FAST-FOOD, BLUE JEANS, AND ROCK 'N ROLL

FLY ON THE WALL
Facing Down the Ugly American

By Don Merlot

[WC News Service]

New Orleans

Back in 1968 I started my international career in February and took off for my first international trip in June. When I stepped off the plane to experience my first foreign culture exchange and to pursue an international global career, my expectation was, as a recent college graduate, that I could handle anything and everything. 

One of the things that I was told about seeing a new culture was, do not judge a culture or compare it to your own. You do not have to like it, nor comment about it publicly. You are a business ambassador doing business and be polite and diplomatic.

Maybe as I look back, that was true; in the American Culture of the 1960s we were the Baby Boomers out represent the USA and its interests but it was not practiced by all American travelers that I had met or known. And there I was, starting my first business trip in June 1968 surrounded by an anti War movement, racial discord, political division.  My new business group consisted of Americans who wanted to sell excess manufactured goods. There was a common feeling then that Americans were exporting “fast food, blue jeans, and rock 'n roll." 

Trouble in Paradise

With friend

Justin in Ceuta

 

 

 

 

 

NIMBY

 

By Richard Carreño

[WC News Service]

I.

In geography, as in many things, according to the well-worn cliché, what goes around, comes around. No, not global rotation. But as in diplomatic tit for tat, bred by a mutual territorial disaffection. In other words, a variant of Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY), the kind of school-yard squabbling between two nations when one country believes it owns a certain patch. But the other, doesn't.

 

It can get nasty. More than twenty years ago, Argentina undertook a full-scale military assault against British forces to 'reclaim' the Falkland Islands. And also petty: One of the major Argentine aims was to rename the British protectorate, basically assembly of forlorn rocks, to its former native name, Las Malvinas.  Despite many deaths, the islands are still known as the Falklands.  No surprise, then, who prevailed in that ill-fated skirmish.

 

For the most part, international haggling about property rights is less fraught. Even Vladimir Putin's land grab of historically-Russian Crimea was done without firing a shot -- in Crimea, at least.

Guernica

Guernica

ART AS POLITICS

By RICHARD CARREÑO

[WC News Service]

MADRID -- Guernica, Pablo Picasso's masterpiece at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía here, often ranks as the artist's most famous,  if not greatest, work. The picture, depicting the anilation by aerial bombing of the small Basque peasant village of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, is also frequently cited as the most famous anti-war painting in the pantheon of Western Art. With such superlatives, Guernica has become one of those iconic paintings that everyone seems to know. And everyone wants to see. It has its own immense showcase gallery. Guards are stationed at attention on either side of the canvas. No photography permitted. Something like the Mona Lisa, without, at least when I visited recently, the Louvre-like crowds.

But is Guernica really just an anti-war statement, as it is most often portrayed? Or even, for that matter, the most powerful iteration of that admirable sentiment ever rendered in 20th-century modern art? Maybe, not so much

 

Simply put, Guernica doesn't escape being, as is the case with much war-related art, politically motivated. As such, it ranks too as arguably the most famous poster child for advocacy art. In a word, propaganda. Righteous propaganda. But propaganda nonetheless.

Gassed

The Third of May, 1808, in Madrid

Carreño de Miranda

 

COURTING CONTROVERSY

By Richard Carreño

[WC News Service]

MADRID -- I have two great painters in the family.

One was my grandfather, Toribio Carreño, an early 20th-century immigrant from Cuba, who was house painter in New York.

 

The other is Juan Carreño de Miranda, a 17th-century Spanish court painter.

 

They both worked in oils.

 

That's pretty much where their artistic similarities begin and end. Toribio went on to have his ephemeral masterpieces take pride of place on several residential blocks in Brooklyn. Juan's works have proven to be more timeless, taking pride of place in the Museo Nacional del Prado here. 

 

Family legends are often dodgy, more fun to playfully indulge in than rigorously inspect, and thus it's often best not to scratch too deeply into genealogical details.

 

Still, it's more than just amusing to associate one's own DNA with a historical figure, especially a personage who can link a family's roots to a glamorous, regal past. True, Carreño de Miranda (1614-1685) wasn't as skilled, prominent, nor as well-connected as his contemporary Diego Valázquez (1599-1660). Valázquez painted kings. Carreño, for the most part, painted dukes and lesser royalty. (Though, as a royal painter, he still did get a few cracks at depicting Mad King Charles II in a few unflattering portraits). 

 

 

Franco's Monument

El Caudillo

NO PASARÁN

By RICHARD CARREÑO

[WC News Service]

MADRID

Part I

There are few memorials to tyrants. Consider the dictators of the World War II era.

