I just wanted to share with you all how happy I am to teach Spanish and to have Spanish as the main driving force in my life! I just got out of my senior literature class where we just finished reading Bodas de sangre. The students just love it and they were so passionate about their interpretations of the storyline. Hearing them "LOVE" García Lorca's work is so inspirational. I am so lucky to be able to LIVE Spanish everyday here in the Bronx (which, btw, is an amazingly nice place to live, work and raise children in! )

Last night as I was planning my lesson, I couldn't get a song by Pata Negra out of my head...and it turned out to be a song that was recorded on the Blues en la Frontera album called "Bodas de sangre"...which I had not even realized. When I put on the song, it finally clicked that the lyrics were exactly from the last act of García Lorca's Bodas de sangre . I was so happy to share it with my class today...and they really liked it too.

Well, just wanted to share with you that I hope you all ( teachers and others too!) are able to be working at something that you LOVE too...it really makes a difference.

and thanks again MM for helping Spain stay very much alive for me everyday! You are the greatest!

awww shucks, ma'am. Good luck to you with your teachings.... there in the BRONX! hehehe..

Saludos, MadridMan

Esperanza, your children in the Bronx are very lucky to have a teacher such as yourself. Steinbeck was describing you in this little essay:

"On Teaching"
by John Steinbeck
It is customary for adults to forget how hard and dull school is. The learning by memory all the basic things one must know is the most incredible and unending effort. Learning to read is probably the most difficult and revolutionary thing that happens to the human brain and if you don't believe that watch an illiterate adult try to do it. School is not so easy and it is not for the most part very fun, but then, if you are very lucky, you may find a teacher. Three real teachers in a lifetime is the very best of luck. I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

My three had these things in common. They all loved what they were doing. They did not tell - the catalyzed a burning desire to know. Under their influence, the horizons sprung wide and fear went away and the unknown became knowable. But most important of all, the truth, that dangerous stuff, became beautiful and precious.

Blessings

hey everybody

booklady and MM

she's talking about riverdale which is actually a very NICE neighborhood in the bronx.

yes good places do exist in the bronx. :p

Esperanza writes: I hate to throw cold water on your Bronx Borough commercial but
There's the Bronx and then there's Fort Apache, as the cops assigned to the (two-four?) 133rd & Willis Ave. Station used to call their Precinct house. The Riverdale neighborhood where Esperanza lives and works is very nice: It is in the same Borough as the south Bronx but the lifestyle and quality of life are worlds apart.

I went to High School in the Bronx, in what is now considered part of the south Bronx. A few years ago I went to visit my Alma Mater near the Yankee Stadium. Just walking around the neighborhood and seeing what it had become brought tears to my eyes.

Re: Federico Garcia Lorca
Many years ago, when I was living in Madrid, I would listen to someone doing passionate readings from Garcia Lorca's works on the radio. I'm sure these were recorded and it was the recordings that I was earing. The next time you are in Madrid, you might want to try to find some of those old recordings. I can't tell you where ...

Hello Esperanza. I really love that song of Pata Negra. It's a petty that Raimundo Amador left the group as I don't find his lonely career so interesting.
You'll probably know, but there are lots of songs based on Lorca's poems, specially in flamenco. Enrique Morente has a full album dedicated to Lorca, but also singers like Leonard Cohen, Kiko Veneno, Camarón, Ana Belén .. put music to his poems

According to the 'Bio' in my leather bound Aguilar edition of Federico Garcia Lorca's Obras Completas, he was born on 5 June, 1898 in Fuentevaqueros (Granada). His father was Federico Garcia Rodriguez and his mother Vicenta Lorca (maestra). He was killed by Guardia Civil in August, 1936.

His first surname (his father's) was Garcia and his second (his mother's), Lorca. In Spain, the poet is almost universally known by both surnames (i.e., Garcia Lorca). In Spanish, if one refers to the poet by a single surname it should be Garcia. Garcia Lorca is fine; but to just refer to him as 'Lorca' is incorrect!

I think the Brits are the most common offenders in this syntactical issue, followed in close order by the Americans. This is probably because we usually go by a single surname; if we use our mother's maiden name we normally use it as a middle name. It pains me when some of our Spanish friends (even teachers) refer to the poet as 'Lorca,' as if that were correct. No, Esperanza; you are definitely not one of the offenders. I re-read your post and see that you consistently refer to the poet as Garcia Lorca.

That's good info for me, Eddie. Thanks. I once visited a Spanish doctor(Dr. Sanchez-Arroyo) and everytime i call him "Dr.Arroyo",he had this strange look on his face and now I know why :o . But he didn't correct me,he's probably being polite

Eddie, you're right about the correction of surnames; however, it's pretty common to speak like Miguelito did when the first surname is so common, like García, Pérez, Fernández, ..., and you don't want to say the two surnames. Example: The president of the Madrid Community is usually referred to as "Gallardón" when his surnames are "Ruiz Gallardón".

It's commonly accepted, but it's wrong, and many times leads to problems like when trying to find the name in the white or yellow pages.

So, yo see, MariCristi, that it was not so bad after all.

Glad to hear that Ignacio! In the University one of my dearest Spanish professors was referred to as Dra. Quintero, although her name is Gómez Quintero. I was quite close to her and she never corrected us ( or me) and I am certain that she would have!

Also, Miguelito: thanks for your suggestions on other García Lorca poems put to music. I do have most of the ones you mention , I am a REAL fan of Ga Lorca's work! It is SO passionate!