By Cameron Graupman, SPA 370-Spring 19

We began our first official day in Morocco by exploring two cities, Tétouan and Tangier. We learned a lot from our tour guide, Mohammed, and the people of these cities. The markets are an essential part of life in both places. As Mohammed explained, people shop for fresh ingredients for their meals at least once per day.

In Tétouan we spent most of the morning visiting the medina or downtown. There you find not just one market, but many. Each market is specific to the goods that are being sold. There are markets for clothes, food, gold, and even small kitchen appliances. The people depend on these markets to survive, both the consumers and the producers of the goods. We got to see several different mosques and various buildings (the hammam or public bath, the neighborhood oven where families bake their own bread) with their unique architecture.

We also learned about the traditional dress of the women and men in Morocco. There are two types of dresses commonly seen in the Riff area. The djellaba is a dress worn by both men and women. It is long and usually includes a hood. The other type we learned about was the kaftan, a long robe worn only by women which can cost up to thousands of euros depending on the quality of the cloth and ornaments. The final outfit we learned about was the dress of the Berber women. They wear a specific hat and outfit. Mohammed surprised our group dressing me with this outfit.

By Tonya Ellis, SPA 370-Spring 19

Tracing Sira Quiroga’s footsteps has lead us all the way to North Africa. On Friday morning we woke up in Málaga, where we enjoyed our last Spanish meal before heading into Tétouan, the city that was once the capital of the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco (1912-1956). Most of us were a bit anxious about our future meals and dress code in yet another country after just getting accustomed to the comidas (meals) and customs in Spain.

We embarked on our journey in a familiar fashion, taking a bus to the port of Algeciras, where we boarded a ferry named Passio per Formentera. The ferry then took us past the stunning Rock of Gibraltar to one of the two small Spanish enclaves of North Africa, Ceuta. This leg of the journey was quite simple. Some of us even caught a quick nap in transit.

The process seemed seamless until reaching the border between Ceuta and Morocco. This is where things came to a temporary halt. The process of crossing the border from Spain (Europe) into Morocco (Africa) may take a bit longer than one might anticipate. During the Spring semester, before starting this trip, our class had researched this point of contact between the two continents and could not help but noticing that crossing the border from North to South costed them no more than a little bit of time.

Unfortunately, attempting to cross this same border in the opposite direction can be much more difficult, especially if you are a poor citizen of an African country hoping to migrate to Europe. These individuals often have to take other measures, such as climbing the fence and/or swimming around it, which ultimately has the potential of costing them their lives. I wonder if that is why photography was strictly prohibited during the process of crossing the border.

By Bianca Martínez, SPA 307-Spring 2019

Thursday morning was filled with walking around and exploring the last bits of Madrid before our departure to Málaga later in the evening. The last place we visited was the Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE, National Library of Spain), an imposing nineteenth century building where sculptures of famous Spanish writers—such as Miguel de Cervantes and Lope de Vega—dominate the main entrance.

We visited the BNE to see original documents—representations of Morocco seen through Spanish/Western eyes—such as travel guides, maps and photos kept in the Sala Goya. First, personnel from Sala Goya kindly showed us historic and contextual documents, including engravings and photos by Mariano Fortuny that had Morocco as a theme. The main goal of our visit, however, was to see original work by Mariano Bertuchi, the artist who created the most popular images of the Spanish Protectorate (“protectorado español” or the colony that Spain maintained in Northern Morocco between 1912 and 1956).

Bertuchi’s work is highlighted in the novel that we read for this class/study trip, El tiempo entre costuras (The Time in Between, 2009), by María Dueñas. In Bertuchi’s art school in Tetouan, Sira (the novel’s protagonist) meets Félix, an art student and neighbor who would become one of her closest friends. Dubbed “the painter of the Protectorate,” Bertuchi established several art schools in Tetouan; he also held influential artistic and political positions in the colony, where he resided until his death in 1955.

Bertuchi’s warm hued depictions of Morocco, which were consistently used as propaganda and touristic advertising for the Spanish Protectorate, became in their time the “official” representation of Morocco for Western eyes.

By Alejandra Morillo and Bianca Martínez, SPA 370-Spring 19

First course: spinach salad with tomato and goat cheese. Second course: chicken marsala with rice. Drink: sangría.

Flan

Empanada with a filling of cod and raisins

Grandma’s Soup: soup of vegetables with pasta

Since our arrival to Spain, we could not help but notice how different the meals and times of day dedicated to them are here, compared to the United States. Back home, you often hear that “breakfast should be the biggest and most important meal of the day.” However, here they have a different perspective on proportions and variations for the first meal of the day. At “Majaderitos,” the cafe where we have been heading in the mornings, regular breakfast includes coffee, zumo de naranja (fresh orange juice) and a choice of barrita (baguette type bread) or croissant with butter and marmalade. The other breakfast option is chocolate with churros or porras (thicker churros). We were surprised to see how simple a Spanish breakfast was in comparison to the filling first meal back in the U.S., which will often include eggs and some kind of meat.

Lunch rush in most restaurants in Madrid goes from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm. In Spain most establishments will have a menú del día, which means “menu of the day” or a special for lunch. This is a great way to feel satisfied for a low cost of about 10 euros ($12, more or less). The menú normally includes a choice of three or four first plates (quite big appetizers), other three or four choices for a second course or entrée,  many choices for dessert (the most difficult decision of the day) and a drink (going from bottled water to wine). If you do not want a dessert, you can have it replaced with a cup of coffee. In the United States this meal would be considered dinner. The principle behind this arrangement seems to be to eat more during the prime time of the day and to avoid heavier foods towards the night–perhaps we should consider a switch to this system back home?

Dinner in Spain is not scheduled for the evening like in the U.S. Instead of having dinner around 5:00 pm or 6:00 pm, Spaniards push it to 9:00 pm or later! Then again, dinner consists of a small appetizer with a choice of either beer or wine.

After a whole semester of preparation, the Spanish 370 class (faculty-led program in Spain, Morocco, and Portugal) took an overnight flight and landed in Madrid today. We were of course exhausted after a day of traveling when we arrived to Hostal Esmeralda, but spirits changed once we had an outstanding menú for lunch at El museo del jamón–literally, The Ham Museum–located next door. I’m afraid we will be back!