Speak the Culture: Spain: Be Fluent in Spanish Life and Culture

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1. Identity: the
   building blocks of
   2. Literature
   and philosophy
   3. Art and
   architecture
   4. Performing
   arts
   5. Cinema
   and fashion
   6. Media and
   communications
   7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
   the details of

ii. Murcia

The dusty landscape of Almería province in Andalusia

blows over into much of Murcia. Most people live in

the eponymous main city, with its university and

spectacular cathedral, or in Cartagena, the old capital

of Carthaginian Spain best known today as home of

the Spanish navy. Moorish canals and aqueducts have

stretched the arid interior’s meagre moisture since the

Middle Ages, while more recent innovation (plastic

tunnels) has made Murcia a prime supplier to the veg

aisles of Europe’s supermarkets. A small region, Murcia

is still considered rather backward by many in Spain.

Indeed, much of the region falls off the tourist map –

most visitors heading straight for the highly developed

resort of La Manga and expanding Costa Cálida to the

south. Anyone willing to explore inland is rewarded with

the unexpectedly lush limestone mountains of the

Parque Natural de Sierra Espuña and towns with fine

Moorish and Baroque architecture.

Diego Velázquez(Andalusia) Prodigious painter Velázquez studied in the Seville

studio of Francisco Pacheco, who would later help get him a job in the royal court.

Federico García Lorca(Andalusia) The revered poet and playwright, murdered by

Nationalists early in the Civil War, grew up in Granada.

Pablo Picasso(Andalusia) The Spanish colossus of Cubism was born in Malaga,

where you can visit the very house in which he first drew breath.

Joaquín Cortés(Andalusia) Born of Roma gypsy stock in Córdoba, Cortés has

become the most famousflamencodancer on the planet.

Francisco Salzillo(Murcia) A master of the altarpiece sculpture, Salzillo, native

of Murcia, was one of the leading artists of 18thcentury Spain.

Five cultural icons from southern Spain

Murcia takes its name

from the Latin for mulberry,

a fruit that once fed the

region’s silkworms, which

in turn fed a thriving silk

industry.

Thefiestaexperts

The Murcian calendar,

perhaps less swayed by

tourism than elsewhere,

is littered with thoroughly

authenticfiestas, most

merging the usual

constituents of religious

solemnity and unashamed

indulgence. The nationwide

Semana Santa festivities

running up to Easter are as

spectacular in the attractive

town of Lorca as anywhere,

with stallions strutting

the streets and two local

brotherhoods fighting it

out for the most colourful

paean to the Virgin Mary.

In Cartegena, the pointy-

hooded fraternities make

for an absorbing if slightly

eerie spectacle at Easter.

But why bother with men

in funny hats when you can

watch the Entierro de la

Sardina in Murcia city at

the start of Lent. While the

title suggests burial, these

days the festival involves

burning a giant papier

mâché sardine to close a

month of fish-related

ceremonies.