La Sementera

Barry and I are doing a small load of laundry - at a high price - so it gives me an opportunity to write more. We're on our last morning in Sitges, but we need a few clean items for the return trip home. I last left off in Torrijos...

Each day in Torrijos began with a nice breakfast at Dean and Antonio's, with pastries, toast, coffee, chorizo, cheese, melons (including yummy toad skin mellon), and coffee. Fortunately we didn't need to get up particularly early Friday or Saturday. While we got ready n the morning, we could hear music from the bin heads parade, which we missed, or children's singing from the children's event at the Town Hall up the street.

As mentioned in an earlier post, we were in tn during La Sementera, the annual celebration of the harvest. Someone pointed out to us that small town festivals are much different than city festivals, which are more of a series of large events. For small town festivals, everyone returns to their hometown for the big celebrations so they take on more of a social feel. Everyone hangs out for days, greeting friends and relatives, socializing, eating, and drinking. Torrijos has a sister city in Spain, with a relationship dating back generations, so a lot of people from the other town come to la Sementera to celebrate.

Waiting for the Moors and Christians.

The town seemed to go all-out for the festival. In addition to the big heads parade, there was a main parade on Sunday, with floats, which we missed. Saturday night beginning at 10 was the Moors and Christians Parade. Thousands of people's shows up to watch. The parade itself included four bands and ranks of people coming down the street in various costumes - Moors first, then the Christians, each accompanied by two bands playing the music appropriate for the procession. The costumes were wonderful. Each group had their own prescribed way of Marching or walking down the street. A person carrying some type of weapon lead each rank, dancing and encouraging applause. After the parade we had some very large churros - apparently a very popular festival tradition.

Some of the Moors.

Some of the Christians.

Giant churros.

Making the churros.

Paella delivery.

The other big "event" we experienced ( other than the fireworks) was the delivery of the big paella. At about 1:30 on Friday afternoon, the annual paella tradition commenced. A large truck drove into the Plaza carrying a room - sized paella pan filled with rice, seafood, and chicken, and covered with foil. A crane lifted the pan off the truck, and workers guided the pan through some brick columns into  the tent set up in the interior of the Plaza. Once in place, volunteers began serving the paella free to anyone who wanted some. We watched the delivery and sat to enjoy drinks and some picked vegetables from a street vendor before getting our Paella. Dean, who had stayed home to finish some work translating a speech for the University President, joined us as we finished our meal.

Stuffed pickle.

The Festival was set up on the two main plazas in the town, with a stage for DJs or live music in each square, beer and food tents set up by various restaurants and political parties, and Street vendors. Lining one street leading away from one of the squares was a line of food trucks selling churros and chocolate. At the far end of town was a large lot or field with people selling bags, shoes, shirts, and DVDs along the street, more vendors and trucks selling churros and all kinds of fair food, plenty of Carnival rides, and an even larger stage for the main concert. Friday night we walked to that end of town to see the sights and eat churros. We walked over to they stage to catch part of the concert by a young Venezuelan pop artist. Gywen and Antonio danced while the rest of us stood there listening like Americanos.

Dancing.

During the festival we met a lot of Antonio's family, including his sister and her family, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We also met friends of their nephew, former students, and a few other people along the way. It was definitely a social occasion, with elements of U.S. traditions like a  reunion, a flea market, a festival, and a carnival or fair.

Dean and Antonnio.

Torrijos is a nice small town of about 15,000, and it's not at all touristy. I believe it has roots in agriculture, and now it appears to be a fairly active center of commerce. There aren't a lot of sites to see, other than perhaps the church, so la Sementera was a great time to visit and experience a bit of the culture and a lot of the local pride.