Former mayor of Benidorm Pedro Zaragoza died yesterday, aged 85. Zaragoza turned Benidorm from an impoverished fisihing village into the major resort it is today. He is most famous for allowing bikinis to be worn, in the face of opposition from Spanish conservatives including the Catholic Church, which threatened him with excommunication. However, his vision was broader and more far-reaching than that, for he was the first person to see the importance of vertical tourism, a concept which shaped the development of Benidorm (I have to point out here for the benefit of those who have never visited Benidorm that it is a fine town, with broad avenues and all its 330 skyscrapers facing the sea. In other words, it is a nice place). And you have only to look at the awful mess that the recent explosion of low-level development has created on both Spanish and Portuguese costas to see that he was right. If the tourism sector had heroes, Pedro Zaragoza would be a great name, an Alexander Fleming, a Marconi or a Descartes among resort planners. More of this story.

Posted by : John Ross on Wednesday, April 02, 2008 - 08:55 AM 740 reads

While the Socialist victory in last weekend's Spanish general elections is of considerable interest, it pales beside the real news: Rodolfo Chikilcuatre and his rap Baila El Chiki Chiki have improbably been chosen to represent Spain at this year's Eurovision Song Contest. Now, while I abhor a spoiler as much as the next man, I do feel there is a serious danger of Chikilcuatre being misunderstood by non-Spaniards and Brits in particular, so allow me to point out that IT'S A JOKE! Do NOT take seriously! You can see the act with barely helpful subtitles clicking the "Play" button in the MySpace window on the next page, together with more of this story and a short Spanish lesson covering the essential vocabulary of Spanish humour: cachondeo, guasa, hortera and cutre. Oh, and perrear and chiki chiki itself (adults-only language lesson ahead).

Posted by : John Ross on Thursday, March 13, 2008 - 12:09 PM 2649 reads

A sweet bunch of mostly twenty-year-olds from Palo Alto College, San Antonio, Texas, journalism or humanities students, have been on a lightning study tour of Spain and keeping individual blogs about it which make highly entertaining reading. Here are a few excerpts:

Posted by : John Ross on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 12:23 PM 908 reads

Last week's issue of Spanish satirical magazine El Jueves was seized and its web site censored because of a cartoon mocking heir to the throne Prince Felipe and his wife Leticia. National Court judge Luis Del Olmo ordered that the magazine be removed from newsstands and also issued an injunction to have the cartoon taken off El Jueves' website (http://eljueves.es, for the moment closed except for a single page about the judicial process). The cartoon was carried on the magazine cover and refers to the recent introduction of a moderately generous child allowance (€2,500 a year). The cartoon shows the royal couple (who have been a hopeful grandparents' dream in terms of dutifully producing offspring) are depicted in the act of sex, and he is saying "You know something?... If you get pregnant, this will be the nearest thing to work I've done in my life!" Read more.

Posted by : John Ross on Monday, June 11, 2007 - 10:02 AM 382 reads

OK, it's way off-topic, but I'm rather tickled that Miss Pataky, or at least the person claiming to be her (and who am I to doubt her identity?) has included me among her "friends" on MySpace. For those of you who are not up to date with Spanish celebrities, Elsa Pataky is a particularly yummy Spanish actress and something of an erotic icon to young people here. Read more or see my selection of Spanish girls.

Posted by : John Ross on Monday, November 27, 2006 - 12:57 PM 895 reads