Decades ago, Lontxo was forced to write "In school I must not speak Basque" 1,000 times in his exercise book. Fast forward to 2025, and Spanish politicians in the national parliament can now submit documents to the Congress of Deputies in regional languages such as Basque, Catalan, or Galician.

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. These newsletters accompany a student worksheet which can be downloaded freely here. This week:

1. Edition 133 of Boletín.

2. Topical takeaways per A Level theme.

3. PDF downloads.

📌Issue 133

I must admit that I’m flying through this edition. It’s the last day of my half-term and I’ve been working quite a lot (planning and 2nd edition of my book). I was honestly going to leave it a few days but this morning (25th April) I saw a photo (below) shared onto my X feed. It was a photo of a child’s exercise book, dating back (I guess) to the dictatorship years of Spain, in which a child had written "In school I must not speak Basque" 1,000 times. Here it is:

Prior to seeing that image I came across an article about a protest in Barcelona in which a few thousand people got together to voice their anger that the authorities aren’t doing enough in regard to the use of Catalan language in Catalonia.

For my non-UK based readers (and having checked the stats Boletín is now read in 37 states in the US!) I’m an A Level Spanish teacher and this whole newsletter started back in 2019 so that I could share relevant (curriculum-related) stories with the students in my class.

Next week we have an A Level speaking exam, and the topic of Regional Identity and culture is a prominent theme of said exam.

The exam board tend to go for very visible elements of culture and identity when putting together their questions for the speaking tasks and these usually fall into the categories of:

1. Regional languages

2. Gastronomy

3. Festivals

Don’t task this as gospel though. As we’ve explored in the past there are many elements to culture which we don’t see that could also come up. See edition 126 below for a refresher.

An introduction to Spanish grammar (CEFR A1 - B2)

The 2nd edition of my book is 99% complete and should be live next week!

If you like what I’ve been doing with Boletín for the last four five years or like me, you like buying language books then consider checking out the book I released last week. It’s called Spanish grammar workbook: An ambitious, jam-packed introduction to Spanish grammar for complete beginners, intermediate learners and GCSE students. The reviews are currently coming in and I’m delighted with them!

The reviews are in!

Topical takeaways

Here are some topical takeaways for any A Level students about to do a speaking exam. It’s important that you demonstrate an understanding of culture as appropriate to any points you’re making. Here’s a few snippets linked to the WJEC board. I’ve also posted, for the more diligent of you, some follow up links for you to read through.

Set B card topics (the discussion card):

Family structures, traditional and modern values, friendships/relationships

1. Since Francoism (1939 - 1975) society has changed a lot. Women, who used to serve a domestic role in a conservative country, now have more rights (117) and according to Giles Tremlett (edition 111) are spearheading a new social revolution.

2. Other things that women couldn't previously do include: anything related to finances, have a job, open a bank account, possess property, travel without permission. Read more with edition 107.

3. The average age which a young Spanish person leaves home is 30.3 years old! This is due to several factors such as access to housing, job security/salary, rent prices. This is from edition 131.

4. Is screen time affecting family relationships? According to edition 65 the family environment and relationships are affected by excessive social media use.

5. The role of grandparents is fundamental in Spain. They keep families together, transmit family histories, give emotional support, spend time with grandchildren, give advice and look after family members (including financially). This is from edition 63 but in edition 132 James Blick says this is overplayed and aunts/uncles also play an important role.

Educational and employment opportunities

1. Everything happens in Madrid, or so it seems, according to edition 131. Young people are leaving their pueblos to find opportunities in the bigger Spanish cities. Youth unemployment is at 26.9% which is great compared to 2014 when it was at 56% but still there's improvements to be had.

2. In edition 100 we learn that one school has decided to teach "domestic chores" to its students such as: ironing, cooking, sewing and cleaning. This is aimed at boys and girls. Also on offer is carpentry, electrician courses, brick-laying courses. The objective is to enlighten students about gender equality.

3. Los ninis are those who don't work or study and this group has been an issue in Spain for a fairly long time. Some people blame the government for not offering ninis any alternatives. “En España ha habido Gobiernos ‘nini’: no han ofrecido ni alternativas, ni soluciones a los jóvenes” says Yolanda Díaz (Minister of Work).

4. At the age of 18 in Spain you get what is called the "bono cultural". This is 400 euros, for free, from the government, to spend on cultural activities. Controversially it can be spent on bullfighting events which are protected under Spanish law as being part of Spain's national heritage. This from edition 90.

5. Spanish youths are some of the most over-qualified in Europe. 35% of youths in Barcelona has jobs which don't have any need for the university education they have. In the same edition, 105, we learn that coding is making its way onto the Spanish curriculum at all levels as the government consider it "the language of the future".

Set A topics (the argument card):

Regional culture and heritage in Spain

1. What is culture when viewed from the Spanish angle? In edition 126 (you really need to read this one!) we learn that visible culture (the culture we see overtly) is food, language, festivals, flags, music, clothing, fashion, literature and invisible culture (la cultura invisible) is the culture we don't see such as: personal space, display of emotion, touching, approaches to religion, marriage, family roles, attitudes to elders, history, education, death, politics).

2. A survey has revealed that Spain has the least interest in a return to traditional ways of life/traditional values. These values typically include: the importance of the family, respect for authority, religiousness, good manners.

3. Important at a local level are bares de barrio, these are places where community life happens. A nice quote is "sin bar, no hay barrio". For lots of people going to the bar de barrio is not only a part of their daily routine but rather a link to their past where they can maintain traditions and family memories.

4. Social connection is everything, life expectancy is high, there's a strong sense of community in Spain. People are generally more relaxed and open and willing to not work on a Sunday although yes, there are some who do live to work and not the other way round. This is from the James Blick edition (132).

5. The youth are not as interested in religion as previous generations were. Potentially this is due to the new globalised world we live in or the role of new technologies (edition 68).

The student worksheets can be downloaded here.

Boletín 133 Newsletter

3.19MB ∙ PDF file

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Have a great week,

Ollie

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In this week’s Boletín discover more about the Spanish way of life (including family, food, culture and lots more!) with James Blick from Spain Revealed. If you’re an A Level student or teacher then you can’t miss it!

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. These newsletters accompany a student worksheet which can be downloaded here. This week:

1. Introduction to issue 132 of Boletín

2. A Q&A with James Blick

3. Student-friendly PDF download with “ten takeaways” section

🫶If you haven’t already then subscribe to make sure future editions arrive straight to your inbox. If you enjoy this week’s edition then please give it a like or a share!

📌Edition 132.

It’s March 2025 and students up and down the UK are gearing up for their upcoming exams. A Level students are still covering topics in class, learning grammar, writing essays for the film and trying to broaden their understanding and knowledge of Spain and the Spanish speaking world. The latter is a must as they have to:

Show very good knowledge and understanding of the culture and society of Spain and Spanish-speaking countries and communities. Share ideas and points of view which are well supported by evidence. Draw conclusions based on an understanding and appreciation of the country's culture and society.

To do all of that is no mean feat especially with so much else going on!

Enter, James Blick.

James, alongside his wife Yoly, run a super popular YouTube channel called Spain Revealed which needs no introduction. Together they’ve been making videos for years about Spanish food, lifestyle and culture and have amassed 37 million views on YouTube alone. As of September, James will also be accepting new students onto his 8-week Move to Spain Masterclass course covering location, property, timelines, taxes, banking, working in Spain, healthcare, thriving as a local and much more!

Move to Spain Masterclass

I asked James if he wouldn’t mind answering some questions about his experiences in Spain to help students gain a better understanding of the largely unexplored cultural/societal side of Spain, which students are expected to show an understanding of in writing and speech during exam season. He gladly obliged!

🎤An interview with James Blick.

I wonder if you could introduce yourself to our readership with a little background on yourself.

Hey, everyone, so my name's James Blick. I was born in New Zealand, but I've been living in Madrid for the last 14 years. I came to Spain in a roundabout route. I moved to France for a year when I was in my mid-20s because I was just in love with the idea of living in Europe. When I was in France, I met a Spanish woman who's now my wife. So, we lived in New Zealand together a little while but finally settled here (Madrid) in 2011.

So yeah, now I've been here, now I feel more at home in Spain than I do in in New Zealand. We have a daughter here who's like you guys, learning Spanish. Well, she speaks Spanish, but she's bilingual, she's only three years old, so she's learning both English and Spanish at the same time, which is a pretty fascinating thing to watch.

Favourite Spanish word or idiomatic phrase?

There's one I really like, which is “de perdidos al río”, which literally translates as kind of “from lost to the river”. I was trying to figure out what the best way to translate this was and actually found a film which has terrible reviews, a comedy from 2004, an American comedy, which was called Without a Paddle. So, “up <insert expletive here> creek without a paddle”, translates as “de perdidos al río”. It's like when you've got a situation that's so bad, it couldn't be worse and then it does get worse.

How did you learn Spanish?

Well, I always answer this question by saying that I'm still learning Spanish, you know, learning a language when you weren't born into it. Like my daughter who's born into English and Spanish, you're never truly bilingual. So, for me, it's a continual process. I also have Spanish class once a week with a private tutor. We go over things that I've heard or struggled with during the week.

I would say I have a C2/1 level of Spanish, but throughout my whole life here, I'll still be acquiring language and learning things.

I actually made a mistake when I moved here. I didn't take Spanish classes right from the start because I figured that living in Spain and having a Spanish wife would be enough. But it's not.

You don't acquire a language just by being in the country. You certainly acquire some things, but you really need to make an effort to understand it. So, a lot of it in the early years was a bit slow-going just through living here and interacting with people and picking stuff up and then over time I realized I wanted to really reinforce that. So, now I have a Spanish tutor.

For the first time the other day, my daughter actually said a Spanish word I didn't understand. So, that was humbling, as I say, she's three years old.

An introduction to Spanish grammar (CEFR A1 - B2)

If you like what I’ve been doing with Boletín for the last four five years or like me, you like buying language books then consider checking out the book I released in July. It’s called Spanish grammar workbook: An ambitious, jam-packed introduction to Spanish grammar for complete beginners, intermediate learners and GCSE students.

The reviews are in!

How do you use languages in your day-to-day life?

A lot of my life is actually in English. It used to be more in Spanish, but we want our daughter to learn English and obviously she'll learn Spanish just by being in Spain. We speak English at home now, which we didn't previously. So, when I'm out and about, I use Spanish, but in my work due, to my audience, it's all in English. I would say that 60% of my day or even 70% sometimes is in English, which depresses me a little bit because I don't like living in Spain and speaking so much English, but it's just the reality right now.

One thing you’d teach an A Level Spanish class which you don’t think would be taught in a classroom.

So, I'm not sure if you guys learn this, but this is a very common expression that is used constantly in Spain when you screw up effectively. “Liarla”. If you screw up a situation, you would say “la lié” (I really screwed that up).

I think that's kind of a cool thing that I didn't know and wasn't super comfortable using and so I brought it up with my Spanish tutor and we went through it. It's very common in Spain.

If you could move to any other place in Spain, where would you go?

Ah, the eternal question. I love it in Madrid, but in the end, I would love to be near the water. It feels like living in Spain and not being right on the water is kind of a shame.

This is a hard question because I love the north, it's like New Zealand, where I'm from, but it's cool and cold in winter and I wouldn't mind that, but it could be a bit depressing, and I don't think my wife would like that. The South gets really hot and sometimes in the summer I would struggle.

If I could move anywhere, maybe somewhere in Andalusia, maybe in the south, somewhere on the Costa del Sol, or potentially the Costa Brava. Actually, yeah, maybe the Costa Brava, which is the coast between Barcelona and France. It’s a little cooler, I love the food and the culture there, beautiful beaches. That would be a nice spot to have a second home.

What is your favourite Spanish tradition or custom?

I love Christmas here. In New Zealand, and in the UK, I think Christmas day is the big day. Then there's obviously New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. But here, you celebrate those days, and there's a lot of festivities around that, but the Christmas season really is a season. It lasts from the 22nd of December, which is around when school breaks up, and they have the Christmas lottery, which is the largest lottery in the world and something really beautiful about this lottery is that the prizes are shared. When you buy a ticket, you only ever buy a piece of a ticket. And so often the people who buy them in the same place as you, in the newsstand in the village or in your neighbourhood, buy the same piece of the same number. So, when you win and when you see people winning on TV, often they're celebrating with their community because they've all won. I think that's really beautiful.

I love that tradition, but it's a part of this bigger tradition, which is Christmas. The 25th is Christmas Day. You have lunch, Father Christmas brings presents. Although that's not traditional in Spain. Then we have the 31st, which is New Eve's. A big deal, big dinner.

I also love Christmas Eve. Being out with your friends. It's a real family time as well. So, you have both the family aspect and the friends aspect. New Year's Day is quiet and then the 6th January is three kings (los reyes magos) and that's traditionally when presents are given in Spain, the three kings are the three wise men who in the Bible were the ones that, according to tradition, gave gifts to baby Jesus. So, it just goes on and on and on in a way that is wonderful. Having a daughter now, it's just even more magical.

What is the strangest Spanish tradition?

Well, there's a festival that I made a video about a couple of years ago called El Colacho and you could translate it as “the baby jumping festival”.

So, this is a village called Castrillo de Murcia, where men dress up as devils and leap over the babies that were born that year, who are laid out on mattresses on the street.

It dates to 400 years ago. Men dressed as devils jump over the babies which symbolises the cleansing of them from original sin and protection from evil spirits. It sounds insane and it is insane, but what’s amazing is when you're there, how seriously the locals take it. It’s serious stuff and it’s not a joke.

That’s the beauty of tradition, right? From the outside, some things look insane, but from within, it's very serious stuff. There's a pagan aspect to it, but also the church is involved. There's a religious, Catholic aspect. I kind of love that combination because it represents the richness of Spanish history and culture. I love that. It’s very Spanish. Men dressed up as devils, jumping over babies. It's a curious tradition.

Are there any values/characteristics you consider distinctly Spanish?

This is a hard one because inherently it asks for a generalization and I can only speak from my experience, but what I would say is that I've always found and always find Spanish people to be very easy-going, very welcoming, very friendly. I'm not saying that if you move here it's easy to make friends. That's a different thing. But if you're in a public environment, if you're in a Spanish cafe or a restaurant or a tapas bar or you're in a queue for something. People are very easy at speaking to each other and interacting. I find that really nice.

You know, there are studies that show that random brief conversations increase our happiness. So, there's an easygoingness that I love here. I find that really enriching.

I would say that it varies a little bit depending on where you are. Sometimes people are a little more closed off in the north, a little more open in the south. You know, there's generalizations like that. But across the board, if you show curiosity and interest in the culture, people are willing to share it with you.

Does religion still play a key role in modern Spanish life?

I think Catholicism, or traditional religion here doesn't play a key role in Spanish life as it did say 30, 40 years ago but it has shaped society. If you look at the statistics, church attendance drops every year. Young Spanish people by and large don't go to church. They may, however, still consider themselves, in some cases, Catholic.

I made a video about Semana Santa, about Easter Week and Seville a few years ago. Brotherhoods of men and some women will get together and carry floats of the crucifixion and dress up in these robes. And you would look at them and think, wow, they're really religious, but half of them don't go to church.

I think religion still plays a role in modern life given that it's still really intertwined with Spanish culture and traditions, but not in an organized way. People aren't going to church as much as before.

Is there a generational divide when it comes to values?

Yeah, I guess so. I mean, generations change, right? That always happens. I would say that those core aspects that I've noticed about Spain, friendliness, openness are still the same, whether you talk to older people or young people.

What are the issues affecting young Spanish people?

Well, I'm 46 and I'm not Spanish and my daughter is Spanish and she's three. I don't know a lot of 20-year-old Spaniards.

I would say a big issue right now, something that has always been a big issue, is employment and unemployment. There's big structural unemployment in Spain. Although, unemployment has dropped to its lowest in a number of years. Since about 2007, which was just before the economic crisis. So, it's doing better, but I think for young people, the idea of finding a job is tricky.

What do I study? Is there going to be work for me after that? Will I be able to afford to rent a home, have a family, buy a home? Housing is expensive here.

I think the average age at which Spaniards leave home, like stop living with their parents is quite high so I think that there is a big issue just starting your life. Emancipating from your parents and starting your life, financially and socially, I think, is a challenge for a lot of Spaniards.

Benji, asks “everybody says family is important in Spain but what does that mean or look like?”. For example, we may see our grandparents once a week in the UK.

I think one of the things to always be aware of when you're reading about countries is often people generalize about cultures, right? And so, it's easy to say that family is important in Spain because it fits with our image of what Spain is supposed to be as a Mediterranean country. You could say the same about Italy.

But the reality is always a little more mundane and not so cliché.

Having said that, young Spaniards probably also only see their grandparents once a week, but I would say that there is still a strong sense of the nuclear family in Spain and of sticking together and supporting one another.

The fact that there wasn't a revolution at 25% unemployment when you'd often have three generations living together. Intergenerational support is important. Grandparents supporting the kids. Part of that is also because of that strong tight family unit, right? So, I think family is important, but what does that look like?

The notion of cousins is very strong. People talk about their primos, their cousins. People hold on to those close family ties, maybe a little more and keep cousins and grandparents in their lives more than potentially say in the UK or in New Zealand. But not in a massively dramatic way, I wouldn't necessarily say. I think the image we have of Spain, of the whole family constantly seeing each other, is probably a little bit overplayed. Traditionally it was maybe more the case, but you know, now people are busy like in other parts of the world. I think the society we live in now is more individualistic and that plays out in Spain as well, but I still think that people are more connected to their aunts, their uncles, their cousins. They see them more and there's more a sense of going to visit your aunts and uncles.

How would you describe Spanish culture to someone who has never visited Spain?

First, I would say there's not one Spanish culture.

If you were dropped from another planet into Asturias or into Malaga, you might think they're different countries. They would look different. The accents are different. In the south, people are generally more open and friendly and easy going. In the north people are a little bit more insular.

If you saw a cultural festival in the north, you might think you were in Ireland at times. There's a strong Celtic aspect to a lot of the traditional culture, whereas in the South, it's more what you would say is kind of classically cliché Spanish.

I would say that beyond that in my experience, this is a country where people are friendly, open or welcoming, even if there's some difference in the way that they sort of play that out in the different regions.

I would also say that there are certain cultural and social rhythms that are common. You know, it's a cliche about Spain that people work to live and not live to work but if it's a holiday or if it's August, things slow down. People are less likely to hustle on a Sunday. People see value in having stronger emotional ties with friends. People keep their friendship groups. Despite living in a more individualistic society, there's elements of Spain that still hang on to that sense of community, which is important.

One of the things about Spain is we have quite a high average life expectancy and people talk about the Mediterranean diet, blah, blah, blah, Again, a little bit overplayed. People eat burgers here all the time.

But I wonder if one of the underappreciated aspects of life expectancy is more about social connection and community, which I think remains really strong here. I think if you came to Spain, you would find that people are more likely to take time off, to slow down, to enjoy life, to spend time around a table for a meal, to meet friends, to see value in that.

What are some of the most common misconceptions about Spain?

Well, I see a lot of confusing Spanish culture and traditions with Latin American traditions, with Mexican traditions. The imagery that people expect. They think that it's all kind of one big mix.

Just the other day I was writing a document about Spanish traditions, and I found a freelancer on fiverr.com to do a design and make it look nice for me and some of the images he put in were from Mexico. Some people think they’re the same thing but they’re not.

Another common misconception is the whole idea of the siesta.

There is some tradition behind the siesta which goes way back throughout humanity, back to more agricultural ways of living when people had a nap during the day. People then didn’t necessarily have these driving kinds of rhythms that we have today where it’s all go, go, go.

People will say the heat is a reason for the siesta. Yeah, okay in the south. I live in Madrid, obviously, in Madrid, some things close at midday, the traditional market opens from 09:00 until 14:00 and then it'll close from 14:00 to 17:00 and then reopens from 17:00 till 20:00.

And you'll see that in smaller towns, but people aren't going off and having a sleep. That's just the traditional lunch break. Because it’s true that people have big lunches. Like when I met my wife, I would have a sandwich for lunch and the idea, to her, of having a lunch that is not a hot meal was really depressing.

So, lunch has to be something cooked which I love today and nowadays we still have sandwiches, but we also have something cooked, but Spaniards will very often have something cooked for lunch. The idea of having a sandwich at your desk is very depressing. So, I think the biggest misconception is the siesta, there is an element of that in the Spanish culture, but it's not like people are just sleeping during the middle of the day. That's not true.

There was an article about working hours and siestas on the BBC a few years ago and they had a photo of a guy on a building site, just sleeping in the middle of the day. It was very misrepresentative of the culture.

