Worldcrunch
When I recently pulled out this shot of the Spanish countryside in the 1960s, it reminded me of my childhood when I would watch farmers work in the fields of Burgundy in eastern France. In case you’re counting, that was the 1930s.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador missed the mark when he called on Spain to apologize for its centuries-old conquest of Mexico.
From Afghanistan to Argentina, women soccer players are pushing against the grain to earn equal treatment and respect in a growing, global sport.
…and the beginning of Francisco Franco’s decades of military dictatorship.
Since this summer, Morocco is the theater of an unprecedented wave of arrests and forced displacements of Sub-Saharan Africans forced to hide.
BARCELONA — It’s a large, bright open space, in which 80 people work, sitting behind brand new desks. The grey of the carpet is still pristine, the walls too white, impersonal. Except for a large sticker, whose shape, known throughout the world, provides an indication of what’s going on precisely in this room: it’s a […]
-OpEd- MADRID — Since September 2015, when the UN General Assembly launched its 2030 Agenda — a plan to reach 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within 15 years — the concepts have been gaining momentum worldwide. The ultimate purpose of the SDGs is to eradicate poverty, and slowly but surely, people are realizing their importance […]
The do-nothing approach to migration being taken by the new Spanish government and others in Europe is untenable, and plays right into the hands of racist far right.
When my wife and I toured northwestern Spain in the early 1970s, we made sure to visit the Roman aqueduct of Segovia. Two years later would mark its 2,000th birthday.
Two peaceful windmills in the Spanish countryside? For Miguel de Cervantes” colorful character Don Quixote (a favorite of mine), these would be ferocious giants — and he would promptly proceed to attack them!
Wandering the narrow streets of Peniscola, a village in eastern Spain, I stumbled upon this quaint — if kitsch — house. Not only did it get me wondering how long it took to plaster all the shells on the facade, but I could almost smell the plates of seafood paella that came first!
The 25-year-old Spaniard is a millennial literary star, thanks to her deep culture, her talents and — naturally — her social media skills.
-Analysis- PARIS — The Catalan flag fluttered alongside the European flag and its 12 stars on Oct. 27, when Catalonia declared its independence from Spain. But Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, didn’t appreciate this tribute to Europe. “We shouldn’t insert ourselves into what is an internal debate for Spain,” he warned. “I […]
PARIS — What is France to do, as neighbors, and we Europeans, as fellow citizens, faced with the declaration of independence of Catalonia? It undermines a large European democracy on our border, Spain, and places us in the face of an unprecedented challenge. Within what right do we say “yes’ or “no” when the nationalism […]
My wife and I were able to enjoy the view on the snowy Sierra Nevada mountain chain from our room at the picturesque Hotel Los Angeles, in southern Spain. You can check out any time you like.
-Analysis- MADRID — Virtually everyone now uses the Internet before, during and after they travel, whether its downloading an app to become familiar with a particular destination or sharing your holiday photos on Facebook or Instagram. The information revolution has indeed revolutionized both the way we prepare trips, and how we experience them. As such, […]
You shouldn’t play with fire, with the deepest feelings of a people. That counts for Catalonia, but also for smaller battles of belonging, like those in Swiss cantons.
Backers of Catalonia’s quest to break away from Spain had just eight seconds Tuesday night to savor the moment they’d long been waiting for. “I accept the mandate of the people that Catalonia become an independent state in the shape of a republic,” Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont said in a highly anticipated address before […]
-Analysis- The fraught drama of politics landing in the arena of sports has popped up recently in several different places around the world. It also happens to date back (at least) as far as Ancient Rome, as historian Sarah Bond recently explained in Forbes. In the U.S., the NFL is currently roiling in controversy over […]
MADRID — For Mariano Rajoy, it’s as if October 1 never happened. The Spanish Prime Minister insisted that his government was simply implementing Spain’s democratic constitution in sending gendarmes to stop an illegal, separatist referendum organized by the Catalan regional authority on Sunday. But October 1 may go down as a turning point in Spanish, […]
Historically for Madrid, there is no such thing as delicate diplomacy. But that approach has boomeranged in the face of the Catalan push for independence.
