Tuesday, November 24, 2009

El Cantante

So … the singing. The damn singing. The all the time singing.

In Spain, fun and revelry are very much valued. I really appreciate their love of life, food, drink, family, and friends. Often in the middle of the dinner people will break out into song. In the car people sing. At soccer games people sing. Sometimes old traditional songs, sometimes funny songs, sometimes religious songs, sometimes new contemporary songs. A few times I have been in the middle of cooking dinner and I'll ask Manolo to hurry to the grocery store and pick up an item that I need but forgot. I'll say a word that triggers a memory of a song for him and this will set him off into full blown singing of that song. Like loud singing that does not help me when I just need him to hurry to the store and pick up an onion before the chicken finishes cooking!

I've never seen Manolo more disappointed in American culture then when I informed him that people don't actually go Christmas caroling like you see in the movies. I guess in Spain this is a pretty common thing, for friends to get together and go around and sing for their neighbors and friends during the holiday season. Manolo had assumed that we too would be doing this (and maybe they do this in other parts of the Country) but here in Cali it's just not done. Really we don't sing anywhere. When we cook, we don't sing. In the car with friends, we don't sing (unless a really great classic song is played). And much to Manolo's dismay, while there are a few chants played during American Football games, there really are no songs that we sing. For the Sevilla Soccer Club there are over 20 songs that are sung by the crowd during the game. And they sing one song or another during the entire game. Some are short but most are 3-4 minutes (or more!) and quite elaborate. (Believe me, one time I had to sit through Manolo reminiscing and singing me all 20 songs. The things we do for love).

The really interesting thing is that it seems that the Spaniards (and especially those from Sevilla) are naturally gifted with fantastic singing voices. Manolo is not known for his voice (compared to his friends and family) but boy can that boy carry a tune. And so can many of the other Sevillanos that I have met. The video below is a bride from Sevilla breaking out into song in the middle of her wedding. And while her voice is better then average it really is typical of the women's voices I have heard while visiting with Manolo's friends. (Plus bonus for this video being from the Catholic Church that Manolo has attended since he was a baby).