A Spanish Carnival
ALAN, RAY
Euro Vista BY RAY ALAN A Spanish Carnival The seafront was pleasantly lit and lined with hundreds of chairs. Choosing a pair, Jeannette and I found ourselves surrounded by three generations...
...Another indicator that Spain's official unemployment figure may not reflect reality is the fact that migration to Spain from Africa, mainly Morocco, is increasing...
...A splendid cardinal in full regalia— suspecting, perhaps, that I'm a heretic and wishing to save me—holds out his hand for me to kiss his ring...
...The crowd loved them...
...Something that happened years, perhaps centuries, ago still has a meaning on this windswept, suddenly melancholy, shore...
...Some have three, and I once met a heroic man who had six...
...Of course," he says, "We wouldn't ask anyone else...
...Only the Spanish welfare state gives you a cardiac test as thorough as that—and for free...
...One of its themes was America, but—our neighbors said, almost apologizing—the performers weren't real Yanquis...
...In this town, some of the best hotels and restaurants were closed the whole week...
...but all he says, staring at the dying flames, is "Bravo, Majestad...
...See you next year!') I begin, vaguely, to understand...
...and there seems to be less political and business corruption here than in France and Italy...
...Yes, a lot of rituals are silly—but the rituals of love...
...Spanish revelers have much to celebrate this year...
...In France, he is le roi Carnaval...
...Some North African communities in Spain have tripled in size over the past six to 10 years, and already have their own politico-religious problems: Islamic fanatics in their midst try to dominate the men and force women and girls to adopt "Arab" clothes that cover them from head to toe...
...His widow whispers solemnly, then seems to want to throw herself onto the flames as they leap from the pyre...
...He doesn't object—he's sure he'll be back next year—and soon, obligingly, he gives up whatever ghosts Carnival royalty have...
...The Spanish economy has generated 1.1 million new jobs, mostly in industry and services, in the past three years—proportionately, the equivalent of 7.1 million new jobs in the United States...
...Naturally, I comply...
...Tradition, especially in Spain's Mediterranean provinces, requires a genuine Carnival to be presided over by a mysterious monarch: His Majesty King Carnestoltes...
...The same figure's center of gravity was marked by an embarrassing bulge which, we learned, the tailor had enlarged twice "to keep up with the news...
...Choosing a pair, Jeannette and I found ourselves surrounded by three generations of an agreeable Spanish family...
...He adds, looking sane and serious: "So they act their ritual and whisper: 'Adios, Querido...
...Hasta el ano proximo!'" ('Goodbye, beloved...
...of ubiquity, and he has a longer, more colorful tradition behind him than that pretentious House of SaxeCoburg-Battenberg (alias Windsor...
...Thin, almost skeletal, arms and legs are now fashionable here (anorexic American models get the blame), and my guess is that their subnormal flesh content has reduced the sensitivity of their limbs...
...Soon His ex-Majesty is a swirling whorl of ashes...
...The funeral procession moves off...
...As we plugged our ears and blinked, a few cowboys appeared, clowning and waving six-shooters...
...She is pulled away and we all step back...
...The Queen has vanished...
...A Royal Death After a late-night parade, an afternoon procession, an all-night dance, and a crunchy municipal lunch on the beach —crunchy because the wind blows sand over the food—Carnival has the last laugh and sheds the last tear in a ritual of black slapstick...
...I hoped he would offer me his ring to kiss so that I could wow both my Catholic and my anti-Catholic friends with the story, but he didn't...
...A local journalist stands on a rock, as if about to tell sad stories of the death of kings...
...Yet more workers are registered as unemployed in Spain (19 per cent) than in France (12 per cent...
...A plane crash or a bomb...
...Carnival had begun: three-and-a-half days of parades, music, dancing, feasting, mockery, and letting off steam...
...Not that they could marry...
...A plump bon vivant, he possesses the gift (or curse...
...Tradition also requires King Carnestoltes to die at the end of Carnival...
...They knew almost everyone in the paseo and who was going to do what in the parade...
