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Primo de Rivera,
Primo de Rivera, Miguel /ˈprēmō de riˈve(ə)rə/ (1870–1930), Spanish general and statesman; head of state 1923–30. He assumed dictatorial powers after leading a military coup. His son, José Antonio (1903–36), founded the Falange in 1933 and was executed by Republicans during the Spanish Civil War.
zarzuela /zärˈzwālə/ I. noun 1. a Spanish traditional form of musical comedy. 2. a Spanish dish of various kinds of seafood cooked in a rich sauce. – origin Spanish, apparently from a place name.
The Internationale
The Internationale" (French: "L'Internationale", [l‿ɛ̃.tɛʁ.na.sjɔ.nal(ə)]) is a left-wing anthem. It has been a standard of the socialist movement since the late nineteenth century, when the Second International adopted it as its official anthem. The title arises from the "First International", an alliance of workers which held a congress in 1864. The author of the anthem's lyrics, Eugène Pottier, an anarchist, attended this congress.[1][
diatribe /ˈdīəˌtrīb/ I. noun a forceful and bitter verbal attack against someone or something • a diatribe against the Roman Catholic Church. – origin late 16th cent. (denoting a disquisition): from French, via Latin from Greek diatribē ‘spending of time, discourse,’ from dia ‘through’ + tribein ‘rub.’
And between one lot and the other, we’ll finally see the military take over, and then we’re going to be sorry. Or we’ll get ourselves into a civil war, unite against one another, take up arms, and end up killing one another, killing our brothers.”
Unsettling
My sons have left me, my wife has abandoned me, and the day-to-day life in my company has turned into a hell.
I’ve recognized one of the few things that was really worthwhile. Do you know what that was, Dolores? You. You and this daughter of ours who’s the spitting image of you in the years we were together. That was why I wanted to see you.”
Gonzalo Alvarado,
“I didn’t fight for you much, Dolores, did I? I was unable to confront my family, and I wasn’t worthy of you.
Your mother is very tough, girl, very tough and very firm. And I, I was probably weak and a fool, but, well, this isn’t the time for regrets.”
All I want is to leave the ends nicely tied up, which rightfully I think should be put in order for when my time comes.”
“Do you remember Servanda, Dolores? The way she used to spy on us, the way she’d follow us and then go telling tales to my mother?”
how ironic after all these years: my mother rotting in the cemetery, and me here with Servanda, the only person who takes care of me, what a pathetic fate.
here you’ve got almost a hundred and fifty thousand pesetas. You seem smart like your mother; I’m sure you’ll be able to invest them well. With this money I also want you to take care of her, to make sure she doesn’t lack for anything and to support her if one day she needs it.
They’re for you, Sira. It would be safest if you never wear them: as you can see, they’re a little showy. But you can sell them or pawn them if you’re ever in need and you’ll get a considerable sum for them.”
this, my dear Dolores, is not my wife’s property: all this is mine and my wish is that it should pass from me to my daughter.” “That cannot be, Gonzalo, it cannot be.” “It certainly can be.” “It can’t.” “It can.”
And there is also a notarized document affirming that they belong to me and that I am passing them on to you of my own free will. It’ll be useful to you should you ever need to prove that they’re yours; I hope you’ll never have to prove anything to anyone, but just in case.”
it’s a public recognition of something I should have done many years ago. I state here what it is that connects you and me, and now you can do whatever you please with it: show it to half the world or tear it in a thousand pieces and throw it in the fire; that is up to you alone.”
What my mother had received was a small pile of photographs. Old, brown, and of poor quality, taken by a street photographer for next to nothing some spring morning more than two decades ago. A young couple, attractive, smiling. Complicit and close, caught in the fragile net of a love as great as it was inconvenient, unaware that after their years apart, when they were once again confronted with each other and with that testimony of yesterday, he would turn toward a balcony so as not to look at her face and she would clench her jaw so as not to cry in front of him.
leave here as soon as possible. Both
“Be careful, Sira. Be careful and be responsible,” she said in a low voice, forming her words quickly. “Don’t do anything crazy. You’ve got a lot now, a lot; so much more than you could ever have dreamed of having, so for God’s sake, my child, be cautious; be cautious and sensible.”
Give me a little time to make contact in your name with the owners of Pitman in Buenos Aires and convince them about our plan to open a large branch in Morocco, either in Tangiers or the Protectorate, we’ll see. A month at most and we’ll have our reply. And as soon as we have it, arrivederci Hispano-Olivetti: we’ll be off and get this thing running.”
Our academy is aimed at the European population living in Morocco: Tangiers is an international city, a free port with citizens coming from all across Europe.
