.

Gazpacho Andaluz is an iced tomato soup, with green peppers, cucumber, olive oil, sometimes thickened with breadcrumbs.

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Gazpacho Andaluz This is a classic cold soup from Andalucia which is ideal in the summertime. There are several recipes for this soup. There are also several types of gazpacho dishes which may include macaroni, or rabbit stew with tiny biscuits on top. Like many classic dishes this was a cheap dish using ingredients commonly found in a Spanish household. In hot weather makes a good refreshing and wholesome liquid salad.

Many people add more garlic considering it to help prevent throat infections.

40 grams soft white breadcrumbs 4 tablespoons olive oil 1 c h o p p e d cucumber 1 seeded chopped green pepper 4 0 0 g r a m s o f d e s e e d e d a n d skinned tomatoes or an 8oz. tin of plum tomatoes.

1 chopped medium onion 1 teaspoon chopped garlic 1 tablespoon lemon juice Salt and ground pepper.

Mix the breadcrumbs and olive oil in a bowl to form a smooth paste.

Blend the remaining ingredients in a food processor, stir in the paste and season then chill. If you prefer, you can add water or tomato juice to make it more of a liquid. Serve with hot croutons plus a plate of finely chopped cucumber, onion, pepper and tomato and guests can add what they like themselves.

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HAVE YOUR SAY ABOUT EUROPE REFERENDUM !

If you have been on the electoral roll in the UK within the last 15 years then you can register to vote in the referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union.

The British Ambassador Simon Manley launched a major campaign to make expats aware that they may be eligible to have their say in the EU referendum – provided they register to vote in good time.

Speaking at a meeting with representatives of the expat community to launch the registration campaign, Mr Manley said: Interest among expats in the EU referendum is high, but awareness that you may be able to vote is low. We want as many expats as possible to be aware that they can have their say.

You can register to vote in a few minutes via the government website - and do encourage your friends, family and colleagues to do the same.

The British Embassy in Madrid is backing a global campaign by the Electoral Commission to encourage Britons who live overseas to register to vote.

Some 283,000 Britons are registered on the padrón as resident in Spain, but just 11,000 are registered to vote in the UK. So the vast majority of expats will miss out on having their say in the referendum – unless they take a few simple steps. There is the possibility that if UK decides to pull out of Europe we expats could be people without state, neither registered in UK or in Spain.

To register as an overseas voter, you must have been registered in a UK constituency within the last 15 years. All you have to do is visit www.gov.uk/register-to-vote with your passport details and National Insurance number to hand, and the postcode of where you last lived in the UK. You can choose how you want to vote: by post, by proxy (voting by appointing someone you trust to vote on your behalf), or even in person if by chance you will be in your UK local authority area on polling day.

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All it takes is five minutes to register. And because overseas voters must allow enough time for their ballot paper to be posted from the UK, you should do it now rather than wait for the final deadline, at which point it may be too late to use a postal vote effectively.

Postal ballot papers will be despatched about a month ahead of the referendum earlier than for the General Election last year - giving overseas voters more time to receive, complete, and return their ballot pack to the UK. The Embassy is urging Brits to pass on the register to vote message via its ‘Brits living in Spain’ accounts on Facebook and Twitter, the expat media and a wide range of partners that work with the British Consulates in Spain.

If you are active on Twitter then do tell others that #YourVoteMatters and add the following URL so that they can register too.

Go to www.gov.uk/register-to-vote and make sure you can have your say.

NOTE. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969 would come into play if the referendum voted to leave. It contains articles that are based on ‘acquired rights’, which individuals build up over time and hold despite any changes in future treaties enacted by their nation.

A House of Commons Library note states: “Generally speaking, withdrawing from a treaty releases the parties from any future obligations to each other, but does not affect any rights or obligations acquired under it before withdrawal.”

Accordingly the EU’s freedom of movement rights would be honoured for all those citizens who reside in other EEA nations prior to any Treaty changes. This works both ways, and the UK’s Vienna Convention obligations would prevent any government from deporting migrants who came to the UK under the old system.

The UK’s large expatriate retiree community in Spain, France and Italy would also not have to worry. While the Centre for European Reform has claimed that, were Britain to leave, “Spain might demand that British retirees on the costas pay for their own healthcare or it may try to limit migrants’ access to healthcare…

Their healthcare is costly to the Spanish treasury, which is struggling to balance its books” this is inaccurate, as the NHS would be responsible for paying the cost of healthcare of pensioners abroad in any case.

