Voices en Español

If you’ve studied Spanish awhile, you already know the importance of using the accent mark (el tilde). The accent marks in Spanish are used to show not only where the emphasis must be placed when the words are spoken but also to distinguish between two words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. For example, él (he) el (the); sí (yes) si (if); té (tea) te (you), etc.

But did you know that there are several Spanish words that can be written with or without accent marks and their meanings don’t change? Best of all, both spellings are accepted by the Real Academia Española. In the past I’ve been puzzled when I’ve seen some words in Spanish, like atmósfera and período, spelled with and without accents. Knowing how important the accent mark is, I wasn’t sure if these were typos or accepted forms.

So, after doing a little research, I’ve complied a list of 24 of these words. [Click MORE to go directly to the list.] For each word, the one that is listed first is the version preferred by the RAE. However, both versions are accepted, so as long as you know how to spell the word correctly in Spanish, you don’t have to stress yourself trying to remember exactly where the accent mark goes if you can’t remember where to place the emphasis.

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The economic crisis in Spain has claimed another victim: the month-long summer vacation.

Spain essentially shuts down for the summer, particularly in the month of August, when virtually every Spaniard worth his chorizo, takes the month off and either heads to the beach or to the mountains. In recent years, before the global economy tanked, it was common for young Spaniards to travel abroad, many of them using their vacation time to study or practice English in the U.K., Ireland, Malta or the U.S.

But this year, with unemployment levels running high and money tight, many Spaniards are either canceling their vacations entirely or planning to take short trips close to home. Several Madrid businesses have already announced that they intend to stay open during the month of August in order to keep their operations afloat and make up for the reduction of revenue that they’ve experienced already this year. La Cámara de Comercio, Madrid’s equivalent of a Better Business Bureau, predicts that customers will see way fewer “Cerrado por vacaciones” signs in shop windows and estimates that less than 5% of  businesses will close for the summer.

Fortunately for those who decide to stay close to home, there are plenty of things to see and do and many of it free or discounted. Here’s the type of commercial Spanish tourism offices are running to entice Spaniards to vacation close to home:

Here is a random round-up of touristy events:

MADRID: Annie Leibovitz: Vida de una fotógrafa, 1990-2005

An exhibit of roughly 200 photos from this internationally-known American photographer on loan from the Brooklyn Museum in New York. Leibovitz is famous for her photos of celebrities. She was the last photographer to take pictures of John Lennon before he was killed and her iconic photo of a naked, pregnant Demi Moore for the cover of Vanity Fair still makes an impression 18 years later.  The Leibovitz photos will be on display in Madrid until September and is just one of several photo exhibitions currently going on as part of the Photo España 2009 event.

PAÍS VASCO: Las ballenas de Santurtzi

Whale watching trips in July, August and September on the “Pride of Bilbao” ferry from the port of Santurzi (near Bilbao) to Portsmouth, U.K.

NAVARRA: The 1st International Hemingway Doubles and Impersonator Contest

Writer Ernest Hemingway had a lifelong fascination with Spain and it’s mainly because of him why so many people outside of Spain are familiar with the San Fermin festival (the running of the bulls) in Pamplona. To mark the 50th anniversary of Hemingway’s last visit to the festival, the tourism bureau of Navarra is holding a Hemingway lookalike contest. The deadline to enter the contest has already passed but the finalists will be presented to the public in a kind of mini “beauty” pageant and then the winner will be selected on July 4, the day before this year’s San Fermín festival begins.

Also in Navarra…..tourists who stay at stay at least 2 nights at participating hotels in the region will receive up to four free tickets for different local attractions. Click here for more info.

ZARAGOZA: Los Festivales del Ebro

A series of 300 different events and activities during the months of June and July, including a concert by Madonna on July 25.

Joel, a Voices en Español reader, asks:

Do you think most of the phrases you share with us are common to Latin American countries or primarily to Spain? Would it be safe to say that all your material is known in Spain and a portion is also used in Latin America?

