Feria de Libro - a low key Spring celebration

After the frenetic fiestas of the First and Second of May, and of San Isidro, Madrid's annual feria de libro seems restful

The Children's Tent at the Madrid Book Fair Shows its calendar of activities

A few days ago a friend alerted me that (unsurprisingly) my bookstore owning friend from Tres Cantos would be bringing her bookstore to one of the stalls at the Madrid feria de libro, which started on Friday and runs for the next two weeks.  She suggested we go say hi, which I thought was a good idea.  Then I realized that of course on the weekend another friend from outside of Madrid was most likely to be signing and presenting her new novel (she has a day job in Ponferrada, so during the week was unlikely).  After an exchange of texts, she confirmed that she was indeed signing Saturday evening from 7:00 to 9:00, and suggested that I stop by toward the end of her signing shift, so we could go have dinner afterward.

So yesterday evening I set out in the late afternoon sunshine and walked to the Retiro, since I hadn't really been out all day, and I wanted some exercise.  Just under an hour and a half brought me to the hordes of evening strollers in the Retiro, and as I wandered past the "Rosaleda" (formal rose garden) and along the crowded paths I saw large numbers of people heading back from the fair, and also a significant number heading towards it (along with a few overheard comments "Is this the right direction?"  "The sign said straight ahead."  "There are people with book fair bags coming from over there.")

Toying with history?

 

A walk last Sunday brought me to an unexpected anniversary commemoration...

After the excitement of San Isidro, and a few days of pleasant socializing with fellow wandering researchers, I had a quiet weekend last weekend, and stuck my nose out of doors on Saturday afternoon purely to go for a walk in order to get some exercise.  I did a walk that I normally enjoy, down through the Cuña Verde to Madrid Río, along the river to Marqués de Vadillo, and then up bustling Calle General Ricardos to contrast with the serenity of the park.  In the interests of doing something different, I thought I would stop into the Centro Comercial (aka mall) La Ermita, which sits along the Paseo Ermita del Santo (yes, that would be San Isidro again) and see what was happening on a Saturday afternoon, since malls tend to be lively.

Actually, the businesses were mostly closed on Saturday afternoon, except for the restaurants and the kids' bouncy castle and the bowling alley.  But walking through the doors of the Centro Comercial I was confronted with a large glass case, with what appeared to be a model of Eiffel Tower and a bunch of little Playmobil figures holding a demonstration.

A diorama, apparently for children, sandwiched in between Foster's Hollywood Restaurant (visible beyond the glass) and Burger King in the Centro Comercial Ermita del Santo

This struck me as odd.

San Isidro: cocido, churros y chocolate (part 3 of 3)

Eating and drinking are fundamental, not incidental to the Fiesta de San Isidro

Waiting on line for the free cocido madrileño in the Parque San Isidro on the Día de San Isidro

Ok, I promise this is the last entry about San Isidro, but it was two days of cool and intense activity, with lots of photos and videos, and many interesting things, and while I was originally planning to make yesterday's entry "chotis, chulapos, and churros" I realized that song, dance, and funny costumes deserved their own entry separate from food, drink, and picnicking (not to mention the fairground ride and fireworks).

Possibly because a friend and fellow researcher I've met here is writing a dissertation about food and politics in 1940s Spain, and possibly because of older research interests of my own, I couldn't help but notice how much importance food is given in the fiestas de San Isidro.  This is a city which has known hunger, and a fair number of the popular songs for San Isidro come close to "food porn."  I was initially impressed on Sunday afternoon in the Plaza de Vistillas that the song which got the audience up from their chairs and dancing (as well as singing along) was something which I initially, listening, thought was a love song, but which actually I would classify more as a "food song" called "Cocidito madrileño."  (A few hours later I mentioned to the friends I was with that there appeared to have been a song dedicated entirely to cocido, whereupon the two of them - mother and daughter, both Madrid-born - exchanged sheepish grins and began to sing "cooocidito madrileñooo...")  Picture an entire plaza full of people singing "porque eres gloria pura, porque eres gloria pura, cocidito madrileño!" in a spasm of civic pride and hungriness and you get a sense of the scene.

San Isidro: Chotis and Chulapos (Part 2 of 3)

 

¡Viva Madrid! ¡Viva San Isidro!

 

Or how an international city does a local party

 

There's a whole wonderful set of silly traditions around San Isidro.  And the best thing is that they're all unashamedly modern and cheerfully not purely "Spanish."  Just purely Madrid. 

San Isidro was canonized sometime in the seventeenth century when Spain's new capital city needed a local saint.  By the late eighteenth century, the sleepy backwater town had doubled and quadrupled in size into a capital city of a flailing empire with huge inequality and plenty of political problems, already about to be eclipsed, but still with a far-flung influence that stretched from Mexico to Manila to Milan...and of course back to Madrid.  By this time San Isidro was well ensconced in his hermitage, and the tradition of the verbena was a standard rite of Spring.  Goya captured the scene in 1788:

Goya's version of the Pradera de San Isidro.  All the buildings in the background are still there, and you can still see some of them.  But there are a lot more buildings blocking the river nowadays.  And a lot less river.

For comparison, here's a picture of the same place I two weeks ago.  Not as different as you'd think:

Note royal palace (Palacio de Oriente) in the distance on the left, and people sitting on grass, as in Goya's painting.

San Isidro in San Isidro (Part 1 of 3)

The fiestas of the patron saint of Madrid mark the unofficial beginning of summer here.   And obviously living in the "Barrio San Isidro" I couldn't miss them, right?

About a month ago I started seeing the signs going up around the city...

 

Clearly, San Isidro was going to be something of a big deal.

A Few Deep Breaths

As I enter my final (uninterrupted) month in Madrid, a couple of thoughts...

I know I keep saying that I'll get back to blogging regularly, and I know I've been bad about it.  The good news is that I have completed a chapter draft for my thesis (now it's just two chapters to revise, and the introduction and conclusion to go!), and have emailed it off.  I've worked out that - not counting this blog and multiple emails to friends and family, but just looking at my thesis and the novel I was working on - I've written about 120K words since September.  And managed to keep my apartment reasonably clean.  Which proves that not having a real job makes you more productive.