In 2013-14, the UK paid £580m to other EEA countries for the treatment of British pensioners resident in the EEA, while it received just £12m from other EEA countries in the same year for the treatment of EEA pensioners in the UK. As previously noted, the Vienna Convention would guarantee the right to remain for Britons already in European nations through acquired rights.

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Quoting Shakespeare & Cervantes by Dave Stewart

Cervantes and Shakespeare, who died within eleven days of each other in 1616, are universally regarded as the supreme exemplars of literary achievement in their respective languages. These two iconic authors convey the turbulent spirit of the restless age in which they lived. Just before his death Shakespeare was working on a play related to Don Quixote, which has recently turned up. There is an enduring fascination that both writers have exerted on readers, writers, and artists on stage and film. This month we take a look at famous quotes, which I am sure you can all relate to, even if it is only one part.

Some quotes are famous for their beauty some for their everyday truths and some for their wisdom. We often talk about the quotes as things the wise Bard is saying to us, but we should remember that some of the apparently wisest words are spoken by some of Shakespeare’s biggest fools. For example, both ‘neither a borrower nor a lender be,’ and ‘to thine own self be true’ are both from the foolish, garrulous, quite disreputable Polonius in Hamlet.

“Shakespeare one gets acquainted with without knowing how. It is a part of an Englishman's constitution. His thoughts and beauties are so spread abroad that one touches them every where, one is intimate with him by instinct.”

Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (1814), Ch. 34.

Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? (Romeo and Juliet) To be, or not to be: that is the question. (Hamlet) Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once. (Julius Caesar) Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears: I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. (Julius Caesar) If music be the food of love play on. (Twelfth Night) aormi@icloud.com

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A rare book of Shakespeare plays found in a French town was "left behind" when a school now based in Lancashire was expelled from the area, it is claimed.

The Shakespeare First Folio, said to be the most important book in English literature, lay in a library in SaintOmer, near Calais, for 200 years.

Clitheroe's Stonyhurst College began as St Omers College there in 1593.

A spokeswoman said the "dog-eared" book must have been "overlooked" when the college was ordered to leave in 1762.

The Folio collects 36 of Shakespeare's 38 known plays for the first time, and was originally printed in 1623, seven years after the playwright's death.

All that glisters is not gold. (The Merchant of Venice) All the world ‘s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts. (As You Like it) As merry as the day is long. (Much Ado about Nothing) The course of true love never did run smooth. (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) What’s in a name? A rose by any name would smell as sweet. (Romeo and Juliet) Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. (Hamlet) This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle…This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. (Richard II)

Off with his head! (Richard III) and here is me thinking it was Alice in Wonderland. Many other authors have made use of Shakespeare lines including Dickens.

aormi@icloud.com

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Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em. - Malvolio, Act II, scene v.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, Polonius, Act I, scene iii.

If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? (The Merchant of Venice) Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. (Twelfth Night) Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18) But, for my own part, it was Greek to me. (Julius Caesar) A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! (Richard III)

aormi@icloud.com

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CERVANTES He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his courage loses all.

Well, now there's a remedy for everything except death.

Faint heart never won fair lady.

Those who'll play with cats must expect to be scratched.

To be prepared is half the victory.

He preaches well that lives well.

A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly.

Tell me thy company, and I'll tell thee what thou art. aormi@icloud.com

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Man appoints, and God disappoints.

Everyone is as God made him, and often a great deal worse.

The knowledge of yourself will preserve you from vanity.

Well, there's a remedy for all things but death, which will be sure to lay us flat one time or other.

The most difficult character in comedy is that of the fool, and he must be no simpleton that plays that part.

Be slow of tongue and quick of eye.

A blot in thy escutcheon to all futurity.

A man must eat a peck of salt with his friend, before he knows him.

Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our own deeds.

aormi@icloud.com

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025 March 2016

My Bookshelf

by Pat Hynd

Church of Spies

by Mark Riebling

The Vatican’s silence in the face of Nazi atrocities remains one of the g re a t controversies of our time. History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him “Hitler’s Pope.” But a key part of the story has remained untold.

“Church of Spies” by Mark Reibling reads like a thriller and I have to admit I read it in a few days, as it was so engrossing.

Many of the incidents we already know as they have been made into films, such as the White Rose group or the bomb plots against Hitler’s life aormi@icloud.com

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played by Tom Cruise. But the author has managed to dig up a lot of information from files of the Nazis and from new Vatican sources. Using records from Germany’s Institute für Zeitgeschichte and from some of the Vatican Archives, “Church of Spies” casts light on WWII covert operations and spy-craft that remained in the shadows for 75 years.

