Burgos was definitely my favorite church of the entire trip.  We took an 1.5 hour audio tour of the church (which I greatly preferred to something guided by an actual person).  We ordered the tour in Spanish and the receptionist laughed and explained that it spoke very quickly, but we committed to the Spanish version (which turned out to be very easy to understand).  The church was gorgeous, and provided me with many imges for my research.

At the bottom of the church was a modern art exhibit, which consisted of bells and a rosary made of skulls draped around a large cross.  Once I upload some of the photos to flickr, I’ll link them here.

However the nice man at the airport didn’t skip a beat when I asked him if my box would go to Pamplona.  For me, the scariest thing for someone to do is to ask me to repeat myself in Spanish.  Even if I just spoke too quietly, any confidence about what I was saying is shot.   Thankfully, the man heard me and quickly responded– our package didn’t need any help getting to Pamplona.

After leaving the airport– Pamplona’s was tiny– we had our first strange adventure. Who needs a taxi when you’ll be walking across a country?  We hitched a ride on a cheap bus and eventually found our hotel.

Pamplona made me antsy. Seeing sights and playing tourist felt strange when I’d been mentally preparing myself for the pilgrimage.  It was hard to imagine that in a few days I’d be starting five weeks of walking.

But walk we did.  They say the Camino comes in three parts–the physical, the mental, and the spiritual.  I knew it would be hard, but little did I know how incredibly difficult the first few days would be.  I had blisters and tendonitis, my feet hurt with every step.  There were only three of us, and we stuck together, so I felt like I was holding everyone back.  I think I’ll remember the first few days the best, because don’t we remember painful things so much more clearly?   I won’t forget climbing up a steep and muddy hill towards Arres, nearly crying because of the pain.  (Though there was a nice view.)

We arrived in town in the afternoon, and after a shower and lunch, it always felt like a new day.  Even though my foot wouldn’t stop hurting, having clean clothes made the rest of the day bearable.   Showers, whether warm or cold (and sometimes both), gave me the energy to do the research I came to do.

On May 20th, 2009, I hop on a plane.  I’ll travel from DC to Madrid to Pamplona, then take a taxi to Roncesvalles.  In my backpack I’m bringing: 3 shirts, 3 pairs of pants/shorts, my camera, a (summer) sleeping bag, a Camelback, sunscreen, a journal, various toiletries, a passport, and a debit card. For five weeks and five hundred miles, I am making the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.  Along the way, I will be researching the representation of women in religious artwork, primarily examining the use of sirens and harpies to depict women in a misogynistic fashion.

I considered following the format of this blog– having the rest of my entries follow in the comments of this one– however I think there is something more aesthetically pleasing (and more to the concept of “blog”) to have them in individual posts.  So thanks for reading, and thanks Charles Center!

For the course I wrote a paper about the traveling statue of La Misericordia (the Virgin of Mercy) in colonial Ecuador and Peru, which can be read in the comments of this entry.

http://honorsfellowships.wm.edu/?p=75

Thanks for looking!

I presented an essay I wrote in my Urban Images course titled “Stone Crazy Prophets: Como el Nuyorican Poet’s Society creo espacio publico con un microfono”. The presentation outlined my paper, describing Rosenthal’s views of public space and how nuyoricans used a modern interpretation of public space to make their narrative voice heard. Through modern technology such as YouTube and television shows, poets have publicized opinions that were previously unknown.

I chose to work with CPALs (Community Partnership for Adult Learners), which met Thursday nights and helped local adults practice their English. I worked with some adults who were just learning the alphabet and basic phrases, and with others who simply needed an outlet to practice conversational skills.

In the comments of this entry, you can read the response I submitted at the end of the semester.

This paper takes as a point of departure, the work of Néstor Garcia Canclini in “From National Capital to Global Capital: Urban Change in Mexico City”. Canclini proposes that cities must have international tourism, a multicultural population, and a presence of the artistic and scientific elite, all of which qualifications the Mexican government felt could be achieved by hosting the Olympics in 1968. My paper attempts to elaborate on Canclini’s ideas through an analysis of the intellectual voice in Paco Ignacio Taibo’s ‘68. I am particularly interested in disparity between the government’s assertions about the events of 1968 and the truth known by the artistic and scientific elite of Mexico as it relates to the creation of an urban identity. I propose that there must be the support of the artistic and scientific elite in order for a city to become a global city, and that the mistrust created by the Mexican government prevented Mexico City from becoming a global city.

• 11/5/08: “La unificación del espacio publico y el espacio privado y la perdida del individuo durante el Bogotazo”

This paper takes as a point of departure, the work of Anton Rosenthal in “Spectacle, Fear, and Protest: A Guide to the History of Urban Public Space in Latin America”. Rosenthal proposes that urban life is a constant struggle for public space and that political dissent is often shown through a violent taking of control of a public area. My paper attempts to elaborate on Rosenthal’s ideas through an analysis of the union of the public and private spheres of the people protesting during the Bogozato through a look at Sady Gonzalez’s photos from “El saqueo de una ilusión”. I am particularly interested in the loss private emotions of the participants as they succumb to a group mentality and the blurring of the line between the public and private spheres. I propose that during moments of political dissent private spaces are converted into public spaces and there is a loss of private emotion in favor of public dissent.

• 12/08/08: Stone-Crazy Prophets: Como el Nuyorican Poet’s Café creó espacio públicos con un micrófono

This paper takes as a point of departure, the work of Anton Rosenthal in “Spectacle, Fear, and Protest: A Guide to the History of Urban Public Space in Latin America”. Rosenthal proposes that political and emotional dissent is often represented through spectacle and protest in the fight for urban public space. My paper attempts to elaborate on Rosenthal’s ideas through an application of Latin American public space to a symbolic public space in New York City. I am particularly interested in literature and performance as a form of political dissent. I propose that the Nuyorican Poet’s Café created a way for a marginalized community to express itself in the only public space available, the air, and that the Rosenthal’s spectable of protest could be poetry.

These are essays I wrote for Professor Longo’s Urban Images course, in Fall 2008. Essays can be read in the comments of this entry.

Nerudian style poems:

• Oda al Cigarillo

• I y II

Poems in the style of Martin Espada:

• X (versions in English and Spanish)

• why i should have listened to mom and majored in computer science

I read a poem I wrote for my final portfolio entitled “why I should have listened to mom and majored in computer science”. The poem can be read in the comments of my portfolio post.

Pictured is Bobby Moeller, another Hispanic Studies student who presented at the event.