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There are quite a few idiomatic expressions that refer to the colors black (negro) or white (blanco) in Spanish. Many of them you could probably figure out their meaning from the context in which they are used. But others might be harder to adivinar their exact meaning without a little cheat sheet like the one below, especially since the word blanco, besides being the color white can also mean “target.”

(By the way, notice how the English phrase “black & white” gets reversed in Spanish to “blanco y negro.” For example: black and white movies = películas en blanco y negro)

Here are some common Spanish expressions using blanco or negro.

ESTAR SIN BLANCA: To be broke, to have no money.

DAR EN EL BLANCO: To hit the mark, to hit the target.

EN BLANCO: Blank, as in, “La página estaba en blanco.” “The page was blank.”

Which leads to…. ESTAR EN BLANCO (to draw a blank, to have no idea) which is essentially the same as QUEDARSE EN BLANCO (to have one’s mind go blank).

PASAR LA NOCHE EN BLANCO: to suffer a sleepless night, to be unable to fall asleep

ESTAR NEGRO: To be very angry or to be extremely tanned, depending on the context.

VERLO TODO MUY NEGRO: To be pessimistic about something

PASARLAS NEGRAS: To have a hard time. Andrés las pasó negras cuando perdió su trabajo.

TENER LA NEGRA/TRAER LA NEGRA: To be unlucky, to bring bad luck. (Ese tio me trae la negra. That dude brings me bad luck.)

OK, the first time I heard this expression I was like ¿Qué qué? because my American mind jumped to the erroneous conclusion that it had something to do with race and implying that black people brought bad luck or something. Fortunately, I was mistaken. Turns out “la negra” refers to playing cards or fortune telling cards. The card containing the Ace of Spades historically was considered a bad omen.

Enjoyed this post? Check out Color Coded, Part 1: Verde. Also, get more insights into Spanish verb phrases at Twitter.com/ReVerbSpanish.

Yeah, yeah, I know, there’s a ton of stuff out there already about Spain and Latin America, but is there any place on the ‘net where can you find intelligent, interesting articles, written from the perspective of everyday people, about life in multiple Spanish-speaking countries? Wouldn’t it be nice to have one place you could visit online where you could read about different Spanish-speaking countries?

Welcome to La Casa Rojas, a brand new online magazine created by Joan Rojas. If the last name is familiar, it’s because Joan is the wife and business partner of Luis Rojas of Rojas Spanish.

Joan has undertaken an incredible task. She’s assembled a group of approximately 20 writers and bloggers from disparate backgrounds from across Latin America and Spain to write about the culture, food, history, politics and daily life in their respective countries, and all of it in Spanish. Luis also will provide insights into linguistic aspects of the Spanish language.

La Cosa Rojas launched earlier today and is already filled with content from contributors from Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Spain and Uruguay, the U.S., with more content on its way from Peru. Also, for some articles, the authors will read their stories, so an audio recording will eventually accompany several of the articles. Yours truly will also be a regular contributor with at least one piece, possibly two, a month. Here’s my first submission: La cocina innovadora de España

The magazine will be visible to the public for the next few days. On June 15 it converts to a membership site, but a three-month subscription is only $15.

Drop by La Casa Rojas muy pronto. Su casa es tu casa.

Here’s a useful web site I recently stumbled across: OffLineReading.com. Get newspapers from Spain, Chile and Mexico delivered daily to your in-box in a PDF-file. The newspapers are those freebie papers that are handed out at subway, train and bus stations. While many people may knock these newspapers as tabloids promoting “junk-food” journalism, I think they are an excellent learning tool for intermediate and advanced learners of Spanish. Not only are many of these newspapers written in a more relaxed, conversational style, the stories are extremely short and won’t require you to pore over a dictionary to look up words. Also, OffLineReading.com makes it very easy for you to subscribe.