I’m surprised that the book fails to cover more closely the time when before becoming pope, Pacelli was the papal nuncio or ambassador in Germany after a lifelong career in other countries representing the then current pope. When nuncio Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli told his housekeeper that he was astonished that the German people could not see through Hitler and his style of National Socialism with his booted bullyboy Brown Shirts. He was also the one who drafted Pius XI’s, his predecessor, encyclical claiming we are all Jews and was behind the concord between Hitler and the Vatican that was supposed to protect the German church’s interests – schools etc. It failed miserably, as for Hitler it was just another piece of paper; one of his vows was to get rid of the Catholic Church and like Henry VIII and China today he tried to have a Nationalist Church in its place.

Pius XII ran the world’s l a rg e s t church, smallest state, and oldest spy service.

Saintly but secretive, during the war he made use of Catholic churches annual Peter ’s Pence contributions to pay covert couriers. When he learned of the Holocaust, Pius played his cards close to his chest and in doing so has earned himself a reputation as being morally wrong in not denouncing the Holocaust. He did send messages about it to both the British and Americans, but of course Churchill didn’t want to know. aormi@icloud.com

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Neither of the two leaders of Britain and USA, although they were aware of what was happening, spoke out against the Holocaust so why does Pope Pius get such a bad press?

To all intents and purposes the Vatican speaks for the Catholic Church in international affairs. The Holy See has a permanent observer status at the United Nations and frequently is used as a neutral observer in behind the scene negotiations to defuse political problems. At its simplest, in 1939 the Vatican was 100 acres, with no armed forces to speak of, surrounded by the might of the Nazi empire. Cuba’s recent acceptance by USA is due to the diplomatic intervention of the Holy See and it is acknowledged that the downfall of communistic state in Soviet Russia was in no small way due to the Holy See diplomats.

So what is this new book Church of Spies by Riebling telling us about the Vatican, especially Pope Pius XII during the second word war? It is about German resistance to Nazi doctrine from a very early stage in the war, especially from the military who argued against invading France. For me two of the giants of this book are Admiral Canaris and a lawyer Josef Muller who both plotted Hitler’s downfall, while at the same time apparently working for his interests.

Canaris was executed and Muller just managed to escape the gallows with the fall of Germany, but he went on to help restore a new Germany.

The plotters not only tried almost forty plots their discussions made history in ways that planned for the government of the country counties. They inspired European unification, aormi@icloud.com

to end Hitler’s life, but through are rarely acknowledged. They and its relationship with other forged a U.S.A -Vatican alliance

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Plotters against Hitler Lawyer Josef Muller nicknamed Ochsensepp the Ox -and Admiral Wilhelm Canaris

that spanned the Cold War, and challenged Church teachings on Jews which have since then been positively changed, first at Vatican II and more recently with the present Pope Francis.

Yet Pius’ secret war muted his public response to Nazi crimes. Fearing that overt protest would impede his covert actions, he never spoke the “fiery words” he wanted to speak, even though he had written a special encyclical that was clandestinely distributed throughout Germany, resulting in the lives of many of the couriers used, as well as hundreds of priests who had denounced the Nazi doctrine when reading the letter from the pulpits. He had supported the Dutch bishops protest against the Nazis programme against the Jews and learned from the massive clampdown and deportation exodus. His very first Encyclical, Summi Pontificatus, contains a very profound statement on the Jews and is very rarely quoted by historians.

In 1940, the Vatican received a request from the chief Rabbi of Palestine to intervene on behalf of the Jews of occupied Lithuania. Pius called Von Ribbentrop to the Vatican and repeatedly protested against the treatment of Lithuania’s Jews. Through his find Marconi, the pope had had installed in some places microphones and recording machines.

Italy’s 70,000 Jews were amongst the best integrated in Europe, and had contributed to Italian life in all forms, from cuisine to politics. The author concentrates on involvement in Germany, but the Pope was leader of an international organization and had to look in the long term, not only at Europe but elsewhere in the world. Eighty percent of Rome’s Jews were saved, mostly by being hidden in churches and monasteries, including almost 500 who were brought into the Vatican. As only some 800 people used the Vatican on a daily basis, the Pope was obviously aware of their presence! Israel Zolli, the Chief aormi@icloud.com

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Rabbi in Rome from 1939 to 1945, converted to Catholicism at the end of the war and took the name of Eugenio in honor of his close friend Pius XII, whose birth name was Eugenio Pacelli.

While the Pope was anti-Nazi, he certainly realized that Stalin and the Soviet Communist party was no more a friend of the Catholic Church than Hitler and the Nazis, so it was a balancing trick.