I think also there's a perception that Spaniards are lazy, which is not true. Spaniards actually work more hours than the European Union average. There are issues with efficiency and productivity at work. There's a concept here called presentismo, which means that if your boss is in the office, you also have to be in the office. This is not an efficient way to work. If you've done your work, you should go home and be with your family and your boss should trust you. But if the boss is here, I've got to be here. So, there are issues with people staying in work long hours which impacts their productivity.

What is Spain’s relationship with food like?

People are very proud of the food of their region. There's a great pride around local produce and local meals and the local culture.

People talk about where they're from, like, “mi pueblo” (my village). “My village is in Burgos” and what that means is that’s where your grandparents were born or maybe your parents, but then in the 50s and 60s, a lot of people moved to Madrid and Barcelona because it was really hard in the villages. This happened to my wife's family.

My wife’s grandparents and her parents were born in small towns, but in the 60s and 70s, the families moved to Madrid because it was literally living like an agricultural medieval life in the village. It was really hard. So, there was a big urban drift to the cities for work.

So, the idea of where you're from is very important. People talk about the food like “the best tapas are in my village”, “you should try the sardines from my town”, “there's an incredible bar in my village which does great food”. Remember when we say bars in Spain, we mean more like a pub, like a place you can eat, a place where the community gathers.

Also, Spain's relationship with food is not what we eat, but how we eat. Tapas is the act of sharing food. At tapas bars we stand and share our food. There's also a verb in Spanish which is tapear (to go for tapas), which I think reflects the fact that the way we eat when we're out and about, is “tapeando”, and involves sharing food and dishes.

And at home we share dishes. I always remember moving to Spain. In the first six weeks we were living with my in-laws. My mother-in-law would serve the meal and there would just be a bunch of plates in the middle of the table, each of us would just share them. The idea of sharing food, sharing common plates is very Spanish. I love that sharing aspect. In the UK and New Zealand, we've moved away from that. I think people think of tapas as just pieces of food but it’s more the sharing of food.

In Spain, the idea of sharing food holds on, which I think is why tapas and eating in Spain is so fun.

If you could only eat three Spanish meals for the rest of your life, what would they be?

Obviously, this is like asking someone their favourite film. It'll change depending on the season. I would say:

1. Gambas al ajillo. Shrimp (gambas) that are fried in a little bit of olive oil, lots of garlic and some chili pepper. So good. There's a place around the corner where we often go for a menú del día, which is the daily three course fixed price lunch, like 12 euros and you get three courses.

2. Gazpacho. There they also make a great gazpacho, which is the cold tomato soup. I love it. The guy who makes it puts chopped up onion and pepper in it. He also adds cumin to it, which I love. I'm obsessed with it.

3. I don't eat a lot of red meat, but when I do and it's good, the steaks in Spain are some of the best I've ever had. In the north of Spain, at a cider house where they make apple cider, you can go and have these big kind of wonderful meals. One of the things they give you is a chuletón, which is a big steak cooked on the grill. Some of the most incredible steak I've ever had.

Is there a genuine difference between city and pueblo life/lifestyle in Spain?

There is a big difference between city and pueblo life and lifestyle in Spain. City life feels much more like what you would experience in London, or you know, a big city in the UK or in New Zealand or wherever.

Whereas in village life, you'll see a lot more of the traditional Spanish rhythms. Places will close for the three-hour lunch break. I avoid calling it “the siesta” because it’s not called that in Spain, it’s just lunch and the opening hours. You'll see much more slowdown in August and on Sundays in Spain.

Things do often close on a Sunday in the city, but not as much as in the village. You'll see a lot more of how Spain used to be. Those traditional times and how things, I imagine, used to be in the villages.

What is a bar de barrio and why are they important to a neighbourhood?

So, a bar de barrio is a place where you can experience Spanish community.

When we say a bar in Spanish, I think the British equivalent would be like the pub. It's all things to all people. You could go in the morning and have a cup of coffee and breakfast. You could go at lunch and have a three-course meal, and you could go for dinner and have wine. We often have gin and tonics after dinner.

I think the bar de barrio or bar de pueblo, where there’s sort of one local bar, is like the inside version of the village square. You'll see groups of men playing cards or playing dominoes. You'll see someone having a cup of coffee. You'll see a family. You see kids running around. There's a kind of a chaos to it. The lottery seller will come in and try to sell lottery tickets.

There's no division between inside and outside. It's kind of like a public space. I think in the neighbourhoods they still exist, although less so. This is a change which has happened. People are less likely to go to the village bar because people order using Uber eats and people watch Netflix and, you know, all those things. The pandemic particularly shifted this, so a lot of the neighbourhood bars now struggle.

Also, there's a lot of variety. If people want to go out to eat in a place like Madrid, they can eat Indian food or Thai food. There's a lot more of that compared to even 13, 14 years ago when I moved here. So, you have more choice and maybe younger people are less likely to go to the village bar.

People also drink less than they used to.

But still, the bar de barrio or the neighbourhood bar is still busy.

I mean, the place I was talking about where I get my three-course lunch with my wife once a week, you could go in the morning (sometimes I do for work) to get a cup of coffee. You can go for lunch; you could go for dinner. It's just always open and it always has a different rhythm at each moment in the day and people there do different things. I might be having a cup of coffee and working. Someone next to me is having a beer, you know, or standing at the bar and having a bite to eat. They’re meeting places. I love going to them because, you know, when we go, we went the other day and the guy who runs it, we're not close to him or anything, but he recognizes us and that's nice, right? You feel a sense of the community. He asked ¿qué tal Lucía? How’s Lucia? It’s nice. He knows my daughter’s name. That's community.

Are there any traditions which are fading away in an increasingly globalised Spain?

I think a lot of things I've sort of spoken about have touched on this in a lot of ways such as the bares de barrio. It's changing. Spanish culture isn’t a monoculture as it was 15 years ago.

I remember 10 years ago in Madrid in the Puerta de Sol (one of the main squares and tourist centres of Madrid) on the corner of the square there was what we call “an old man bar”, a bar de barrio. But things are changing so, you know, the idea that there would still be a neighbourhood bar in the tourist centre of Madrid was just wild.

Imagine that. Your equivalent would be in London, for example, like a little family run English pub in the centre of London. So that's less likely to see now that cities have become more globalized with tourism, with immigration.

The number of immigrants, you know, speaking as an immigrant, the number of people living in Spain who are not born in Spain has shot up and in recent years, it's about 15% percent now, and it was a lot lower, even 10, 15 years ago. So, some things are fading away, but I guess culture changes, right? Culture is always in flux. I would say rather than fading away, it's changing.

And so, some of those traditional things that we think of as Spanish are evolving, my wife was telling me the other day about how her cousin's kids, they’re about 18 and they’re having this kind of fiesta, this sort of party where you dress up and you go out on the town. It's kind of like this coming-of-age thing that actually comes from Latin American culture. So, that's not Spanish, that’s from a different culture and they’re practising that. So, culture evolves.

There's a lot more Latin American immigrants here than there were, say, 20, 30 years ago.

I think some people lament the loss of traditional culture and I understand because globalization leads to a new culture, but also maybe a more homogenized culture where places start to seem sort of similar. But I think it's just part of the globalized world we live in. I think there’s value also in going and holding on to those things that are traditional, not necessarily because Spain must be as we always thought Spain was, but because richness comes from variety.

So, I think, you know, going to villages is a great place to, you know, the baby jumping festival. That holds on, right? And I think a lot of traditional things do hold on now because people of my generation, say in their in their forties, have also seen a world growing more globalized and we actually want to hold on to those things that our parents had.

So, you'll see a lot of people in their 30s and 40s and even their 20s, going back to their village and holding onto it because they want to hold on to these things. I think that there is also an attempt by younger people to hold on to traditional Spanish values.

I realize I'm saying two different things. The children of my wife's cousin are celebrating this Latin American tradition and other people, a little older, are wanting to go to a really traditional Spanish bar to experience Spain as their parents knew it. That's a globalized world, right? All things coexist. It's not a monoculture.

So, I think some things are fading away, but some really traditional Spanish things are still being reinforced and celebrated and other things are being pulled in from other parts of the world.

📁Download the student Boletín worksheet here and a student-friendly printout of this newsletter below.

Boletín 132 Newsletter

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That’s all this week!

Ollie

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Rent is sky-rocketing. House prices are going up. Wages are falling behind. Young Spanish people, on average, leave their parents’ house at 30 years of age.

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. These newsletters accompany a student worksheet which can be downloaded freely here. This week:

1. Edition 131 of Boletín.

2. Free double page spread on the present perfect subjuntive.

📌Issue 131

Apologies it has been a while, I know it seems most of my posts have started with that recently.

Balancing work and life is getting more difficult. Boletín, something I used to absolutely love doing every single week, has had to take a back seat. I recently even considered closing this site as every new subscriber email I received just served as a reminder that I had stopped doing something I loved.

Anyway, I’m currently teaching the education and employment topic to year 12 and thought that a Boletín bringing together a few articles together might be a nice way to synthesise a few pieces of information into one resource.

Apologies that I can’t write more extensively at the moment, my two-year-old is just about to wake up!

Edit: He woke up.

What I can say, very quickly before I go, is that I haven’t been entirely unproductive these last few months. In the background I’ve been working quite hard on a second edition of my grammar workbook. If anybody (including students) would like a sneak peek, then do get in touch but for now edition 1 is doing well and I’m proud to say is helping lots of people!

An introduction to Spanish grammar (CEFR A1 - B2)

If you like what I’ve been doing with Boletín for the last four five years or like me, you like buying language books then consider checking out the book I released last week. It’s called Spanish grammar workbook: An ambitious, jam-packed introduction to Spanish grammar for complete beginners, intermediate learners and GCSE students. The reviews are currently coming in and I’m delighted with them!

The reviews are in!

The present perfect subjunctive

Here’s a free sneak peek at a few of the newer pages coming to edition 2 of the grammar workbook.

The Present Perfect Subjunctive

75.2KB ∙ PDF file

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That’s all for this week!

Have a great week,

Ollie

❤️

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Sat characteristically with one leg crossed over the other, Paco closes his eyes and begins to rasguear, the audience, all aficionados, watch in awe. Camarón, at his side, watches him like a hawk. Paco taps his foot to the beat, grooving with the rhythm, there is truly no filter between his brain and his hands, the guitar is an extension of his body. When the time is right Camarón toca las palmas and then comes in with a depth of voice hard to believe. It must be duende.

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. These newsletters accompany a student worksheet which can be downloaded freely here. This week:

1. Edition 130 of Boletín.

2. Paco, Lola and José.

3. Download links.

📌Issue 130.

A big welcome to the many subscribers over the last 10 days, clearly your teachers have sign-posted this website to you! Before we get started today, a little housekeeping for those of you new around here.

These newsletters accompany a student worksheet which can be downloaded here. I only started creating these newsletters a few years ago so not every issue has one, apologies! That said, there’s quite a back catalogue of newsletters in the archive and I have created tabs across the top of the site to help you to navigate the site.

💃🏻What Is Flamenco?

Spain is a country known for its vibrant traditions, passionate art forms, and rich history. If you’re new to Spanish culture, there’s no better way to dive in than by exploring flamenco, the soulful music and dance that has come to symbolize the spirit of southern Spain, particularly Andalusia. As you may already know, regional identity is a topic which is covered on the A Level course. Popular sub-topics include regional fiestas, co-official languages and gastronomy. Flamenco may not be covered explicitly on the course which is why additional reading on sites like this will hopefully help develop your widing understanding of Spain!

I guess for some, especially those used to clean studio vocals on tracks, it can be hard to watch or listen to flamenco for the first time. Especially when its just a singer and a guitarist. Paco de Lucía and Camarón de la Isla are considered some of the greats and I think it’d be apt to start there. So, stop what you’re doing and watch the video below from 2:00 onwards!

Flamenco is more than just an art form; as D.E Pohren explains with the title of book number 3 in his flamenco trilogy it’s a way of life, a cultural expression that speaks to the heart and soul. If you've ever heard the rasgueo of a Spanish guitar, watched the stamping of feet during a baile, or listened to a singer cry out in song, you’ve felt the essence of flamenco.

While I remember, if you’re interested in flamenco then it really is worth checking out the 1st book in that flamenco trilogy which is titled The Art of Flamenco.

The Art of Flamenco

Flamenco consists of three key elements: cante (singing), toque (guitar playing), and baile (dance). At its core, flamenco is about expressing raw emotion—joy, sorrow, love, and heartache. It has its roots in Andalusia, blending influences from the region’s mix of cultures, including Roma (Gypsy), Moorish, and Jewish traditions. Today, flamenco is celebrated worldwide, but to truly understand it, you need to be familiar with an important word.

Duende: This word refers to the soul or spirit that a flamenco artist brings to a performance. It’s the deep emotional connection that moves both the performer and the audience. Duende can’t be learned—it’s something that emerges from within. The flamenco greats all have duende, the ability to move an audience.

An introduction to Spanish grammar (CEFR A1 - B2)

If you like what I’ve been doing with Boletín for the last four years or like me, you like buying language books then consider checking out the book I released last week. It’s called Spanish grammar workbook: An ambitious, jam-packed introduction to Spanish grammar for complete beginners, intermediate learners and GCSE students. The reviews are currently coming in and I’m delighted with them!

The reviews are in!

The Icons of Flamenco

To understand flamenco fully, it’s important to get to know some of the legendary figures who helped shape it. Three names stand out above all others: Lola Flores, Camarón de la Isla, and Paco de Lucía.

Lola Flores: The Queen of Performance

Lola Flores, often called La Faraona (The Pharaoh), was not just a flamenco artist; she was a cultural icon. Born in 1923 in Jerez de la Frontera, Andalusia, Lola was known for her powerful stage presence, fiery dance, and charismatic personality. She became a star not only for her performances in baile (dance) but also for her acting and singing. What set Lola apart was her ability to captivate audiences with her energy, a perfect example of duende. She brought flamenco to the masses, becoming a beloved figure throughout Spain and beyond.

Camarón de la Isla: The Voice of Flamenco

Camarón de la Isla is regarded as one of the greatest flamenco singers (cantaor) of all time. Born in 1950 in San Fernando, Cádiz, he revolutionized flamenco singing with his intense, emotional voice. His real name was José Monje Cruz, but he earned the nickname Camarón (Shrimp) because of his pale complexion. Camarón’s music broke boundaries, mixing traditional flamenco with more modern elements like jazz and rock, creating a new sound that attracted a younger generation of listeners. His collaborations with Paco de Lucía are legendary, and together they created some of the most iconic flamenco albums. Camarón’s singing was raw, filled with duende, and his untimely death at age 41 cemented his status as a legend.

Paco de Lucía: The Master of the Guitar

No discussion of flamenco would be complete without mentioning Paco de Lucía, the guitarist who brought the toque (guitar playing) to new heights. Paco de Lucía was a child prodigy on the guitar. He transformed flamenco guitar playing, taking it from a mere accompaniment for singers and dancers to a respected art form in its own right. Paco’s innovative approach to the guitar combined traditional flamenco rhythms with influences from classical music and jazz, and his technical skill was unmatched. My personal favourite has to be Mediterranean Sundance which contains the most unbelievable guitar solo you’ll ever hear. The story goes that it took so long to record it (that fact that not even Paco de Lucía could nail it first time speaks to its difficulty) that when they finally did Paco yelled olé which spoiled the recording. When they listened to it back, they realised that it actually added something and they decided to keep it. Listen below and see if you can spot the olé.

🧠Short-form possessive adjectives.

A short-form possessive adjective is used in each text this week but what are they? Read the explainer and have a go at the exercises below for some practice.

That’s all for this week!

Have a great week,

Ollie

❤️

Downloads

📁Download the student Boletín worksheet here and a student-friendly printout of this newsletter below.

Boletín 130 By Olliemfl

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It’s hard to miss it as you walk down Calle de la Madera (Wood Street). Down the single-lane narrow street overlooked by apartments with the typical window bars, a vibrant red facade becomes visible - Casa Julio. A local bar, open for more than a century, serving up highly rated croquetas. But what are croquetas, how did mine turn out and why are local bars so important?

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. This week:

1. Edition 129 of Boletín (download the student worksheet here).

2. Croquetas and Casa Julio

3. More reviews are in for my new book.

4. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary.

🙏 Subscribe to make sure future editions arrive straight to your inbox. If you enjoy this week’s edition, then please give it a like or a share!

📌Edition 129.

First off, I want to say a big welcome to all those who have subscribed over August, there are a fair few of you! Some of you may have seen my posts on the Learning Spanish Facebook group and some may have got here via the inside sleeve of my book, one of you will even be in my classroom in a few days (I see you!), welcome!

6 months have passed since I took 35 students to Madrid and looking back on some photos the other day, I just knew I had to create an issue dedicated to Casa Julio. They say not to let a resource dictate your lesson planning and in a roundabout way I have let Casa Julio dictate a whole Boletín issue. To complement this newsletter, the student worksheet this week also contains texts about the popularity of croquetas with online delivery services and the importance of Spanish bars.

Linking to the A-Level specification, emphasis is placed on Spanish regional identity under which themes like gastronomy (food), co-official languages, fiestas and traditions can be explored. This 129th issue is an attempt to shed some light on a plato estrella de la comida española and explore how local bars help to keep traditions alive.

By the way, allow me to point you to the about page if you want a little (re)introduction to what Boletín is.

🇪🇸 Casa Julio and Croquetas

Picture this. Forty of us have just arrived in the barrio of Malasaña an hour early for our flamenco workshop, what do we do? Well, I give the students some free time and some rules (namely to meet back at this place at this time and don’t go this way or that way, groups no smaller than two).

I go for a wonder down this quirky street (Calle del Pez) and go into a few shops with fond memories of the night before - we had a tapas tour and I’m not kidding you I ate what was probably one of the best meals of my life. Croquetas, tortilla, bacalao, chorizo.

Okay, stop! What is a croqueta?! I’m not talking about the frozen potato croquettes my mum used to buy from Iceland which I struggled through as a kid but rather soft, creamy croquetas with a crunchy rebozo (batter) that come in a variety of sabores (flavours). They’re a Spanish staple and most likely one of the most popular traditional Spanish dishes you can try, the stats back this up: 2 croquetas were ordered online via Glovo every minute in Spain in 2023.

Here’s a description of what they are from our tapas tour guides over at Madrid Tapas Tour:

Croquettes, made with bechamel, are french in origin. They first appear in Spain during the 1850's and have become more popular in Spain than in France. They contain neither potato nor cheese. The cream instead consists of a Roux made from olive oil or butter + flour + milk, to which is added the main ingredient that gives it its name- the most famous are either Cod or Ham.

Anyway, back to Malasaña which is also a popular filming spot for none other than Pedro Almodóvar - you see, quirky. With croquetas on my mind and two sixth formers asking me to take them somewhere local to get a proper Spanish experience I asked a local where to go. Their answer: Casa Julio, founded in 1921 and one of the most iconic bars in Madrid. There, I was told, I could try some great food and have an authentic experience.

The video below is in Spanish and is advanced but tracks a route through the city towards Casa Julio where the uploader buys croquetas and talks through her experience (up to 3:25). The subtitles appear to be quite accurate so put them on if you need to.

👨🏻‍🍳 My first attempt making croquetas

Every year I do a Spanish bake-off with my A Level students and we compete on a technical challenge (everybody is given the same recipe and brings in their product for judging) and although we’ve always made a tortilla de patatas, this year I’m going to change it to croquetas. I’ve found this quite decent recipe which I’ve used for my own ones.

Here’s my attempt. I think they turned out well, they tasted great!

An introduction to Spanish grammar (CEFR A1 - B2)

If you like what I’ve been doing with Boletín for the last four years or like me, you like buying language books then consider checking out the book I released last week. It’s called Spanish grammar workbook: An ambitious, jam-packed introduction to Spanish grammar for complete beginners, intermediate learners and GCSE students. The reviews are currently coming in and I’m delighted with them!

Read the reviews!

My classroom set arrived today. If you’re a teacher and you want to buy a class set then do get in touch as I can buy them at a discounted rate and pass that on to you!

✒️The three texts.

Casa Julio.1

Casa Julio lleva muchos años siendo un lugar de peregrinaje para los fans de las croquetas. Lo primero que deja claro Luis Torres, su dueño, al ser preguntado por algún truco para hacer sus croquetas es que no hay ninguno. Desmitifica cualquier posible truco y limita todo a la práctica, la observación y la repetición. Fue su madre quien comenzó a hacerlas y él aprendió de ella. En Casa Julio se ofertan hasta 7 tipos de croquetas diferentes: de atún con huevo, de espinacas, pasas y gorgonzola, de jamón, de morcilla con membrillo, de picadillo, de queso azul y de setas con puerros.

