[Gocamino] Ode Magazine Artcle on the Camino...

[Rebekah Scott]

Yes. I went looking for Acacio and Orietta, and I find a glowing, lighthearted report of how two freeloaders gamed the time-honored free lunch system.  Just what the camino needs. 


Rebekah Scott 
www.moratinoslife.blogspot.com

"The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you." 
- David Foster Wallace


--- On Sun, 2/22/09, Grant Spangler <gaspangler at hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: Grant Spangler <gaspangler at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Gocamino] Ode Magazine Artcle on the Camino...
> To: "†GoCamino OakApple" <gocamino at oakapple.net>
> Date: Sunday, February 22, 2009, 9:21 AM
> 
> I reported the broken link and got an autoresponder
> reply...
>  
> Thank you for your email. The front office will be closed
> the week of
> February 16 to 20.
> 
> C'est la vie.
>  
> La primera pagina es disponible, pero dice nada de Acacio y
> su vida.
>  
>  
> The secret of Santiago 
> 
> Minus wants to experience it just once. And he thinks
> he’ll make it today. It is 6.30 p.m. on a Saturday
> evening; the autumn sun has just slid behind the cathedral.
> A couple of hours ago I arrived here in Santiago de
> Compostela with my 75-year-old walking friend. We spent a
> week making our way through Galicia, a section of the famous
> pilgrim’s route that Minus has walked—in parts or in its
> entirety, with friends and family, including his father. Now
> we’re sitting on an age-old stone bench waiting for our
> “reward”: a free meal offered by the Spanish government.
> 
>  
> On the way here, Minus told me about this “secret of
> Santiago”. Pilgrims from all corners of Europe have been
> coming on foot for centuries to this city to visit the grave
> of Saint James. At the end of the fifteenth century, the
> Catholic kings that ruled Spain at the time commissioned an
> inn to be built, which was called the Hospital Real. It was
> Spain’s first state inn and those walking the trail were
> offered both a bed and a free meal. 
>  
> For centuries, this worked just fine. But then, in the
> latter half of the 1900s, the pilgrim’s route was largely
> populated by tourists—sometimes hundreds a day—and the
> Spaniards drew the line. It was simply too expensive and the
> government decided to put an end to feeding all these modern
> pilgrims. The state inn had since been converted into a
> luxury state hotel. And the management of the Hotel de los
> Reyes Católicos was not so open to welcoming groups of
> unshaven, unwashed backpackers. 
> But a couple of fanatic pilgrims decided to fight the
> decision to suspend this age-old free meal tradition and
> took the Spanish government to court. Surprisingly, they
> won. Since then, the state is required to provide a meal to
> the first ten pilgrims who line up at the hotel’s door at
> 7.00 p.m. “But very few people know this,” says Minus. 
>  
> At 6.45 p.m. we are still the only two hungry pilgrims
> sitting with our backpacks on the stone bench. Minus thinks
> this odd and asks a doorman if the bench is still the
> gathering place for peregrinos seeking a free dinner. The
> man shakes his head and points to the left. There, at the
> bottom of the road where they can’t be seen by the paying
> guests, a group of at least 20 pilgrims are waiting. The
> secret of Minus and Santiago has leaked out. Somewhat
> disillusioned, we join the line of animated young people
> that are doing their best to look just like their
> predecessors of centuries past. They all have copies of
> their compostella, the certificate given to pilgrims by the
> secretary of the cathedral’s chapter who can show (through
> stamps on a card) they have travelled over 100 km to
> Santiago. This is required for the free meal. At 7.00 p.m.,
> the hotel doorman selects the first ten in line, who are
> escorted upstairs. The rest leave to get a meal elsewhere. 
>  
> What now? Minus isn’t about to give up. “We’ll simply
> walk behind them,” he states. And what do you know,
> dressed in his smart walking outfit (shirt, knickerbockers,
> knee socks, backpack and walking stick) he manages to
> convince the doorman with a couple of words of Spanish, his
> certificate, a few hand gestures and his most charming
> smile, that he and his younger friend should be let in. “I
> told them that this is my tenth time here,” he whispers.
> “Needless to say, no one has the nerve to refuse such an
> old pilgrim!”
>  
> We follow the doorman. We traverse long halls, cross a
> courtyard, go down a flight of stairs and find ourselves in
> a small room in the cellar. Comedor de Peregrinos, is
> displayed on the door. The kitchen is just beyond, where the
> ten pilgrims are standing with their meat, potatoes and
> vegetables. Delighted, they file into their little dining
> room. We remain at the distribution point, staring
> expectantly into the eyes of the surprised chef. “What are
> you doing here,” he seems to be asking in unintelligible
> Spanish. He gestures with his arms: no food for you. He has
> 10 fingers in the air. We look as hungry as we can. The
> confusion increases. He calls upstairs. Who on earth let
> these pilgrims in?
>  
> Meanwhile, the kitchen fills with hotel staff who have come
> to eat. And everyone asks the chief what’s going on.
> Increasingly irritated, he calls upstairs again. A short
> time later a man in a pin-striped jacket arrives and makes
> it clear to us in three words of English and lots of Spanish
> that there is no more food. That’s going too far, an older
> lady makes clear who—it later appears—is head of
> housekeeping. She snaps something at her colleague. Minus
> translates loosely: “You cannot send these gentlemen away,
> there is plenty of food!” The man in the pin-striped
> jacket looks at the chef, who clearly retreats. He sighs and
> opens an oven. 
>  
> One minute later we have our plates with cutlets, a pile of
> vegetables and a mound of mashed potatoes. The pilgrim’s
> room is full but there’s space in the staff dining area.
> We are welcomed like heroes and an English speaking
> receptionist tells us we’ve made history: never before
> have an eleventh and twelfth pilgrim eaten here for free.
> Minus erupts in his heartiest laugh. Mission accomplished.
> He has food. And a new “secret”.
>  
> ---------
>  
> I've had the pilgrim dinner there twice .. the menu
> actually is different: it's what the staff is eating that
> day. You sup in the rather tiny employee dining area. Just
> enough to squeeze in the 10 first fortunates. You will need
> a photocopy of your Compostela to surrender to the
> auspicious gatekeeper. And the gathering place is in the
> underground parking lot entrance, all those luxury cars and
> your peregrino gams. Juxtaposition. The iconography was not
> lost on me.
>   
>  
> Buen Camino,
> 
> 
> Grant
>  
> Grant Spangler
> GASpangler at hotmail.com
> http://www.ElCaminoSantiago.com
> http://community.webshots.com/user/ElCaminoSantiago
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