Told with great suspense, based on secret transcripts and unsealed files, “Church of Spies” Israel Zolli throws open the Vatican’s doors to reveal some of the most astonishing events in the history of the papacy. The result is an unprecedented book that will change perceptions of how the world’s greatest moral institution met the greatest moral crisis in history. The Vatican, along with German Jesuits, including Alfred Delp, S.J., Dominicans and Benedictines, became both integral to preparations for a stable post-coup Germany and linked to every major resistance effort. Although Mark Reibling presents the Jesuits, (as they have always appeared as conniving plotters), he has failed to show why they did accept plans to kill Hitler. It is obvious that killing Hitler would affect the whole structure of the Hitler movement, but he fails to show the spiritual side of these priests and why, apparently forbidden by the Ten Commandments, they approved of killing someone - even if it was Hitler.

Memorial to Jesuits killed by Nazis: was dedicated at the FINUCANE JESUIT CENTER OF ROCKHURST JESUIT University by Jewish couple Eliot Berkeley and his wife Marcia. aormi@icloud.com

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Of the 152 Jesuits murdered by the Nazis across Europe, 27 died in captivity or its results, and 43 in the concentration camps. The Jesuit Provincial, Augustin Rosch, ended the war on death row for his role in the July Plot to overthrow Hitler. Jesuits made up the largest contingent of clergy imprisoned in the Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp, where some 30 Jesuits died. Several Jesuits were prominent in the small German Resistance, including the influential martyr Alfred Delp of the Kreisau Circle, who ended his last 30 minutes dangling and choking from a wire noose in prison.

The arthritic German Jesuit Robert Leiber acted as intermediary between Pius XII and Josef Muller.

Among the Jesuit victims of the Nazis, Germany's Rupert Mayer, has been beatified. Among twelve Jesuit "Righteous Gentiles" recognized by Yad Vashem is Belgium's Jean-Baptiste Janssens, who was appointed Superior General of the Jesuits after the War. According to historian Lapomarda, there was "no doubt" about the Jesuit Superior General Ledochowski's concern to thwart the Germans in Europe once they had invaded his native Poland.

In many respects, the war that had torn apart Spain between 1936 and 1939 was the testing ground for the fate awaiting the Church across Europe during the Second World War. Here were all the ingredients that marked the Catholic Church’s experience between 1939 and 1945. Spain had long been torn between liberals and conservatives, and one of the hallmarks of a liberal ‘progressive’ viewpoint was a pronounced anti-clericalism. Almost invariably, this meant that the Church in Spain, as in so many other countries, believed itself forced to side with the forces of the right. Twenty percent of all clergy in Spain were murdered during the civil war; 13 bishops, 4,172 priests, 2,364 monks and friars and 283 nuns and sisters. The Pope was well aware of what could happen with the fascist face of Nazism. With the present political infighting going on in Spain, one wonders how much will change for the Catholic Church today.

When we speak of the Holocaust we usually refer to the five million Jews who were executed outright or died in concentration camps, but forget the other seven million who also died at the hands of the Nazis. This book by Mark Riebling “Church of Spies· is a reminder of the horrors of war, but also the innumerable heroic men and women who rose to the challenge of their days. aormi@icloud.com

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The Hispanic Society of America has loaned to Spain 14 preparatory canvases by Joaquin Sorolla that were the basis for making the large one that decorate its headquarters in New York.

These will be exhibited in MUBAG museum in Alicante, along with a catalogue of two hundred informative pages in Castilian and Valencian texts on the research and restoration process of these pictures.

Between 1911 and 1919 Sorolla toured Spain to capture the customs, colors and parties of a country moving into the changes of the 20th century for this American commission. Archer M. Huntington - founder of the Hispanic Society - had Sorolla paint many Spanish scenes for the New York Society.

The restored works will be exhibited until 1st May at the MUBAG museum in Alicante

aormi@icloud.com

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025 March 2016

Drones are good for some things

by Dave Stewart

Drones get more publicity for being able to deliver small stuff such as books by Amazon or pizza deliveries by Domino’s Pizzas. But there are many useful humanitarian uses for drones as well as opportunities for sport. There is the possibility of doing a selfie tracking yourself and videoing your movements if you are walking or cycling, for example, as a drone complete with camera hovers around you.

Drones also offers sports coaches photos on how their players are doing.

Drones are ideal for television, reporting moving events such as motor rallies or cycling events. These are small drones that are fairly cheap, but have to be used with certain restrictions as to space above people or buildings. Drones come in all sizes and shapes and can be as big as an airliner.

This technology can also be used if there is an emergency and you require help with data beamed to a base or to emergency services.

In mountaineering it is also invaluable as a drone can access places that a helicopter can’t even reach. It can be used for photographing a climb or a mountaineer in trouble and deliver emergency medical aid.

