Siglo de Oro

Puy du Fou (Warning Spoilers)

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The gang in front of the night show stage

Puy du Fou is a theme park on the hills near Toledo. The original is in France, but the Spanish one seems to be the better one. It is a huge place where they perform historical recreations, but accented with dance numbers (fortunately, no singing). A group of friends and I went recently. The high point is the “Sueño de Toledo” night show. They have recreated the city of Toledo with the Tajo river (a copy of it, anyway) serving as a proscenium.

The show begins with an old man walking along the vast, open-air stage with his donkey. He meets a shepherd girl on the other side and starts telling the story of Toledo, only he skips the early history of the Carpetanians, and more importantly, the Romans! So they start the history of Toledo with the Christians and the Goths, that is when you realize that you are seeing a show and not a factually historic recreation. From there, they move to the Moorish invasion, which is when a group of Moorish girls walk into the ankle-deep “river” and perform a suggestive belly dance. I must admit, I was impressed when they walked into the water to do their dance number! And so they move through the history of Toledo. At another time, representing the building of the cathedral, two massive (make-believe) organs rise from the “river,” and then, paradoxically, flames start spewing from the organ pipes! I’m sure Bach would have been jealous. At another time, Christopher Columbus’s Santa María rises from the “river,” which is impressive, I must admit. There were plenty of horses, geese, goats and sheep, even pigs! Anyway, enough spoilers.

The next day, we enjoyed a series of performances. The first one was Cetrería de Reyes, which is an awesome falconry show. Unfortunately, midday in the Toledo sun in July made it, how can I say, blistering hot. But the show was cool, they brought out owls, hawks, falcons, vultures, even a Secretarybird stomping on a (fake) snake! At the end of the show, they released all the birds, and it was a grand finale!

A pluma y espada is a swashbuckling dramatized show of Lope de Vega, our most famous playwright of the Siglo de Oro (1600s Spain). Again they did the water thing where they danced and splashed about, and again they brought in the horses, which, given the indoor space, was surprising.

Allende la mar oceana recreates one of Columbus’s ships. You walk in and it looks and feels like you are in one of the galleons! You come out to a recreation of Hispaniola island!

Then we stopped for lunch, which is the weak spot of the park, but it was to be expected. After all, one is not there for a culinary experience. You can bring in your picnic, but the idea of carrying around lunch all day is not the most appetizing.

We finished the day with El último cantar, a show about El Cid. In this one, you get the horses and the dancing in a huge indoor space where the seats rotate to different parts of the fixed circular stage, impressive indeed.

There are many other shows, and they add about a show a year, but we were knackered, so we called it a day.

My recommendation? If it is not too hot, go enjoy the day. If it is hot, go to the night show. If you have the time, do the night show and then the next day go for the day. You are welcome.

Simmons College

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One of my students going to Simmons, Go Sharks!!
Hanging out with great classmates Laura and Paul

Over the years and the blog posts I have often mentioned Simmons College in passing, but I have never devoted a whole post to a place that changed my life. About time…:

What finally prompted me to write this post is that one of my students from Seacrest, has been accepted to Simmons to play volleyball. This made me remember my great experience there, which, of course, I have shared with my student. I must confess, I am a little jealous.

After my first couple of years of teaching I got the bug (and the recommendation from administrators) to go back to school. I enjoyed teaching Spanish and I had always loved literature, so I looked for part-time, evening Master’s programs in Spanish Literature in the Boston area. The pickings where slim: Boston College, Boston University, and a small all women’s college with a co-ed graduate program: Simmons College. An Excel spreadsheet that compared the practical, academic and economic aspects of embarking on such a project soon followed, and Simmons won. I visited, I applied and was accepted!

My first class on Siglo de Oro literature blew me away. Despite the fact that I had no clue what I was doing, I was warmly welcomed into the fold by Professor Louise Cohen, who would become a phenomenal mentor and would eventually inspire me to continue my studies in the field. Being a student again, taught me a lot about being a teacher. Although juggling teaching and learning was a lot of work, I really enjoyed the experience and loved every course I took. Plus, I made a handful of awesome friends.

On the rare days that I arrived early, Simmons has an agreement with the museum next door: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where students got in for free, so I would spend a while walking around or reading in the beautiful patio. Or I would grab a nice coffee from Simmon’s little coffee shop. Or I would hang out in their state of the art library (their Library Science program is one of the best around). A few times I went to their swimming pool, although once they unknowingly guided me to the women’s locker room where, after my swim, I walked into a woman changing, ooops.

My last course was on Don Quixote, again with the fantastic Prof. Cohen, sort of a full circle kind of thing. I loved it, wrote one of my favorite papers ever (see previous blog post) and by May of 2009 graduated.

A couple of years later, when I went to talk to my professors about life and PhD programs, Louise Cohen and program Director Raquel Halty were alarmed at my extreme weight loss. Prof. Halty even took me to her beautiful Wellesley home to feed me and counsel me. I will never forget their caring.