dos de mayo

I could inform you all regarding the bloody history of Dos de Mayo, the day of revolt in Madrid against the French occupation (1808)... but isn't that what wikipedia is for?

Just kidding...sort of..

Federal holidays are OK by me and probably every other person alive on this planet, but who actually stops to think and remember what actually happened on, say, the Fourth of July?

Ok, fine, a lot of us. We are taught as kids. We are just proud ok?

To demonstrate that, here is a flag:

Pride.

It did sort of crack me up though, thinking about my childhood...how much weight the three words red, white and blue carried... how we stood each and every morning, with our hand over our hearts, and Pledged Allegiance to the rising flag...

Even though I think it's safe to say that no nation demonstrates pride quite to the extent that USA does, Spain could probably be considered more conservative in this aspect despite the fact that things have visibly altered since last summer's World Cup win.

However, last Thursday, before taking off for the long weekend, I listened in as my kid's main Spanish teacher explained to them what happened on the second of May, 1808. I really love this teacher in particular, Elena--a smart matriarch-type who is incredibly dedicated to her job, one of those teachers you truly admire for her fantastic work of shaping young people's minds... Anyway, one thing she does in particular is put utmost importance into everything she says to the kids, simply by her choice of language, form of speech, etc etc. In effect, she speaks to them as if they were adults.

So she gets going on Thursday morning, starting with the basic, "Children, there is no school on Monday. There will be a puente." Of course nobody knew why, and in dove Elena to her passionate speech about the French and the Spanish and Napoleon...

The kids all sat silently and heard her with their arms folded on their desks, respecting whatever life lesson of the day that might come out of this.

I say heard and not listened because I'm unsure as to how many actually followed the brief discourse. Let's be honest, several were probably on the moon all along.

But hey, these are seven year olds, and seven year olds that are not from "the land of the free and the home of the brave" where Independence Day is almost as crucial as Jesus' birthday. Elena's attempt to instill a feeling of national pride (without using the term football, for example) was not exactly successful..

Either way, she was not exaggerating her compassion about what happend, and one day the kids will hopefully understand. The second of May is a pretty cool thing to claim as a part of Madrileño history. As she said, "Nope, we Spanish, we aren't like that. We didn't let the French stomp all over us". And bam. Other rebellions rise in Spain..the resistance strengthens..the Peninsula War is on folks.

I took a walk over to the Dos de Mayo square today to check out the scene, I guess hoping to catch some sort of exciting revolutionary parade or something. The plaza was built on the site of the artillery barracks and it is a green haven of plentiful terraza (outdoor seating).

The plaza lies in Malasaña, a verrrry hip neighborhood named after a 15 year old seamstress--a heroine who died of debatable causes on this day. I prefer the story that involves her courageously facing up to two frenchmen with the scissors she had in her pocket. What a badass.

Anyhow, I found people rejoicing everywhere in the plaza and surrounding neighborhood. Not necessarily anything to do with the actual historical holiday (or so I could tell), but just rejoicing life and the day off work in the way Spaniards know best, which would be socializing on the street. There were people everywhere-- standing, leaning, sitting in chairs, on the ground, kids running, pairs strolling..snacking, beering, smoking, sunflower seeds everywhere... how else how else? Buen rollo, I'd call it...a good vibe. Cheers to Dos de Mayo and the land of puentes.

A woman watching the street life from her balcony. She caught me right after I took this photo and was really pissed about it. Oops!