<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Palatino Linotype" LANG="0">Hello you all,<BR>
A new albergue has opened in Torremejia in the Via de la Plata. The albergue is situated in a XV Century palace known as Casa-Palacio de los Lastra. While the tower of the palace will be out of bounds, the residential part now contains a pilgrims reception center, a siting room, a restaurant and a coffee shop. The upstairs floor has two large dormitory-type bedrooms with space for 23 pilgrims.<BR>
The restoration of the palace and its adaptation as an albergue cost 577,200 euros, and is part of the "Alba Plata" (silver dawn) plan adapted by the regional Xunta to make the Via de la Plata more pilgrim-friendly.<BR>
I know that we have translated, over and over, Via de la Plata as "silver way"., while, in fact, the use of the word "plata" (silver) in the context of the Via has nothing to do with the known metal. The name is actually derived from the Latin "platea", which means "broad way", or "lapidata" which means "cobbled road" and it refers to the magnificent roads that the Romans built in the area during the days of Augustus. Apparently the Latin origins of the name carried over to the Arabic during the Muslin occupation of Spain, that is, to the word "al-balath" which means "pavement" or "balata" which means "cobbled road". Through the mutations and permutation of language those words became "plata", for the purposes of the Via.<BR>
Now, five or six of you have asked me detailed information about the Via. I really don't know much about it since I have never walked it. I traversed it by car last year and was enormously impressed by the perdurance of the ancient Roman structures and symbols, and by the cities founded by the <BR>
Romans, particularly Merida (a favorite of Augustus), Caceres, Salamanca (an impressive university town par-excellence, for eight centuries), and Zamora,. but I wasn't there long enough to really get to know much about them.<BR>
I do know something about Sevilla and can make some suggestions. Most of you who will walk the Via will commence your pilgrimage there. <BR>
Sevilla is, to me, an enchanting and happy town; I like and admire it so that I have pretty much decided to go and live there when I retire in a few years. I could spend months taking about the city and its wonders and never cover them all.<BR>
But here, I will make only one recommendation: do stay an extra day in Sevilla and go visit the Macarena; while there, go into the museum.<BR>
The Macarena is an image of the Virgin Mary carved from wood by a female sculptress from Seville about 350 years ago. The image is, as far as I know, the only one of the dozens and dozens images of the Virgin in Seville carved by a woman, and it is absolutely entrancing; it is not particularly pretty, as many as the others are, but is mesmerizing, in a Mona-Lisa sort of way. The Macarena is not only the most beloved of the images in Seville, but is well known throughout the world (remember that dance-craze a few years ago?). Her full name is "Nuestra Senhora Esperanza Macarena), and is such a work of art that gazing upon it you can actually sense a personal transcendence.<BR>
Many people have trouble with images of saints and think that we, Catholics, are idol-worshippers or some such. Nothing could be further from the truth. Images are exactly that: images of those who historically, or religiously, move our hearts. Sometimes the particular way in which an artist replicates such heart-vision resonates in our own hearts. Liking an image, and wanting to see it over and over is similar to seeing photographs of our children: we do not ''adore" the photographs, but they stimulate our sentiments to laughter or to tears.<BR>
During the Spanish Civil War in 1936 the Republicans, who were losing, in a fit of frustration got angry at the Catholic church for being on the side of Franco and went around burning churches and their images, which were mostly made of wood; many precious works of art hundreds and hundreds of years old were lost.<BR>
(Such burnings, by the way, made of Seville a very conservative and almost reactionary place; the burning of the churches and of the images has never been forgotten or forgiven). Of the 54 famous Holy Week processions that go on all week, the only one that came out in 1936 was the"Estrella", and those accompanying it, including the mayor, were shot at repeatedly. - The Estrella, by the way, is today also called "la valiente" (the brave one) for coming out then. <BR>
There were many pitched battles throughout the city between those who wanted to burn the churches and the images and those who fought, at gun point, to protect them.<BR>
At any rate, some images, like the Macarena, were saved by ingenuity. Through a ruse, a mock funeral was held in the church and the image of the Macarena was put in the coffin and taken outside and buried, in an undisclosed place, until the end of the Civil War. <BR>
The image is extraordinary; viewed from one side she appears to be crying while viewed from the other she faintly smiles. She represents a mother, a sister, a friend, a daughter, and all things woman. Even my Episcopalian sisters in law, who disapprove of Catholic carrying-ons, admitted that there is something "magic" about the Macarena. <BR>
Someone in this list wrote a few years ago about stopping by the church and seeing the image, almost by accident, and then, in a later trip to Spain, making a special detour all the way from Madrid just to go visit the Macarena again.<BR>
So, that is my recommendation don't miss it. A word of caution: the church closes at noon. Ask in your hotel.<BR>
And now I go pack for my departure tonight. Unfortunately, most unfortunately, I have got to take work files.....(rats!).<BR>
A Santiago pilgrim from New York was a director in the Red Cross 9/ll recovery program until a couple of months ago. She came to my church to help us organize<BR>
a donation effort to help in some form the victims in Madrid of the 3/11 attacks. I am taking the proceeds of our effort to Madrid to deliver them, and will be in Seville Saturday morning.<BR>
I will, however, look in here daily, not only to read your messages but also to erase the hundreds of them, particularly from the Brasilian list, and to keep up with the work-related ones.<BR>
Warm regards to you all,<BR>
Rosina <BR>
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