The "Toro de fuego" and "Torito Pinto" (part 1)

It’s a dark night, around 10pm.  The streets are full of people and everyone seems excited.  The crowd is mostly adults.  Some bars have set up tables outside, and many people are drinking – tinto de verano (red wine mixed with soda), beer, what have you.

There is a noise in the distance, and a faint glow.  Someone calls out, “it’s coming, it’s coming.”

Pretty soon, the noise becomes a surge of shouts, mingled with laughter and the sound of fireworks.

Then you see it:  a small, black bull shooting fireworks in all directions, running down the street then turning and heading towards the crowd, then running down the street again.  Most people clear the way in front of it, but a few hardy souls, mostly young men, stand their ground or run along with it, trying to get closer, trying to touch it without letting the fireworks touch them.

This is a great example, accompanied by a musical track.  It takes place at the end of summer in Arroyomolinos in Leon (in Spain) to honor the Virgin de los Remedios.  There are five separate bulls.

As the bull gets closer, you see it has only two legs, legs that look suspiciously like they belong to a human being.  And indeed, that is what it is:  the metal frame of a bull, with all kinds of fireworks attached to it, held up by a man running down the street.

This is the “toro de fuego,” the “fire-bull,” that you find in both Spain and Latin America to help celebrate certain saint’s days and other special occasions.

This one takes place in Igualala (Spain) in a central plaza, so brightly lit you hardly know it’s night.

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The author of this article, Eve A. Ma, is a filmmaker whose work includes documentaries about world music and dance, including Afro-Peruvian and Mexican.  She speaks Spanish, has spent much time in Spain, and has visited several Latin American countries.  Her web site is www.PalominoPro.com.   To keep up with her work, sign up for her newsletter HERE

Gitanos #5 - a few more thoughts

In general, when I think of gitanos and the culture of the gitanos I know in Andalucia, I think of courtesy.  In a public setting, courtesy seems to be very important.  You do not say negative things about others.  Sure, in your own family or with your good friends, you speak your mind but in other situations, you temper criticism by saying it's only your point of view and of course you respect others' right to be different, and you're not trying to imply that your views are any more valid that the views of others, and....

Concrete examples come from conversations about flamenco which, among gitanos in Andalucia (especially in Jerez de la Frontera, the place that I know best), especially in gitano "flamenco families" is a very important topic of conversation about which people hold very strong opinions.

When referring to flamenco artists whose artistic abilities you frankly suspect they despise, they will tell things like... although what you've just seen is not their favorite style and is not something they would ever do themselves and perhaps has a bit too much of...whatever...still, they deeply respect the right of others to do their own thing.

Something else that I've observed is that gitanos, or at least the ones I know, have a sense of humor I'll refer to as the "B'rer Rabbit syndrome."  Out-foxing others is looked on favorably and is often considered funny.  And if someone out-foxes YOU, well, you should laugh a bit.

This "B'rer Rabbit syndrome" (know the story of B'rer Rabbit and the Tar Baby?) is closely akin to the Robin Hood ideal, or maybe to the character of Little John in Robin Hood's band.  It's something that comes of being the under-dog.

A few other comments:  in England, you find people called "Travelers" closely associated with Gypsies/Roma - so closely associated that many people assume they are one and the same.  They are not.  Travelers, to the best of my knowledge (and I'm no expert here) come from Irish stock.  Whether I'm right on wrong on this score, they have different values, a different way of life, and are ethnically different.

Gitanos, according to what I've read, make up about 10% of all Gypsies/Roma.  In many cases, their ancestors came into Spain (centuries ago) from northern Africa but others came through Europe and entered Spain by crossing the Pyranees from France.

Male chauvinism:  Spanish men in general seem to exhibit more male chauvinism that you find in the United States, and gitanos as a group perhaps more than the average Spanish man.

Finally, in Spain, gitanos greatly respect flamenco professionals and especially flamenco singers (cantaors), whereas the Gypsies/Roma in England, for example, consider it very important for a man to excell at boxing.  In other words, do not expect to find the same values in people because of their ethnic roots alone.

And that's enough on that topic.

Long-term unemployment in the United States

According to an article that ran in the Washington Post at the end of September, 2013, some 4.1 million people in the United States had been unemployed for longer than 27 weeks.  These people are now known as "long-term unemployed."  On Dec. 2, USA Today, using a slightly different standard (6 months rather than 27 weeks) gave the same figure for "long-term unemployed," and noted that many of them had also lost their ability to purchase food stamps on Nov. 1 when that program was cut back.

On Dec. 28, at least a quarter of these long-term jobless will lose their unemployment benefits unless Congress takes action to extend existing programs.  And nearly a million more are slated lose them between January and March.

What will happen to these people?

In "Domino," our unemployed hero tries pawning the family's jewelry.

Well, one of the first things that happens is you try to get help from other family members, and from close friends.  But if you've been out of work for six months or more, chances are that you will already have gone that route and there won't be much help available.

Next thing is you pawn the family's jewelry, take whatever odd job you can find, and try to downsize, but again, you've probably already done all of those things.

Next thing that can easily happen is - you become homeless.

And you become part of an increasingly vicious cycle.  If you're homeless, it's much harder to get a job.  Harder for you to spruce yourself up for a job interview.  Harder for you to have an address to give to a potential employer.  Harder for you to afford a cell phone so that a potential employer can contact you for an interview.

And harder for you to have the frame of mind you need, when and if you can line up a job interview.

Is it right for us to simply push these people, and this problem, aside?  I think not.

And that is the point of my film Domino:  Caught in the Crisis.  We need to really understand what these people are going through, so that we will help find solutions.  It is morally, socially, and economically wrong to throw in the towel on millions of our fellow citizens, on millions of our fellow human beings.