Pilgrimages: Places I Will Remember

Pilgrimages: Places I Will Remember Travel

BY ED BOITANO

“There are places I’ll remember All my life, though some have changed Some forever, not for better Some have gone, and some remain All these places had their moments With lovers and friends, I still can recall Some are dead, and some are living In my life, I’ve loved them all”

– John Lennon and Paul McCartney

A pilgrimage is defined by Oxford Dictionary as (1) a journey to a holy place for religious reasons, or (2) a journey to a place that is connected with someone or something that you admire or respect. I fear I fit into the second category, but with a slight twist: pilgrimages to new places that have opened my eyes and colored my thoughts as I traversed across the globe. Indeed, the following are places I will always remember in my life.

Antoni Gaudi –Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

“Those who look for the laws of nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the creator.”

– Antoni Gaudi

Spending 16 hours was far too little time to explore the enthralling metropolis of Barcelona, the capital of Spanish Catalonia. Peopled by 1.6 million stylish and sophisticated Barcelonés, the city greeted me with grand boulevards and welcoming pedestrian malls that wandered to the waterfront.

I was particularly enchanted by the cityscape that reflects the lifelong work of Barcelona architect Antoni Gaudi, considered the greatest exponent of Catalan modernism. As a proud Catalander, he refused to speak Castilian and seldom left his beloved Catalonia.

Gaudi’s architecture illustrates his profound passion for nature and devotion to religion. Still ahead of his time, he integrated used ceramic pieces, stained glass and wrought ironwork into his architectural style. Seven of his works have been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and include the still-incomplete Sagrada Família, the most-visited monument in Spain.

A visiting bishop once asked him, “Why do you trouble yourself so much about the tops of the towers? After all, no one will ever see them.” “Your Grace,” replied Gaudi. “The angels will see them.” His faith in the Roman Catholic Church intensified toward the end of his life, with his living in a squalid room at Sagrada Família, frantically attempting to finish his astonishing masterpiece. Still dressed in his work clothes, he took walks. In 1926,

Casa Batllo is one of Antoni Gaudi’s enduring masterpieces. A UNESCO World Heritage site and iconic Barcelona treasure, it welcomes 1 million visitors per year.

| APRIL 2020 It is essential to purchase tickets in advance for the Museo Frida Kahlo, or guests will face long and timeconsuming lines. (Photos by Deb Roskamp)

he was tragically run down by a streetcar. Gaudi desperately waved for assistance from passing vehicles, but was dismissed as a ragged beggar, and died shortly after. Today, he is often times referred to by his nickname, “God’s Architect.”

Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky – Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico “I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint.”

– Frida Kahlo

Coyoacán, Mexico, was once a serene village on the outskirts of Mexico City. Mexico City’s urban sprawl reached Coyoacán in the mid-20th century, but city fathers preserved the former village’s historic center, maintaining its colonial layout, plazas, narrow streets and structures built from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. This is where Coyoacán’s most popular destination rests: Museo Frida Kahlo.

Born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón on July 6, 1907, she is celebrated at the museum housed in her place of birth. Painted in vibrant cobalt-blue colors (known locally as the Blue House), the house is also was where she lived all of her life. It contains important paintings, including “Viva la Vida,” along with canvases by husband and fellow communist Diego Rivera.

They were both heavily influenced by Mexicanidad, a romantic nationalism that had developed in the aftermath of the 1910 Mexican Revolution. The Mexicanidad movement’s mantra was to challenge the “mindset of cultural inferiority” created by colonialism, placing special importance on indigenous cultures.

The museum also displays Kahlo’s workspace, Mexican folk art, pre-Hispanic artifacts, photographs and memorabilia. Kahlo has become the poster child for Mexico tourism as much for her work as well as for spiritedly overcoming the adversarial conditions of her life—childhood polio, a tragic streetcar accident which left her in a hospital for years, acceptance as an artist due to her gender, and the two tumultuous marriages with womanizer Rivera. Kahlo lived her life as an art form, even selecting her daily wear down to the smallest detail.

