Figure 51: El Cocido

Figure 52: Damasquinado

Figure 53: Swords of Spain

Figure 54: La Alhambra de Granada, Spain

Figure 55: Benito Pérez Galdós (1843-1920)

Figure 56: La Tuna de Madrid

Figure 57: Royal Monarchs of Spain

Figure 58: Sevilla

Figure 59: La Plaza de España, Madrid

Figure 60: El Valle de Los Caídos

El cocido is truly the national food dish of Spain, even more so than paella. It is a slowly-cooked pot full of beef, ham, sausage, blood sausage, onions, garlic, vegetables in season, chicken, garbanzos, potatoes, noodles (sometimes), cabbage, carrots, and various seasonings. It goes well during the cooler/colder winter months. El cocido madrileño is my favorite.

Figure 52 is called Damasquinado, a jewelry process brought to Spain from Damascus. Hardened, blackened steel is grooved using a sharp tool. The grooves form an artistic design into which are hammered fine threads of gold or copper. This art form is traditional to Toledo, Spain. Damasquinado products can be purchased throughout Spain.

Swords of Spain are a great traditional fabrication of Spain. Spain-bladed steel is renown from Toledo. The Royal Spanish Sword Factory has been located in Spain for over a century. It is said that the mark of a Spanish royal sword is its ability to bend, but never break.

Granada is located in Andalucía, the southern-most region of Spain. The Alhambra is a Moorish palace whose construction was begun in the 11th century AD on the same site as a Roman settlement. La Alhambra is the single most visited tourist site in all of Spain, and Spain is one of the most important tourist destinations on the globe. La Alhambra is translated roughly as the Colina Roja, or the red hill, because at night, bathed in the light of the moon, it gives off a glowing vapor pink color. The Alhambra palace was designed with plain exterior walls to give the impression of ruin and poverty, but in reality inside the walls, the sultans were living in absolute splendor. The Alhambra owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the American writer, Washington Irving, who as a diplomat to Spain, rediscovered the Alhambra and worked to restore it. He actually lived in the Alhambra in 1829. He wrote a novel, Tales of the Alhambra, which established the Alhambra as an important world destination.

Figure 55 is the famous Spanish novelist and dramatist, Benito Pérez Galdós. His most influential work is Doña Perfecta.

Figure 56 is La Tuna de Madrid. La Tuna is a group of minstrels who have formed to represent their particular college within the vast Madrid university system. They play and sing mostly traditional tunes of Spain. Tuna does not refer to fish, rather a medieval verb form referring to strolling and singing. The first modern Tuna is said to have appeared in 1932 to perform at an homenaje to the great Spanish writer Miguel de Unamuno.

This is a photo of the Spanish Monarchs, Juan Carlos de Borbón y Borbón, and his queen, Sofía de Grecia de Borbón. King Juan Carlos was born in Rome in 1938 because his family was in exile even before the Spanish civil war of 1936-1939. He was designated to be the heir to the throne of Spain in 1969 when the aging dictator Francisco Franco began making decisions for the transfer of power after his death, which occurred in 1975.

Figure 58 is the map of Sevilla, Spain. Sevilla is located on the banks of the Guadalquivir River. On the right bank is located old Sevilla and on the left bank is located the Barrio de Triana, the traditional gypsy quarter of town.

Figure 59 is the Plaza de España in Madrid. This plaza is so named because of the building directly behind this statue. It is the Spain Building. This plaza is actually a monument to Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra, the author of Don Quixote de La Mancha. In front of the statue to Cervantes are the two principal characters of the 16th century novel, Don Quixote and his squire, Sancho Panza.

Figure 60 is the Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen). This site is northwest of Madrid and 12 km from El Escorial. It was built by Franco as a memorial to those who died during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. Republican soldiers who were prisoners of Franco after the war were the source of the hard labor that built this place. Here, a mountain of granite was hollowed out and in the middle was constructed a basilica. Now inside the Iglesia de los Caídos lay the remains of Franco and José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the mentor of Franco and the founder of the Falangist party of Spain. The cross above the monument is about 500 feet high. The site took 20 years to construct.