Just select the newspaper(s) you wish to receive and then either click on the subscribe via RSS or via the iTunes button. That’s it. There’s no fee for this service and each morning a copy of that day’s newspaper will be delivered to you electronically in a PDF-file. It can’t get any easier than that.

P.S. If you are unfamiliar with RSS feeds, click here to get more info about what it is and how to use it. In a nutshell, RSS is an excellent way to receive updates about new blog entries on your favorite web sites without having to give out your email address. I recommend Google Reader but there are plenty of other feed readers you can use. Also, you can subscribe to the newspaper feeds via iTunes and the PDF will download automatically to the podcast section of your iTunes account daily.

Mister Taylor by Augusto Monterroso is a brillant satire about U.S. imperalism in Latin America. It’s been described as a modern fable but its key points are grounded in history. I don’t think I’ve ever read a piece that so cleverly addresses U.S. influence in Latin America and criticizes it at the same time in such a humorous manner.

“Mister Taylor” is a story about Mr. Percy Taylor of Boston, Mass. who winds up living in some unnamed South American country in the 1940s. He’s financially broke and doing nothing, until one day during a walk in the jungle he bumps into one of the natives who offers to sell him a shrunken head.

“Buy head? Money, money.”

That chance meeting leads to an unexpected business opportunity that affects, (or should I say infects), the society of the Latin American country where Mr. Taylor lives.

Believe or not but there was a time when collecting shrunken heads from South America was all the rage in Western countries. I did a little digging around and came across a story published in 1921 in National Geographic about the Jivaro Indians in Ecuador. They were a ferocious people, famous for their bellicose nature and for being the only known South American tribe that successfully defied being conquered by the Spanish conquistadors AND being taken over by the Incas. Their reputation for shrinking the heads of their enemies as trophies became their calling card and probably one of their best weapons to ward off invaders. The National Geographic article, published 88 years ago, is fascinating. Here’s an excerpt about the souvenir trade of shrunken heads:

Because of the interest aroused in the outside world by tales concerning these head-hunters, there has been in the past a lively trade in human heads. The Jivaros, learning that there was a demand which could be capitalized into muskets, quickly gave a ready response; so that it became necessary for the Ecuadorean Government strictly to forbid the traffic in these objects.

Tales are told of the results of this practice which are not without a certain grim irony. There is a story, for example, of a red-headed white man who went into the interior on a trip of exploration charged with the commission of bringing out a dried and shrunken head. It was months after he had departed that a shrunken-head came out, by devious channels, from the Oriente, but the head had red hair. Perhaps a red-haired head brought the price of 2 muskets; who could tell?

Hmmm, could that have been the original Mr. Taylor, perhaps?

In any case, the National Geographic article goes on to say that the Jivaro Indians, despite their fearsome reputation, were quite nice to their researchers.  “Contrary to our expectations, after hearing stories of the Jivaro (and to the average Ecuadorean the word Jivaro is synonymous with violent death and all manner of disagreeable things), we found then a good-natured people and very friendly to us.”

Listen to Part 1 of Mister Taylor and visit Head-Hunter.com (how appropriate!) to read more about the Jivaro people. I’ll post part 2 of the story later next week.

Photo: Jivaro Shrunken Head by Ed Schipul

It’s the dream of many Anglos: To work, study or live (either temporarily or permanently) in Spain. Two works, one written by an American and the other narrated by an Englishman, give their own particular insight into what life is like for an English-speaking expatriate in Spain.

Madrid Confessions by Ben Curtis is an audio memoir about the evolution of a British expat’s life in Spain’s capital city. Ben, along with his Spanish wife Marina Diez, have a large and devoted following for their Notes in Spanish podcasts. In the Madrid Confessions, Ben satisfies his fans’ curiosity about aspects of his private life and reveals how a series of serendipitous events led him to launch, and now run, a successful internet business. This English-language audio book is approximately 2.5 hours long and costs 17 euros ($24).

