Spain photos...more later

I lived in Spain about 9 years ago and visited a few times after. I hadn't been back for 5 years when I returned to visit last week. The family I lived with are shown there with me. They are wonderful people. Paco is a flamenco cantaor of the old style flamenco. You don't hear the fine style that the old Flamenco cantaors upheld in the past much anymore but there are a few left. His special talent in flamenco was singing Saetas, which is one style of flamenco sung during Semana Santa. Saetas were sung in the past spontaneously as the statues of Jesus and Mary from various churches passed through the streets. The songs are quite beautiful. Of course he sang other styles but he was particularly good at Saetas. He is a wealth of knowledge of flamenco and I have learned from him a lot about many of the facets of that art.

Encarna is one of the most honest and dignified women I know. Of course, being a woman of her age and her class in Spain has not been easy on her and she has a story that many women around the world share with her. She never was able to go to school because she had to watch her little siblings while her mother and sisters went to work picking olives in Andalucia. She loves to read and learn about history and geography and taught herself how to read by sitting with a book and copying the words onto paper gradually becoming literate. At 14 she went to work in a upper class household for a fascist family during the dictatorship of Franco which lasted 40+ years in Spain. Of course, because of her class she was treated rather poorly and forced to go to mass every day very early upholding the mandate of a Catholic Fascist society and also to not loose time for all her duties as a maid. She lost her mother only a few years later who was abused by her husband and never spoke to her father again because she blamed him for the fatal ulcer and stress that eventually killed her mom. Despite her circumstances and now only living off of only a few hundred euros per month with her husband, she is dignified and honest. She has the biggest heart and generous spirit.

I love them and their open hearts have been a true blessing in life.

As for the rest of the photos they are of special places that I remember and love of Spain. The Alhambra, the Alpujarras, me in the Albaicin...I will post more as I process the images and retouch them a little.