PICENA, Granada, Spain (31/12/2011 - 06/01/2012)
I recently returned, after a 6-7 year hiatus, to ‘my adopted’ village Picena, in Spain. I bought a house there, some 9 years ago. I have family and some friends there too, so it was quite the treat to catch-up. The hiatus was due to my move to the U.S., some 5+ years ago. Getting across to Spain from either the U.S. or England has always been thwarted for some reason or another… The following photographs are of the village, and the surrounding area.
Picena itself (like the surrounding villages), is an old Moorish village, that clings to the lower South of the Sierra Nevada. There, Piceneros still incorporate and utilize Moorish techniques of irrigation. Even the house planning is relatively similar to that of the Moorish descendents. In fact Picena, and other local villages, were that last strongholds of the Moors, before the Reconquista. Later years saw marked divisions and losses, when Franco et al seized power.
(Many years ago, I was talking with a an ex-Francoista at a bar, in Picena. He showed me photographs when he was a boy-informant-in-uniform, sort of like Hitler’s Youth Party. It was difficult for me then, not to feel shocked and angry. But this was not my story, this is not my land, this is not my village; and besides: history IS history)
