history – Fake Flamenco

history, Mexico, Spanish Culture and Language, Texas

1836: How is the Alamo Remembered?

I love Texas; San Antonio, the cultural mix, the landscape, the word y’all. What I’m not as fond of are the the classic whitewashed Alamo stories. A triad of white men are hailed as the heroes; Bowie, Travis and Crockett. Contributions by Tejanos (people of Spanish or Mexican descent) and African Americans are mentioned rarely […]

Chile, history, Indigenous Peoples, Spanish Culture and Language

Mapuche President of Chile’s Constitutional Congress

Elisa Loncón, member of the Mapuche Nation, was elected president the opening day of the Chilean Constitutional Congress 4 July! The second round in the process of choosing their leader, 96 of the 155 candidates voted for her. The Mapuche are the largest indigenous minority in Chile. The choice for Loncón’s leadership is a significant […]

Catalunya, Chile, history, Immigration, Spanish Culture and Language

Review: Allende’s Long Petal of the Sea

My dear husband gave me books as presents for my birthday this spring. One was Isabel Allende’s Largo pétalo de mar (2019) Long Petal of the Sea. I enjoyed the story Allende weaves of a Catalan family from northern Spain who flee their country when Franco’s forces win the Spanish Civil War. They are stranded […]

history, Nature, Uruguay

Out of the Silence: After the Crash

Newspapers, books and a film have told the story of the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes in 1972. However, Eduardo Strauch waited four decades to write his memoir of the days they spent high in the mountains on the edge of survival. In 2012, he published Desde el silencio (2012) along […]

Chile, history, Indigenous Peoples, Spanish Culture and Language, The Americas

155: The Joy of Representation

Fake Flamenco Exclusive: Chileans have waited a long time to open the door to a new democratic Constitution; 48 years. Decades after the dictatorship they’ve lived in electoral democracy without the founding document to support it. Dictator Pinochet poisoned the foundations with a constitution of his design. On Fake Flamenco, we have followed the Chilean […]

history, Spanish Culture and Language

1762: Territories You Might Be Surprised Belonged to Spain (Like Minnesota)

When I was working on the post about Spanish California, I was shocked when I saw a map of the Viceroyalty of Nueva España. The iconic geography of the Great Lakes clearly marked that the majority of present day Minnesota once was part of Spanish Louisiana; Louisiana as in the purchase! I had no idea […]