A small Dutch company has invented what amounts to an ambulance drone that is called a medical toolbox as it can carry basic medical equipment including a built-in defibrillator that can be used by anyone. In this instance the controller can give instruction primarily by phone then once contact with the drone is made via the drone’s camera itself. The aormi@icloud.com

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defibrillator is easy detached and placed on the chest of the patient suspected of having a heart attack and the controller can do the rest remotely via the camera. This is an interesting drone as the inventors have used 3D printing techniques in making some of the parts. Drones are also being used to deliver surgical equipment for emergency operations in isolated areas with remote control by a surgeon from a distance talking through the procedures.

Criminals are also using drones e.g. to deliver drugs, tobacco and armaments to prisons, or send drugs across borders.

Torrevieja intends using drones of the Civil Protection group to assist in beach patrols.

Last summer in La Manga two Civil Protection members used a drone to assist them on beach patrol.

Both have had to undergo the required national training and it supplements the work of the lifeguards as it can reach someone in difficulties rapidly and able to drop two rubber floats that a swimmer can use to keep buoyant until help does arrive.

aormi@icloud.com

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Flying drones can also be used for surveying land and for farmers is a tool to check out their plants, fencing, irrigation, without leaving the house. Drones are being used in the Scottish Highland to combat the growing menace of Giant Hogweed, which is invading large areas of Britain. Pretty to look at, dangerous to touch.

One of the most popular video clips of Torrevieja is one of last year that breezes along the coast and showing many aspects of the town and its beaches and coves, the promenades etc. With this in mind it is a useful tool for real estate as overhead shots can be made of properties emphasizing things like gardens and swimming pools.

Drones can be used to dance or play music while flying. A drone orchestra performed in flight in front of a live audience at an art gallery in London in September 2014.

An important use for them in Spain is in assisting fire-fighters to put out fires in buildings and in forests or parkland as their overview can pinpoint the centre of a fire. With an eye in the sky fire-fighters can gauge wind and the direction of fires at any moment.

Drones are being used in entertainment

aormi@icloud.com

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We have become accustomed to CCTV cameras on corners and drones are another step in the direction of local security and fighting crime—or maybe as some say Big Brother watching you. One manufacture of drones has actually made and sold drones that are armed with pepper stay or plastic balls for use in control of demonstrations. The drones with cameras are ideal for surveillance duties. An extension to this is in border control as has been used in troubled countries like Iraq or Afghanistan.

Now it will be used on the Mexican/American borders.

Drones are beginning to be used more to monitor animals in the wild or in nature parks. In this instance they are being used to observe wild species and I am sure David Attenborough would be using them if he were around. Not to sure about the drones carrying a gun as in good ole USA where some hunters are using them to hunt and kill animals; much easier than stalking them through the undergrowth I suppose, but questionable sport. Environmentalists are successfully using drones equipped to test air pollution in a particular area, and spot illegal dumping in Italy for example.

They are also proving to be a tool for reporters and are paparazzi’s dream, being able to hover over naked film stars..or even you. This is one of the serious problems that touches on personal privacy codes. There is a delicate trade-off between security and privacy, and many argue we must be cautious of creeping authoritarianism. This is not a new argument: CCTV, satellite maps and telephone tapping have been subjected to the same scrutiny. It also touches on other human rights such as liberty or dignity. There is no agreement among countries about international regulations covering drones and some insurance aormi@icloud.com

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An invasion of privacy?

Before rushing out to buy a drone with camera, check out the insurance and the law. some drones also only have half an hour flying time energy.

companies just won’t accept a cover for them as they could so easily cause an accident and have even led to helicopters being grounded that would be used in emergency services, such as accidents or fires because curious people are flying drones around to get photos.

One of the most viewed photos/video is that of the pop star, Enrique Iglesias, trying to catch a hovering drone filming him and getting his hand cut doing so.

IN SPAIN Apart from insurance issues there are severe restrictions on the use of drones and robot vehicles in public spaces and depending on the size of the drone, as in La Manga, would-be pilots have to do very strict courses that could cost a couple of thousand euros as it is similar to training an air pilot.

But these laws are only concerned with public health and safety – such as drones falling on your head. There are other societal concerns about how the technologies will be used to invade our lives by police, commercial enterprises and other people. It is an ongoing debate that has affected the Spanish royalty, as one has been used to film them.

aormi@icloud.com

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Star Watch

025 March 2016

Astrotourism

by Dave Stewart

In our 2016 Torrevieja Outlook solidarity fiesta calendar we have included some data on full moons and other astronomical information that is relevant to this current year.

