Another Round!
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs.
After the last
class before the summer break the other day, a group of students and I went
across the street to the bar to celebrate what was coming to an end and of course what lie ahead. It was just before noon and as we
lined up to the bar, a few people were having their first or maybe second
breakfasts while some kids were enjoying snatches of freedom as
their mothers took a well-deserved break over coffee. Cortados, solos, con
leches and teas were ordered and everything was completely normal until one
student said, ‘I don’t know what to have, I don’t usually go to bars.’ The world suddenly stopped on a dime and I turned and joked with him that I must be more Spanish than him, because
if there is one thing that I absolutely love about this country, it has to be its
bars. There is truly no equivalent to the Spanish bar anywhere else in the
world, at least in the fifty or so countries that I have had the chance to
visit. Even the word itself, while remarkably similar in many languages, holds
a complete different connotation and meaning here. Say the word bar in English
and a dark and closed place comes to mind, yet here in Spain, from early
morning to late at night, this institution adapts its rhythm to the needs of
the community as we go about our day. Churros in the morning, a caña and pincho
at midday and even around six in the hora de la nada (the time between) as a friend calls it, it’s
there for what you need. Abroad you may see the word tapas affixed to a
restaurant sign but as you walk in, you realize that they’re likely to serve
paella with chorizo and have Mexican sombreros on the cieling. It’s something that can’t seem to be exported and even
here some may want to try and modernize it by adding the word ‘gastro’ and offer
specialized tortillas for just five euros. They can keep their fancy gin and
tonics though, as we say in English, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it and
there’s definitely nothing wrong with the combination of a cold caña and
boquerones on a hot day like today.