The Leon Trotsky Museum

“There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything depends on circumstances.”

– Leon Trotsky

www.LovinLife.com The Leon Trotsky Museum is located just a few blocks away from the Museo Frida Kahlo. Trotsky was the second-most important member of the original Russian Bolsheviks and considered heir to Lenin.

However, he was forced into exile and then hunted by the tyrannical Josef Stalin regime after he forced his way into power upon Lenin’s death.

Trotsky was given political asylum, sponsored by Rivera and Kahlo. Along with his wife, he lived in the Kahlo house for a few years. A rumored affair, though, between Trotsky and Kahlo, led to the Trotskys relocating to a new fortress-life home with watchtowers, as protection from any assassination attempts by Stalin’s agents.

As I entered the museum, I was told the museum director was going to give me a private tour. To my surprise, the museum director is Trotsky’s grandson, Esteban Volkov. A remarkably spry and dashing man in his early 90s with impeccable manners, Volkov lived with his grandparents at age 13, and was wounded as a re

sult of an earlier Stalin operative’s failed machine gun assault. The bullet holes are still on the walls.

He walked me through the museum, patiently explaining in detail the histo- ry of photos from Trotsky’s lifetime; his participation in the Bolshevik Revolution; family tree; books and newspapers; and the backyard where he planted vegeta- bles, tended to his rabbits and is buried. The museum’s centerpiece is Trotsky’s study, where his iconic spectacles, papers and books are left in the exact position on the desk where he sat when he was murdered with an ice axe by a Stalin as- sassin who had posed as a friend of the family. Volkov ultimately raised his own family in the house, and then turned it into a museum on the 50th anniversary of Trotsky’s assassination.

The Barbary apes – Gibraltar

“The establishment of the apes on Gibral- tar should be 24, and every effort should be made to reach this number as soon as pos- sible and maintain it thereafter.”

– Winston Churchill

Churchill was obsessed with the con- tinuance of the Barbary apes, fearing that British rule over the Rock of Gibral- tar during World War II would end if they disappeared, a catastrophe he would not tolerate.

In the early days of the war, Winston Churchill visited Gibraltar, and was dis- turbed that the population had dwindled down to only seven Barbary apes. He immediately instructed that five new fe- males be sent to the Rock. Churchill was well aware of the Gibraltar apes’ symbol- ic importance to the British people, and feared that the disappearance of the ani- mals would have a detrimental effect on morale. The British Empire needed plenty when they stood alone against the Fas- cists in 1941.

Three-hundred apes in five troops oc- cupy the Upper Rock area of the Gibraltar Nature Reserve. Because they are tailless, they are often mistakenly referred to as Barbary apes or rock apes, but, technical- ly speaking, they are actually macaques (macaca sylvanus).

The cute little critters are inquisitive and have no fear of humans. Upon my arrival, one jumped on the front of my car’s windshield and curiously looked me straight in the eye. The biggest tourist ca- sualty is there apprehension of cameras. Foraging for food, though, seems to be their main goal, and they are known to even traverse the capital city below.

As a British Overseas Territory, the Rock features 32 miles of tunnels, initially de- signed as protection from Spanish and French forces in their attempt to take Gibraltar back from the British when they were at their weakest during the American Revolution. At the early stages of what was to be a surprise attack, the monkeys were disturbed in the night and let out howls, alerting the British garrison to the upcoming enemy assault. This led to the popular saying, “As long as the apes remain on the Rock, so will the Brit- ish.”

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When Paul Theroux observed a tourist brazenly poking a baby monkey while being fed by its mother, he concluded that the monkeys were more civilized than the laughing tourists. The mother monkey simply raised her hand, as if asking the tourist to stop, then disappeared with the baby behind a higher rock.

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