It is obvious that there is growing trend and interest in looking beyond the stars to where no man has gone before.

Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences we have, but is now considered as part of tourism – astrotourism. Our ancient civilizations have all marked out a map of the stars that can be seen from earth, and with amazing precision comets and other moving stellar objects have been charted. Its very much a mathematical game which in recent months has led to discoveries of planets hidden by their larger companions but mathematicians in the astroworld calculated that they must be there going by other relevant data.

Those of us living in Torrevieja are often treated to groups of observers, armed with their telescopes, gazing at a phenomenon on a particular date, some of which are regular annual events such as the Tears of St. Laurence or Perseides shower visible from mid-July each year, with the peak in

A group of observers at La Mata Park Foto: Pedro Nogueroles Obectivo Torrevieja

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activity between 9 and 14 August, depending on the particular location of the stream.

Astrotoruism is now reaching Spain and in Valencia region at Aras de los Olmos there will be an initiation course from 24 - 27 March 2016. A useful website was launched for Andalusia at the large Tourist Fair FITUR last January with information in Spanish and English. www.astroandalus.com José Jiménez, the project coordinator of Dark Sky Advisors (DSA), has launched this new travel agency, only one of many that are now around the World.

The International Dark-Sky Assocation or IDA is based in Arizona noted for its clear pollution free skies that are ideal for stargazing. IDA’s work includes initiatives to protect the night skies and fragile ecosystems in parks and protected areas worldwide. It offers a conservation programme with special attention to pollution by humans with our city lights.

Their award-winning flagship conservation programme recognizes and promotes excellent stewardship of the night sky resulting in dozens of certified Dark Sky Places worldwide, comprising more than 42,000 square kilometers (16,000 square miles).

The Tucson, Arizona-based International Dark Skies Association (IDA) confers the status only on places that take major steps to avoid light pollution. Recipients must also prove their night skies are sufficiently dark. Some examples are: The Observatory of El Roque de Los Muchachos in La Palma is one of three best observatories on Earth and it is home to the largest optical telescope in the world. It is possible to book to visit it.

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Galloway Forest Park in Scotland has Dark Sky Park status.

Since Exmoor was designated Europe’s first International Dark Sky Reserve – one notch below Dark Sky Park – in 2011, a range of local businesses offering stargazing breaks and safaris has sprung up.

This is typical as astrotourism offers opportunites for Hotels, rural houses, travel agencies, tours, Shopping for equipment ect.

In ABERGYNOLWYN, WALES on 4 December 2015 the Snowdonia National Park was named an International Dark Sky Reserve by IDA. It was the tenth Dark Sky Reserve ever named.

On Black Fell, looking down on Northumberland’s beautiful Kielder Water reservoir, there is a strange wooden building with a minimalist design beamed down from the future. This is Kielder Observatory, another centre of Britain’s nascent astrotourism industry, but numbers are strictly limited. Team leader tells newcomers that it is about interaction, it’s about entertainment, it’s about inspiring people.

The Kerry International Dark-Sky Reserve is located in the South West coast of Ireland in what is called an ISTHMUS – a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas, usually with water on either side. The Reserve is protected by the Kerry Mountains and Hills on one side and the Atlantic ocean on the other, is approx. 700 sq km in size and offers dark aormi@icloud.com

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unlit and unpolluted skies, inhabited villages, helpful locals, remote wilderness, long sandy beaches, and numerous lakes, islands and rivers.

The UK will have to go some way to eclipse northern Chile, which boasts more than a dozen tourist observatories and has some of the clearest skies in the world. The Teide national park in Tenerife is also becoming a major astrotourism destination.

Thanks to television programmes by the enthusiastic Patrick Moore and Brian Cox who have made astronomy accessible and interesting. It’s no longer seen as the province of professors in studies with brass telescopes.

Technology has also played a part as there are Apps, such as Stellarium, now turning smartphones into pocket-size planetariums.

Astronomy is without doubt one of the best hobbies one can indulge in. Despite popular belief- there is no need for equipment, your own eyes are the best tool, especially for beginners. Ability, intelligence, race, political affiliations, or creed doesn’t come into the equation – all that is required is interest in the subject. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the difference between a planet, moon or a star (these things can be learned as you go along).

Why should we study the Universe? We really forget that everything is part of the Universe, and that includes us. That’s right…. YOU are part of the Universe, a child of the Universe, everything is. We live on a planet, Earth. The Earth circles the Sun, which is a star called Sol, and just like all the other stars it is part of Outer Space. Soon astrotourism will mean actually going into space.

aormi@icloud.com

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Joining an Astronomy Group is a great first step as they will have all the equipment needed.

