Gitanos (part 4) - what to avoid

I´m guessing that all of us have, at one time or another, been taught there are certain things to avoid... things like, in my case, Friday 13th, or walking under ladders or even (as a child, before we got one for a pet), black cats.

Well, not surprisingly, gitanos (Spanish Gypsies) also avoid certain things.

One thing I learned very soon after coming to Spain:  if you´re having a drink with someone who is gitano, and you´re about ready to leave but, ok, will have just one more, you do NOT say that you´ll have a last drink.  You say you´ll have a NEXT-to-last drink.

Having a last drink would implies that you do expect to be seeing them again.  Ever.  If your drink were to be a final one, well, maybe you wouldn´t even be around anymore after you´d had it.

Another thing to avoid:  putting money on the floor.

Well, most people wouldn´t be doing that, anyway, but I am a forgetful person.  If I really want to remember to do something, say, tomorrow, I will leave a note to myself on the floor telling me what I am to do.  That way, as I start walking out of the house, I see this note, stop to pick it up, read it...and remember what I am to do.

And if I owed someone money, I´d do the same... put the money on the floor, perhaps in an envelope but maybe not.

No, no, no.  Not on the floor.  (These are Euros.  Real money.  Real floor.)

I no longer do this in California.  Not since I´ve acquired two dogs who believe that anything left on the floor was clearly put there in order for them to have something new to play with.  And they do love to eat paper.  And plastic.  And money.

I don't do it here anymore, either.  Don't want to stress out my friends.

Even another thing is something you will probably never encounter, but I did.

Once I happened upon a plaster figure of a small angel, a cherub whose head and one leg were missing.  I found it on the street, near where some religious floats are taken out and just a day after there had been a religious procession (a Catholic Christian procession).  Clearly, it had fallen off of one of the religious floats.

My headless cherub at rest.  He's got a violin on his left shoulder.

I picked it up, intending to contact the organization that conducted the procession and return it to them.  I never got around to it.  It continues to sit on a table in my living room.

A friend who is gitano saw it one day and felt I should immediately get rid of it because it would bring me very bad luck.  He thought it had fallen off of a decorated ceiling.

When I explained where and how I had found it, he decided it was fine for me to keep it.  Apparently, angels falling out of the sky...or off of ceilings...have a different significance from angels that fall off of a religious float.

And there you have it.

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NOTE:  We are currently filming a documentary about flamenco which stresses the importance of gitanos to that art form - hence, these posts.  Learn more about the documentary on its web site www.FlamencotheLandMovie.com.

Antonio de la Malena CD-photos/fotos

Artists (singers, guitarist and palmeros) for the fin de fiesta.  ESP Artistas para el fin de fiesta.

In the studio/en el estudio:  Antonio de la Malena with/con guitarist Manuel Parilla

A break in the recording/una pausa en las grabaciones:  El Bob (palmas), Antonio de la Malena, Manuel Parilla, etc.