Fiestas de Madrigal VII: bulls in the night.

The celebration of the traditional ENCIERRO down the streets of my village at midnight is a very popular event. I don't like bulls, but I admit that the ritual looks great!!!!!!

Fiestas de Madrigal VI: bulls.

I want to explain that the celebration of bull fightings in my village is not the tradition. Our tradition is something really older, very much primitiv, in connection with the rituals of catharsis from Crete and Micene. It consists of the act to cut across or block the way of the bull with the body for some seconds. The bull cannot be touched or injured, but the people can, off course. Every year some drunk men are injured, sometimes even killed. But this is our tradition...

Fiestas de Madrigal V: poetry and music

The best of my village is that sometimes the "Aviler Sparkasse" and other cultural foundations give money to organize special and cultural events, like the Fray Luis de León´s Prize of Poetry. In this cases, I like to attend with my parents. The public used to be short and select.


After the presentation of the prizes and the reading of the poems, we were invited to attend at the Rathaus in order to have a small but nice appetizer.

Fiestas de Madrigal IV: fuegos artificiales

The fireworks in my village. When I was a child they make me excited, but now...

Fiestas de Madrigal III: la plaza del Cristo

Fiestas de Madrigal II: viva el Sagrado Cristo de las Injurias!!!!!!

Second day in my village: the church, off course! This is Spain, how forget it!!!!!!!

My parents and me were waiting for the religious celebration. The chapel was too small for so many people, so we should stand outside for one hour.

El motivo de fondo de la fiesta no deja de ser una celebración religiosa. Se celebra que hace no sé cuántos siglos una imagen de Cristo transportada en carreta desde Zamora se quiso detener en este pueblo, atascada en un cenagal, y desde entonces se venera su imagen en la capilla del Real Hospital de la Purísima Concepción.

The reason of the celebration is a religious topic: the story about how a statue of Christ didn't want to go on in its way from Zamora to another city. This statue stoped in my village and none could move it any more, so now this Christ is the saint of my village.

Fiestas de Madrigal I: the queens!!!!!!!

Aquí muestro algunas fotos de la víspera de las fiestas de mi pueblo, el momento en que la reina y sus damas de honor son coronadas.

Here I show pictures about the first moment of the party in my village, the moment when the queens take the crowns.

Entonces es cuando el alcalde nos dice su "saluda" y da paso al intelectual de honor que lee su discurso de agradecimiento y ensalzamiento, un momento glorioso, creo que voy a llorar... ;-)

Then, the mayor says some speech and an intelectual makes the honor to talk about our village. So nice!!!!!!



No hará falta que diga que mis padres escuchan atentamente y con emoción el sagrado momento. ¡Estamos en fiestas! ¡Qué alborozo!

Off course, my parents listen with emotion.

Me voy a las fiestas...

Me voy a las fiestas de mi pueblo, las fiestas en Honor del Santísimo Cristo de las Injurias, aunque lo que menos le importa a la gente es la devoción a los santos. Las fiestas consisten más bien en la excusa perfecta para celebrar festejos taurinos (capeas, concursos de cortes y encierros, tanto a pie como a caballo), y para que las juventudes y no tan juventudes se reúnan en las peñas, locales de mala muerte acondicionados para cobijar los habituales botellones y revolcones que en las ciudades suelen realizarse en los parques y plazas.

Para mí signica la semana del año en que puedes volver a ver a un montón de amigos y conocidos y que sólo vuelven al pueblo con motivo de las fiestas.

La verdad es que no motiva demasiado el programa de actividades y festejos, por no decir que no motiva nada en absoluto. Aún así, haré lo posible por integrarme, aunque lo más probable es que pase la mayor parte del tiempo con mis padres, ya que yo no tengo peña, y sin peña no hay botellones, ni revolcones, ni vida social.

Meeting old friends...

This time is very strange for me. Usually I run to meet my friends from the first day and I used to prepair a party to join everybody again. But this time Ich hab' keine lust... I feel more tired and a bit anti-social-life. Instead of that now I safe a moment for every important person, but without a hurry.

Finally I could meet with Pili. She visited me in my flat and we were talking for some hours, whike Nuria was phoning her every 15 minutes, very funny!

Working hard... only for some days.

I was talking long time in Hamburg about my idea to look for a job just when I arrive in Spain.
Finally, when I had no hopes, I found two jobs in the same day.
This is the promenade, croosing the center of my city, that I should make from one job to the other.

One of this jobs was making baguettes and pizzas, in the typical establishment in the middle of many bars and discos, so the time to open was from 19:00 until 06:00. Yes, I know, 11 hours, and without a chair to sit and any break. Even without a toilette! And we were working with the ovens for the bread, so the temperature was about 40 ºC.

This job was just behind this church.

The other job was in the fairground of my city, in the terrace of a restaurant. The job was only for some hours, from 13:00 until 17:00, but the quality of the work was worse than owful and my bosses were not the best. At least some of my partners were really great.


The conclusion is that from wednesday until sunday I was working 14/15 hours per day, and now I'm tired. And the money is not so much, shit!!!!