Some events to look out for: March 8: Jupiter at Opposition The gas giant Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System, has two and a half times the mass of all the other planets combined. On this date, it will be closest to Earth during 2016, which means it will be at its brightest. Using a telescope or good pair of binoculars, you will see Jupiter’s four largest moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Look for Jupiter in the direction of the constellation Leo. The planet will be visible for all night, arriving at its highest point in the sky around midnight local time.

May 5-6: Peak of Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower This meteor shower stems from dusty particles shed by Halley’s Comet. Luckily, this year there is a new moon near the shower’s peak. The best viewing is an hour or two before dawn and it’s best seen from the Southern Hemisphere. This shower has a broad peak, meaning that although it’s best seen May 6 before dawn, it’s likely to produce a fair number of meteors the day before and the day after as well. Those in the Northern Hemisphere can expect around 10-20 meteors per hour while residents of the Southern Hemisphere may be able to see three times that many. Look for these meteors in the southeastern night sky. aormi@icloud.com

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June 3: Saturn at Opposition Saturn, another gas giant and second largest planet in the Solar System, will be closest to Earth during 2016 on this date. It will be visible all night long and reach its highest point in the sky around midnight local time. Look for Saturn toward the constellation Ophiuchus. Using a medium-sized or larger telescope, you’ll see Saturn’s magnificent rings and some of its moons.

August 11-13: Peak of Perseid Meteor Shower Each August for at least the last 2,000 years, the Earth’s orbit has swept through the debris of comet Swift-Tuttle, resulting in the Perseid meteor shower. While the comet won’t return to the inner solar system for more than 100 years, streams of small particles of cosmic dust it left behind persist for centuries. The meteor shower is one of the brighter and most prolific meteor showers of the year. And luckily for us, this year’s shower is expected to be more visible than it was last August due to darker skies after the moon sets around local midnight. Expect to see as many as 50-100 meteors an hour if viewing from a place with dark skies.

Oct. 21-22: Peak of Orionid Meteor Shower The Orionid meteor shower, the second annual shower resulting from debris shed by Halley’s Comet, is a modest shower of about 10-20 meteors an hour. Unfortunately, the second quarter moon will be out this year during the best viewing times just before sunrise. You still could get lucky, though. The Orionids are known to sometimes create bright fireballs, which could be seen in

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the sky in spite of the moon. Look for these meteors in the direction of the constellation Orion.

Nov. 17-18: Peak of Leonids Meteor Shower The legendary Leonids meteor shower, stemming from Comet Tempel-Tuttle, has created some of the most spectacular meteor storms in history. However, in most years it produces around 10-15 meteors per hour. This year the best viewing is the evening of Nov. 17 and before dawn on Nov. 18, but as it is just three days after the full moon, viewing won’t be as good as other years. Look toward the east to see the Leonids.

December 13-14: Peak of Geminids meteor shower This meteor shower, caused by 3200 Phaethon – an unusual Solar System object with characteristics of both comets and asteroids – rivals the Perseids in terms of number of meteors it yields. This year the meteor shower coincides with a “supermoon,” which will be out all night and limit the number of meteors that can be seen. The shower’s peak is around 2 a.m., Dec. 14.

Roque De Los Muchachos Observatory Las Palmas

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All That Jazz in Rojales

by Dave Stewart

Once again Rojales offers Musicas Sin Fronteras with concerts by Charmin Michelle and the Fabio Miano Quartet on 21 March. Charmin has a real contemporary jazz style with a very clear and sensual voice. Her style is based on the great swing singers of the 30’s and 40’s such as Helen Humes, BillieHoliday or Peggy Lee. The supporting jazz trio is led by Canadian pianist now living in Alicante Fabio Miano with Ignasi González (bass), Esteve Pí (drums) y Toni Solá (tenor saxophone).

The concerts of this season will be held in the Teatro Capitol of Rojales at 21:00 priced at only 5 euros.

aormi@icloud.com

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Torrevieja Outlook

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On Friday 28 March the Big Band del Taller de Sedajazz features a tribute to Charles Mingus, the group directed by saxophonist Francisco Blanco ' Latino ' . In this performance they will pay tribute to bassist Charles Mingus ( 1922-1979 ), a temperamental (he was nicknamed "The Angry Man of Jazz"), versatile and innovative musician who redefined collective improvisation and introduced episodic structures , as well as raised new and original orchestral relationships. He was an American jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader. His compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop, drawing heavily from black gospel music and blues, while sometimes containing elements of Third Stream, free jazz, and classical music. He once cited Duke Ellington and church as his main influences.In Mingus's autobiography Beneath the Underdog his mother was described as "the daughter of an Englishman and a Chinese woman", and his father was the son "of a black farm worker and a Swedish woman". He then played with Lionel Hampton's band in the late 1940s; Hampton performed and recorded several of Mingus's pieces.