 

Imagine the unthinkable -- a monument to Hitler; another, to Mussolini.

On the other hand, Stalin, the Soviet Union's villainous Communist dictator, still gets venerated in a Red Square, Moscow, crypt.

And, remarkably, memorialized in this country is the lesser-known, fourth butcher of that war period -- Francisco Franco, who in the wake of Spain's Civil War claimed the nation as his own as the victorious Caudillo, or Leader.

Unlike Stalin's resting place, Franco's grave site is off the tourist grid, in the Guadarrama mountain range, high above, and to the northwest, of Madrid. It's big, creepy, and chilling.

 

Franco's tomb is inside

Travel

 




Palma de Mallorca

On a Trip to Mallorca,
Our Correspondent Stays at a German Hotel.
Along the Way, He Encounters
Michael Douglas' Restaurant.
Who Knew?

'Hvekischederminglefunkderlingenhansderfunf'

By Eric Staples

[Writers Clearinghouse News Service]

Author’s note: It is probably useful to know that I am an airline employee. This means that I fly for free (along with my wife, Grace), but only if seats are available on a particular flight. Anyway, this information helps to explain the reason that I do not make solid travel plans; rather, my vacations are almost entirely contingent upon which destinations have flights with open seats during the general period I am looking to travel. Grace and I live in South Philadelphia and travel as often as we are able , which is not often enough for either of us.

Making Plans & … Well, Making Different Plans

We were going to Curaçao (my brain makes airport codes: CUR). It was decided. I was on vacation and my wife was on Spring Break and it was going to be her birthday and we were going to relax on the alabaster beaches like adults do and it was decided. We never decide ahead of time. Here we were, five days out from the start of our break, and I had already asked people about Curaçao, looked at hotels and read about what to do on this little island off the coast of Venezuela. These concepts (planning and such) are entirely alien to me and, to a certain extent, represent a hostile affront to all that I believe traveling to be about. Every trip I schedule involves a day-of-departure change in cardinal direction, at a minimum, and typically a resulting change in continents. However, I am an airline employee and she is not and I have been advised by more than one friend that I —and not the rest of the population, as I naturally assumed — am the alien. This is disappointing news, to say the least.

No Bull

Dry Wine, Sweet Time

Madrid in 24 Hours

By Don Merlot

[Writers Clearinghouse News Service]

One of my most exciting days ever was in Madrid when, within 24 hours and accompanied by a friend, I saw a bullfight, ate paella marinara with a magnificent Rioja tinto, and saw a Flamenco show at the famous coral de las Morrerias –- a famous tablado flamenco, club that was owned by a childhood friend.

I left Chicago for Madrid on a Friday night and was met in Madrid by an old friend on Saturday morning. I went to the hotel and napped for a few hours. I wanted to make sure I did not get caught in a jet-lag cycle. And by bull fight time I was ready to go. We went to a tapas place that offered my favourite -- Angulas al Ajillo and had a dry sherry, Tio Pepe. What a way to start a day. We discussed the next 24 hours.

I grew up in Mexico City, and my parents took me often to the bullfights. I appreciate them now, and didn't when I was young. But I did to see 'El Cordobes' do a Mano-a-Mano with Carlos Arruza in the Plaza de Toros de Mexico. As a young, impressionable person, I loved Spain and everything about it, as I loved Mexico and the United States of America. Spain in Mexico was the Madre Patria -– the motherland of Mexico and Latin America. To see the tussle between Spain and Mexico, or Mexico and the USA, and or the USA and Britain was not that transparent when I was growing up. All the countries were equal, and we were proud to be part of their history.

Royalty

The Duke of Windsor,
the former Edward VIII

No Nazi!
Long-Time Friend Says
Duke of Windsor was
Simply Misunderstood

By The Countess of Romanones

[Special to Writers Clearinghouse News Service]
These days following the glamorous international acclaim for William and Kate's wedding in England, now Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, there has emerged again in the press smears and lies about the Duke of Winsdor who for eight months was King of England in 1936.

These writers and journalists tend to be people who never knew neither the Duke of Windsor nor his time. For this reason I encourage you to tell what they know first hand because the Duke and his wife, the former Wallis Simpson, have been people who formed an important part of my life for many years.

Shortly after he was proclaimed King Edward VIII in 1936, he made public that wished to marry, was deeply in love, and convinced that he could not properly take his important position without the woman who loved him. But in those years it was inconceivable that a King of England could marry a woman of a middle class American background and also divorcee. Anyway, the King thought he could convince his subjects that such a marriage was good for the country.

He knew then that I had a lot of popularity among young people and believed that many English people would accept this wedding. In addition, the public knew that his girlfriend, Wallis Simpson, did not require actual treatment and could accept any situation that would make it possible that the King could continue in his post.

But Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, was violently against the wedding, and wanted to get rid of this new King so popular with new ideas. So the King took the desire to marry, against the formalization of the wedding, to Parliament. Baldwin was not happy with the political ideas of the new King and realized that probably would not get the votes needed for re-election at the next election if the young King stood at his post. He forced the King to abdicate to marry. I knew that the King was desperately in love and struggling to meet his and Wallis' desire to marry.

Although the King had a true and deep love for his country, his attempts to resist the attacks of Baldwin finally forced him to leave.


I met the Duke of Windsor ten years later in 1947 in New York during my own honeymoon. Since then, we met several more times in New York, and soon the Duke invited us to spend time at home in Paris. The arrival was the same.

Martin was waiting at the airport and took us in the old Packard of the Duchess' by the usual route across Paris to the rue de Champs de'Entrainment in the Bois de Boulogne. When Martin arrived at the house, the car stopped and he rang the bell, and moments later a huge iron gate opened and the car ran  passed a row of plane trees and some clumps of dahlias that the Duke had planted up to a classic small palace from the late 19th century that the Duke had rented the Paris government.


So, for over thirty years I had come to know them well. Always struck us how much they worried about spending money. During one of our visits Luis, my husband, told the Duke we were building a house on the beach in Marbella -- a site that had a lovely view of the coast of Morocco and Gibraltar. Then the Duke inquired,

"Luis, do you mind telling me how much ground there is and about your spending in the construction of the house. In this so sad climate in Paris, the Duchess would find it suitable a home for certain periods where there is sun. Bu I do not know if we could afford it."


The Duke bought the land next to ours Ignacio Coca, but took so long to raise money for the construction of the house that he died without having done so three years later. The Windsors did not have unlimited amounts of money, but are now accused of spending British taxpayer money on frivolities.


Even the Duchess is said to have spent much on her wardrobe. I knew that the major fashion houses of Paris competed to offer her free couture; she spent little money on their clothes, mainly because since her marriage to the Duke, she had been elected each year as the world's smartest woman in the international charts, which served as advertising for the any clothing she wore.


As the couple for years was most popular and photographed the world, some journalists were also using his travels to criticize as another frivolous spending. The truth was that they were always guests of friends in Palm Beach and New York and, everywhere you traveled, they were invited.


But the most serious allegation and utterly false, was and still is to declare that the Duke as being pro-Nazi. This was mainly based on a photo of Hitler saluting the Chancellor's residence in Alpine their honeymoon in 1937. After the wedding, when they began their honeymoon, between different countries toured, they visited Germany.

The Duke had told me several times that German was the only foreign language that he and his brothers knew. From kids they were watched over by a German governess, and also his grandfather was German. The Duke could not avoid visiting the Chancellor of Germany. The photo with Hitler was nothing more than a courtesy, and three years later when World War II broke out it served some journalists to accuse him of being pro-Nazi.


Inside the file from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs there is evidence of his anti-Hitlerism -- Schellenberg's official letters of the Nazi government to the Spanish government for help to catch the Duke to take him to Germany. Even Eduardo Rojas, the Montarco Count, in 1940, Serrano's assistant minister and the Minister personally have told me many years later and a British writer of the Duke's persecution in Spain. Monitoring of the Duke by the Germans was planned for months in Spain and Portugal. Among the plans of the Germans was an attempt to convince the Count of Montarco to invite the Duke to go hunting on his farm near the border with Portugal and capture him. After being appointed the Governor-General of The Bahamas, by Winston Churchill, the Duke saved his life at the last minute of the German agents who were pursuing him in Portugal.


After their marriage, the Duke wanted to work and tried to get permission from his brother. King George V had forbidden him to fight in the war as a soldier against the Germans, as the Duke had asked. I think his brother would not allow him to accept the many jobs that provided good pay. His brother considered it unseemly for a former King of England to work for any company or individual.


But all nice and important and compensation that I have known of the life of former King Edward VIII was that he enjoyed a happy marriage and true and intense love until the day he died. Few couples have known a life together with such a love that seemed to increase with time. They shared a great sense of humour and always had fun together.

I remember so many tests over the years when I visited at his home in Paris. As an example, I mention one night when Luis and I returned late from a party, heard talk and laughter through the wall of our bedroom which was just above that of the Duchess. The next morning when the Duchess and I had lunch together -- the Duke and Luis were out playing golf, I said I knew she had gone to sleep very late the night before because I had heard the noise of the radio in their room at two in the morning.


She laughed, "No, Aline, it was not the radio. David comes to my room every night and we had fun talking until the wee hours. He is the most wonderful man I have ever met in my life; we have fun together and alone. You know how smart he is and how he makes me laugh."