Croquetas.2

Los usuarios de Glovo en España pidieron más de 1.000.000 de croquetas durante 2023, lo que equivale a cerca de dos croquetas entregadas por minuto en este periodo. Así, la croqueta se consolida como la receta tradicional más popular en delivery. Por ciudades, Madrid encabeza el ranking con el mayor número de pedidos de croquetas, seguida muy de cerca por Barcelona. Diciembre lidera los meses de 2023 con el mayor número de pedidos de esta receta tradicional. Los sabores más pedidos son los de jamón y pollo, representando el 25% de todos los pedidos de este producto.

Los bares de barrio.3

Entrar en un bar en un barrio cualquiera es como adentrarse en un microcosmos lleno de vida. Desde el momento en que atraviesas la puerta, eres recibido por el bullicio de conversaciones animadas, el tintineo de vasos y el aroma irresistible de tapas recién hechas. Los bares son el lugar donde la vida ocurre: se celebran victorias, se comparten penas y se forjan amistades eternas. Está claro que, sin bar, no hay barrio. Para mucha gente, los bares no son solo parte de su rutina diaria, sino un vínculo tangible con su pasado y una forma de mantener vivas las tradiciones y recuerdos familiares.

🗝️Tier 2/3 vocabulary.

• Un peregrinaje (nms) - a pilgrimage

• Dejar claro - to make clear

• El dueño (nms) - the owner

• Desmistificar (vb) - to demystify

• La espinaca (nfs) - spinach

• Entregar (vb) - to deliver

• Un pedido (nms) - an order (in the food sense)

• La receta (nfs) - the recipe

• Lleno (adj) - full

• El tintineo (nms) - clink (the noise that wine glasses make)

• La amistad (nfs) - friendship

• Un vínculo (nms) - a link

• Un recuerdo (nms) - a memory

  ---

🔎Grammar search

Now that my book is out, I will refer to page numbers from it to help you locate grammar items from below which appear in this issue of Boletín. If you don’t know the grammar item, then you can learn it from the book and see it in context within the texts. You’ll need to download the student worksheet (for free, here).

So, can you find examples of the following grammar elements within the texts?

1. Llevar + present participle to describe how long something has been going on (page 98).

2. Short-form possessive adjectives (page 13)

3. Any verb in the preterite tense, including irregulars (page 38 onwards)

4. Past participles as adjectives (page 10)

5. Superlative structures (page 25)

6. Definite articles (page 2)

7. Use of hay (page 35)

8. Adjectival agreement (page 8/9)

🗞️Student friendly newsletter print out.

Boletín 129 By Olliemfl

15.4MB ∙ PDF file

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Thanks, as ever, for reading,

Ollie

❤️

Lamine Yamal, 16 and the youngest player to start for the Spanish men’s national team, is currently turning heads in Germany with 3 assists so far in the Euros. On the opposite flank, Nico Williams is also attracting a lot of interest with his dynamism and directness. Both are key to Spain progressing to the semi-finals and both share a lot in common.

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. This week:

1. Edition 128 of Boletín (download the student worksheet here).

2. Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams.

3. The reviews are in for my new book.

4. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary.

🙏 Subscribe to make sure future editions arrive straight to your inbox. If you enjoy this week’s edition, then please give it a like or a share!

📌Edition 128.

I’ve just got back from Normandy (left Thursday at 3am and got back Sunday morning at 1am). This whole issue, drawings and everything has been completed in record time - about three/four hours.

I’ve known for a month or so that I wanted to cover either Lamine Yamal or Nico Williams but the only thing holding it up was finding a nice image of either of them which I could draw. In Normandy I thought it would be nice to edit together the both of them in side profile, back to back. Today I got to work, with the help of my wife (senior graphic designer, in her own words).

⚽ Breaking down barriers with Yamal and Williams

If you’re a long-term reader, you’ll know that I love to cover football players. If you check the modelos a seguir tab across the top of the website you’ll see many covered in previous editions (Hakimi, Vini jr, Bellerín). Via football so many topics and issues can be covered.

So, the euros are in full swing. Spain have been amongst the standout favourites so far with their attractive brand of football catching the eye whilst many of the other so-called big teams are struggling to get out of first gear. Spain play France in a semi-final on Tuesday, it’s going to be massive.

Key to Spain’s performances so far are two figures who are both making big names for themselves on the world stage. One is Lamine Yamal, 16 years of age and the youngest player to start for Spain in history (also the youngest to score in La Liga). He’s a prodigal talent, winning the hearts of Spanish fans, who has already racked up 3 assists in Euro 2024. When he cuts in on his left foot you can bet something is about to happen. Yamal is yet another product of Barcelona’s famous La Masia football academy, notable others include: Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Fàbregas and lots more.

The second player ripping it up at the euros is Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams, 21 years of age and younger brother of Iñaki Williams, who plays for the same team. Nico has captured the interest of many top teams around Europe with his dynamism off the left-wing. There’s something endearing about these two players. They’re confident, creative and captivating.

I released a book last week!

At a time where football players are racially abused almost week in week out in the league (see edition 114) these two players, who represent a new generation of players born to immigrant parents, are breaking down barriers and giving Spanish people hope for the future.

📢 A word from our sponsor

Just kidding, nobody sponsors Boletín (but if you’re interested, drop me a message!).

If you like what I’ve been doing with Boletín for the last four years or like me, you like buying language books then consider checking out the book I released last week. It’s called Spanish grammar workbook: An ambitious, jam-packed introduction to Spanish grammar for complete beginners, intermediate learners and GCSE students. The reviews are currently coming in and I’m delighted with them!

Read the reviews!

✒️The three texts.

Dos amigos.1

Recién graduado de la ESO y pocas horas antes de disputar los cuartos de final de la Eurocopa siendo el principal referente ofensivo de la selección española. El sueño de muchos es la realidad de Lamine Yamal. Quien acompaña al jugador de es Nico Williams. Un catalán y un vasco. Lo que podría ser el inicio de un chiste es la nacionalidad de los jugadores más desequilibrantes del torneo. Uno del Barça y el otro del Athletic Club de Bilbao. La relación entre los dos, entre bailes, tiktoks, regates y bromas, sólo hace que ir al alza. Inseparables dentro y fuera del terreno de juego, son carne y uña.

Nico Williams.2

Nico Williams nació en Pamplona el 12 de julio de 2002. Por tanto, en la actualidad tiene 21 años, aunque pronto alcanzará los 22. Su lugar de nacimiento se da debido al trabajo de sus padres y su localización en ese momento, si bien desde que es un niño e ingresó en las categorías inferiores del Athletic Club, la familia del internacional español se mudó a Bilbao. El origen de la familia de Nico es de Ghana, país donde nacieron sus padres. Ellos cruzaron desde el país africano hasta Melilla, en condiciones extremas, y ahí cruzaron la valla para empezar una nueva vida en España, donde nacieron Iñaki (su hermano) y Nico.

Lamine Yamal.3

Lamine es un chaval de barrio obrero, un niño criado en Rocafonda que ha mamado el fútbol de la calle. Tanto es así que con cada gol que mete, hace con las manos el número 304, el codigo postal del lugar en el que se ha criado, un barrio marcado por la gran inmigración que recibió hace varias décadas y en que todavía vive su familia. Su padre, Mounir Nasraoui, es marroquí y en su honor lleva la bandera del país vecino en las botas. Su madre, Sheila Ebana, es de Guinea Ecuatorial. De esa mezcla ha salido un jugador con una técnica impoluta solo al alcance de los genios y una visión de juego privilegiada.

🗝️Tier 2/3 vocabulary.

• El sueño (nms) - dream

• La selección española (nfs) - the Spanish national team

• Acompañar (vb) - to accompany

• Desequilibrante (adj) - impactful (in a football sense)

• La amistad (nfs) - friendship

• Un regate (nms) - a dribble, side-step, feint or swerve

• Ir al alza (vb) - to be on the way up

• Ser uña y carne (idiom) - to be inseparable, to be joined at the hip

• La alegría (nfs) - joy, cheerfulness

• La valla (nfs) - fence

• Impoluto (adj) - spotless, flawless

• Un chaval (nms) - a kid

• En la actualidad - at present, currently

• Al alcance - at the reach of

• Alcanzar (vb) - to reach

• Nacer (vb) - to be born

• Mudarse (vb) - to move

• Criarse (vb) - to grow (up)

• Mamar (vb) - to take up, absorb, breastfeed, bring up on + various others

• Cruzar (vb) - to cross

  ---

🔎Grammar search

Once you’ve downloaded the student worksheet, can you find examples of the following grammar elements within the texts?

1. De + el contracting to del

2. Short-form possessive adjectives (my, your, his, her, their)

3. Any verb in the present tense

4. Masculine nouns

5. Conjunctions

6. The future simple tense

7. The preterite tense

8. The present perfect tense

🗞️Student friendly newsletter print out.

Boletín 128 By Olliemfl

544KB ∙ PDF file

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Thanks for reading,

Ollie

❤️

How to attract young people to politics? Give them £400 for free, when they turn 18, to spend on cultural activities. This week our three texts explore apathy and disinterest in politics on the part of young people, museums embracing social media and el Bono Cultural which sees young people gifted 400 euros when they turn 18. Also, I go on about a book I made.

1. Edition 127 of Boletín.

2. 𝐌𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 is now available on Amazon!

3. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary, grammar search

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural & topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. These newsletters accompany a student worksheet which can be freely downloaded here.

📌Edition 127

You’re forgiven for forgetting you were subscribed to Boletín, it’s been a while and I’m sorry for the radio silence. La verdad es que I haven’t had the time to post in the last few months as I’ve been working on something in the background. I’ll explain below but if you want to quickly download the student worksheet then head to the normal place.

📝What have I been up to?

If you’re a long-term reader or you follow me on X, then you may be vaguely aware that over the last couple of years I’ve been working on a grammar workbook. The first iteration of this was shared this time last year and was named The GCSE Grammar Workbook. Lots of you bought copies (PDF versions), thank you!

At this point, a friend (who is a teacher and a leader) gave me the following feedback…

And so, over the last 12 months all I’ve been thinking about is making that workbook as good as it possibly could be and publishing it.

Nearly every moment of my free time has been dedicated to revising the whole manuscript (all the time I would usually spend creating Boletín issues). 70+ new pages have been added, the whole book has been heavily edited (numerous times), I’ve worked with a Spanish artist to design a new cover, sent out free PDFs for more feedback, responded to the feedback and had the whole thing proofread several times.

The final product is a beautiful Spanish grammar workbook suitable for adults at complete beginner to advanced intermediate level (as well as GCSE students, of course!).

In practice I have used this book with nearly every year group. I’ve given a copy today to a lovely kid in year 7 who is super keen with developing their Spanish and I know tutors using it with their adult classes. I’ve used it with great success a week ago when introducing direct object pronouns to year 10 and year 13 have worked well with the present and past subjunctive sections in the run up to their exams. It’s a versatile resource which the whole GCSE cohort starting next year in my school will receive.

This week, very briefly (I’m glad I got the print screen), the book went to number one in the sub-category of Key Stage 1-4 languages. I’m super happy with this as secretly this was a mini goal of mine.

Spanish grammar workbook

If you’re interested in getting a copy, or you want to support future Boletín editions, then feel free to click the link above. There you’ll also see an extensive list of what is covered in the book. If you decide to buy it and you like it, please please please leave a review! Alternatively, please share it with your departments!

✒️The three texts.

Museos modernos.1

Los museos españoles están utilizando TikTok para atraer a un público joven y ampliar su alcance. Museos como el Museo del Prado y el Museu de la Música están experimentando con vídeos cortos, un tono más informal y el uso de música popular. La rapidez y el impacto visual son claves, así como el humor para conectar con la audiencia. Están en una fase de experimentación, observando tendencias y ajustando sus contenidos para mejorar. La combinación de música e imagen ayuda a acercar el arte a nuevos públicos, creando un espacio de comunicación más dinámico y accesible.

El Bono Cultural.2

En 2022, España lanzó el Bono Cultural Joven con un triple propósito: brindar un impulso económico a quienes cumplen 18 años para explorar la cultura, fomentar hábitos culturales y revitalizar un sector cultural que sufrió durante la pandemia. Los jóvenes tienen un año para gastar los 400 euros en productos o servicios culturales. Concretamente, según detalla el Ministerio de Cultura, 100 euros se podrán invertir en productos físicos, como libros, prensa o discos; 100 euros para productos digitales, como suscripciones, podcast o videojuegos; y 200 euros para artes escénicas: teatro, ópera, cine, danza y museos.

Desinterés político3

Según un informe elaborado por en INJUVE, de entre un total de 15 temas políticos, los jóvenes declaran que las elecciones y, en última posición, los partidos políticos, son los asuntos que menos les interesan. Los datos de participación juvenil en las elecciones generales confirman ese desinterés; los jóvenes votaron 6,6% menos que los adultos. Muchos jóvenes sienten la política como algo carente de un impacto tangible en sus vidas, y que no proporciona soluciones a sus problemas. Lo ven casi más como una fuente de memes y retuits que como una herramienta que les pueda ayudar a modular su futuro.

🗝️Tier 2/3 vocabulary.

• Ampliar (vb) - to increase, broaden, widen

• El alcance (nms) - reach

• Clave (adj) - key

• Tangible (adj) - tangible

• Una herramienta (nfs) - a tool

• Mejorar (vb) - to improve, make better

• Un propósito (nms) - purpose, aim, goal or objective

• Brindar (vb) - to give, provide or toast (with a drink)

• Detallar (vb) - to tell or explain in detail

• Invertir (vb) - to invest

• Elaborar (vb) - to make, prepare or produce

• Carente (adj) - lacking, wanting

🔍Grammar items to look out for.

1. The present continuous

2. Para where in order to can be used

3. Short-form possessive adjectives (my, your, his/her etc)

4. Direct object pronouns

5. Adjectives

6. The preterite tense

7. Tener in the present tense

8. The future tense irregulars

9. Opinion phrases like me gusta

10. Comparative structures with verbs

Thanks for reading and subscribing!

Ollie

❤️

The Iceberg Model of Culture seeks to visualise that 90% of what is going on is hidden below the surface. For A Level students about to write essays, this is important to know. Exploring and uncovering what we cannot see and not just hanging your hat on what you can see, so-called “cultural artefacts” will lead to a much better essay.

1. Edition 126 of Boletín.

2. Powerful language for the film/lit essay courtesy of Ros Atkins.

3. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary, grammar search

4. GCSE grammar workbook and PDF newsletter download.

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural & topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. These newsletters accompany a student worksheet which can be freely downloaded here.

📌Edition 126

You may have seen the Iceberg Model of Culture before, I certainly had. It’s a visual reminder that what we see is generally about 10% of the actual situation and that under the surface there’s a lot going on which we’re not privy to. In the context of culture, this model is most associated with Edward T. Hall who coined it in 1976. For my version above I have changed a couple of very small things based on several versions of the iceberg found online.

I’ve based this issue of Boletín on the Iceberg Model of Culture as we’re reaching a critical juncture in the year. If they’re not already then Year 12 and 13 students will soon be writing film and literature essays and responding in speech to argument/discussion cards and IRP examiners.

To achieve highly in the WJEC A2 Unit 5 essay a candidate will have to demonstrate:

Excellent knowledge of different aspects of the culture and society of Spain and Spanish speaking countries. Arguments and points of view developed and justified with evidence. Conclusions drawn based on detailed analysis of issues and themes.

A great essay response will not just deal with the superficial aspects of culture as seen above the surface but explore, analyse and uncloak the hidden deeper culture which is not specifically referenced. In La Casa de Bernarda Alba this might look like exploring death rituals and Catholicism, the tendency of older parents to spend old age with their daughters, attitudes towards sin, class, social status etc.

📝Powerful language for the literature/film essay

I’ve recently switched from TalkSport on the way to work to Audible and this last couple of weeks I’ve been listening to The Art of Explanation by Ros Atkins.

In his book, Ros breaks down the anatomy of a clear explanation and it’s been immensely helpful. Ros describes the research process, the importance of knowing your audience, the initial investigation phase, the organisation of research into strands (think key points from the IRP), the distilling of information, the linking of information including the adding of context, tightening and then delivery.

As I was listening to this on my way to work, my year 13s were busy preparing for their first essay. I decided that, in addition to the normal preparatory work, we could use some Ros Atkins inspired sentences starters that I had translated from English into Spanish based off Ros’ suggestions. Let’s now look at what Ros calls bridging phrases and surfacing the structure phrases.

Bridging phrases

Ros describes the following phrases as bridging phrases because they can get you from one strand of your explanation to another. This avoids a hard stop once you’ve concluded a point and links you nicely to a follow-up point. Consider how these could be used in writing and speaking to improve your explanations, translations into Spanish are in the PDF newsletter at the bottom of the page.

That’s one area I’d emphasise, another is…

There is though more than one aspect of this issue to consider, another is…

Another thing I’d stress is…

And while that’s important, so is…

This also links to…

From this we can also look at…

There’s more than one dimension to this, another is…

But to understand this issue, we can’t only look at this, we also need to look at…

And that connects to…

And if X is one aspect of that, Y is another.

There are several ways of explaining this, another is

Surfacing the structure

For clarity in your explanation, it might help to give people the bearings they need to understand a point from your perspective based on what you have researched. For this you could use any of the sentences below which again are translated in the PDF.

Now we’ve looked at X, the next part of this is Y…

We cannot understand X, unless we consider how it connects to Y…

So far we’ve considered X and Y but Z is also important…

The Art of Explanation

✒️The three texts.

Más alla del idioma.1

¿Sabías que el contacto físico es un aspecto normal de la comunicación para los españoles, y no debe ser considerado una intrusión del espacio personal? Son formas de comunicación que te pueden sorprender cuando llegas a España, y a las que te debes adaptar lo antes posible. Aprender español es más que saber solo la gramática y el vocabulario. Es conocer a la gente y su forma de vida: las costumbres, celebraciones y otros aspectos que pueden ser típicos de la cultura. Tanto el relajado estilo de vida, como la hospitalidad que la caracteriza, son cualidades que los visitantes encuentran encantadoras.

La cultura (in)visible.2

La cultura evidente es aquello que podemos percibir con los cinco sentidos. Es lo primero que notamos de una cultura, lo que conocemos haciendo turismo, como la comida, festivales, música, formas de saludar, formas de vestirse, etc. Por debajo del agua está la cultura profunda. Es la parte de la cultura difícil de observar a simple vista. Aquí están los valores, concepción de mundo, las creencias, la manera de pensar y sentir. La parte que está por debajo del agua es el 90% del total. La cultura profunda se aprende desde que naciste y es lo que guía tu manera de comportarte, pensar, entender y sentir el mundo que te rodea.

Cambios en la sociedad3

En los últimos 25 años, España ha experimentado cambios significativos, adaptándose a nuevas realidades. Las mujeres han avanzado en los campos de la educación y el empleo, promoviendo la igualdad de género. La inmigración ha enriquecido la diversidad cultural. El mercado laboral se ha vuelto más inestable, y el envejecimiento de la población plantea retos intergeneracionales. La tecnología ha transformado la vida cotidiana, y los desafíos ambientales, como el cambio climático, están impactando la sociedad. Estos cambios reflejan la evolución hacia una sociedad más integrada en Europa y consciente de los retos globales.

🗝️Tier 2/3 vocabulary.

• Hacer turismo (vb) - to go sightseeing

• Soprender (vb) - to surprise

• Las creencias (nfp) - beliefs

• Conocer (vb) - to know, get to know, be familiar with

• Una manera de (nfs) - a way of

• Comportarse (vb) - to behave

• Experimentar (vb) - to experience

• Enriquecer (vb) - to enrich

• Volverse (vb) - to become

• Plantear (vb) - to pose (in the context of text three)

🔍Grammar items to look out for.

1. The present perfect

2. Adjectives

3. Para where in order to can be used

4. Short-form possessive adjectives (my, your, his/her etc)

5. Indefinite adjectives (used to indicate a vague quantity such as a lot of, some, other/another etc.

6. Direct object pronouns

7. Abstract nouns formed with lo + masculine singular adjective

8. Gerund (ing verbs)

9. Estar used to denote the position or location of something

10. Avoiding the passive with a se structure

    ---

📁The GCSE grammar workbook.

The GCSE workbook is the main way I’m keeping this project viable since disabling all paid subscriptions. A big thank you to those who have already bought it. Here’s what it looks like printed out and stapled in all its glory.

Check out my GCSE grammar workbook

The Boletín student worksheet can be download, as ever, over on TES.