On 4th April Nat King Cole Homage by Vicente Borland Quartet “Kool & Cole” Tribute by the Vicent Borland Quartet “Kool and Cole”. piano and voice, accompanied by guitarist Israel Sandoval, bass Richie Ferrer and Valentin Iturat .

During the concert a compendium of great themes popularized by this great pianist, singer and composer will take place, but placed in a very personal way , respecting the rigor of the original versions .

aormi@icloud.com

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Torrevieja Outlook

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Alcaide taught herself how to play the nyckelharpa

April 1st Ana Acaide and her quartet perform at the Capitol Theatre. At the age of seven Alcaide took up classical violin. She studied at the Getafe Conservatory of Music in Madrid, where she was born, and later at Lund University (Sweden).

She has received formal scientific and musical training in several countries (Spain, Sweden and Mexico) and holds a biology degree with a specialization in botany from the University of Complutense in Madrid.

After being awarded a biology scholarship in 2000, Alcaide travelled to Sweden where she was first exposed to the Nyckelharpa, a traditional Swedish instrument that dates from medieval times. Attracted by the complexity and depth of its sound, Alcaide taught herself how to play the nyckelharpa on the streets of Toledo, Spain. In 2005 she returned to Sweden to further pursue her music studies and to specialize in this Swedish folk instrument.

Alcaide published her debut album Viola de Teclas ("Keyed Viola", an alternative name for the nyckelharpa in Spanish) in 2006. She has played a pioneering role in introducing and popularizing the instrument in Spain. Her second album, Como la luna y el sol, was the result of the final degree project she completed while at the Malmö Academy of Music. This album features interpretations of traditional Sephardic music. In late 2009 she compiled her first three years of work on the DVD Ana Alcaide en concierto, which was filmed in a historic Jewish temple (Synagogue of ‘El Tránsito’ – Toledo, Spain) alongside her usual collaborators. In 2012, after taking time off to have her first child, Alcaide released her third album, La cantiga del fuego. aormi@icloud.com

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aormi@icloud.com

Torrevieja Outlook

025 March 2016

Torrevieja Outlook

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Torrevieja Outlook

025 March 2016

Jazz Wash

The group composed of the Swedish drummer Mikael Rösten and the Spanish Andrés Lizón (double-bass) and Luis Suria (piano) will be the hosts of a Jazz party that will be held on the last Friday of every month in Hippopotamus Coffee bar of Autowashes Hippopotamus. In each of the reunions, the band will offer a combination of classic jazz, as well as their own compositions.

The second part of the two hours set will be dedicated to a jam session with the collaboration of other national and international artists, who reside in the zone. The cafe will offer a special menu inspired by the jazz for only 9€.

For this first edition, there have invited the saxofonista Antonio Perez "Samba", a local artist with an extensive experience and owner of his own school of music. For their part, ALM Trio goes more than 5 years acting in several places of the whole province and the trio offers its own music, as well as immortal songs of this genre.

This activity is framed inside the celebrations of 20th anniversary of the Torrevieja company Autowashed Hippopotamus. The company has decided to support this and other cultural and sports initiatives in the city, as the sponsorship of the Club Handball Mare Nostrum Torrevieja and of the space of radio humor.

The Hippopotami Dream of Theatre, has been an initiative of the small private theatre Melpómene's Cave. " We think the advertising helps to take initiatives to an end, which also benefits the client emphasizing the type of business ", said Michael Jiménez, partner of the company.

For more information you can contact Michael Buendía - Promoter T: 687 620 973 And: miguel.jbuendia@gmail.com You Can share this Facebook's event in your networks here.

Place: Cafeteria of Autowashes Hippopotamus. Avenue Valencian Cortes n º 17 When: Every last Friday of every month, from 14 to 16 hours.

Starting On February 26. Menu 9euros aormi@icloud.com

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Remember Father’s Day is 19th March

On Thursday, 17 March 2016, at 19:00 p.m. a special Father’s Day concert in the auditorium of the Virgin of Carmen, offered by junior band of the Union Musical Torrevejense.

This is an annual and very spepcial traditional concert of the "Father's Day".

The entrance is free by invitation, which means that it is open to everyone until the forum is filled. However, advance tickets can be obtained from the UMT head office in the Palace of Music on first floor from18:00 - 20:00.

aormi@icloud.com

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