What connects the violence in Barcelona and Charlottesville? Where have Western democracies gone wrong since the turn of the century?
-Opinion- Two European cities, two terror attacks. In Finland, 18-year-old Moroccan Abderrahman Mechkah is suspected of stabbing two women to death and injuring eight others in the southwestern city of Turku on Aug. 18. Mechkah is believed to have been specifically targeting women but also ended up wounding the men who tried to defend them. […]
A van rammed into pedestrians at Las Ramblas, a tourist hotspot in Barcelona, killing at least 13 and injuring scores of others on Thursday evening. The attack, which was claimed by terror group ISIS, underscores a growing technique of deadly assault — namely vehicles striking crowds of people. Police say they foiled a second attack […]
The regional government of Catalonia will hold a controversial independence referendum in October. Opinion is deeply divided in the cities of Lleida And Berga.
In between nuclear tests, Pyongyang is investing massively in its tourism infrastructure. A delegation visited Spain last month to study their resorts.
PALMA — You live in one of those special places where people travel from all around the world to visit. A dream? More like a neverending tourist hell, says Venice resident Elisa Crepaldi. “Some of the most beautiful areas in the city are no longer accessible to locals. We have to renounce living in some […]
La Razon, July 11, 2017 Like other top Spanish newspapers, Madrid-based La Razon used its front page Tuesday to pay homage to Miguel Angel Blanco, a day ahead of the 20th anniversary of his murder by the Basque terrorist group ETA on July 13, 1997: “We are all Miguel Angel Blanco,” the daily’s front page […]
A tiny revolution can be heard rumbling through Spain: starting June 30, parents will have the ability to chose the order of their child’s last names.
MADRID — As a freelancer without a fixed salary, I’m rather desperate to buy a studio apartment, something to help ground me in these turbulent times and provide at least some measure of financial security. So far my search has focused on two places: Mexico City and Madrid. The former has a well-established reputation for […]
Sadly, the wall-sized master work says as much about the world’s current horrors as it did about the first-ever air raid on civilians 80 years ago.
El Correo, April 26, 2017 The front page speaks for itself. “Guernika,” Wednesday’s edition of Spain’s El Correo reads, with the Basque spelling of Guernica displayed in bold red letters against a black background.
-Essay- VALENCIA — As a British national living in Spain, it is strange to (still) be an EU citizen and yet start to feel unwelcome in this “European home.” All this thanks to Brexit, that nasty little gnome doggedly making its way through the disbelief of millions. Born in Iran and with nearly 40 years […]
L’Esportiu, March 9, 2017 FC Barcelona’s stunning victory over France’s PSG last night at Camp Nou earned a succinctly shocked (and triumphant) front-page headline in the Catalan-language sports daily L’Esportiu. For those linguists keeping score at home, L’Impossible (“The Impossible”) reads exactly the same in the Catalan and French languages. Headlines in France, though equally […]
This eternal battle in Spain in not just between man and nature, but among humans. The freshly slain body of a still bleeding wolf was found hanging from a signpost along a highway in northern Spain last weekend, reigniting the debate over the killings of the protected species, reports El País. Here is a photograph […]
We traveled to the historical Spanish region known as Old Castile to soak in some of its timeless quiet for a night in the only hotel of a small village. A pack of howling stray dogs decided otherwise … See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Little penitent during a Palm Sunday procession in Andalusia, southern Spain.
Starting in spring, to protect passersby from the heat, Seville deploys its sails-like awnings along the calle Sierpes, the city’s main commercial street. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
The Spanish island of Ibiza is not reserved for beach-goers and party animals only. It’s also rich with nice villages and seaside resorts with old olive trees like this one. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
The architectural icon begun by Antoni Gaudi in the late 19th century is still incomplete. Now city hall wants to end a century-old legal exception, as debate continues about protecting the original architectural vision.