“Long and steep is the path of life. Not all reach the wished-for end, where success and fortune await them. Many are left by the wayside: those who are inconstant, weak-natured, who are negligent, ignorant, who trust only in luck, forgetting that the most resonant and exemplary triumphs were forged through the power of study, perseverance, and will. Each man can choose his own destiny: Make yours!”
irremediable /ˌi(r)rəˈmēdēəb(ə)l/ I. adjective impossible to cure or put right. II. derivatives irremediably /ˌi(r)rəˈmēdēəblē / adverb – origin late Middle English: from Latin irremediabilis, from in- ‘not’ + remediabilis ‘curable’ (from remedium ‘remedy’).
we arrived in this strange, dazzling city, filled with color and contrast, where the dark faces of the Arabs with their djellabas and turbans mingled with those of European settlers and others fleeing their past, in transit to a thousand other destinations, their suitcases filled with uncertain dreams.
Reminds me of the film Casablanca
Lazy
in the afternoons we’d walk along the recently constructed Boulevard Pasteur, or watch American movies at the Florida Kursaal or the Capitol, or we’d sit at some café in the Small Souq, the pulsing center of the city, where Arabs and Europeans intermingled congenially.
And I discovered to my utmost dismay that at any moment and with no apparent cause, everything we believe to be stable can be upset, derailed, twisted from its course.
I transformed into his shadow, into a presence that was almost always mute, indifferent to anything but feeling him beside me and being an appendage of his, an always obliging extension of his person.
The Croatian couple, the Jovovics, both of them so beautiful, so alike and so ambiguous that at times they passed for lovers and at others for siblings.
And I watched as, day by day, he very smoothly became closer to them and farther from me.
Ramiro Arribas, the man of a thousand faces, had up till that moment shown me only one of them. It wouldn’t be long before I’d see the rest.
never got the chance to tell him that we were going to have a child because when I arrived he wasn’t there. All I found was the room turned upside down, the
closet doors wide open, the drawers pulled from their runners, and the suitcases scattered on the floor.
in its initial stages, it requires a considerable investment that exceeds my own financial capacities, which is why I have taken the liberty of borrowing your father’s money and jewels to meet the initial costs.
It was the man who answered: “Traffic in the Strait has been stopped. They’ve declared a state of war.”
memories began to return to my bed like a precisely ordered procession. I could almost see them harassing me, lining up to come in through the door at the end of that big, light-filled hospital ward.
men like Arribas only love themselves. They can be affectionate and seem generous; they’re usually charming, but at the moment of truth the only thing that interests them is their own hide, and at the first sign of things getting a little tricky they’re out the door like a shot.
exculpate /ˈekskəlˌpāt/ I. verb — [with obj.] 1. ‹formal› show or declare that (someone) is not guilty of wrongdoing • the article exculpated the mayor. II. derivatives 1. exculpation /ˌekskəlˈpāSH(ə)n / noun 2. exculpatory /ˌeksˈkəlpəˌtôrē / adjective – origin mid 17th cent.: from medieval Latin exculpat- ‘freed from blame,’ from the verb exculpare, from ex- ‘out, from’ + Latin culpa ‘blame.’
few weeks ago these would have been reasonably serious matters, but nowadays they’re trivial compared to what’s happening in the capital.”
don’t want you out of my sight. So you’ll stay here awhile and steer clear of any kind of trouble. And you are not to consider this a piece of advice or a suggestion; it’s got the full force of an order.
And dragging a pregnancy with you that you ended up losing no sooner than you set foot in Tetouan, stepping off the bus.”
felt useless, unfit to face life and its challenges alone, unable to survive without a hand leading me firmly, without a head making decisions for me, without a nearby presence in whom to trust, and on whom to depend.
“Were you married?” he asked. I shook my head. “That’s better for you,”
In other circumstances, such apparently chivalrous behavior might have been interpreted differently, but at that time, neither he nor I doubted that his interest in me was strictly professional, that I was simply an object worth having in his safekeeping in order to avoid serious complications.
you remain free on the condition that while you recover, you’ll find a decent way to earn a living and save enough to pay off your debt to the Continental. I asked them to give you one year to settle the outstanding bill and they accepted. So now you can start finding a way to scrape up this money, from under a rock if need be, but honestly and without getting into any trouble, is that clear?”
I’m not too pleased that this is where she’ll be staying; she’s already been corrupted, she’s not going to learn a lot of good from you, but anyway
This did not, however, stop her from doing her best to buy, sell, rebuy, resell, sell on credit, exchange, and trade whatever she could lay her hands on. Coins, cigarette cases, stamps, fountain pens, socks, watches, lighters—all of them of shady origin, all with uncertain destinations.