Boletín 126 By Olliemfl

1.62MB ∙ PDF file

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Thanks for reading and subscribing!

Ollie

❤️

Tapas tours, flamenco workshops, churros, photographing street signs, guided tours, Gran Vía, Picasso, Velázquez, Plaza Mayor, language schools, mouth-watering croquetas, one touch one bounce in Puerta del Sol, Retiro park, 20,000+ step days and fun-filled evenings. A snippet of the first trip I’ve led on to Madrid.

1. Edition 125 of Boletín.

2. Mini-Madrid trip gallery

3. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary, grammar search

4. GCSE grammar workbook update.

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural & topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. These newsletters accompany a student worksheet which can be freely downloaded here.

📌Edition 125

Welcome back to Boletín! The last four to five months have been slow, there’s no getting away from it. All of my frees at school and a lot of my free time at home were focused on running a trip to Madrid - no half-term for me! To make it worse I’ve been solidly working on a second edition of my GCSE grammar workbook which is now out and the keyboard on my laptop is broken. Typing is taking an age.

That said, I’m delighted that after an action-packed week of tapas tours, flamenco workshops, churros, shopping, taking photos of street signs, guided tours, Gran Vía, Picasso, Velázquez, Plaza Mayor, language schools, mouth-watering croquetas, one touch one bounce in Puerta del Sol, Retiro park, 20,000+ step days and fun-filled evenings, we’re all back safe and missing Madrid. It was an intense week! I can 100% reccommend Diverse School Travel (I’ve linked them as some have asked me who I booked through).

A self-imposed side-quest whilst in Madrid included breaking away from the group every 100 metres to take a photo of hastly scrawled notes such as cuidado con el escalón or busco piso as well as actual street signs. I’m very happy with the result which is a resource bringing together 60 of the best on one A3 page with comprehension questions about each one. It made for a really nice post-Madrid trip lesson with everybody who went on the trip, it was arguablly even more impactful for those who didn’t go as well!

📸A little Madrid trip gallery

This week’s Boletín is an interesting one which loosely covers a few A Level Spanish sub-themes:

• Machismo y feminismo.

• Discrimination and diversity.

• Artistic culture.

• Traditional and modern values.

If it’s okay with you all, this week’s newsletter will simply include the list of grammar items to find within the three texts and a link to the student worksheet. I need to find my feet again with regularly posting and hitting send on this will be a step in the right direction as I know I’ve been neglecting Boletín.

✒️The three texts.

Madrid te abraza.1

Turismo del Ayuntamiento de Madrid ha puesto en marcha una campaña de promoción en varias ciudades españolas y europeas para difundir la imagen de la capital española como la “ciudad del abrazo” y dar a conocer una de las principales señas de identidad de los madrileños, su hospitalidad. Con el nuevo icono gráfico como protagonista y un mensaje principal “Madrid te abraza”, esta campaña pretende llamar la atención sobre el particular estilo de vida de la ciudad y sus atractivos turísticos y culturales, invitando a descubrir Madrid y disfrutar de su espíritu más entrañable, sociable y humano.

Mario Alcalde.2

Mario Alcalde es un torero diferente. El madrileño de 31 años, natural de Alameda de Osuna, ha contado en una entrevista en el periódico ‘El Mundo’ que es pansexual, lo que significa que es el primer matador de toros en contar públicamente que no es heterosexual. “Soy un torero que va un poquito más a su aire. Mis gustos no son normales en el toreo”, reconoce. Sus pensamientos son “diferentes” al de sus compañeros de profesión, “tanto política como sexualmente. Soy pansexual. Me siento muy identificado con la bandera LGTBI. Es que cada uno tiene sus gustos. Me enamoro del interior, no me importa el género”.

Chueca3

Chueca es el ombligo de las fiestas del Orgullo LGTBIQ en España. El barrio madrileño, aledaño a la Gran Vía, era en los años del franquismo y en los inicios de los 80 una zona de chaperos, carteristas y camellos. Los alquileres eran muy baratos y muchos homosexuales, trans y otros discriminados por vivir fuera del molde, se refugiaron en el lugar donde vivían los nadies y los ningunos. Hoy, Chueca es uno de los barrios más caros de Madrid, con un vecindario tolerante y alternativo. El año 1989 marcó el salto del barrio de calles sucias y mal alumbradas a ser el eje central de las celebraciones del día del Orgullo.

🗝️Tier 2/3 vocabulary.

• Poner en marchar (vb) - to start up or launch.

• Difundir (vb) - to spread.

• Un abrazo (nms) - hug.

• Dar a conocer (vb) - to publicise, to make public.

• Una seña (nfs) - sign, mark.

• Entrañable (adj) - moving, touching, endearing.

• Ir a su aire (vb phrase) - to do your own thing.

• Ombligo (nms) - belly button or centre, nucleus, hub

• Aledaño (adj) - adjoining, neighbouring.

🔍Grammar items to look out for.

1. The present perfect.

2. Adjectives.

3. Para where in order to can be used

4. Short-form possessive adjectives (my, your, his/her etc)

5. The preterite tense.

6. Reflexive verbs.

7. The imperfect tense

   ---

📁Recent resources.

The big one is a revamp of the grammar workbook with news pages added covering the full paradigm of main irregular verbs in the present, past and future. There’s also new pages on ser, estar, adjectives formed from past participles, adjectival agreement, the present subjunctive and lots more small changes to make the workbook more user-friendly. If you previously bought the 1st release on TES in Summer 2023 then you can re-download the latest edition for free. If you bought it via the buymeacoffee link then email me proof and I will gladly send you the updated version for free!

The Boletín student worksheet can be download, as ever, over on TES.

Thanks for reading and subscribing, sorry for tailing off a bit recently.

Ollie

❤️

Part 4 of the mini-series based on Spanish regional identity is here! In this week’s issue discover more about the region of Aragón from María (one half of the fantastic Sonríe in Spanish) including cultural traditions, food and what it was like to grow up there.

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. These newsletters accompany a student worksheet which can be downloaded freely here. This week:

1. Edition 124 of Boletín.

2. An interview María (one half of @sonrieinspanish).

3. Download links.

📌Issue 124.

Before we get to this week’s interview it’s worth introducing our guest, María.

María works alongside Ana to create incredible Spanish resources for their joint account Sonríe in Spanish. Their distinctive and imaginative resources are loved by thousands of teachers and students in the UK and beyond. Personally, I love the escape rooms they create!

Follow Sonríe in Spanish on Instagram!

This week the regional identity mini-series continues as we get to read about life growing up in Aragón!

🎤A Q&A with María from Aragón.

What is your favourite idiomatic expression? Either one particular to Aragón or just in general?

“Ser muy majico/a” is something that only people from Aragón would say. We use it when someone or something is very nice. You could also say ‘majo/a’, but the diminutive ‘-ico/-ica’ is very typical from my region and we use it all the time! 

What is your favourite Spanish tradition or custom?

Without a doubt, las fiestas de pueblo! The summer festivals in the villages around my region don’t have a competitor. The smaller the village, the better the festival will be. They usually last for a few days and honour the patron of each village or town. The programme of activities is jam-packed and I love the fact that there are activities for absolutely everyone: a parque infantil (inflatables) for the children, a jota exhibition that my grandmas look forward to every year, orquestas (cover bands) every night followed by a ‘disco móvil’, or even a chocolatada popular for everyone! We all have ‘peñas’ with our friends, which are places where we meet to have food and a drink before going out. It is definitely the best week of the year! 

What is the most typical Aragonese tradition?

It is hard to choose, we have so many! But I’d say that something that we celebrate all around the region is el Día de San Jorge on the 23rd of April, which is also a very important day in England. San Jorge (Saint George) is the patron of Aragón. On that day. we gift each other a rose and a book. Also, there are many book fairs and theatrical representations of the legend of Saint George and the dragon across the region. Being Aragonese is something we feel very proud of and especially on that day, you can see Aragonese flags everywhere! 

Another one of my favourite traditions is the legend of ‘Los amantes de Teruel’, or the lovers of Teruel. A sad but beautiful romance story between two 13th-century young lovers known as Diego and Isabel. Their story is celebrated during a festival called ‘Las Bodas de Isabel de Segura’ (popularly know as ‘Amantes’), Every February, the entire city of Teruel converts to a medieval village with reenactments that celebrate Los Amantes de Teruel. I can’t recommend it enough! 

What is Aragonese food like and whats your favorite typical dish?

You can never go wrong with pan con tomate and jamón, de Teruel, of course. Something a bit more elaborate, the renowned ternasco de Aragón is extremely tender and tasty. It has Protected Geographical Indication and the quality is unbeatable. My mum roasts it in the oven with potatoes, wild mushrooms, rosemary and a dash of red wine and it is to die for! And if you’re looking for something a bit healthier, I’d definitely recommend checking up our local ‘borrajas’ or ‘borraines’. 

What was growing up in Aragon like and was your experience typical of others’?

I am from a tiny village in a rural area. It is very safe and we all know each other, so from a young age we all were allowed to go out and play with friends. After school, we used to freely run around the streets, play ‘polis y cacos’ (an improved version of ‘hide and seek’) and lots of other games. We also enjoyed building our own little huts with wood and everything we found, planned excursions around the countryside and swam in the river during the warmest months. The bell in the church in the square dictated the time we had to be back at home for dinner. For my first communion, my nan and grandad bought me my first ‘big’ bike, and I have the happiest memories learning to cycle up and down the street with my grandad Aurelio. Children in cities have access to lots of opportunities, but I wouldn’t change the freedom of growing up in my village for anything in the world! 

Looking back, what distinguished your region from the rest?

Every region in Spain is special and Aragón is unique in so many different ways. Aragon is home to some of the most beautiful villages in Spain, such as Valderrobres, Albarracín, Aínsa or Sos del Rey Católico, full of history and traditions. We also have the most breathtaking and varied landscapes, ideal for nature and adventure lovers. I love Teruel’s world heritage Mudejar art and… what can I say about Zaragoza? It’s just the best city in the world! 

Has anything been lost with the passing of time?

Some traditions have evolved and changed, and others have disappeared. Rural areas struggle with underpopulation, young people tend to move to bigger cities such as Zaragoza, and as a consequence, some jobs in the villages have disappeared. A clear example is farming. Few people decide to go into agriculture, so there are more and more barren fields left uncultivated.  

In addition, three different languages are spoken in Aragón: Spanish, of course, but also Catalan (in the eastern part, also known as la Franja) and Aragonese (in the north, mainly in the province of Huesca). The repression during the dictatorship heavily affected them, as only Spanish was allowed. In more recent times, certain language policies have not always favoured the use or teaching of these languages ​​in schools, which is why a lot of vocabulary is gradually disappearing. I notice it when I hear my grandmas speak, they say words that I have never used. This is especially serious in the case of Aragonese due to its small number of speakers. 

Has anything changed for the better?

100%. After the pandemic many people, including families, decided to move to smaller villages and towns and start a new life there. They get a better quality of life and support the development of rural areas. Also, tourism is really growing in Aragón and many people decide to visit my region every year: from skying in the Pyrenees to discovering the ‘Aragonese tuscany’ in the Matarraña/Matarranya region, there are lots of possibilities! 

How do other regions of Spain perceive Aragón?

It is said that Aragonese people are loyal, courteous and stubborn (tozudos/as or cabezones/as), although we take that as a compliment and synonym of resilience and determination. Unfortunately, the rural areas of Aragón are underpopulated. After the war, many Aragonese people had to emigrate to Zaragoza, the capital, or to bigger cities such as Barcelona. Most of them have kept the family houses and return every weekend and in the summer.

Why should somebody whose never been visit Aragón?

In Aragón, you can enjoy a varied offer of cultural attractions, scenic villages, Mudejar architecture, Romanesque churches, fairytale castles, natural sights, adventure activities surrounded by nature, the most fun festivals and the best food! In summary, because it is the best place in the world!

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🔍Grammar to look out for in the three texts.

1. The present perfect.

2. Connectives.

3. Avoiding the passive with an se structure.

4. Direct object pronouns.

5. Adjectival agreement.

6. Imperfect tense.

7. The use of gerunds.

🧠A Level structures.

I’ve previously banged on quite a lot about my GCSE grammar workbook and it’s to that which I turn today as we look at obligation subjunctive triggers. I am currently working on a 2nd edition of the workbook which should be out in August!

That’s all for this week, a massive thanks to María for taking the time to share her experiences growing up in Aragón. Coming up in the near future will be part 2 of the Sonríe in Spanish duo and an interview with the Daniel Martinez Flamenco Company, exciting!

Have a great week,

Ollie

❤️

Downloads

📁Download the student Boletín worksheet here and a student-friendly printout of this newsletter below.

Boletín 124 By Olliemfl

977KB ∙ PDF file

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In this week’s Boletín discover more about la narcocultura and its impact on society from a journalist and author who has been in the thick of it, reporting from Mexico City, for over twenty years. If your IRP is about Escobar or El Chapo you won’t want to miss it!

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. These newsletters accompany a student worksheet which can be downloaded here. This week:

1. Introduction to issue 123 of Boletín

2. A Q&A with Ioan Grillo

3. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary and grammar search for students

4. Boletín update and download links

🫶If you haven’t already then subscribe to make sure future editions arrive straight to your inbox. If you enjoy this week’s edition then please give it a like or a share!

📌Edition 123.

Pop-culture narco figures like Pablo Escobar and El Chapo still remain extremely popular as Independent Research Project (IRP) titles on the A Level course. Escobar alone was mentioned in the 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023 WJEC examiner reports.

In 2023 the Welsh exam board advised future A Level Spanish candidates that:

Candidates should be aware that a superficial or generalised approach is not appropriate here; some topics, such as Pablo Escobar, based only on watching the Netflix series Narcos, or topics based around singers such as Bad Bunny or Rosalía alone, do not allow for an evaluative approach and are therefore unlikely to score high marks for A04.

This issue features an interview with . Ioan is an experienced journalist and a writer known for his books which shed light on the rise of drug cartels. He is based in Mexico City and has been covering Latin America since 2001 for news media such as Time Magazine, Esquire, CNN, Reuters, Al Jazeera, The Houston Chronicle, The Associated Press, GlobalPost, France 24 and The Sunday Telegraph. Ioan first appeared on my radar when he went on the Joe Rogan show a few years ago. I decided to email him out the blue to see if he’d be interested in helping me out with this issue and thankfully, he was more than cooperative.

Check out Ioan's books hee

🎤An interview with Ioan Grillo.

Can you provide a brief overview of what your job entails and how you ended up in Mexico City given your upbringing in England?

I first came to Mexico City with the dream of being a journalist. Not thinking so much about drug traffickers but thinking more about my illusions of guerilla warfare against military dictatorships of the 20th century and then found myself covering drug traffickers which then escalated in both importance and violence, I have been covering it ever since. You know, I’m a journalist not just a narco journalist and I cover various things, from immigration to elections to natural disasters. But I have been, a lot of my career, focused on drug traffickers, cartels, drugs, organised crime, and gangs. I've been pursuing these things, writing stories, writing books, making documentaries about these organisations, about the effects, about the violence, about wherever it leads.

How did you become involved in journalism and what inspired you to focus on the cartel/crime side of things?

I was inspired to focus on the cartel crimes side of things when I arrived in Mexico because I think I immediately saw, back in 2001 when I first started reporting, that this was a big story. It would get much bigger over the years, but also growing up in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s I was around a lot of people taking drugs, I knew people who died of drug heroin overdoses, and so it's kind of interesting to me this kind of linking of worlds. Of a place where there's a lot of drug consumption and places which produce and traffic drugs.

In what ways do drug cartels impact the cultural/societal fabric of Latin American countries?

So, talking specifically about Mexico there is an enormous impact of drug traffickers and drug cartels on society. Something that people call narco culture or narcocultura which kind of encompasses elements of music, particularly the narco corridos (the drug ballads) but also elements of slang, of fashion, of attitude.

In some very big narco cities, an extreme example being Culiacán in Sinaloa, the narco culture is extremely present and you see it very visibly. In other places like say Mexico City it’s a bit less visible but you still see it around. You might go to the grocery store and the guy there could be wearing a baseball cap with JGL (Joaquín Guzmán Loera) or something like that. You see this influence of people listening to the drug ballads (narco corridos) on the street and so forth. So, it’s very present.

How has cartel journalism led you to a deeper understanding of the social and cultural dynamics in the region?

As well as covering narcos, I’d like to just cover Latin America, to cover Mexico and to cover the extremely rich culture here. I've been here for 23 years. You soak it up and you see it everywhere and there's just so much fascinating culture, completely independently of the drug cartels. But the drug cartels are coming out of this society and of this culture. So, if you go to the countryside where a lot of drug traffickers come from, if you spend time in some of these big drug trafficking areas, then there's a very distinct country culture which is different from the city culture. Country culture is family orientated but a bit clannish with feuds and traditional ways of having parties and meals and so forth. You see all of that entwined within the cartels and within the drug traffickers.  

What challenges do journalists face when reporting on drug cartels, and how do these challenges influence the narratives presented to the public?

So, there's obviously the threat or violence. These are very violent organisations and there are many violent individuals. There's mass murder committed against each other, against civilians, against journalists. There's been more than 150 journalists murdered in Mexico in the time that I've been here. So there's always the pressure that reporting could end in violence. There’s the pressure of what can be written, what names can be included and to that effect there’s a certain form of censorship in the reporting. But a second challenge, I think, is trying to understand this information when you’re dealing with this weird clandestine world which is very, very big and is present in many aspects of life including the economy and politics. But, at the same time it's kind of hidden. It's organised crime. It's mafia and it’s more open than organised crime in other countries. A lot of these figures are quite visible and fairly easy to find in some senses. So, the challenge is to make sense of this information and to find the good information because there's a lot of bad information out there.

How does the portrayal of drug cartel figures in popular media differ from the reality you've encountered in your reporting?

The TV series Narcos, which I think a lot of people will have seen, focuses a lot on the top 1%. In the same way that in the real world you have a top 1% of rich people and then a lot of people below that in the upper middle class, middle class, working class and then underclass you get the same in the Narco world. It’s the same as in a legitimate company like Coca-Cola. You've got the very top people who earn lots of money and then there are mid-managers, and then lower people in the same company. So, really when you get into the narco world there’s a big world of people. Some of them are living with a lot of money, as per the image of drug traffickers with money, but then some of them are low down and are getting paid quite low amounts of money to go out and commit murders, move drugs over the border, watch safe houses or watch after soldiers, all these many, many jobs that are involved in this industry.

The second thing is it's TV, so you've got good looking people and that kind of glamour. In the real world you've got, you know, real people. What you don’t get from the TV series is the real pain and impact of the violence. Now, I don't know how popular a TV series will be showing this, it would be very harrowing, but the real nasty brutality and the effect there's been on regular society, regular civilians. People losing sons, fathers, brothers, husbands, wives, daughters because of this open violence. You can start to appreciate that in somewhere like the UK, when there's violence it’s on a completely different level. You start to appreciate how important and good it is to live with that kind of security.

Can you share a particularly challenging or memorable experience you've had as a journalist working in close proximity to cartels?

There's been many. But one which I described in one of my books happened back in 2014 when I was covering an uprising of vigilante squads of gunmen fighting the cartel in Michoacán. Later on in the year a lot of these vigilantes became gangsters themselves or gangsters basically just pretending to be vigilantes.

So, I went out with a group of about 50 guys who were pretty heavily armed. They had AK47s, grenade launchers and even 50 calibre rifles. I was getting on OK with them, taking photographs and kind of joking about with them on an OK level and then one of these guys came out and said “you know he's DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), this guy’s DEA. Why you letting him take your photograph? He’s DEA pretending to be to be a journalist”. It all changed very, very fast and I said “look, I'm not American, I'm English”, I showed them my website and they chilled a bit, but this guy said to me “if I see you again, I'm going to put a bullet in your head. I'm gonna throw a grenade at you”. I left after that but at the time, due to the adrenaline, I was more annoyed with myself that I'd missed out being with them when they went off and got into a big gun fight.  

What broader societal implications do you see arising from the glorification of figures like El Chapo or Pablo Escobar?

It's a tough question and I want to write a further essay about the glorification of narcos. So, on one side there is an influence on Latin Americans who see this glorification of narcos through music and through so many things which is one of the factors that influences them to go into the drug trade.

At the same time, loads of people around the world watch movies about gangsters and don’t go into the trade. It’s the same here (in Mexico). A lot of these gangsters are influenced by American movies like Scarface or The Godfather. So, it is a tricky one in in terms of the morality or the ethics of this thing. I do think you have to try and find ways of creating peace and reducing the violence here, but I don't know if waging a fight over culture is the way to do it even though it does have an impact. You have to change real things on the ground, give real opportunities to people, have real social work programmes and this kind of thing.

