Reclaiming Paris by Fabiola Santiago

Author:Fabiola Santiago
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2008-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

The revelry on the square was a celebration of heritage as madrileñas young and old donned the traditional ruffled, polka-dot dresses of Spain and promenaded arm in arm. I was captivated by the proud poses of the little girls and their accompanying little brothers, who wore the typical beret, pants, and vest of Old World Spaniards. It was a feast of color and attitude. Delighted, I clicked away until I ran out of film. When I reached into my bag for a new roll of film only to discover that I had mistakenly brought a container with a used roll, I walked to a photo shop I had spotted beyond the plaza’s arcade and asked the attendant if he had thirty-five-millimeter film. He did, and when I began putting my new film into the camera, the man began to give me advice on how best to shoot, given Madrid’s monotone landscape of grays and the contrast of light with the shadows cast by the surrounding edifices on the squares. I thanked him profusely and told him he was the kindest person I had met on my trip.

“Are they mistreating you here?”

“Unfortunately,” I said. “How did you know?”

“Ay, it’s those madrileños,” he said. “People in Madrid are always angry at something.”

“You speak as if you were not from here.”

“Oh, no, I am not from here! I am from Seville. Nothing to do with these madrileños. And you, where are you from?”

“I was born in Cuba, but I grew up in the United States.”

“And your parents and grandparents in Cuba, where were they from? They were Spaniards, weren’t they?”

“Yes, from Islas Canarias,” I said.

“No wonder you are having a hard time in Madrid! You are a twice an islander! They hate islanders here. Poor girl.”

It was not a comforting explanation, but he offered a solution.

“Move to Barcelona,” he advised. “There are many young people like you in Barcelona, wanderers all, and the Catalans are friendlier. All they care about is that people recognize their independence and their language, but they are more accepting of people from all over, and better still, you will be by the sea. Barcelona is a port city, and I have always heard that islanders cannot live away from the sea.”

I returned to the square to take more photos, and reappeared at the shop to leave my film for processing. When José María’s tips yielded the best photos I had taken, I also welcomed his advice about leaving Madrid. Two days later, I packed my bags and gratefully boarded a train to Barcelona.

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