The Tepid Take

Spain, 1929. In the shadow of an unfortunate war with America - so disastrous they called it “The Disaster” – the country entered the waning years of its second-to-last dictatorship. Facing a dwindling sense of international relevance and the opening scenes of the Great Depression, it was hardly the brightest time for an international expo. And yet, Spain’s hosting of the Ibero-American Exposition was the most successful the country had seen since Barcelona’s turn at the Universal in 1888. The space built in Seville for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition was designed as a synthesis of all things Spanish and the legacy of Spanish communities in the Americas; it was composed in no small part of two central spaces: the Plaza de España, a testament to the history of Spain, and the Parque Maria Luisa, a series of elaborate pergolas and fountains scattered among American flora. The building style of the Plaza de España – which you might recognise from its appearances in Lawrence of Ar

Every April, Seville plays host to Feria, an Andalusian tradition stretching back to 1846. In reality, ferias – a special kind of festival similar to a carnival or town fair – occur all across Spain; it just happens that the grandest belongs to Seville. In 2018, almost half a million people visited the Feria each day over the course of a week. The festival featured exactly 212,000 energy-saving light bulbs and over one thousand separate tents to visit. This goes without even mentioning the giant theme park operating next door. The Feria de Abril is vast, a feat of organisation, complete with a new, extravagant portico every year. It even has its own cocktail; but underneath the surface, all is not well at Feria. The cruel divides of Seville’s society disguise themselves behind tent flaps and guy ropes. A RECIPE FOR REBUJITO ( coctél de feria ) - 1 part manzanilla (local fortified wine) - 2 parts lemonade - Mint leaves to garnish The history

Seville has a reputation in Andalucía. Its citizens, marked out for being more “pijo” (a Spanish idiom denoting poshness or swank) than the rest of the region, are stereotypically depicted in various memes as the wearers of sports scarves, pastel polo shirts and carefully curated mullets. Equally, the city itself centre boasts a wide range of ‘bougey’ boutiques and luxurious restaurants. However, as is the case in many European cities, the suburbs of Seville are radically poorer than the town centre; in addition, they are marked by their racial diversity, while the high street is almost entirely white. However, there is one particular suburb of Seville that stands out, notorious today as much as it was upon its foundation in the 60s. This suburb is a housing estate known as Las Tres Mil Viviendas - The Three Thousand Homes. I first encountered Las Tres Mil in a class I was taking at the university in medieval history. The professor was talking about the destitution that some M

On the 29th of March, 1969, Madrid played host to the 14th annual Eurovision Song Contest. At the time, Spain was undergoing a regime crisis, as the future of Francoist dictatorship lay in doubt. While it would be another 17 years before Spain joined the European Economic Community, marking the tail end of the country’s democratisation, the economy was slowly internationalising. Culture quickly followed suit; Spain shared victory at Eurovision that year with, among others, the United Kingdom. Only a week earlier, however, a tiny shard on the edge of Iberia had played host to a completely different musical outfit: John Lennon and Yoko Ono, marrying on the Rock of Gibraltar. They weren’t the first, and they certainly wouldn’t be the last: the spot now plays host to many a British couple looking to enter into the union of matrimony, while enjoying a average daily sunshine hours unseen anywhere else in the United Kingdom. As an Overseas Territory, a self-governing but otherwise integ