When I had arrived in Valencia, I stayed in Hotel Sol Playa (right), a welcoming little place right on the beach in the southern part of the city. Besides my mentor, who met me at Estacion del Norte (bottom left) and helped me find my way to the Hotel, I didn't know anyone at all, and my ability to communicate with the people around me was rather limited. Quite a few hours were consumed watching Sim
psons episodes in Spanish on the local boob tube, while my evening consisted of wandering around the east side looking for an internet cafe, and eating falafel at a nearby kabob shop.
Later that night, I asked the front desk for a wake up call since my cell phone (functionally an alarm clock) was out of battery. What began as a brief introduction of who I was and where I was from, turned into a very long and engaging conversation with Carlos, one of the hotel's owners. Carlos had quite the interesting story. He had spent several years studying and working in San Francisco and Portland, telling me how much he loved living in those cities. He continued on about the history of Valencia, and presented an in-depth look into the local culture. He mentioned how the Spanish people connect with their Moor and Jewish roots. Carlos himself was even convinced that his family was Jewish several centuries ago because his last name is Sancos (or was it Sanchos?), which he said comes from Samson in the Torah. He traced his family's migration to France around the same time of Spain's Expulsion of the Jews in 1492, thinking it was at this time that his family had converted to Catholicism.
Later, an older man working at the hotel joined the conversation, and Carlos acted as the translator between us. He said he remembered that in 1992, Spain had a special event for the
500th year anniversary of the Jewish expulsion and at this time they revealed a lot of interesting evidence of lingering Jewish culture. For instance, the man said that when a family member of a Spaniard dies, the family will light a candle in mourning, similar to the Jewish tradition of Yarziet. This has become a nationwide tradition.
Carlos then
told me of a fascinating story of how several years ago, a Sephardic Jewish girl from London stayed at the hotel, and although she claimed to never been to Spain before, or taken formal lessons in Spanish, she could speak Spanish very well--only, her Spanish was of a very different form. Carlos went on to explain that she spoke what appeared to be a very ancient form of the language, that sounded very funny to people in the Hotel, but could be faintly understood. The girl claimed that this language had been spoken within her home for centuries, carried over from the time her family lived in Spain before the expulsion of the Jews. Although Carlos and I didn't realize at the time, I was later reminded that this special ancient form of Spanish is of course known among us as Ladino.
(Western gate of the Central Cathedral-left)
That night, Carlos offered to give me a tour of the city center, as he is a walking encyclopedia, and together we can later look for houses with evidence of Muzzezah's, in addition to an old preserved Valencian village known as Juderia, the old Jewish quarter (quarter being a nice word for ghetto). But that will have to be for another blog post.
But little Jewish things pop up everywhere.
Walking through the city center, one can see on the Central Cathedral in Valencia (The Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady of Valencia) and on another Church the Stars of David. I do not yet exactly know the Jewish history of these locations but I hope to find out. When I was at the Central Cathedral, Padre there told me it was most likely that the Cathedral was once a synagogue, though much smaller. Wikipedia says the building was taken from Moors and made into a Cathedral in 1238. Perhaps, it was a synagogue before then. I'll have to dig deeper.
In addition, outs
ide my apartment in the southern beach city of Gandia, (I took a 2 week Spanish language course there) was a restaurant called Maimonides. I couldn't believe that I had been living there for almost 2 weeks and not had noticed it. I ran over to see that on the outside of the restaurant was a brief biography of great Rabbinic sage. However, when I looked through the window to peer at the menu---holy crap!! This poor man must be rolling in his grave!! Every dish is ham and cheese on a roll, or fried pork, or shrimp and pork rice, or a fried ham and cheese sandwich with tomato...ect. There wasn't a single thing on the menu that didn't include ham. I guess this restaurant wasn't trying to be authentic.
For more on the history of Jews in Valenica, I reccomend you click
here:
(http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=5&letter=V)
psons episodes in Spanish on the local boob tube, while my evening consisted of wandering around the east side looking for an internet cafe, and eating falafel at a nearby kabob shop.
told me of a fascinating story of how several years ago, a Sephardic Jewish girl from London stayed at the hotel, and although she claimed to never been to Spain before, or taken formal lessons in Spanish, she could speak Spanish very well--only, her Spanish was of a very different form. Carlos went on to explain that she spoke what appeared to be a very ancient form of the language, that sounded very funny to people in the Hotel, but could be faintly understood. The girl claimed that this language had been spoken within her home for centuries, carried over from the time her family lived in Spain before the expulsion of the Jews. Although Carlos and I didn't realize at the time, I was later reminded that this special ancient form of Spanish is of course known among us as Ladino.
