Envisioning Spain's Border

When one thinks of Flamenco, the first image which typically comes to mind is of a beautiful dancer in a flowing, brightly colored gown, fiercely punctuating the music with penetrating gazes and intense footwork. While the dancer has long been the icon of Flamenco, one must not forget the importance and the legacy of the [...]

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After leaving Gibraltar having had a true British experience of a stale Guinness and fish and chips and being pissed on by a monkey, and entering the positively metropolitan autonomous Spanish city of Ceuta on the African coast, like the true neo-Marxist Vassar has taught me to be, I found myself asking: what the hell [...]

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Perhaps one of my most memorable nights in the Hotel Raid Dalia in Tétouan, Morocco was the night the musicians came to the hotel and played for us. The musicians arrived to the Raid Dalia shortly after we had finished enjoying our wonderful meal of kebabs and although at that point I had decided that [...]

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The scene is this: a tourist returns to the United States from her first time in Morocco. She has never been to North Africa, an Arabic-speaking country, or a predominantly Muslim country before. The experience is new and different, but enjoyable. She returns and is excited to share with her friends what “Muslim culture” is [...]

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La rendición de Granada (1882) by Francisco Pradilla Ortiz

While wandering through modern Spanish cities, meandering through the ancient Cathedrals, I saw in person the elements of Spain’s history that our readings had tried to convey: Spain is a place where many different kinds of people have lived and built homes and lives. However, unlike [...]

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An Islamic Prayer Mat
As we made our way out of the ferry station in Algeciras after the ferry ride from Morocco, my attention turned toward a Moroccan woman who was performing prayer at the entry/exit point of the station before she entered Spain. Hearing the Call to Prayer (Adzhan) and seeing Moroccans going into [...]

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For the first half hour of Chicos Normales I was not sure whether I was watching a documentary or a scripted film. I hoped it was scripted because the opening funeral procession scene foreshadowed a death. I was relieved when I realized that it was a scripted film, that the actor I thought was going [...]

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By the time we arrived in Seville, Spain the days of our International Studies 110 study trip were coming quickly to an end. Just a day or two earlier we had been walking in the bone-chilling rain through the blue-painted Medina in Chefchauan, Morrocco; but the umbrellas were replaced with sunglasses in the plazas of [...]

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During of debriefing session, our discussion of photographical ethics made me examine the role of a camera in capturing the experience of the individual abroad. Or in my case, a lack thereof. Throughout the trip I was very aware of my lack of camera,  as I was one of few people not snapping away at [...]

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Even though we toured the Jewish quarters and synagogues, in many cities that we visited during our time in Spain, I found surprising the lack of any living signs of Judaism, even in these historical sites. I knew that were, in fact, Jews living in Spain, but they clearly had not repopulated these historical spaces. [...]

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