For students researching figures like El Chapo or Escobar, what advice do you have to ensure their projects go beyond superficial stereotypes?

I think you should try to find some good writers. Check out some of my books or reported pieces. I hope I try to go into some more context and depth. Try to read longer pieces and you know, maybe not just watch Narcos. Although, Narcos is a decent series which does have something in there as does the Mexican El Chapo series. Read up a bit more on the broader impacts on society.

Check out Ioan's book 'El Narco'

How can students delve deeper into the cultural and historical context surrounding these figures? What would you suggest they read or watch?
If I may, I think my first book El Narco is quite an easy read which does look into the culture, the history, the religion, into all of these things around the whole narco culture in Mexico. Some movies that I think are good or interesting are the Brazilian ones, they’re a bit different. Both City of God and the Elite Squad films get quite a bit deeper into some of the history. Books like Killing Pablo are still quite good, but I think you can watch a lot of YouTube stuff too. A colleague of mine, Luis Chaparro, has some good journalism as well on this.

Are there specific aspects of these figures' lives or the cartel-culture that students often overlook?

Well, I’ve talked to various drug traffickers and many people in this world, some quite high up and some quite low down. When you get to know them, you see it's a mixed bag. A lot of them have quite harsh, bad lives, beyond the glamour, quite painful lives. They know they're dealing with death and prison and violence and all these kind of things. Sometimes, on a personal level, trying to get to the humanity behind them is a bit harder from a distance when you’re seeing these characters from afar. But they’re kind of complete people, I guess with all of these aspects.

When studying notorious figures, how can students approach their research ethically, avoiding the glamorization of criminal activities?

Pues, creo que se debería ver el impacto profundo a la sociedad, hay que considerar la cuestión de las víctimas, aunque también entender que las personas impactadas por la violencia son los inocentes además de los propios victimarios involucrados en el mundo la criminalidad.  

In your experience, have you observed any positive outcomes from studying these figures in a more nuanced manner?

Pues, es bueno buscar la verdad y tener un buen entendimiento sobre este fenómeno. Entonces investigarlo más profundamente, explorarlo desde todos los ángulos posibles, aunque es difícil ver realmente consecuencias positivas. Lo triste es que no hay solución fácil.

For students unfamiliar with narco-journalism, how would you describe its role in reporting on crime and culture?

Pues, si hablamos de narcoperiodismo hay diferentes cosas. Hay periodistas que vamos cubriendo mucho el narcotráfico para los periódicos, las revistas, escribimos libros o hacemos documentales. Creo que el narcoperiodismo es crucial para entender todo esto y ha sido un gran trabajo de muchos periodistas en México, en Colombia, en Centro y Sudamérica. Por toda la provincia, en los pueblitos, cubriendo, a veces con salarios muy bajos, la cuestión del narcotráfico. Aunque, hoy en día hay más narcoperiodismo realizado por youtuberos, aunque es un poco más amarillista y quizás es una cuestión de gente que está un poco más dentro del crimen que quieren contar sus historias.

What misconceptions do people commonly have about narco-journalism, and how can students approach it with an open mind?

La frase "narcoperiodismo" es algo nuevo. Hice una entrevista con Joe Rogan quien subió el video con el título de “narcoperiodismo”. No sé si hay malentendidos, creo que hay que saber que es un trabajo duro y difícil, hay que saber los límites y tener cuidado con lo que se ve en YouTube, los youtuberos suben videos que a veces contienen mala información sin fuentes.

How can students broaden their understanding of South American culture beyond the narratives typically associated with drug cartels?

Hay mil cosas que van más allá de la droga y la delincuencia. La religión es muy interesante, aunque no soy religioso es interesante ver las figuras religiosas desde la virgen de Guadalupe, los santos populares, la cultura prehispánica, los aztecas, las mayas, los Olmecas, todos eso es super interesante. La música. Ya llevo veintiséis años aquí y recientemente empecé a entender la música ranchera y otros cantantes que muestran el alma de América Latina. La comida es algo super especial.

🗝️Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary.

• Amarillista (adj) - sensationalist

• Profundo (adj) - deep

• Victimario (nms) - killer, murderer, assassin

• Cubrir (vb) - to cover

• Tener cuidado (vb) - to take care/be careful

• Fuente (nfs) - the source

• Más allá - beyond

• Alma (nms) - the soul

🔍Grammar to look out for.

1. Apocopated adjectives

2. Use of ser and estar

3. The use of se in the passive voice

4. The preterite tense

5. The imperfect tense

6. The gerund

7. Indirect object pronouns

8. The present perfect

9. Adjectival agreement

Update + Downloads

Now for a bit of a boring update. I am pausing indefinitely all paid subscriptions and removing the option to upgrade to a paid subscription.

The experiment certainly worked and it was lovely to see so many of you upgrade but the last 5-6 months I’ve noticed a change in my attitude to Boletín and I’ve felt a lot of pressure to deliver. It’s actually made me less productive! In pausing all paid subscriptions I already feel lighter and more relaxed.

If you still want to support Boletín then there are still various ways to do so.

📁Download the student Boletín worksheet here and a student-friendly printout of this newsletter below.

Boletín 123 By Olliemfl

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That’s all this week!

Ollie

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Human struggle, international law, politics, life, and death are at play in the Mediterranean Sea. The Libyan coast guard race to intercept small boats returning the occupants to who knows where. Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders and SOS Méditerranée put themselves in danger, working around the clock to save lives and rescue those stranded at sea.

👋Welcome back to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course with weekly exam style questions and vocabulary lists. This week:

1. Issue 122 of Boletín (download the student worksheet, for free, here).

2. Migratory crossings in the Mediterranean Sea.

3. The Ceuta and Melilla borders.

4. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary.

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📌Issue 122.

In this week’s issue we’re going to explore migratory crossings in the Mediterranean Sea and the Ceuta and Melilla borders. The videos this week contain some quite unpleasant things so view discretion is advised.

🚣🏿What’s happening?

A migratory route in the Mediterranean Sea is now well-established with a large network of smugglers and traffickers moving people precariously across the sea in exchange for money, goods and the promise of a better life.

Migrants, mainly on overcrowded small boats with the aim of reaching Europe, are disembarking on Spanish coastlines although lots disappear or simply don’t survive the crossing. Others opt to try their luck rushing hard borders in large groups numbering hundreds or thousands.

Some migrants are able to claim refugee status (bestowing unto them certain legal rights guaranteed by international law, see below) and some are economic migrants looking to secure a better future for themselves or their families back home.

Spain’s territories of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern most tip of Africa are attractive propositions for thousands of migrants because, despite not being mainland Spain, it’s known that stepping foot on Spanish (and thus European) territory invokes certain rights (for some) and legally obliges Spain to comply with certain responsibilities as a Member State of the United Nations.

International law, however, is sometimes (flagrantly) flouted.

In 2022, the death of 37 migrants on the Moroccan-Spanish border sparked an investigation by the BBC which found that some migrants were crushed to death and beaten in large groups with no medical assistance provided. Many were also pushed back once on Spanish soil and redirected to where they had come from. A breach of international law. Authorities were also caught in the act of digging graves to bury victims before the proper investigations could be carried out. Nobody has been held accountable with Amnesty International stating that:

Stalled and inadequate investigations into the deaths of 37 migrants on the Moroccan-Spanish border "smacks of a cover-up" by those two nations.

For their part, the Moroccan authorities claim that the group of migrants were battle-hardened people with military training coming from conflict zones and that the border police acted within the framework to maintain public order. Online sleuths and investigative journalists are making the link between a recent border control agreement signed by Morroco and Spain in April 2022 which entailed increased funding for Morocco and the latter’s severity in guarding the border.

Morocco has now received €123 million from Spain for migration control since 2019 (this published in October 2022). The EU has distributed €346 million to the North African state in the same period and is due to send €500 million more up to 2027.

A documentary about these 37 deaths called Death on the Border by BBC Africa Eye is 100% worth a watch but is age restricted so viewer discretion is advised.

Those immigrants who opt for the maritime route face equally low odds of reaching safe and dry land but help is at hand thanks to charitable non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Doctors Without Borders and SOS Méditerranée.

These organisations, with their respective rescue ships Geo Barents and Ocean Viking, trawl the Mediterranean Sea (now regarded as the world’s deadliest migratory route) intercepting small boats, rescuing migrants, providing shelter, warmth and basic provisions before contacting nearby states to secure safe passage to Europe.

It isn’t always easy though for the NGO groups who have to contend with coast guards seeking to intercept the migratory boats before them with often fiery exchanges over the radio and the occasional actual firing of bullets. There are complicated political forces at play behind all of this as days and sometimes weeks pass before a state is willing to accept a ship full of migrants whose backgrounds are unknown.

⚖️International law

The United Nations plays a significant role in the development and enforcement of international law but there is no central authority and enforcement depends on the cooperation and political will of cooperating states.

The definition of a refugee was agreed upon in 1951 with the Refugee Convention. A refugee is defined as somebody who:

debido a fundados temores de ser perseguida por motivos de raza, religión, nacionalidad, pertenencia a determinado grupo social u opiniones políticas, se encuentre fuera del país de su nacionalidad y no pueda o, a causa de dichos temores, no quiera acogerse a la protección de tal país; o que, careciendo de nacionalidad y hallándose, a consecuencia de tales acontecimientos, fuera del país donde antes tuviera su residencia habitual, no pueda o, a causa de dichos temores, no quiera regresar a él.

The reason why migrants want to touch European soil is due to a key principal of the 1951 Refugee Convention which is called non-refoulement. I think the meaning is easier to understand in Spanish with no devolución. This is defined by the European Commission as:

In the refugee context, a core principle of international refugee law that prohibits States from returning refugees in any manner whatsoever to countries or territories in which their lives or freedom may be threatened on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

Sorry to keep switching between English and Spanish here. I’m hoping that the more ambitious A Level learners amongst you will try to translate these quoted pieces. The article which introduces this non-refoulement principle in the original 1951 convention goes like this (in Spanish):

Ningún Estado Contratante podrá, por expulsión o devolución, poner en modo alguno a un refugiado en las fronteras de los territorios donde su vida o su libertad peligre por causa de su raza, religión, nacionalidad, pertenencia a determinado grupo social, o de sus opiniones políticas.

📜The three texts.

Médicos sin Fronteras.1

La organización Médicos sin Fronteras divulgó el miércoles un nuevo informe en el que denuncia la incapacidad de los estados europeos para evitar la muerte de los migrantes en el mar Mediterráneo, donde en lo que va de 2023 han fallecido o desaparecido alrededor de 2.200 migrantes. Titulado “Nadie viene a rescatarnos” el informe se basa en datos recogidos a bordo del buque de rescate Geo Barens documentando “numerosos casos en los que los Estados costeros europeos ponen, conscientemente, en peligro la vida de las personas al retrasar los rescates o dificultar las devoluciones a lugares seguros”.

Epicentro del Auge.2

La inmigración irregular bate récords en España con la llegada de 46.862 extranjeros sin documentación al país hasta el 15 de noviembre, un balance impulsado por las cifras disparadas en Canarias, que ha recibido un 118% más de inmigrantes que el año pasado. Este mes continúa con la tendencia que ya se marcó en octubre, que también rompió récords. La gran mayoría, 45.707, llegaron por mar y su principal destino fue Canarias, donde han arribado este año en precarias embarcaciones 32.436 personas, frente a las 14.875 de 2022. Se han contabilizado 475 cayucos y pateras, un 42,6% más que en 2022 en estas fechas.

Disparos en el Mar.3

Durante una operación de rescate realizada por SOS Méditerranée, la guardia costera libia disparó tiros cerca del barco de la ONG, poniendo en riesgo la vida de la tripulación y de los migrantes. La Unión Europea y Suiza continúan financiándola a pesar de sus vínculos criminales y el abuso de los migrantes. Devolver a las personas a lugares donde enfrentan amenazas a su vida o libertad es contrario al principio de “no devolución” consagrado en la Convención de Refugiados. Los refugiados pueden ingresar irregularmente a un país de asilo, y no deberían ser penalizados por tratar de buscar seguridad y protección”.

🗝️Tier 2/3 vocabulary.

• divulgar (vb) - to circulate, make public, spread or disseminate (information)

• fallecer (vb) - to pass away

• alrededor de - around

• retrasar (vb) - to delay, hold up or postpone

• dificultar (vb) - to hinder, stand in the way, complicate or make difficult

• la cifra (nfs) - the figure

• ONG (organización no gubernamental) - NGO (non-governmental organization)

• disparado (adj) - sky high, through the roof, very high

• principal (adj) - main

• arribar (vb) - to arrive, dock

• contabilizar (adj) - to count or record

• un cayuco (nms) - a small boat

• una patera (nfs) - a small boat or dinghy used to transport immigrants

• realizar (vb) - to carry out

• disparar tiros (vb) - to shoot rounds/bullets

• la tripulación (nfs) - the crew

• devolver (vb) - to return (somebody or something) to where it came from

• ingresar (vb) - to enter

  ---

Thanks for reading, I’ve put the 1975 time capsule issue on the back burner. Too much scanning to do!

Ollie

❤️

Boletín 122 By Olliemfl

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Spain has been rocked by over a week of protests. At the heart of it all is a proposed deal by the Prime Minister which some say undermines the Spanish Constitution of 1978. Those who are to benefit from the deal will find themselves out from the cold.

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. This week:

1. Issue 121 of Boletín (download the student worksheet, for free, here).

2. What is happening, why and what’s the context?

3. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary.

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📌Edition 121.

This issue may age like milk, but I had to make it as it seems like something big is happening in Spain. I’m by no means a political commentator but I hope to have explained what is happening and why.

This week’s issue we’re going to explore the protests which are happening around the country. This links quite nicely to the movimientos populares theme on the AQA specification but also hits themes like regional identity as well. For the A Level students out there this would make a very interesting and topical IRP research area!

🔥What is happening?

#spainisadictatorship is trending. The touch paper has been lit and widespread outrage across the country has led to protests in all major cities and towns.

VOX claim that the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) are carrying out a coup.

It’s now day 10 (as of Sunday 11/11). Anger and violence is being directed towards Pedro Sánchez (the Prime Minister) and the PSOE party. In an attempt to control the situation riot police are using rubber bullets, batons and tear gas.

There is no end in sight yet and the VOX leader, Santiago Abascal, has called for a permanent mobilisation. Countless people have been arrested or injured. A former politician, Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca, was shot in the face (he’s stable in hospital). Chants of “Pedro Sánchez traidor” can be heard as well as “Viva Franco” and “Arriba España”. In Seville, people have brandished the Falange flag, accused Sánchez of being the instigator of a coup, and have been chanting Cara al Sol. Shamefully, some have been throwing the nazi salute and shouting racist and homophonic slogans.

In short, it’s total carnage.

The fire is being stoked by alt-right influencers and the VOX leader who has said:

This is a new black period in the history of Spain, today a coup against the nation began.

🤝What has Pedro Sánchez done?

There was a General Election in Spain in July 2023 but neither of the two main parties (PSOE or Partido Popular) could outright form a government. In order to do so, both parties would have to strike deals with smaller regional parties in exchange for their support in las cortes. The more likely to do so, it was thought, would be the PSOE led by Pedro Sánchez given the Partido Popular’s municipal alliances with the controversial VOX party putting off more moderate parties from dealing with them. So, the onus is on PSOE and Sánchez in particular to strike some deals for a majority.

Following so far?

The kicker, and the reason for all this trouble, is that Sánchez is agreeing deals with regional pro-independence Catalan parties. However, they want something in return.

So, what do they want that’s aggrieved so many people?

An amnesty.

🗳️What’s the context?

In 2017, Carlos Puigdemont led a failed attempt to declare, on behalf of Catalonia, independence from Spain contravening the Spanish Constitution of 1978. There’s way too much to cover here but the nuts and bolts are that the central Government in Madrid were able to enforce Article 155 of the Constitution, which states that:

If a Self-governing Community does not fulfil the obligations imposed upon it by the Constitution or other laws, or acts in a way that is seriously prejudicial to the general interest of Spain, the Government, after having lodged a complaint with the President of the Self-governing Community and failed to receive satisfaction therefore, may, following approval granted by the overall majority of the Senate, take all measures necessary to compel the Community to meet said obligations, or to protect the above-mentioned general interest.

In attempting to secede from Spain and undermining Spanish national unity the article was enacted and heavy force was used to prevent the illegal Catalan referendum from taking place.

Images of police brutality and general chaos were beamed around the world. Doors were kicked in, people were beaten, pensioners were thrown down stair wells. All of this to stop people voting.

When the dust had finally settled, the main players involved in organising the referendum went into self-exile to avoid arrest in Spain.

Now, back to 2023.

People are incandescent as, in an attempt to secure another term as prime minister, Pedro Sánchez is granting an amnesty to those responsible for the 2017 referendum (and any citizen who has suffered a judicial consequence as a result of it) in exchange for the support of the man who organised it. There’s also an agreement between the two parties for “the celebration of a referendum for Catalan self-determination” (though I’m not so sure what that means). An amnesty would also mean that those involved would be able to return to Spain and hold office.

Some Spaniards see this as a betrayal and claim that Sánchez, in clinging onto power, is putting himself before the country.

It’s a huge risk by Pedro Sánchez, why?

Public disorder this week has already been dreadful. Sánchez’s risky play has galvanised Conservative Spaniards and played into the hands of those on the extreme/alt-right. Spanish politics has been rocked. If the deal is ratified, there will be untold disturbances for a very long time and the next General Election is in 2027. Things will get very ugly.

However, if Sánchez, seeing the public backlash, backs out of the deal he is trying to table, he will surely lose power with the strengthening of the opposition.

There are interesting times ahead.

📜The three texts.

Un periodo negro.1

El presidente de Vox, Santiago Abascal, ha pronosticado este jueves que España vivirá “un período negro en su historia” como consecuencia del acuerdo alcanzado entre el PSOE y Junts para investir a Pedro Sánchez, por lo que ha pedido persistir en una “resistencia civil firme y pacífica” para oponerse. Abascal ha pedido a la población “defender la convivencia y la unión” de España en las calles, y hacerlo además trascendiendo partidos e ideologías. “No es el momento de los partidos, es el momento de que los españoles aparquen sus diferencias partidistas para defender lo más importante”.

La autodeterminación.2

El presidente del gobierno catalán, Carles Puigdemont, proclamó la victoria del “sí” en el referéndum de independencia que los tribunales declararon inconstitucional y el gobierno español intentó impedir con un fuerte dispositivo policial. Puigdemont dijo que el “sí’ a la independencia es mayoritario” y anunció que trasladará ahora los resultados al Parlamento de Cataluña “para que se implementen”. Según cifras, cerca del 2,3 millones de ciudadanos de esa región (en torno al 30% de la población catalana) votaron este domingo en el referéndum. De ellos, el 90% se inclinó por la independencia de la Cataluña.

Ley de Amnistía.3

España está inmerso en un caos político en medio de un acuerdo que busca investir al nuevo presidente del Gobierno, un proceso que ha desencadenado protestas en varias ciudades del país, principalmente en la capital, Madrid. Tras intensas negociaciones, el Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) llegó esta semana a un acuerdo con Junts per Catalunya. A cambio del apoyo de Junts, los socialistas aceptaron introducir una controvertida ley de amnistía para los independentistas catalanes procesados por su participación en un intento fallido de independizar a Cataluña del resto de España.

🗝️Tier 2/3 vocabulary.

• La investidura (nfs) - the inauguration or investiture (in a political context).

• La convivencia (nfs) - the coexistence.

• Inconstitucional (adj) - unconstitutional.

• Desencadenar (vb) - to unleash or trigger.

• Implementar (vb) - to implement.

• La amnistía (nms) - the amnesty.

• Independentista (adj) - pro-independence, separatist

• Proclamar (vb) - to proclaim or declare

• Convulsionar (vb) - to convulse, to shake violently (used metaphorically in political or social contexts).

• Controvertido/a (adj) - controversial.

• Partidista (adj) - partisan, related to political parties.

• El pacto (nms) - the pact or agreement.

• La manifestación (nfs) - demonstration or protest.

I’m going to take a two week break from Boletín now but will return with a late November issue which will be a 1975 time capsule!

Thanks for reading and thanks for the support,

Ollie

❤️

Boletín 121 By Olliemfl

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Uncover Juan Carlos I's pivotal role in the nation's transition to democracy after 40 years of dictatorship, King Felipe VI’s post-abdication steadying of the ship and Princess Leonor's oath that sets the stage for a future reign.

