Las Cruces de Mayo

Andrea has a friend named Angel who lives in Lebrija, a pueblo outside of Sevilla. They have their own festival called Las Cruces de Mayo, so we decided to check it out. Lebrija is definitely smaller and quieter than Sevilla, but it has it's own charm. Angel's house was quaint too. His family has a patio, where we danced some sevillanas and ate our dinner. Angel's second cousin, Isabel, and his friend, Consol, also came by. They happen to study English, so we spoke in a mix of English and Spanish. They also taught us some useful expressions, such as “Los pilotos se han encendido” (aka “you're nipping”).

During the festival, the lebrijanos dance the Sevillanas in little patios. It's similar to the casetas in the Feria, but everything's outside and has a very folkoric feel. One person after another sings the sevillanas. Angel's and Isabel brought their own instruments with them. One of the instruments was a caña, which is a large wooden stick which you hit between your thumb and index finger. The other instrument was an almirez, which is basically a mortar, and you use the pestal to hit it. It sounds like a bell. I've gotten better at playing these instruments, but I just clapped along most of the time.

The cruces (the crosses, but basically refers to the sites of the festivities) are beautifully decorated with flowers and religious images. The lebrijanos have their own verison of the sevillanas (called the sevillanas corraleras). The music is slightly faster and the dance has a slight bounce to it.

At the first cruz, I danced quite a few times, especially with Andrea:


(Notice the bouncy couple in the back)
It's not easy to hear when the music starts, since the singing isn't very clear and not every instrument joins in at the same time. At one point, some guy asked me to dance, which was fun. The next cruz was almost empty, and one of the men was literally begging us to stay, have a few drinks, and dance a bit. After I danced, some guy yells, how is it possible that “la china” (the Chinese girl – aka me) dances the sevillanas like a sevillana? There was kind of an awkward silence, and everyone was staring at me. I just shrugged my shoulders and waited for the music to start again. Then someone starts singing a sevillana about the “la china,” and I wasn't sure to take it as a joke or be offended. The last cruz we went to was filled with a ton of people. It was difficult to dance on the patio. At this point, it was about 4 o'clock in the morning so people were already drunk. Somehow I got passed from one random person to another to dance the sevillanas, and before I knew it, they wanted to take pictures with me.

I guess whenever I feel crappy about my dancing, I should just head to some random pueblo and dance the sevillanas.

La Feria

Just wanted to greet you all "in person" :)


(Excuse my awkwardness)
The Feria (this year, from April 28th to May 3rd) is a basically a week of festivities for the sevillanos. The women dress up like gitanas (gypsies) and people move around in horse-drawn carriages (or mount the horses themselves). It's a spectacular explosion of color. In the fair grounds, many casetas (tents) are set up, where the people eat, drink, and dance the sevillanas. Many of the casetas are private, so you would have to know someone to get in. Luckily, Andrea and I know are friends with some sevillanos, so we managed to get in to some casetas.

Here's a quick tour of the fairgrounds:


(Excuse my fast panning)
The rebujito (a mix of alcohol with Sprite) is a popular drink during the Feria. Apparently, it's very refreshing, so it's easy to consume a lot without even realizing it. But given my extremely low alcohol tolerance, it only took me two cups to start feeling the effects. The heat rose up to my face, and it got to the point where I couldn't see anything except the color red. It was quite scary actually. I collapsed at one point, and the next thing I knew I'm sitting in a chair, and some lady is telling me to open my legs, as she attempts to stick my head in between my legs. Eventually I regained my vision and the lady told me not to worry, that she'll take care of me. I really appreciated her kindness. After drinking some water, I was on the move again.

As my host father has told us, the Feria is something that's very sevillana, something's that hard for foreigners to understand. But Andrea and I didn't just watch the Feria, we participated in it, especially since we were dressed in our trajes de flamenca. We also know how to dance the sevillanas, which made it more fun. Since it's obvious that I'm not from around here (you know, being Asian and all), a lot of people were confused that I could dance the sevilllanas. Then when they asked me where I learned it, they were even more surprised that I learned the sevillanas in the United States. I'm actually am kind of glad that I do know the sevillanas, because I felt more accepted into the culture.