It was true -- also the Duke often told me, "My wife is the most wonderful woman in the world."


The Duchess was no beauty, but she captivated the ex-King Edward VIII of England, and the two enjoyed a wonderful love.


The Dukes of Windsor were a couple in love until the end of his days, and they never stopped feeling, too, a love for their nation which for many years he served as the Prince of Wales. He was the most popular and beloved Prince in the history of the United Kingdom, and later King for eight months.

(Aline, The Countess of Romanones, was born in 1923 in New York. She was born was a fashion model, a World War II spy, and the wife of the Count of Romanones of Spain).

But-ressed

This

This the actual photo from April 2009 in Madrid. See photo-shopped version, including Michele Obama, at www.Facebook.com/Writers.Clearinghouse.

The Philadelphia Junto depends exclusively on reader support. Please help us continue by contributing directly via PayPal, or by contributing editorial content via Writers.Clearinghouse@comcast.net. Empowered by Writers.Clearinghouse | S.P.Q.R.

Fly on the wall

Sipping the Summertime Sun   By Don Merlot Junto Staff Writer Summer went by so quickly that we did not pause to analyze the traditions of summer food and wine or review the applications of the varietal grapes or beverages at meal time with all the summer menus in mind. When we think of summer we think of cold icy beverages and warm weather outdoor cooking and light spicy foods.   To many wine aficionados the refreshing drink on a hot summer day in the summer is Sangria – a contribution from Spain (Iberia). Red wine or white wine [white and sangre (red blood) sounds like an oxymoron in the same word] but that is the choice. The favourite mélange of this recipe is mixing your choice of wine (red, white or rosé) with brandy (this could be flavoured with orange or citrus) in a giant pitcher of ice with fresh fruits (mostly what is in season and or goes with the wine) that have been de-seeded and carefully cut in small cubes. (red wine with  orange and lemon slices and add that 'Je ne sais quoi'! And with white sangria make sure to include apples and peaches and even some pieces of ripe pineapple.   The fruit should be ripe and mature and not take away the flavours of the wine. Red wines absorb cherries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. White wines are great with apples, peaches, and pineapples. If you cannot find them fresh go to the frozen section in your supermarket and find a frozen can of the berries.   Serve with ice cubes. Treat this drink as a fortified drink as it does have brandy.   What to serve?  Cheeses, cold cuts, shrimp soaked in garlic and olive oil and/or skewered and grilled over hot coals... Also skewer some scallops wrapped in bacon or pancetta. Small cubes of sirloin can be sprayed with olive oil and rubbed with spicy paprika and slip on to a metal skewer – pinchos Morruños Olé!     Spain is famous for this cold soup: Gazpacho Andaluz. There is a potato salad made with All-i-oli that is served cold and is a classic on a summer day.   Another note: The origin of mayonnaise has some nationalistic arguments, but most likely picked up by the French from the Spanish Island of Minorca in the Port of Mahon. (p.586, The Penguin Companion to Food by Alan Davidson) in 1756, and taken to French King's chefs, and it became 'mayonnaise' instead of 'Mahonnaise.'   All-i-oli (P.9) is garlic added to mayonnaise; it is used in Galician potato salad, over grilled or poached fish and is popular dish in Cataluña and the Pyrenees and Southern France.   Other old world beverages popular in the summer is the French Kir: This Aperitif is served cold and contains white wine (Aligoté in Burgundy, France) that is mixed with Crème de Cassis (Boysenberry liqueur). Mix one part cassis and 5 parts white wine. (Serve chilled). Santé   This white wine can be substituted with a sparkling white wine. It is then called a Kir Royal. In France many observe that aperitifs are not Alcohol as Scotch, Gin or Whiskies, but fruity wine beverages...   A popular American aperitif is the Mimosa – Sparkling White wine and orange juice. In eternal summer New Orleans many breakfast are served with Mimosas, Eggs Benedictine, pain Perdue et grillades – Viola!   If Aperitifs have their place in the old world they are not that popular in the new world. The preferred summer beverage is going to be ice cold beer. In the last decade margaritas – Lime juice, tequila and curaçao – and use salt on the rim of the glass at your discretion; served on ice or cubes or from the soft serve machine. (Don Merlot is the nom de plume of Ron Alonzo, Junto's principal food and drink writer. He lives in Florida, from where, as an international businessman, he travels the world).

In North Philly 'Badlands'...

Junto Photos: Richard Carreno

...Dude of the Mancha

Don Quixote Statute at Girard Avenue and 2nd Street, Philadelphia. Donation by the Government of Spain. Siting, where it be, is anybody's guess.