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. This week:

1. Issue 120 of Boletín (download the student worksheet here).

2. Spain adores Princess Leonor.

3. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary + LCDBA resource links.

🙏Subscribe to make sure future editions arrive straight to your inbox. If you enjoy this week’s edition then please give it a like or a share!

📌Edition 120.

In issue #120 you’ll learn about the past, present and future of the Spanish Monarchy which is a topic I’ve never broached before apart from the Reyes Católicos (issue 59). If you’re still looking for an IRP research area, this could be a candidate option!

This week’s is a fairly short newsletter as last week’s really took it out of me. When I get my teeth into a topic which interests me, I basically let it take over my life until I’m done with it and it’s out there in the universe. That’s what happened with Garbo. I read three books in a week, on top of teaching and adulting, just for the newsletter.

👑Spain adores Princess Leonor.

How trustworthy were you at 18 years of age?

For my part, I don’t think I was even entrusted with the house keys until about Sixth Form. I certainly wasn’t trusted to make food and my dad still doesn’t completely trust me to make him a cup of tea the way he likes it. I was, however, trusted to walk the dog, pop to the shops and do a small shop (although I’d throw in a bag of McCoys and hope Mum never noticed she was short-changed) and walk my sisters to Brownies.

Edit 1: I’ve just asked my wife what she doesn’t trust me to do properly. Answers include:

1. To put the washing on the horse properly.

2. To get the washing off the line when it rains.

3. To not eat the last chocolate digestive.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, this week Leonor, Princess of Asturias, the daughter of the current King of Spain and heiress to the throne, turned 18 in style. The Princess is a very impressive woman and Spaniards seem to really like her, her approval ratings are higher than her Dad’s (King Felipe VI) and far far exceed those of her Grandad (King Emeritus Juan Carlos I), no surprise there. So far, so good.

Turning 18 when you’re the heiress is a huge milestone and Madrid put on a spectacular show for the adored young Princess’ oath swearing ceremony (including free cake that people still felt the need to complain about). The aforementioned ceremony entails swearing to uphold the Constitution and loyalty to the King and is very important as it means that she will certainly become the Queen of Spain in the event of her father’s passi, abdication or incapacity to lead.

She had this to say:

Me debo desde hoy a todos los españoles a quienes serviré en todo momento con respeto y lealtad. No hay mayor orgullo. En este día tan importante que voy a recordar siempre con emoción les pido que confíen en mí como yo tengo puesta toda mi confianza en el futuro de nuestra nación, el futuro de España.

She asked the Spanish people to trust in her as she is confident for the future of the nation. Watching her speech it’s easy to see why she is thought so highly of.

📜The three texts.

Juan Carlos I.1

Juan Carlos I fue proclamado Rey en noviembre de 1975, cuando habían pasado sólo dos días de la muerte del dictador Franco, iniciándose así la transición a una monarquía parlamentaria. Juan Carlos I será recordado por su crucial intervención en febrero de 1981, cuando su condena del golpe de Estado que se estaba desarrollando en el Congreso de los Diputados supuso el inicio del fracaso de la sublevación de los militares contrarios a los rápidos cambios que se estaban produciendo en España. Su defensa de la joven democracia le ayudó a convertirse en uno de los reyes más populares de Europa.

Felipe VI.2

Al cumplir los dieciocho años, el hijo de Juan Carlos I, juró ante las Cortes Generales fidelidad al Rey, desempeñar fielmente sus funciones, guardar y hacer guardar la Constitución y las Leyes y respetar los derechos de los ciudadanos y de las Comunidades Autónomas. Tras 39 años de reinado, en 2014 Juan Carlos I comunicó oficialmente su decisión de abdicar la Corona de España. Al día siguiente, su hijo Felipe de Borbón se convirtió en el nuevo monarca. Después de los dos primeros años de reinado, el sistema de partidos políticos se convulsionó con el fortalecimiento del independentismo catalán.

Leonor I.3

La Princesa Leonor ha pronunciado el juramento que la legitima como la futura reina de España. La ceremonia, que tuvo lugar en el Congreso de los Diputados, marcó un hito en la historia de la monarquía y representó la continuidad de la monarquía parlamentaria en el país. Con este acto, Leonor de Borbón está legitimada para suplir a su padre en caso de fallecimiento, abdicación o incapacidad. Sin embargo, es importante destacar que tres ministros del gobierno y tres partidos políticos independentistas se ausentaron de los actos expresando su oposición al sistema monárquico y a la Constitución de 1978.

🗝️Tier 2/3 vocabulary.

• Ausentarse (vb) - to be away, to be absent or to be not turn up.

• Jurar (vb) - to swear (an oathe).

• Proclamar (vb) - to proclaim.

• Recordar (vb) - to remember.

• Suponer (vb) - to suppose.

• Abdicar (vb) - to abdicate.

• Desempeñar (vb) - to carry out or undertake.

• Destacar (vb) - to highlight, underline or emphasise.

• Cumplir (vb) - to turn or reach (an age).

• Convulsionarse (vb) - to disrupt or throw into turmoil.

• Suplir (vb) - to take the place of.

• Un golpe de Estado (nms) - a coup d’etat or coup.

• El fracaso (nms) - the failure.

• El fallecimiento (nms) - the passing (nice way of saying ‘la muerte’).

• Un hito (nms) - a milestone.

🆓La Casa de Bernarda Alba resources.

People are beginning to teach La Casa de Bernarda now, myself included. I wanted to share a few resource links from my TES shop that may be helpful, all of which are free. If you’re a teacher, then I highly recommend joining the Facebook discussion group as well.

1. La Casa de Bernarda Alba printer friendly parallel text with index link.

2. Public opinion of Lorca (reading comprehension) link.

3. Pre-read compiled interview covering his politics, La Barraca and his theatre link.

4. Lorquian key words (used with great success last year to embed vocabulary) link.

5. El machismo en La Casa de Bernarda Alba (Pepe el Romano) link.

6. Avoiding the passive voice via La Casa de Bernarda Alba link.

🙏🏻Boletín upgrade.

If you like Boletín then consider upgrading to a paid subscriber to support the project. On doing so you’ll receive:

🖼️ High-quality digital downloads of the covers from print run 1 and 2.

🧠 An index of topics and exam style questions from editions 1-115.

📨 The latest student worksheet sent to your inbox every week rather than bulk TES downloads clogging up your downloads folder.

🆕A copy of my 100+ page GCSE Spanish grammar workbook with answers.

Subscribe now

Boletín 120 By Olliemfl

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Thanks as ever for reading,

Ollie

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Agent Garbo’s contributions to the Allied war effort have been described as “the largest, most elaborate, most carefully planned, most vital and most successful of all the Allied deceptive operations’. (Charles Cruikshank)

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. This week:

1. Edition 119 of Boletín (download the student worksheet here).

2. Agent Garbo, the Spanish spy who saved D-Day.

3. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary.

🙏If you haven’t already then subscribe to make sure future editions arrive straight to your inbox. If you enjoy this week’s edition then please give it a like or a share!

📌Edition 119.

It’s nearly half-term, I hope everything is going well and your IRP titles are coming along! First and foremost I wanted to say a big thank you to the paid subscribers who continue to make this project viable and whose support is greatly appreciated!

I’ve wanted to make this issue for years. The story is absolutely fascinating and you’d struggle to believe it’s true if it didn’t actually happen. This issue is about the Spanish spy, Juan Pujol García, whose deception work as a double agent led to the successful Normandy landings on D-Day.

🕵🏼‍♀️Agent Arabel/Garbo.

The 6th June 1944 saw 1,213 warships gathered off the coast of Normandy and began disembarking more than 120,000 Allied troops. It was the first phase of history’s biggest amphibious operation, involving some 13,000 Allied aircraft, flying a total of 1,1,600 sorties and droping 5,200 tons of explosives. Yet the enemy was caught entirely unprepared.

A bottle of secret ink is exchanged along with secret codes and $3,000. Agent Arabel’s handler then outlines the kind of reports which he expects to receive once Arabel is on the ground in England. Weeks prior to this, and unknown to the Germans, Arabel had offered himself in any capacity that he might be needed to the British in Madrid, but he was roundly ignored. Then British Ambassador Sir Samuel Hoare, determined not to provoke the Generalissimo Franco and keen to avoid any diplomatic incidents was severely restricting Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) work which could potentially cause a stir.

With his tail between his legs but still motivated to attract British interest Juan Pujol García (his real name) decided to study Nazi doctrines and offer himself to the Axis cause reasoning that if accepted he could betray their secrets to the British as a double agent.

Juan was raised in Catalonia and was imbued with his values and beliefs by his father. He was vehemently opposed to tyranny and oppression and had a strong character. Observing from afar events transpiring in Germany he knew that he had to do something and wanted justice for the suffering he saw. Juan was a man fascinated by the origins of words, but despite fighting in the Spanish Civil War he was not a belligerent man. He fought as part of his compulsory military service and even switched sides over to the Nationalists.

After his rejection by the British Juan approached the German embassy and requested to talk with the department responsible for secret affairs, he then offered himself as an informant working from Lisbon as well as England if they had the means of getting him there . His Lisbon offer was turned down as uninteresting, but the England offer was tempting for the Germans. Sometime later the secret ink (not so secret it turned out), money and codes were exchanged, and Juan once again sounded out British interest this time trying to hand over his new clandestinely acquired spying equipment. Once more, incredibly, he was overlooked.

The tide of the war was now changing. MI5 was now controlling every single German agent inserted into Britain with Bletchley Park’s Enigma decrypts revealing nearly all Germans secrets via military intelligence cipher traffic. Most agents who been captured in England had turned against the Abwehr (German military intelligence/counterintelligence) in favour of joining the British double-cross system (a counter espionage setup designed to feed misinformation to the nazis, so called because it was run by the Twenty Committee or XX in roman numerals) because the alternative offered to them in an old London detention centre within a nursing home was unfathomable.

Now in Portugal, Juan Pujol bought a tourist guide and map of England as well as a railway timetable. Using information gleaned from these publicly available resources he began sending his first messages to the Germans who believed he was actually in England. It was his third message, sufficiently (and coincidently) close to the truth, which alerted MI5 who began to wonder who and where the unknown spy was. It would also lead to a meeting with an MI6 officer in Lisbon and a trip to England in April 1942 where his dream would be realised. Initially not all members of the SIS were in favour of using Juan Pujol as an XX agent as not all members had access to Most Secret Sources materials, to that end material pertaining to Juan was made available to them wherein they realised the potential for deception on a mass scale.

Garbo’s work for the British was devastating for the Germans. Previous to joining the British he was completely responsible for his own work however once partnered with MI5 a whole team aided his deception work - Garbo was only tasked with delivering the final product in the form of transmissions and letters to his German handlers in Madrid.

Garbo’s deception, spanning years, was aided by 20+ sub-agents, each with their own story and background, all figments of his active imagination. Alongside Tomás Harris Garbo was able to spin an intricate web of lies and feed carefully crafted misinformation (with some added truths for credibility) to the Germans who accepted everything he reported. The end goal was Operation Fortitude, a deception operation running in parallel with Operation Overlord, with the aim of convincing the Nazi high command that the Allied invasion of Europe would take place in Pas-de-Calais and that any landings in Normandy prior to this were in fact decoys intended to divert attention away from Pas-de-Calais.

Even as D-Day was underway and for weeks after Garbo maintained that the real landings were due to take place in Pas-de-Calais via information reported back by his vast network of make-believe sub-agents. Garbo’s reports were tracked through the German lines of communication and so trusted they were that they even reached Hitler’s headquarters. Every deceptive message had been bought by the Germans who confusingly delayed moving divisions of troops to Normandy believing that the main attack was due elsewhere at a later date. The deception was complete.

On 29th July a messaged was relayed to Juan Pujol from Madrid reading:

With great happiness and satisfaction I am able to advise you today that the Fuhrer has conceded the Iron Cross to you for your extraordinary merits…

Juan Pujol was awarded an MBE in 1944. His fictitious agents were awarded the sum of £31,000 for their service to the Reich. His death was reported in 1959 with an attack of malaria given as the cause of death, another invention. His faked death allowed him to settle in Venezuela until his story re-surfaced and became public knowledge in the 80s.

Bibliography:

Garbo The Spy Who Saved D-Day by Public Record Office.

Operation Garbo by Juan Pujol García and Nigel West.

Double Cross by Ben MacIntyre.

D-Day Minute by Minute by Jonathon Mayo.

✒️The three texts.

El Héroe Secreto.1

Joan Pujol (Barcelona , 14 de febrero de 1912 - Caracas , 10 de octubre de 1988), con el nombre en clave británico ‘Garbo’ y de nombre en clave alemán ‘Arabel’, fue un agente doble que desarrolló un papel clave en el éxito del desembarco de Normandía al final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. La información falsa que Pujol proporcionó a Alemania ayudó a convencer Adolf Hitler que el ataque principal del desembarco aliado sería más tarde, en otra fecha, y en otro lugar, lo que resultó decisivo para reducir las tropas alemanas presentes en la zona de las costas de Normandía.

El Maestro del Engaño.2

A veces la realidad supera a la ficción, y este es uno de esos momentos de la historia que, de aparecer en una película, creeríamos que no es real... ¿es posible que alguien pudiera recibir una condecoración del servicio de inteligencia nazi a la vez que era condecorado por el MI5 británico? ¿es real que un solo individuo pudiera engañar a una de las fuerzas militares más poderosas de la historia? la respuesta es sí. Esa persona tenía diferentes nombres dependiendo del bando que preguntara por él, Garbo para los ingleses y Arabel para los alemanes, pero su nombre real era Joan Pujol García.

De Espía a Fantasma.3

En los meses previos al desembarco en Normandía, Garbo les envió cientos de mensajes a los alemanes informándoles que la invasión principal no sería en esas playas de Francia sino mucho más al norte, en Pas-de-Calais. Los nazis le creyeron hasta el punto que dejaron buena parte de su tropa allá. Al final de la guerra y con los temores de ser descubierto o de que los nazis sobrevivientes pudieran perseguirlo, decidió desaparecer. Lo hizo muy a su estilo: fingió su propia muerte. En realidad, sin embargo, se instaló secretamente en Venezuela, donde diferentes versiones aseguran que tuvo un cine, un hotel o una librería.

🗝️Tier 2/3 vocabulary.

• Proporcionar (vb) - to supply/provide.

• Convencer (vb) - to convince.

• Resultar (vb) - to turn out to be.

• Superar (vb) - to exceed/overcome.

• Engañar (vb) - to trick/fool/mislead or deceive.

• Fingir (vb) - to pretend, fake or feign.

🆓Recently uploaded to TES.

• Translation tricks and traps on the topic of immigration.

• An introduction to adjectival agreement for KS3 in quiz form.

• 99 employment related words for GCSE revision.

  ---

🗞️Student friendly newsletter print out.

Boletín 119 By Olliemfl

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Ollie

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Part 3 of the mini-series based on Spanish regional identity is here! Paella or arroz con cosas? People reenacting the Christian reconquest of Spain and enormous sculptures people spend a year building to then burn. This week Paula from Valencia describes growing up in Valencia.

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. These newsletters accompany a student worksheet which can be downloaded freely here. This week:

1. Edition 118 of Boletín.

2. An interview with Paula from Valencia.

3. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary and grammar search for students.

4. Download links.

📌Edition 118.

Apologies for taking a while to post, things are very busy at the moment. I was planning to post today about the women’s World Cup win and the Rubiales case but I think it’s been covered extensively enough so I’m going to sit that one out, at least for now.

I know Spanish but how well do I know Spain? This question catalysed the regional identity mini-series which began in May with an issue on Galicia and continued last month with Castilla-La Mancha (link below in case you missed it!). Ahora toca aprender un poco más sobre Valencia.

🎤A Q&A with Paula from Valencia.

¿Cuál es tu expresión idiomática favorita? Ya sea algo que se dice en tu zona o por todo el país…

Donde fueres, haz lo que vieres. (When in Rome do what the Romans do) Y otra en valenciano, “Amb diners torrons” (Con dinero, turrones).

¿Cuál es la tradición española o costumbre que te gusta más?

La tradición que más me gusta de España es posiblemente la sobremesa, es excelente que todo el mundo sepa que las comidas son un lugar de reunión donde, además de comer, se habla y se disfruta de la compañía de los otros comensales.

¿Hay una tradición valenciana muy típica?

Diría que son Las Fallas de Valencia. Es posible que si preguntas a alguien de Castellón diga ‘La Magdalena’ o en Alicante dirán ‘Las Hogueras de San Juan’, pero las tres celebraciones giran en torno a festejar la cultura popular con el fuego y, en el caso de ‘Las Fallas’ se construyen unos momentos enormes que se queman al cuarto día.

Otra fiesta muy importante en la Comunidad Valenciana son los Moros y cristianos, en la que muchas personas se disfrazan con trajes muy impresionantes de uno de los dos bandos (Los moros o los cristianos), y además de unos pasacalles donde enseñan sus trajes, también se representa una batalla para representar la reconquista cristiana. Sin embargo, en esta batalla, cada año gana uno de los bandos.

¿Cuál es tu plato típico valenciano favorito?

La comida típica en Valencia normalmente está representada en la dieta mediterránea que se centra en comer alimentos como el pescado, la gran variedad de frutas y verduras de la huerta valenciana, legumbres, granos integrales y aceite de oliva. La región de Valencia tiene una tradición culinaria única que combina ingredientes frescos y de los mercados locales. Muchos de los platos han alcanzado popularidad en toda España:

1. Paella: Valencia es famosa por ser el lugar de nacimiento de la paella, uno de los platos más icónicos de la cocina española. La paella valenciana auténtica se prepara con arroz, conejo, pollo, garrofón (una variedad de haba), tomate, aceite de oliva y azafrán. También hay muchas otras variaciones de paella, como la de mariscos o la mixta (mariscos y carne).

2. Mariscos: Dada su ubicación en la costa, Valencia es conocida por su excelente marisco fresco. Puedes disfrutar de gambas, langostinos, calamares, mejillones y otros mariscos preparados de diversas formas, como a la plancha, a la parrilla o en guisos.

3. Horchata: La horchata es una bebida refrescante hecha a base de chufa (tigernut) que es muy popular en Valencia, especialmente durante los meses de verano. Se suele tomar acompañada de fartons, unos dulces alargados.

4. Tapas: Al igual que en muchas otras regiones de España, en Valencia es común disfrutar de tapas. Puedes encontrar una gran variedad de pequeños platos que van desde jamón serrano y queso hasta albóndigas y patatas bravas.

5. Arroces: Además de la paella, en Valencia se preparan otros platos de arroz deliciosos como el arroz a banda (arroz a la marinera), el arroz negro (hecho con tinta de calamar) y el arroz al horno.

6. Dulces: Valencia también es conocida por sus dulces, como el turrón de Alicante (un dulce navideño hecho a base de almendras), los pasteles de boniato (boniatos rellenos de azúcar y almendras), los buñuelos de calabaza y los rollos de anís.

Mi plato típico favorito es sin duda, la paella, especialmente me encanta la paella de marisco, o incluso las nuevas versiones de la paella valenciana que son hoy en día bastante populares… aunque tened cuidado, porque, los valencianos odiamos cuando las recetas no se siguen al pie de la letra y tu paella es fácil que se convierta en algo que no tiene nada que ver con lo que es nuestra idea de paella, aquí lo llaman ‘arroz con cosas’.

¿Cómo fue crecer en Valencia?

Aunque crecí en un pueblo cerca de Valencia, creo que tuve una experiencia bastante típica. Fui a una escuela pública bilingüe en la que aprendíamos valenciano además de castellano, en mi grupo de amigos había algunos que eran falleros y cuando eran Las Fallas se vestían con el traje tradicional de ‘fallera’.

Mirando atrás, ¿qué distinguía a tu región del resto?

Sin ninguna duda el rico patrimonio gastronómico y cultural de la Comunidad Valenciana. La naturaleza con tantas playas grandes y también terreno de montaña para disfrutar durante las vacaciones. Y sobre todo, la gente tan abierta y amigable.

¿Se ha perdido algo con el paso del tiempo?

Las ciudades se han vuelto más turísticas y posiblemente haya una pérdida de cultura valenciana en las partes más cosmopolitas, por ejemplo, en ciudades como Benidorm, que está todo destinado a los turistas. Respecto a la lengua local, aunque se ha promocionado mucho el valenciano, no hay mucha gente joven que lo hable en las grandes ciudades, aunque sí se sigue hablando bastante en los pueblos de alrededor.

¿Algo ha cambiado para mejor?

¡Por supuesto! Creo que ahora se hablan más idiomas que antes, los jóvenes hemos aprendido valenciano e inglés durante la secundaria y además todo se ha modernizado, hay más servicios públicos como el transporte público y se ha mejorado mucho la infraestructura para viajar y visitar sitios.

