Catalán
A second surname and a Spanish heritage that runs through a small town in Castilla-La Mancha, a flat in Madrid, and a lifelong loyalty to Atlético de Madrid.
My mom was born in the small Spanish town of El Provencio, in the province of Cuenca, in the modern-day autonomous region of Castilla-La Mancha. Her parents were Esperanza Mogorrón Pellejero and Heliodoro Catalán Jurado.
Catalán was passed down to me as a second last name. My Spanish heritage is very important to me. As a kid, I went to Spain every summer, sometimes multiple times a year, including both summer and winter. During various periods, I’ve lived there for prolonged stretches of my life.
El Provencio
El Provencio is a very small agricultural town. I learned how to drive a tractor. I learned about vineyards and the economics of viticulture, and the same with olive oil and barley. As a kid, I’d take my uncle’s bike into the countryside almost every day and ride out to a half-decrepit medieval lookout castle that was open access, but enter at your own risk.
The castle lies about 6 km from town, if I remember it right. Inside El Provencio, there’s a beautiful medieval church, spectacular not only for the shape of its exterior, including the bell tower, but also for its stunning vaulted ceilings.
For me, this church is not only where I experienced things like la Semana Santa (yes, with the famous capirotes, and my uncle still likes to remind me of the time I asked the father when all the “toys,” the pasos, or floats with Catholic iconography, were going to come out) and Christmas. It’s also where my grandparents spent every Sunday. My grandfather had a tradition of going to church, then hitting up the bar with his friends to play dominoes and brisca. He proudly displayed a brisca trophy at his home.
Thinking of summers in Spain brings up a lot of nostalgia.
Madrid
I remember when my uncle had a conference, so he dropped me off in the city of Segovia for a day to explore the aqueduct and the medieval city. These experiences are an incredibly significant part of who I am, and give me a unique perspective as someone who’s also native to San Diego, California.
Segovia is now a short AVE ride from Madrid. I visit it almost every time I go back home. Madrid is, in a sense, more home to me than El Provencio, since it’s where my mother has her flat, which is where I started staying more often as I grew into adulthood. I lived in Madrid for a year before attending SDSU here in San Diego. I know Madrid well: I’ve walked almost everywhere one can walk to, south, west, east, and north.
We live in Carabanchel, a neighborhood on the Río Manzanares. I enjoy walking from our place down General Ricardos toward Puente de Toledo, at least heat permitting (especially in summer). There’s a Chinese restaurant just north of that bridge that I know well, since it’s very strategically located for when I get hungry after walking all that distance. The river and the river park are also quite beautiful. Beyond that bridge, looking west, years ago you would have seen El Estadio Vicente Calderón.
Atlético de Madrid
El Estadio Vicente Calderón belonged to Atlético Madrid. They sold it to the city to move into el Metropolitano, in another part of the city, but easy to reach by metro. El Calderón was iconic for one of its red-and-white grandstands, which sat literally on top of a highway that descended into a tunnel.
The stadium is especially memorable to me because I became an Atlético Madrid fan in 1996. Yes, I was a bandwagon fan: I was about to turn 9 years old. Atleti won the doblete that year, and I remember the local peña in El Provencio launching fireworks in celebration.
I’ve been a die-hard Atleti fan since that day. Aupa!
Some of My Favorite Places to Spend My Time in Spain
Mérida
Segovia
Cuenca
Toledo
