Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here's my version, then theirs.
Walking
up the hill from my house and towards the Plaza del Socorro, the smell first
hits me. It’s not unpleasant but certainly misplaced. An odor that I definitely wouldn’t
expect as I walk to work and it takes me a moment to realize exactly what it
is.
I walk under the large tree in the square and realize that what I’m
smelling are...donkeys and then I remember, it’s once again the time of year for the "medieval" market in Caceres.
A smell that, if you forgive the monstrosity of the prison-like looking Archive
to my left, wouldn’t be so out of place among these definitively medieval
surroundings.
As a stranger from a country where history was unwritten before
the arrival of the Europeans, I always find it curious that once a year so much
effort is made to make these streets appear even more…medieval. Renaissance
jewels fronted by artisanal kebabs, medieval pizzas and knightly potatoes just
don’t seem to jive, no matter how rustic the font used in their signs is. The hand-cranked rides in the Main Square do seem to fit in with the intended atmosphere
but the plastic junk from China sold in the stall next to them makes the entire
exercise seem a bit forced. But if indeed such jarring contrasts are what they
are looking for, why not go a step further?
How about inviting an upstart IT
company to test its 5G along the cobblestone streets and in the process
hopefully leave behind fibre optic cables for those us who live behind these walls?
What about funding a contest to find ways to make the Arabic tiles, shielding so many building around the country, produce solar energy? Or apps that can
scan a building and take the visitor on a virtual tour of what it might have
actually looked like some 500 years ago.
If nothing distinguishes our fair from all
the the others that are tented up around Spain and Portugal, rather being a
real, interesting attraction that attracts tourists, it ends up being just another place to eat overpriced kebabs, not
matter how medieval they are.