¿Cómo perciben las otras regiones de España a Valencia?

Supongo que ven las oportunidades vacacionales que ofrece, uno de los grandes incentivos son las playas, la calidad de la comida y el buen tiempo. Pero creo que cada vez hay más turismo cultural que sabe apreciar las tradiciones de nuestra cultura tan diversa.

¿Por qué debería alguien que nunca ha estado visitar Valencia?

Valencia tiene una historia rica que se remonta a la época romana, y su arquitectura refleja su pasado diverso. La ciudad cuenta con una impresionante mezcla de edificios históricos, como la Catedral de Valencia y la Lonja de la Seda, junto con estructuras modernas como la Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. El clima de Valencia es un clima mediterráneo con inviernos suaves y veranos cálidos y soleados, lo que la convierte en un destino atractivo durante todo el año. La ubicación de Valencia permite realizar fácilmente excursiones de un día a atracciones cercanas, como el Parque Natural de la Albufera, donde puedes dar paseos en barca y disfrutar de la belleza natural de la región.

Geográficamente Valencia está ubicada en la costa mediterránea, lo que la convierte en un destino perfecto para los amantes de la playa. La ciudad cuenta con varias playas de arena, como Malvarrosa y Patacona, donde puedes relajarte, nadar o disfrutar de deportes acuáticos. La ciudad tiene numerosos parques y espacios verdes, como los Jardines del Turia, que en su día fue el lecho de un río y ahora es un parque largo y paisajístico ideal para pasear, andar en bicicleta y hacer picnics.

Además, Valencia es famosa por su gastronomía y su deliciosa cocina, especialmente por el plato conocido mundialmente como la paella valenciana. Probar una auténtica paella es imprescindible, pero también puedes disfrutar de una amplia variedad de otros platos mediterráneos, mariscos frescos y delicias locales como la horchata y los fartons. Todo esto se puede adquirir en los mercados de Valencia, como el Mercado Central, llenos de producto local y que son un regalo para los amantes de la comida. Puedes encontrar productos frescos, mariscos, carnes y una amplia variedad de productos locales.

En lo que respecta a la cultura local, la cultura local, Valencia es famosa por sus festivales animados y coloridos, incluyendo Las Fallas. Esta celebración anual presenta esculturas elaboradas, fuegos artificiales, desfiles y una experiencia cultural única. Semana Santa es otro evento religioso importante que se celebra con procesiones y tradiciones.

Bonus: Hidden gems and places Paula recommends visiting if you ever travel to Valencia.

1. Iglesia de San Nicolás.

2. Central Market.

3. The old Silk Market: (La Lonja de la seda)

4. The Cathedral and its surrounding squares: Plaza de la Virgen and Plaza de la Reina.

5. The modernist Train Station (Gaudí Style): Estació del Nord.

6. El Palacio de Marqués de Dos Aguas.

7. Museum of ‘La Almoina’.

8. The ‘CCCC’ (Centre del Carme de Cultura Contemporánea).

9. Prehistorical museum.

10. Modern art museum (MUVIM).

11. Museo de bellas artes (fine arts museum).

12. Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias.

13. The riverbed (turned into a walkable massive green area).

14. Monforte Gardens.

15. The University’s Botanic Garden.

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🗝️Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary.

• Los comensales (nmp) - Dinner guests.

• Girar en torno a (vb) - To revolve around.

• Disfrazarse (vb) - To dress up.

• Alcanzar (vb) - To reach/achieve.

• La haba (nfs) - Broad bean.

• La azafrán (nfs) - Saffron.

• La ubicación (nfs) - Location.

• Un guiso (nms) - Stew.

• La tinta (nfs) - Ink.

• La huerta (nfs) - Orchard, allotment, vegetable patch or area of cultivated land.

• A la plancha/parrilla - Grilled.

• Al horno - Baked/from the oven.

• Navideño (adj) - Christmas.

• Tener cuidado (verb phrase) - To take care/watch out.

• Seguir al pie de la letra (verb phrase) - To follow something to the letter.

• Tener que ver con (verb phrase) - To have to do with.

• Amigable (adj) - friendly.

• Respecto a - Regarding/in regard to.

• En lo que respecta a - With respect to/regarding

• Remontarse (vb) - To go back to.

• Dar paseos - To go for a walk/stroll.

• Paisajístico (adj) - Scenic.

🔍Grammar to look out for.

1. Uses of por and para.

2. Infinitive verbs used when in English we would use a gerund.

3. Adjectival agreement.

4. Passive se structures.

5. Relative pronouns (el que and its various forms).

6. Reflexive verbs.

7. Present subjunctive with possibility triggers.

8. Gerunds.

9. Direct object pronouns.

10. The present perfect.

🧠A Level structures.

I’m not going to rave on about it because I’ve done it enough already but I have made a GCSE grammar workbook.

In said workbook I cover subjunctive possibility triggers and to save me a job explaining I’m going to copy in a page below (it’s late and I’m tired).

Clicking here will take you to a page where you can buy the grammar workbook for only £5 (£10 off) but there are only five slots!

That’s all for this week, a massive thanks to Paula for taking the time to share her experiences growing up in Valencia. Paula is an experienced A Level and GCSE Spanish tutor so if you’re considering some tuition then feel free to get in touch with her with the following email: paulastandby@hotmail.com.

Have a great week,

Ollie

❤️

Downloads

📁Download the student Boletín worksheet here and a student-friendly printout of this newsletter below.

Boletín 118 By Olliemfl

689KB ∙ PDF file

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The 8M feminist strike of 2018 marked a pivotal moment when women across Spain rallied for gender equality, a call still echoing today. But beneath this call to action lies a deeper issue — the entrenched roots of sexism that continue to shape Spanish society.

1. Edition 117 of Boletín.

2. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary, grammar search for students and A Level grammar.

3. Downloads/UniScoops

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural & topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. These newsletters accompany a student worksheet which can be freely downloaded here.

📌Edition 117.

So, if it wasn’t already obvious, you should know that I love a pancarta (placard/banner). I love the slogans, the hand lettering and the opinions. It seems I’m not the only one…

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

This week, in an effort to contextualise an upcoming issue dealing with Rubiales, I want to focus on the fight for gender equality with the 8M movement (more pancartas!), the only yes means yes law and what some have called the deep-rooted nature of sexism in Spain.

This has the benefit of addressing three AQA A Level Spanish sub-themes:

1. Machismo y feminismo.

2. La efectividad de las manifestaciones y las huelgas.

3. Ejemplos de protestas sociales.

and broadly addresses a few WJEC themes as well:

1. Marginalisation.

2. Discrimination and diversity.

3. Traditional and modern values.

   ---

The 8M feminist strike of 2018 marked a pivotal moment when women across Spain rallied for gender equality, a call still echoing today. Here’s just a few of the slogans which you could read by those wielding placards.

• Somos el grito de las que ya no tienen voz.

• De camino a casa quiero ser libre, no valiente.

• Nos quitaron tanto que terminaron quitándonos el miedo.

• (R)evolucionando el mundo.

• Es mi cuerpo, yo decido.

• 'No es no', si quieres más flexibilidad, apúntate a Yoga.

• Sin feminismo en las aulas, no hay educación.

• Estoy hasta el culo de tanto machirulo (this one is great!).

Here are 100 more.

Beneath this call to action lies a deeper issue — the entrenched roots of sexism that continue to shape Spanish society. The Ley de Garantía Integral de Libertad Sexual, a recent effort to combat sexual violence was a step in the right direction and has snowballed recently as Spain comes to terms with its very own MeToo movement sparked by Luis Rubiales (former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation) kissing Jenni Hermoso (captain of the women’s national team) without consent.

To understand the present, we must first reflect on the past. During the Franco era (1939-1975), Spanish women faced stark limitations on their roles in society. The regime emphasized traditional gender roles, relegating women primarily to domestic spheres. Opportunities for education and employment were limited, and women had little legal autonomy.

This is a great time to revisit la guía de la buena esposa which I’m dubious as to whether was actually published (apparently in 1953) or not. It’s a manual consisting of 11 rules which a woman should have adhered to in order to please her husband and run a household. As well as shedding light on societal attitudes towards women, used in class it can trigger some very good discussions and exemplifies well the imperative mood.

With the transition to democracy after Franco's death in 1975, Spain witnessed a seismic shift. The post-1975 period saw remarkable progress in women's rights, with significant legal and societal changes. Women gained access to education and employment, and their role in politics and public life expanded. Notably, the 1978 Spanish Constitution enshrined gender equality as a fundamental principle.

Despite these advancements, deeply ingrained sexism persisted. Discrimination, unequal pay, and gender-based violence remained pervasive issues. This brings us back to the 8M feminist strike and the Ley de Garantía Integral de Libertad Sexual, illustrating the ongoing struggle for true gender equality in Spain.

✒️The three texts.

8M.1

Cientos de miles de mujeres, acompañadas por miles de hombres, han inundado las calles de toda España como colofón a un Día Internacional de la Mujer histórico: la primera huelga general feminista realizada en España para exigir igualdad real. Mujeres de todas las edades, profesiones y razas han protagonizado un 8M sin precedentes por su impacto social y también económico. Al término de la manifestación, bajo una fina lluvia, representantes de la Comisión 8M leyeron un manifiesto contra la violencia machista y la discriminación laboral de la mujer, en el que denunciaban la brecha salarial.

La mujer bajo el franquismo.

Durante la dictadura de Franco (1939-1975), la situación de las mujeres experimentó importantes limitaciones y restricciones. El régimen franquista promovió un modelo de sociedad tradicional y conservadora en el que se esperaba que las mujeres desempeñaran roles tradicionales de esposas y madres. Se fomentó la sumisión de las mujeres a los hombres y se limitaron sus derechos y libertades. Las mujeres enfrentaron restricciones en su acceso a la educación y al empleo. El divorcio fue ilegal y se promulgó una legislación que otorgaba al marido un control casi absoluto sobre la vida de su esposa.

Solo sí es sí2

Se llama Ley de Garantía Integral de Libertad Sexual, aunque es más conocida como Ley de Libertad Sexual y, sobre todo, como ley de “solo sí es sí”. “Solo sí es sí” hace referencia al más importante y también el más polémico de los postulados de esta ley: el consentimiento antes de cualquier interacción sexual. Así, toda interacción sexual sin el consentimiento de la otra persona será una agresión y se castigará con una pena de prisión de 1 a 4 años. El acoso callejero pasará a ser penado como delito leve y la justicia podrá perseguirlo a petición de la persona que lo sufra, también se perseguirá la violencia sexual digital.

🗝️Tier 2/3 vocabulary.

• Inundar (vb) - to flood.

• El colofón (nms) - climax.

• La huelga (nfs) - strike.

• Exigir (vb) - to demand.

• La brecha salarial - the pay gap.

• Promover (vb) - to foster or promote.

• Fomentar (vb) - to encourage.

• Ortorgar (vb) - to bestow, grant, award or give.

• Desempeñar (vb) - to carry out/undertake.

• El consentimiento (nms) - consent.

🔍Grammar items to look out for.

1. Adjectives formed from past participles.

2. The present perfect.

3. Adjectives.

4. The preterite tense.

5. The future simple tense.

6. Direct object pronouns

   ---

🧠A Level structures.

Given the affirmative imperative commands present in la guía de la buena esposa this week’s A Level structure is the imperative mood. For a look at common imperative commands associated with smart speakers and how to form affirmative commands, including common irregulars, scroll down for a freebie page from my GCSE Spanish grammar workbook.

I introduced the 100-page grammar workbook last week here and am delighted to see so many of you already using it! I have loved giving them out to my students this last week. One thing I haven’t spoken so much about is the speaking/writing toolkit towards the end of the workbook. A little bit of item level data analysis this week revealed the extraordinary work our GCSE students produced in their unit 4 written papers and on viewing their scripts (WJEC have made them all available for free online this year 🤩) I’ve been delighted to see nearly all of them remembering to plan using the writing toolkit to ensure usage of A*/level 9 structures and idiomatic language. With permission I’ll share more at a later date!

Anyway, I was blown away last issue by the speed in which the ten reduced copies were snapped up. Looking at the post stats I can see lots of people missed out. So…

There are another ten more copies going for £10 with the link directly below.

👉🏻 £5 off the first 10 sales!

🗞️PDF download of the student edition.

Boletín 117 By Olliemfl

911KB ∙ PDF file

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UniScoops

Lastly, I wanted to share a useful site for A Level students which is UniScoops. UniScoops is a free newsletter that makes academia fun, digestible, and accessible and best of all it’s written by students. Essentially, if you’re in year 12 or 13 you can glimpse behind the curtain of degree level education with all the benefits that might bring (increased subject knowledge, something to add to your personal statement or just reading/learning for leisure). Although not languages specific there will be, I’m reliably informed, a few Spanish related posts in the future.

The Boletín student worksheet can be download, as ever, over on TES.

Ollie

❤️

Part 2 of the mini-series based on Spanish regional identity is here! From vineyards and typical dress to folklore and gastronomy. This week we get to hear about life growing up in Valdepeñas, Castilla-La Mancha.

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. These newsletters accompany a student worksheet which can be downloaded for free here. This week:

1. I created a 100-page GCSE Spanish grammar workbook (with answers!).

2. Edition 116 of Boletín.

3. An interview with José from Valdepeñas in Castilla-La Mancha.

4. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary and grammar search for students.

5. Download links.

✏️The GCSE Spanish grammar workbook.

Welcome back, it’s been a while!

80 days to be precise which is the longest I’ve gone without publishing a Boletín issue. The time off was put to good use though.

Last June I set myself the challenge of creating a grammar workbook for my new year 10s which would cover every single grammar point from the AQA, Edexcel & WJEC specification.

The result is a new 100-page GCSE Spanish grammar workbook with a lovely cover designed by the brilliant @languageswithmaddy. I’m very excited to give a copy to each of my new GCSE students upon starting the course. Feedback from teachers already using it has been super positive; most (like me) are using it as a supplement to the GCSE course, some are using it with adult learners and some are even using it as an A Level grammar induction.

I plan to make this grammar workbook an integral part of the GCSE course which, given that it assumes zero prior knowledge, could be introduced as early as year 9 (nouns, adjectives, verbs and simple tenses) and last into year 12 (thorough practice of the subjunctive and compound tenses). I’ve used The Frequency Dictionary of Spanish to help decide which nouns, verbs and adjectives to include on their respective pages.

I’ve endeavoured to make my explanations accessible with examples in English and Spanish (occasionally annotated). Personally, I’ll be using the workbook for classwork, homework, interventions and potentially cover. There are 85 exercises in total and more than 100 pages with all answers included! You can view a selection of sample pages here.

For Boletín subscribers there’s £5 off the first 10 sales with the link directly below.

👉🏻 £5 off the first 10 sales!

If you missed the boat on the first ten then the link below will take you to the main listing on TES with a full breakdown of every grammar point covered as well as reviews. If you have any questions or you’d like to see a particular page then feel free to drop me a message!

🤩 The grammar workbook on TES!

📌Edition 116.

I know Spanish but how well do I know Spain? This was the question which kicked off the first issue of the regional identity mini-series on Galicia (below).

Having only been to Barcelona, Seville and Madrid the rest of my knowledge of Spain is mainly from the news and (dated but wonderful) books by authors like Gerald Brenan and Laurie Lee. So, the plan this year is to make some real progress with this regional identity mini-series and we’re going to kick off the year with Castilla-La Mancha.

I envision this issue complementing the Volver inspired interview (most popular issue ever!) with Dr Ana Maria Sanchez-Arce well given the manchegan links.

When Laurie Lee, on his famous 1934-35 traverse of Spain equipped with a violin and not much else, reached Valdepeñas, he wrote:

Valdepeñas was a surprise: a small graceful town surrounded by rich vineyards and prosperous villas - a pocket of good fortune which seemed to produce without effort some of the most genial wines in Spain. The town had an air of privileged well-being, like an oil-well in a desert of hardship; the old men and children had extra flesh on their bones, and even the dogs seemed to shine with fat.

It was also a friendly town, where people welcomed my violin and encouraged me to play as though I’d come to a wedding, drawing back their shutters, leaning over their balconies, and rewarding me with food and money. I remember playing in the evenings to houses of blue and white, while women approached me with cups of wine, and the pork-fattened shopkeepers broke off from kissing their children to bring me parcels of ham and olives.

Speaking of Laurie Lee, let’s go off on a little tangent and admire the beautiful map below depicting his journey from Vigo to Almuñécar. You can see that Valdepeñas is directly between Madrid and Andalusia. If you haven’t already then you should definitely go and buy a copy of As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning which charts his journey.

So, this week we’re very fortunate to get some insight on Castilla-La Mancha by the king of displays himself and somebody who I’ve admired from afar for a long time. I asked José, during the Summer holidays, if he’d be willing to contribute to a regional identity themed issue at 11am and by 5pm he had already sent me his answers!

🎤A Q&A with José from Valdepeñas (Castilla-La Mancha).

¿Cuál es tu expresión idiomática favorita? Ya sea algo que se dice en tu zona o por todo el país…

Me gustan muchas frases y palabras manchegas, pero me encanta 'estar al trascacho' El trascacho es una zona fresca, a la sombra y resguardada del viento.

¿Cuál es la tradición española o costumbre que te gusta más?

En general, me fascinan Las Fallas de Valencia. Cada año se superan, no doy crédito del nivel de detalle en las esculturas o 'ninots' y de cómo se pasan todo el año haciéndolas con el fin de quemarlas.

¿Hay una tradición manchega muy típica?

Diría que bailar la Jota manchega. En mi pueblo, Valdepeñas, hay un grupo profesional de jotas que se llama 'fermento' y bailan jotas en la plaza en la semana de las Fiestas del Vino. La jota es un baile regional muy extendido en varias regiones de España, como Aragón y las dos Castillas. Sus elementos más distintivos son las castañuelas, tan difíciles de tocar bien, y su baile, con pasos ágiles que parecen saltos con los brazos en alto. Hay una jota manchega con una letra popular que todos en la Mancha sabemos de memoria de tanto escucharla en las fiestas populares, dice así: 'A la Mancha manchega, que hay mucho vino, mucho pan, mucho aceite y mucho tocino. Y si vas a la Mancha no te alborotes, Porque estás en la tierra de Don Quijote'

Todos los niños manchegos seguro que han tenido que vestirse con el traje típico de manchego alguna vez, para algún evento. El traje típicamente manchego incluye la famosa falda larga con el estampado de rayas tan típico que puede verse también en cortinas o manteles, lo que llamamos aquí 'tela manchega', con el mantón, medias blancas y pantalones negros y fajín rojo para los hombres. Como suele pasar con los trajes regionales, el femenino es mucho más complejo que el masculino. El color negro es predominante y las rayas y flores rompen con esa sobriedad.

¿Cuál es tu plato típico manchego favorito?

¡Qué difícil! Creo que diría que las Migas manchegas, un plato sencillo y típico de la Mancha más rural, con carne, pan y uvas. Hoy en día las sirven en los mejores restaurantes con orgullo y tradición. No me olvido de nuestro producto estrella, el queso manchego, y el vino blanco (uva airén) y tinto (uva cencibel).

¿Cómo fue crecer en Castilla-La Mancha?

Valdepeñas es un pueblo grande en la Mancha y la sociedad no es tan rural como en otras aldeas. Creo que la idiosincrasia manchega me hace recordar el olor a uva y mosto por la calle al final de agosto y principio de septiembre, en época de vendimia, cuando veía los tractores pasar cargados de uvas por mitad del pueblo, y a su vez, asociarlo con el comienzo del curso escolar. Recuerdo a mi abuelo, preocupado por su huerta y sus viñas, y de 'hacer cuadrilla' para vendimiarlas a tiempo, o comer las típicas torrijas españolas hechas con vino dulce en lugar de leche.

Mirando atrás, ¿qué distinguía a tu región del resto?

Cabe mencionar que la Mancha, es la región histórica que hoy en día ocupan las provincias de Ciudad Real y parte de Albacete. Castilla-La Mancha es muy extensa y el norte, Guadalajara, Cuenca y Toledo, quizá sean más similares culturalmente a Segovia, Ávila o Zamora que a la Mancha. La Mancha es una zona de tierra roja, de viñedos y olivares, marcada por el folklore popular, las Jotas, y sus pueblos monumentales como Almagro o Villa Nueva de Los infantes, que se identifica con Don Quijote, de Cervantes o Quevedo y que bien refleja en sus escenas más costumbristas el director Pedro Almodóvar, especialmente en Volver y La Flor de Mi Secreto.