Novel of Life: Madrid, Spain by Lethe Bashar presents the viewpoint of an American college student on a study abroad program. Bashar is actually the pen name of Chris Al-Aswad and the book is a novelistic treatment of his time in Spain.

He moves into an apartment with a sixty-five year old Senora. Within two weeks, he undergoes an extreme form of culture shock. Between quitting classes, falling in love with his Senora’s maid (and his psychiatrist), smoking hashish, and meeting a group of native Spaniards, an innocent study abroad program turns to living dangerously.

Chris describes his book as “autobiographical fiction” as most, but not all, of his protagonist’s experiences happened to him during his year in Spain. Bashar’s Novel of Life remains a work in progress since it is not yet finished, but the Madrid chapters are readable online and there is also an accompanying podcast. Click here for a Q&A with Chris about the book.

Here is a Q&A I did with Chris Al-Aswad, author of Novel of Life: Madrid, Spain.

What should I call you? By your pen name “Lethe Bashar” or by your real name or can I use both?

You can call me by real name:  Chris Al-Aswad.  I use a pen name, which is also the main character of my novel, Lethe Bashar.

Your Madrid novel is autobiographical. Why did you decide to go with a novel treatment instead of a memoir?

I call the genre “autobiographical fiction”.  It is more or less a memoir with poetic license. I’m also a personal essayist and so I work within the memoir form a lot.  My blog of personal essays is The Blog of Innocence.

I choose the novel form so that I may explore the creative boundaries of writing about my life.  Spain is one of three novels that cover my adolescence.  The whole narrative is an epic retelling of adolescence in different locations, and at different time periods.

Yes.  This is a story I have been working on for over ten years, believe it or not.  I continually deepen the characters and go deeper with the story itself.  The only explanation for this is a meticulous love of the craft of fiction.

I would say about 70% of the story actually happened.  But whenever we try to parse reality from fiction, memory from lived experience, we run into major problems.  No representation, including a memoir, will be “the truth.”  Once words are formed about an experience of the past, fiction gets created no matter what.

The Novel of Life is far from finished.  But I approach this work not as a professional novelist but as an amateur and a hobbyist.  I leave it alone for weeks or months and then return to it and work diligently for awhile before I put it down again.

The Madrid section of the novel has one more part yet to be written.  Then the story will resume back on another blog called Lethe in Vegas, which is about what happens after Spain.

This is my first novel.  If there is enough interest, and if I am pleased with the final work, I may publish it.  Most likely, the graphic editions of the work will be published sooner.  An Argentinean illustrator is currently working on the Las Vegas story here.

I was 19 years old when I studied at the International Institute in Madrid in 1999. But I dropped out of school and joined a band of friendly Spaniards. I left my Senora’s house and moved into a pensione, where I wrote fiction and partied a lot. I was living in la Plaza del Sol for approximately one year.

I lived in Chicago for several years.  I was born and raised in Illinois, suburbs of Chicago.  I graduated from DePaul University.  Now I live in Central Illinois.

My favorite chapter is probably “Hashish”; but I don’t know if you want to include that one. I also should tell you that I do a podcast for every chapter on this site.

Lost In.tv is a new Spanish-language video blog that promises to keep its viewers informed of interesting and off-beat cultural events and attractions happening in major Spanish cities. Currently, Lost in.tv has video blogs for Alicante, Barcelona, Bilbao and Madrid with Sevilla in the works.

From what I’ve seen in the pilot episodes, the videos focus on undiscovered talent, unknown artists and off-beat cultural events unlikely to attract a lot of notice from the mainstream Spanish media. On its home page, LostIn.TV says that its mission is to tell people about “todo aquello que no puedes perderte en tu ciudad.”

Below is the pilot episode for Lost in Barcelona. I watched the videos for the other cities but the one for Barcelona is the best, in my opinion. Antonia Folguera, the presenter, projects the right attitude (young, fashionable and intelligent) and comes across as more polished than the presenters for the other cities. But that’s a minor quibble since overall the Lost In.tv project looks very promising.