Words of the wise…
“For some time now. I always like to carry my little notebook around with me and jot down the things that I think of. I’m not going to devote myself to that at all, but I do like to capture what I feel or what I think. Afterwards, you feel really good. There are times that you don’t even know what you’re writing, but oh well. I think a poet dreams of seeing his verses sketched out on a human body and a bailaor dreams of seeing his dancing in a poem. And I think that’s very important and it’s something that if you can manage to achieve, is wonderful. Sometimes you want to sketch something in the air, but what do you sketch? And you can sketch a poem perfectly; and a poem can be pure dance.” -Eva la Yerbabuena
Cathedral of the Sea
Ildofonso Falcones Novel; Catherdreal of the Sea
A masterful epic of love, war, treason, plauge, famine, witchcraft, anti-Semistism and the Inquisition 14th-century Spain, the medieval city of Barcelona is enjoying a golden age prosperity. Its humblest inhabitants are building, stone by stone, a magnificent church to overlook their harbor. This is the Cathedral of the Sea: a church to be built for the people by the people. In its shadow, Arnau, a young serf on the run from his feudal lord, struggles to earn his freedom. After famine, plague and thwarted love, Arnau’s fortunes begin to turn when King Pedro makes him a baron as a reward for his courage in battle. But he is forced to marry Eleanor, a ward of the king whom he does not love. His new found status excites jealousy from his friends who plot his downfall with devastating consequences. Arnau’s journey from slave to nobleman is the story of a struggle between good and evil that will turn Church against State and brother against sister.
Flamenco on Judaism
Ethan Margolis – Leading Guiatarist
Ethan Margolis’s story, is truly an inspiring story. At the age of seventeen her fell in love with the Spanish culture and held his first guitar. It was a complete turn of interest, for he was into Rock ‘n Roll, ironically enough, today he is one of the leading guitarists in the Flamenco world.
Today, Margolis is part of a flamenco group called “Arte y Pureza”. A group devoted specifically to the traditional, pure flamenco from the Gypsy neighbohoods of Andalusia. Margolis talks of how managing a group with pure Spanish people is difficult because they don’t perfer to take orders from a person who isn’t of Gypsy blood. But there is a connection between the Jews and Spain… in his case, it is connected with the Jewish ancestors that were executed from Spain in 1492, and from there grew to become gypsies themselves.
There are still similarities between flamenco song and synagogue chant, and Margolis sees a good deal of empathy between Gypsies and Jews, who find common ground in a shared history of persecution. “In my experience, a large proportion of the flamenco following outside of Spain is Jewish,” he remarked. His Gypsy colleagues, meanwhile, “feel a very deep understanding for the plight of the Jews.”
Yasmin Levy – Ladino Flamenco Singer
Yasmin Levy – Israeli Ladino Singer. In her very strong and deep singing, she brings you through a journey of the Ladino/Judeo Spanish Music, as she mixes it with Andalusian Flamenco.
Yasmin Levy was born in Jerusalem, Israel in 1975. Her father was singer himself. He died when she was one years old. She says that she learns who her father was through his music, and today she continues the search of her father through the Ladino/Judeo Spanish history. Her father recorded Ladino music before it would become extinct. Today Levy has allowed Ladino music to become greatly known as well as an International success. 
Levy was featured in the Israeli Film “Ladino, 500 years young”. In this film you learn of her rising to her great success and the history of the Spanish Jews that were executed from Spain in 1492. The exile of the Jews preserved the Ladino Language in certain places where they established a community. This language made its way through Greece, Italy, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and North Africa. And today, thanks to Yasmin, Ladino is making its way back again.
