It begins with a simple observation: across Spain—and much of Europe—the streets, plazas, and churches are named after immigrants, or at least migrant ideas, from the Middle East who arrived two thousand years ago and helped shape what is now called “Christian civilization.” Yet in today’s political climate, migrants from many of the same regions…
My brother was named after a cowboy. That detail says a lot about my father, his generation, and the way America once looked from the outside: big, confident, morally certain, the man in the white hat who did ugly things for noble reasons. My dad loved Shane (Raices Profundas), and I grew up with that…
Sometimes a city isn’t a skyline or a list of monuments. Sometimes it’s a story that refuses to stay still, slipping through tidy definitions and glossy brochures. I was recently invited—somehow, improbably—to write for the Ateneo de Cáceres, as part of their reflections on what culture means in the context of Cáceres’ bid for European…
You know that glass cabinet in your grandmother’s living room that nobody was allowed to touch — the one full of “very important” things that were, in fact, spectacularly useless? Cáceres is about to build one. Only this one costs €18 million. A gleaming new museum. A cathedral of vitrines.Stuff from everywhere — except here.…
(English below) Hay eventos que se venden como “fiestas de la cultura”, pero huelen más a cóctel de poder y subvención.En Cáceres montaron una bienal con 650.000 € de dinero público, pantallas gigantes, discursos sobre “la libertad” y, sí, Vargas Llosa elevado a santo laico del neoliberalismo. Lo que faltaba era público.Y verdad. Mi nuevo…
The Art of Erasure — and What It Reveals In my latest Camino a Ítaca column for HOY, I begin with a haunting image: a Banksy mural that appeared one night on the façade of London’s High Court — a furious vision of justice turned executioner, of law stripped of its ceremony and reduced to…
Brendan Boyle took the time to read my book and was curious about it and we chatted about all things Extremadura on his podcast, La Comunidad. If you’re curious about the book or why it’s so damn hard to get out here, have a listen. Exploring under-explored Extremadura by Brendan Boyle With Troy Nahumko, author…
The Camino a Ítaca is in no way linear, it circles and loops and starts all over again. As spring turns Cáceres into the allergy sufferers nightmare, another event takes places, one that has been going on for more than thirty years. It’s quasi-religious in the way that in some sectors it can’t be questioned for…
In the first of the #StonesDeepDive series, an indepth look into Chapter 16, Stone Cartoons from Stories Left in Stone, Trails and Traces in Cáceres, Spain published by the University of Alberta Press. This part of the adventure takes place in Monfragüe National Park and the Sistine Chapel of prehistoric rock art in the region.…
Celestial interventions in this week’s Camino a Ítaca. And Virgins? Did I forget to mention Virgins? Click over to read the originally published piece in Spanish in the HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) For the past few weeks the local papers in Cáceres have taken on a distinctly retro…