To Hot Madrid!

"Midsummer and high noon!  I stood by the parapet of a castle in Spain and looked out over a treeless plain," ("Madrid Out-of-Doors," Harriet Chalmers Adams, National Geographic Magazine, August, 1931, p. 225).  I want to be there, too!  From the castle, Ms. Adams traveled south to the capital city of Madrid, "approximately in the geographical center of Spain" (p. 225).

Ms. Chalmers reports that at one time 900 years ago, Christian Spain had been largely conquered by the Moslem invaders.  Armored knights battled hard to win back their country.

In 1931, "Madrid's outstanding feature is the great avenue, Gran Avenida de la Libertad, one of the finest boulevards in all Europe" (p. 225).  Temperature in the summer resembled that of Sacramento, California, U.S.A.: very hot, but dry.  "Shops close every afternoon from one or two o'clock until four or five. . . Madrilenos know how to enjoy the magic hours of early evening" (p. 231).

Someday I would like to visit the Prado Museum, where are kept masterpiece paintings from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.  "In the opinion of many, this is the finest art gallery in existence" (p. 233).

Spain was the only country in the world allowed to send letters to the United States at domestic rates iin 1931.  The Spanish were quite proud of their efficient mail service.

The Madrid citizens were formal and prided themselves on being mannerly and courteous.  "Spain is, above all, a country where the wishes of others are respected, the land of personal liberty, of a democracy which is practical" (p. 235).

Madrid was as modern as any other large European or American city of 1931, with movie houses, tall buildings, a subway, telephones, and plenty of automobiles.

Here's a cultural habit that surprised and enlightened me: The Spanish take 'siestas' in the afternoon, not to escape the heat, but because they stay up at night so late - frequently until dawn!

No article about Spain would be complete without mention of bullfights.  When the bull is in a good position, the matador "will attempt to drive home a death stroke between the bull's shoulders" (photo caption, p. 243).  Even the little boys pretended to be bulls or matadors.

During my recent trip to Italy, our tour group was warned about gypsies: "Don't leet yourselves be surrounded by them; they might steal your wallet or purse."  We had no problems.  Gypsies in Spain have been there since the fifteenth centure, "coming in at the northeast from France" (p. 246).

In the Royal Armory were kept a great collection of knights' shields and swords, "and the arms of lesser conquistadors who, sailing under the banner of Castile, won a New World for Spain" (p. 248).

Ms. Adams also writes about cities close to Madrid,: Segovia, Avila, and Toledo.  There is, as in most of Europe, ruins of the ever-present Roman aqueducts, near Segovia.  She concludes that "these country people, who toil in the fields so near the capital, will be slow to change. Generation on generation they have clung to old customs" (p. 256).  I submit that therein lies their charm.

As a university student in the early 1960s, I learned to love all things Spanish.  I studied the language, met friends from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Barcelona, Spain.  One evening we watched a show of Flamenco Dancers.  I must travel to Spain one of these years!