PLEASE PUSH F11. If Spain were to smile, the bottom of its face would form a wide grin with so much sunshine that Europeans call it "Costa del Sol." Much of it has a long history, but not so much Torremolinos. Nevertheless, the natives find many reasons to celebrate their past -- in this case, San Miguel, the patron of their city.
For the first 3 weeks of our 2008 Spanish trip, we were based in the beach town of Torremolinos. Most of it is a beautiful sandy beach stretching for miles, edged by tiled promenades and sun-burnt northern Europeans. The city climbs the hills mostly with hotels and apartment buildings such as these. Real estate and construction overheated Spain's economy which has cooled off suddenly. Last July, inflation was highest in 15 years. Building cranes are everywhere -- but are not always moving. But all that was forgotten today as the parade unfolded on Torremolinos's festive streets.
Torremolinos is a town of about 18,000 -- but nearly 10 times that in the summer. The San Miguel festival starts around the first day of autumn (which is still pretty hot).
Horsemen (horsewomen, horsechildren) start off the parade. Torremolinos and the Costa del Sol are part of the autonomous region of Andalusia, the historic southern area of Spain that has over 3000 festivals per year. Even without much history, Torremolinos celebrates eight festivals. Why not?
During the Franco days, Torremolinos slept as a fishing village. Tourism came crashing in with waves less gentle than the town's Mediterranean tide. Its star has faded as the place to be and an aging tourist population is taking over, sometimes making its topless beaches painful to observe. (Present company excluded, of course.) If the clientele have aged, the son and the sea are still ageless.
The town patron, Archangel Michael (San Miguel) is honored with his statue or picture on almost every float -- but the religion pretty much stops there and the party takes over. The saint rose to fame by beating Lucifer at the beginning of creation. Today, Lucifer struck back: The wine was strongly non-sacramental and there was plenty of it at 10 AM on a Sunday morning as the parade formed on the city streets.
The parade went on for miles with many dozens of floats; the first 20 or so were pulled by yoked oxen, typically decorated with headshields/blinders. Prizes are awarded for best ox-drawn carts.
Music was everywhere but more often recorded and blaring rather than tortured and acoustic as we see here.
San Miguel's feast is not until September 29, but the fun starts the weekend before.
The wine and the sun heated things up quickly.
Wagons typically featured elaborate decorations on the wheels.
But not just the wheels were decorated...
Red and flouncy worked well in case you needed to break into a Flamenco dance.
The lucky ones got to ride in the wagon -- but usually had to act as mobile bartenders.
If you held still, the alcohol would come to you. Vendors sold cups on leather lanyards so you could keep your cup around your neck.
The tractor-pulled floats were consigned to the rear of parade. Given the fluids provided to the drivers, I'd bet on the oxen up front to make it to the end in one piece.
Children are introduced to their heritage at an early age.
But the old seem to enjoy themselves as much as the young...
...if not more.
A week later, the procession started on a Monday night from the San Miguel square on September 29, St. Michael's feast day. Sam Miguel church at left contained many of the procession participants.
These little girls watched most of the show, dressed in their costumes.
The band included a wide range of ages.
The parade goers enthusiasm spread to all ages.
The parade formed out of a seeming chaos...
But then the crowd parted ...
...and a drum and bugle corp appeared led by a drill team.
One of the local stations was preparing to broadcast the highlights.
Down came the girls and dames who had won the week's beauty contests (or some weeks, at least).
Some participants carried symbols a bit hard to identify.
Let the parade begin...
These participants appear to be devotees of the scapular (do you still have yours?)
These resemble the Knights of Columbus honor guard in the States.
Go figure!
Finally out came the float held by about 50 white-shirted young men. Andalucia has close to a 1000 "brotherhoods" which train for these parades and raise money for the sumptuous floats.
To spur these carriers on (they each lift about 175 pounds for several hours), the drum and bugle corps pumped them up...
The warrior archangel Michael gleamed above his silver bier called a "tronos." Most Andalusian floats carry statues of Mary, THE saint in the area. Her statue will have several sumptuous costumes for the several festivals where she will appear. While this tronos is silver and elaborate, the statue of the saint appears to be an afterthought.
Off went the drum and bugle corps directly in front of the bier...
At times the crew struggled; the bell was used to synchronized their movements. Assisted by the bell, the carriers synchronize their steps: 50 left feet hit the ground simultaneously. This coordinated motion makes the tronos appear to rock back and forth.
St Michael looks not too ferocious here but he is undoubtedly capable of preemptive action should Lucifer return. Miguel's statue is a little small for this silver tronos and its 50 pall bearers.
And the float moves down the street in a gentle rocking motion.
Some members of our tour spotted us perched high above the crowd.
But they gave up looking at us in order to take pictures of the little ones.
You, too, can be a star.
As darkness fell, we moved down San Miguel street to catch up with the parade at ground level.
We found many of the townspeople starting their own parade.
Finally we set up shop near the most distant turn at the edge of Torremolinas's central area.
And the parade came to us (and to the gentlemen in green who insisted on making a phone call next to a brass band.)
By this time, some of the paraders were getting a little tired.
Including the bearers who were taking frequent rests until called back to the float by the bell.
Then it was off to finish the processional and return the float to its resting place (probably in San Miguel church.) THE END: See all of our travel pictures by cutting and pasting this link into your browser: http://www. dickschmitt.com/travels.html