...The body of the late King Camestoltes has shrunk mysteriously since he died, and he is now a black-clad dummy with a sad face...
...Suddenly, the stretch of seafront before us in Sitges flashed, rumbled and roared, as if about to erupt...
...Yet don't most rituals seem silly if you get too near them...
...His Majesty arrives here just before Carnival begins and is greeted by municipal officials...
...Amereskimos came next, pretending to be polar bears, or perhaps vice versa...
...How many rituals or legends could survive an inquest...
...Spain's democratic regime looks solid...
...the country is now a pillar of the European Union, which is supported by most Spaniards...
...When they moved on, floats appeared discharging platoons of vigorous girls and agile young men who danced and sang to the sky as if Sam Goldwyn was sitting on a cloud signing contracts...
...Unlike the big commercial carnivals that attract hordes of tourists (more than half a million flock to Rio de Janeiro), a genuine Mediterranean Carnival is essentially a family/neighborhood/occupational get-together...
...Instead of crossing the Pyrenees into France, many of these immigrants now stay in Spain illegally, find work and, as you might expect, write home telling the family to come...
...People disperse...
...Mass tourism here during Carnival is also discouraged by the cold winds that prevail during winter and early spring, though the girls in flimsy outfits in most parades don't seem to notice it...
...For Carnival, her personality changes and she almost looks like what used to be called a vamp, wearing bright lacy clothes and heavy-duty makeup...
...In Catholic society it's a prelude to the 40 days of Lent, a period of fasting and repentance...
...His funeral is quite a splash...
...He is placed respectfully on a small pile of wood that has been sprayed with something flammable...
...Many Spaniards say they don't want their local Carnival to be hooliganized by the Northern European alcotourist industry...
...Meanwhile, he will continue to earn money from a second job, less well paid but tax-free because the tax man does not know about it...
...I study his face...
...I was close to the Pope a few years ago in a street in Rome...
...This is like an old love affair...
...So do the uniforms...
...An approximate English parallel used to be a series of Saturday night booze-ups followed by repentant Gloomy Sundays...
...He is accompanied by his Queen, a slim, fair-haired, emotional lady in her 40s...
...Then it cheered the presidential figure that rode by next, larger than life and grinning toothily, on top of the tallest float...
...But let's leave it at that...
...This compensates me, almost, for the Pope's neglect...
...The fanatics ignore the fact that this makes illegal immigrants conspicuous—and liable to be expelled...
...If his main job collapses, Pepe will go on relief and receive cash support while looking for another employer...
...I ask him, "Will the same King and Queen come next year...
...They were stalked along the seafront by Amerindians armed (of course) with bows and arrows...
...People cheered...
...Faithful to its worldwide coverage of such matters, The New Leader can now reveal, exclusively, two astounding secrets: (1) The priests are not all ordained clergymen, and (2) much of the holy water is seawater...
...I tell myself this is becoming a silly ritual...
...Dignitaries arrive, some exotically uniformed, and somber music is played...
...Wailing, she suddenly breaks away and runs toward the sea, as if wanting to put an end to her anguish...
...We walk away with a municipal official...
...The widow sways from side to side, moaning...
...But let's look at Pepe, a minor leaguer...
...The reason may be that it is not unusual for Spaniards to have two jobs...
...Jeannette and I walk behind the royal widow, who is now wearing a monumental black hat, a long black dress and high-heeled shoes...
...This pluriempleo is a hangover from the Franco dictatorship, when thousands of families needed two sources of income to survive...
...but her shoes and long skirt hamper her on the soft sand and she almost falls...
...Pepe will be both employed and unemployed, but he will appear only in unemployment statistics...
...A priest rescues her and brings her back to the procession...
...Sangria flows, along with rum punches, and priests spray holy water over as many mourners as they can catch...
...It was an explosion of fireworks, a thumping of drums, a blast of fiesta music, and a blaze of dazzling lights...
...Both sexes wore the other Sam's starred-andstriped hats and shirts...
Vol. 81 • April 1998 • No. 5
