Spain
Deep in a Covid Wave, Europe Counts Cases and Carries On
ROME — Customers in the Rome bookstore paid no attention to the circular stickers on the floor instructing them to stamp out Covid by maintaining “a distance of at least 1 meter.” “These are things from the past,” said Silvia Giuliano, 45, who wore no mask as she browsed paperbacks. She described the red signs, […]
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Dead but Not Buried, Angola’s Ex-President’s Body Sparks a Continental Fight
LUANDA, Angola — Even in death, Angola’s longtime ruler, José Eduardo dos Santos, is at the center of political infighting. The former president died in Barcelona on July 8 at the age of 79, but when and where he will be buried has set off a cross-continental fight that has pitted the Angolan government and […]
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Preserving the Music of Morocco’s Sephardic Jews
TANGIER, Morocco — They sang to put their babies to sleep, or in the kitchen preparing Purim cakes. They sang in courtyards at night when the men were at synagogue for evening prayer, songs of love, loss, religion and war. Today, most of those women, members of Morocco’s dwindling Jewish population, are gone. But they […]
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This Spanish Village Has More Booksellers Than School Pupils
URUEÑA, Spain — Standing on a hilltop in northwestern Spain, Urueña overlooks a vast and windswept landscape of sunflower and barley fields, as well as a famous winery. The walls of some shops are built directly into the 12th-century ramparts of the village. Despite its rugged beauty, Urueña, like many villages in the Spanish countryside, […]
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Retired Doctor’s Protest Gets Attention of Spanish Banks
MADRID — Because he has Parkinson’s disease, and his shaking hands make it hard for him to push buttons, Carlos San Juan de Laorden, a retired Spanish doctor, finds it difficult to withdraw his money from the ATM. So when in December his bank reduced its retail opening hours, and then told him that the […]
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Recreating a Family’s Lost Holocaust History, Step by Step
That afternoon, we drove to what remains of Barcares, now an abandoned, overgrown field full of unclaimed internment camp artifacts. I walked along the straight rows of what looked like the cement foundations of barracks and picked up a bullet casing and one of many rusted twists of barbed wire. Across the road was a […]
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How Europeans Are Responding to Exorbitant Gas and Power Bills
A German retiree facing sky-high energy bills is turning to a wood-burning stove. The owner of a dry cleaning business in Spain adjusted her employees’ work shifts to cut electric bills and installed solar panels. A mayor in France said he ordered a hiring freeze because rising electrical bills threaten a financial “catastrophe.” Europeans have […]
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Carlos Alcaraz Plays Matteo Berrettini at the Australian Open
VILLENA, Spain — The rowdy tennis academy Christmas party was underway in the adjoining room. But Carlos Alcaraz was sitting calmly at a table surrounded by trophies and talking about the beauty of training in this place that was remote, relaxed and “tranquilo.” It was hard not to detect a metaphor as the dance music […]
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Undeterred by Omicron, Tourists Seek Sun in a Welcoming Spain
TAHICHE, Spain — Coronavirus infections were soaring in Spain, causing caseloads previously unseen in the pandemic. Intensive care unit beds were filling up in hospitals. But that didn’t stop Tatjana Baldynjuk and Timur Neverkevits, a couple from Estonia, from buying plane tickets so they could visit the island of Lanzarote, a sunny outcrop dominated by […]
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