¿Podrías explicar en mayor detalle el folklore manchego?

Para mí, el folklore manchego lo relaciono siempre con la sencillez de una región eminentemente agrícola con núcleos urbanos pequeños y medianos, donde, especialmente en mi zona, Valdepeñas, la cultura del vino y la recogida de la uva juegan un papel esencial. Una tierra de gente humilde y trabajadora que se beneficia de su posición geográfica en la meseta entre Andalucia y Madrid, lo que también hace que tenga veranos muy secos y calurosos e inviernos muy fríos y severos. La típica casa manchega, como la de mis abuelos, suele tener un patio central o corral, en el caso de las más grandes, para refrescar todas las estancias en verano.

¿Se ha perdido algo con el paso del tiempo?

Las antiguas bodegas familiares casi han desaparecido o han sido compradas por otras más grandes que industrializan la vendimia.

¿Algo ha cambiado para mejor?

Sí, la otra cara de la moneda es que el turismo rural de calidad convierte a la zona en un atractivo auténtico para conocer el centro del país, hay turismo enológico, rutas del vino o parques naturales como el de Las Lagunas De Ruidera con aguas turquesa que son una delicia de visitar.

¿Cómo perciben las otras regiones de España a Castilla-La Mancha?

Tradicionalmente puede existir la idea estereotipada de zona rural, poco urbana y anticuada, de 'gente del campo' aunque también es bien apreciada su gastronomía, el queso manchego de fama internacional y si ya hablamos de toda Castilla-La Mancha, las ciudades patrimonio de la humanidad, Toledo y Cuenca, no necesitan presentación, al igual que la región de La Alcarria en Guadalajara, conocida por su miel. Creo que los molinos de viento son un gran símbolo de la zona.

¿Por qué debería alguien que nunca ha estado visitar Castilla-La Mancha?

Como estudiante de español, el acento claro y bastante neutro seguro será bien recibido. En esta zona central del país, lejos del ruido de las costas famosas en el verano, conocerás algunas de las raíces más importantes de la cultura española, bien por medio de la arquitectura -las casas colgadas de Cuenca o la 'ciudad de las tres culturas, anterior capital del país, Toledo- , la gastronomía o la historia.

Share

🗝️Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary.

• Manchego (adj) - Manchegan/of La Mancha.

• Resguardar (vb) - To shelter, shield or protect.

• Quemar (vb) - To burn.

• Tocar (vb) - To play (an instrument).

• La letra (nfs) - Lyrics.

• Alborotarse (vb) - To get anxious, frightened, nervous.

• El fajín (nms) - Sash.

• El orgullo (nms) - Pride.

• La vendimia (nfs) - The grape harvest.

• La huerta (nfs) - Orchard, allotment, vegetable patch or area of cultivated land.

• A tiempo (advb) - On time.

• Un viñedo (nms) - A vineyard.

• Costumbrista (adj) - Costumbrist (depicting local or regional customs).

• La recogida (nfs) - The collection.

• Jugar un papel (vb) - To play a role.

• Refrescar (vb) - To cool off.

• Una bodega (nfs) - winery, wine shop, off-license.

• La otra cara de la moneda (expression) - The other side of the coin.

• El turismo enológico (nms) - Holidays involving wine-tasting.

• Los molinos de viento (nmp) - Windmills.

• Las raíces (nfp) - Roots.

🔍Grammar to look out for.

1. The present tense.

2. The present perfect.

3. The imperfect tense.

4. The present subjunctive with the hace que obligation structure.

5. Direct object pronoun attached to an infinitive.

6. Direct object pronoun placed before a conjugated verb.

7. Adverbs.

8. Comparative structure.

9. Definite and indefinite articles.

10. Adjectives.

That’s all for this week!

I’m currently creating Boletín 117 which is all about the World Cup winning Spanish women’s team but obviously other events have somewhat overshadowed it and the whole story is still developing so stay tuned!

Before I forget I have updated the index of topics which now covers up to edition 115 (previously it only went to 100).

Index of topics

Ollie

❤️

Downloads

📁Download the student Boletín worksheet here and a student-friendly printout of this newsletter below.

Boletín 116 By Olliemfl

740KB ∙ PDF file

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The dress code is white and the weapon of choice is wine. Wine in bottles. Wine in water pistols. Wine in carry packs with sprayers.

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course. A special thanks to the nearly 200 who have subscribed since the last edition went out and to those who upgraded to paid! This week:

1. Edition 115 of Boletín.

2. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary and grammar search for students.

3. Downloads (a free download of the student worksheet as a trial).

🙏If you haven’t already then subscribe to make sure future editions arrive straight to your inbox. If you enjoy this week’s edition then please give it a like or a share!

📌Edition 115.

This week we start with a text on a popular festival in La Rioja called La Batalla del Vino which looks as fun as it sounds, the second text is about recent exhumations from the massive monmument which until very recently housed the remains of both Franco and Primo de Rivera and we finish with the book fair which takes places every year in Madrid. Enjoy!

Whilst I love putting together feature editions like the last one on the Vini Jr racism incident they take up a considerable amount of time and it’s not sustainable with teaching full-time.

This week’s edition goes back to how Boletín originally started life with three topical texts (all unrelated) linked to the A Level Spanish curriculum. If you’re a recent subscriber then these newsletters are a compliment to a student worksheet which can be downloaded here or at the bottom of this page.

✒️The three texts.

La Batalla del Vino.1

La Batalla del Vino es una tradición única que tiene lugar cada año en la localidad de Haro. Este evento se celebra en el día de San Juan, el 24 de junio, y consiste en una auténtica batalla en la que los participantes se empapan con vino tinto. Durante la batalla, los participantes se lanzan vino unos a otros, utilizando todo tipo de recipientes, desde botellas hasta mochilas. La batalla suele durar varias horas y los participantes terminan completamente empapados de vino tinto. Es importante señalar que los participantes deben llevar ropa blanca, ya que el vino tiñe la ropa y forma parte de la tradición.

El Valle de los Caídos.2

Los trabajos forenses para exhumar a 128 víctimas del régimen del dictador Francisco Franco (1939 - 1978) del Valle de Cuelgamuros (antiguo Valle de los Caídos) comienzan este lunes, con la búsqueda de los primeros 18 cuerpos reclamados por sus familiares. El monumento con una enorme cruz, que incluye una basílica, ubicado en las proximidades de Madrid, fue mandado construir por el dictador tras la Guerra Civil española y se convirtió en un símbolo del franquismo. El mausoleo acogió también los restos del dictador Franco y del fundador del partido fascista Falange Española, José Antonio Primo de Rivera.

La Feria del Libro.3

La Feria del Libro de Madrid es uno de los eventos culturales más importantes de nuestro país. Aquí, se dan cita los escritores más renombrados, junto con las librerías y editoriales españolas, además de escritores noveles y lectores consumados. El lugar de celebración de esta feria es el Parque del Retiro de Madrid, un emplazamiento único que atrae a miles de visitantes durante estos días. Esta celebración, si las circunstancias lo permiten, siempre comienza el último viernes de mayo. En este año 2023, abrió sus puertas el pasado 26 de mayo, con eventos diarios y muchas sorpresas.

🗝️Tier 2/3 vocabulary.

• Empaparse (vb) - to get drenched/soaked.

• Señalar (vb) - to note or point out.

• Teñir (vb) - to stain or due.

• Exhumar (vb) - to exhume.

• La busqueda (nfs) - the search.

• Las proximidades (nfs) - the vicinity.

• Mandar (vb) - to order/demand.

• Convertirse (vb) - to become.

• El fundador (nms) - the founder.

• Un emplazamiento (nms) - a site.

• Diario (adj) - daily.

🔍Grammar to look out for.

1. Adjectives.

2. Avoiding the passive (se structure).

3. Relative pronouns.

4. The gerund.

5. An infinitive structure.

6. The passive voice.

7. The preterite tense.

8. Direct object pronouns.

🗞️PDF download of the student edition.

El Boletín By Olliemfl 115

72.9KB ∙ PDF file

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The student edition along with the usual exam style question can be downloaded above.

Thanks as ever for reading,

Ollie

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The dust is settling on a national scandal that rocked Spain last week. Brazilian Real Madrid star Vini Jr was racially abused for the 10th time. Subsequently, a group of men and one 14-year-old (now arrested) hung an effigy of him from a bridge.

👋Welcome to Boletín, an English-language newsletter covering historical, cultural and topical stories related to the A Level Spanish course.

🤯I started making these for my A Level students in 2020 and now there are 1,500+ of you reading! This week:

1. Edition 114 of Boletín.

2. Racism and La Liga (the recent Vini Jr case).

3. La ley de la igualdad de trato y la no discriminación y ley contra la violencia, el racismo, la xenofobia y la intolerancia en el deporte.

4. Tier 2 & 3 vocabulary, grammar search for students and direct object pronouns.

5. Downloads.

🙏If you haven’t already then subscribe to make sure future editions arrive straight to your inbox. If you enjoy this week’s edition then please give it a like or a share!

📌Edition 114.

How many black Spanish footballers can you name off the top of your head?

Why are Spanish football fans so flagrantly racist?

How does the law in Spain protect Spaniards and those seeking Spanish citizenship?

In the second year of the WJEC A Level course we cover immigration, integration, diversity, discrimination, marginalisation, cultural enrichment and difference. In this 114th edition of Boletín we explore the recent Vini Jr case (detailed below) and the national debate which opened in Spain about racism.

To any A Level students interested in football considering doing an IRP on el clásico I implore you to read this edition and reconsider.

If you are a teacher with football interested students please do pass this onto them!

Racism in Spain.

Racism proliferates in Spanish football stadiums.

How many times have we heard this?

We’ve been here before when Morocco knocked Spain out of the World Cup, it was sadly all too predictable.

Real Madrid star Vini Jr is the latest victim but he’s no stranger to racist abuse. The most recent abuse away to Valencia was the 10th reported instance of racism directed towards Vini Jr since 2021.

As recently as December 2022 he was racially abused in Valladolid and took to Twitter to say:

Racists continue to go to stadiums and watch the biggest club in the world up close and LaLiga continues to do nothing.

The previous September Vini Jr had been criticised by agent Pedro Bravo for his dance celebration and told during a television discussion to “stop playing the monkey”.

On 21st May 2023 Real Madrid were away to Valencia. The ugly scenes which transpired went around the world.

Valencian fans in the Mestalla taunted Vini Jr with chants of “Vinícius, eres un mono” (Vinícius, you’re a monkey). Vini Jr confronts the fans when one calls him a mono and refuses to play on, the referee is made aware and is asked to stop the game by Vini Jr’s manager Carlo Ancelotti, the stadium tannoy announces “insults and racism will not be tolerated” but the game continues.

A little later trouble kicks off with Vini Jr being aggressively pushed and in the subsequent struggle he is adjudged to have committed a red card offence and is sent off.

Vini Jr took to his socials again to vent his frustrations which was met by a staggering response from LaLiga president, Javier Tebas, who said:

Before criticising and insulting LaLiga it is necessary that you educate yourself, Vini Jr. Do not let yourself be manipulated.

So, what has happened as a result?

Beyond the tarnishing of Spain’s global image and a huge (social) media frenzy there have been some tangible repercussions for Valencia CF who have been sanctioned with a partial stadium closure for five matches. Three people have also been detained and the club have been fined £39,000. The red card which Vini Jr was shown during the game (very unfairly so!) has also been rescinded.

Valencia have called the decision to partially close their stadium "disproportionate, unjust and unprecedented" and said they intend to appeal against that part of the sanction.1

🤦‍♂️Edit: Valencia’s appeal was successful. The partial closure has been reduced to three games and the fine has been cut to £23,400.

🤦‍♂️Edit 2: Vini has been racially abused twice more since the posting of this. Once in Seville where the perpertrator was immediatly kicked out the stadium and again during the clásico where Catalan supports threw bananas in his direction.

In a separate related incident four people were arrested in Madrid for hanging an effigy of Vini Jr off a bridge.2

A huge national debate about racism has opened up. Madrid players, in a show of support, all donned a Vini Jr shirt recently before a banner which said “Vinícius somos todos, basta ya”. The response back home in Brazil has been huge with a massive public showing of support and politicians having their say.

What have people had to say in Spain?

Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain, said on Twitter:

Tolerancia cero con el racismo en el fútbol. El deporte se fundamenta en los valores de la tolerancia y el respeto. El odio y la xenofobia no deben tener cabida en nuestro fútbol ni en nuestra sociedad

Carlo Ancelotti, Vini Jr’s manager, said in a press conference:

A ver qué pasa. Estoy muy curioso a ver qué pasa. No pasa nada porque ha pasado muchas veces en otros estadios y, ¿qué ha pasado? Nada.

Xavi, former Barcelona legend turned manager, had his say:

Yo creo que es un tema educacional. Creo que es un tema de educar a las nuevas generaciones. Sí, si nos quedamos como estamos pues no, entonces no avanzaremos. Pero, si por ejemplo el otro día se para el partido y los futbolistas se van para casa pues ya estamos educando a la gente. Yo creo que hay que cambiar eso a nivel educacional. Las nuevas generaciones, los niños, que vean que el insulto no es lo normal. Eso no es normal. Para mí no es normal que me insulten en un trabajo ¿no? Pues entonces ah hay que cambiar cosas. Si no funcionan hay que cambiar. Creo que es tema ya de los estamentos, de las instituciones, del Gobierno, del presidente de LaLiga. Que esto hay que cambiarlo para educar a la gente y que erradiquemos ya de una vez el racismo.

Is this an isolated case?

In 2021, according to the Interior Ministry’s released report, police investigated 1,802 hate crimes in Spain. The total figure of crimes recorded is hard to find but during the same year ending March 2021, there were 124,104 hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales. The difference, I suppose, is between recorded and investigated.

The Spanish figure of 1,802 is up 5.6% from 2019 – the last year the offenses were studied – and up 42% from five years ago. Racism and xenophobia were the leading causes of hate crimes in Spain, representing 35% of the total. They surged 24% compared to 2019.3 There is no publicly available data for 2022 that I could find.

What does the law say?

There appear to be a couple of laws which can be brought to bare against discrimination based on skin colour, race, religion and ethnicity.

The ley de la igualdad de trato y la no discriminación (Ley Zerolo) seeks to:

garantizar y promover el derecho a la igualdad de trato y no discriminación, respetar la igual dignidad de las personas en desarrollo de los artículos 9.2, 10 y 14 de la Constitución.

it continues…

Nadie podrá ser discriminado por razón de nacimiento, origen racial o étnico, sexo, religión, convicción u opinión, edad, discapacidad, orientación o identidad sexual, expresión de género, enfermedad o condición de salud, estado serológico y/o predisposición genética a sufrir patologías y trastornos, lengua, situación socioeconómica, o cualquier otra condición o circunstancia personal o social.

The ley contra la violencia, el racismo, la xenofobia y la intolerancia en el deporte seeks to:

Mantener la seguridad ciudadana y el orden público en los espectáculos deportivos con ocasión de la celebración de competiciones y espectáculos deportivos.

Eliminar el racismo, la discriminación racial y la discriminación de las personas por razón de orientación sexual, así como garantizar el principio de igualdad de trato en el deporte.

Infractions of this second law are classified as either grave (serious) or muy grave. Definitions of these are set out in articles 34 and 35.

Very serious infractions (article 34):

La participación activa en actos violentos, racistas, xenófobos o intolerantes o que fomenten este tipo de comportamientos en el deporte.

Serious infractions (article 35):

Los comportamientos y actos de menosprecio o desconsideración a una persona o grupo de personas en relación con su origen racial o étnico.

✒️The three texts.

Vinícius Júnior.4

Vinícius Júnior está harto. El delantero del Real Madrid, objeto de cánticos racistas desde las gradas de los estadios españoles durante las dos últimas temporadas, recurrió a las redes sociales tras el último ataque que sufrió el domingo, cuando unos aficionados de Valencia lo llamaron mono. Esta vez, no solo se dirigió a sus agresores, sino también a la propia España. “El racismo es normal en La Liga. La competición lo considera normal, la federación también y los rivales lo fomentan”. España, dijo, estaba siendo conocida en su Brasil natal “como un país de racistas”.

La Ley Zerolo.5

El Congreso ha aprobado la ley de la igualdad de trato y la no discriminación (Ley Zerolo) para prevenir y eliminar todas las formas de discriminación. La norma establece que nadie podrá ser discriminado por razón de nacimiento, origen racial o étnico, sexo o religión, convicción u opinión, edad, discapacidad, orientación o identidad sexual, expresión de género, enfermedad, estado de salud, situación socioeconómica o cualquier otra condición o circunstancia personal o social. Hace frente así a todas las formas de discriminación, especialmente al antigitanismo, que lo reconoce como un delito de odio..

VOX.6

Los gritos a Vini Jr no han sido el episodio racista más grave que se ha dado la última semana. Ha sido el más mediático, el que más ha indignado, el que más repercusión internacional ha tenido, pero no el más grave. El suceso racista más peligroso ha sido realizado por Vox con la publicación de un cartel en el que señala los nombres de inmigrantes árabes que han cobrado ayudas al alquiler de la Comunidad de Madrid. El racismo es un problema estructural en España, entre otras cosas porque un partido racista como Vox es naturalizado como un actor político más con el que es aceptable pactar y llegar a acuerdos de gobierno.

🗝️Tier 2/3 vocabulary.

• Estar harto (vb) - to be sick of something/fed up.

• Un cántico (nms) - a chant.

• Recurrir (vb) - to turn to.

• Establecer (vb) - to stipulate.

• Hacer frente a (vb) - to tackle, confront, deal with, face up to.

• Un delito de odio (nms) - a hate crime.

• Mediático (adj) - high-profile.

• Indignar (vb) - to make angry.

• Alquiler (nms) - rent.

• Un suceso (nms) - an event, incident or happening.

• Cobrar ayuda (vb) - to collect money.

• Pactar (vb) - to make (political) deals with.

🔍Grammar to look out for.

1. Adjectives.

2. The preterite tense (regular and irregular forms).

3. The past progressive.

4. Direct object pronouns.

5. The present perfect.

   .

🧠A Level structures.

Language flows better with direct object pronouns (DOPS) and whilst these are more commonly taught during KS4 it’s often the case that they still require work during KS5.

In Spanish the DOPS are:

1. Me - me

2. Te - you

3. Lo/la - s/he or it

4. Nos - us

5. Os - you (plural)

6. Los/las - them

A direct object pronoun identifies who or what receives the action of a verb. Often you can ask the question "“who?” or “what?” to identify the DOP. Direct object pronouns should agree in number, person, and gender with their antecedents.

The antecedent is a fancy word for the noun the DOP is replacing in the sentence.

Worked examples:

Compro un libro (I buy a book).

The answers to the question “¿Qué compras?” identifies un libro as the DOP. Un libro is a masculine singular noun so is replaced by lo.

DOPs, in most cases, are usually placed before the conjugated verb in a sentence. In the case of the example above the rewritten form would be “Lo compro”.

Identify the objects in each of the following sentences and circle the correct DOP.

1. Mi hermana come una manzana. (me/te/lo/la/nos/os/los/las)

2. Roberto lee un libro interesante. (me/te/lo/la/nos/os/los/las)

3. María compra un regalo. (me/te/lo/la/nos/os/los/las)

4. El perro persigue al gato. (me/te/lo/la/nos/os/los/las)

5. Yo veo a Juan en el parque. (me/te/lo/la/nos/os/los/las)

6. Marta prepara la cena. (me/te/lo/la/nos/os/los/las)

7. Pablo necesita una nueva computadora. (me/te/lo/la/nos/os/los/las)

8. Los estudiantes estudian el inglés. (me/te/lo/la/nos/os/los/las)

9. Mi padre compra flores. (me/te/lo/la/nos/os/los/las)

Now re-write the sentences replacing the object with a DOP. Remember to place the DOP before the conjugated verb.

An exception to the rule.

When an infinitive structure is used with an object the resulting sentence with a DOP can vary person to person.

Voy a comprar un libro (I’m going to buy a book).

The general rule of placing the DOP before the conjugated verb holds water as we can correctly write “Lo voy a comprar”. However, in this case we can also attach the DOP to the end of the infinitive and end up with “Voy a comprarlo”.

Re-write the following sentences with a DOP attached to the infinitive.

1. Quiero comprar una manzana.

2. Roberto necesita leer un libro interesante.

3. Maria va a comprar un regalo.

4. Voy a ver a Juan en el parque.

5. Marta no quiere preparar la cena.

Your final task is to read text one above and locate the DOPS in bold. Notice how they facilitate easier reading and fluidity.

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Boletín 114 By olliemfl

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Ollie

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