Cambio Idiomas

October, 2018

Las Vecinos de Nuestra Cuesta

 

We sat together, this group of neighbors and friends, Los Vecinos de Nuestra Cuesta.  Neighbors on this piece of the rock that we live on in Spain. Friends from both here and afar.  Familiar faces and new ones from just this first day.  We all had gathered on the old family naya overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.  In this crucible of civilization itself.  How many languages have been spoken on just this patch of land we can see and walk on over their paths?

The sisters from Alicante, Cati and Veronica, were both raised locally speaking perfect Spanish of course.  One speaks Spanish and English, the other speaks Spanish and French.  You see Cati now lives in Michigan and by circumstance she is sitting on the seaside naya at Quinta Quince for her first time.  Her father Claude has just died and she has come over to the Costa to be with her sister Veronica for a few days and begin the process of dealing with his death.  They are grieving, something everyone does a little differently.  We learned that their history too includes Javea and its surrounding hills, towns and castles.

We have just come from the gourmet lunch where I was first to meet Veronica.  Her sister Cati I know from Michigan.  We both cook paella but have never tasted the others.  She has seen mine from phone videos Teresa has taken at both our place and her place on Lake Michigan near Ludington.  We had booked this lunch for 4 at Sophia’s but changed it to 6 once Teresa and Lewis arrived, finally, and we learned that Cati was already over here.  Plans change when death arrives suddenly!

Quinta Quince is our family’s home built by my parents nearly 50 years ago and rebuilt by us nearly 15 years ago after the death of my mother and father.  It is here that I have learned my words of Spanish and speak a little to be understood.  My wife Vaughn knows a few words and can understand a bit from her 42 years coming to Javea.  I speak Spanish and a little French having classes for four years of high school in Canada.  My father passed first in 2003 and my mother followed some 8 months later.  During this short window she had brought together some of the neighbors for a gathering.  After her death we also had a similar get together with neighbors around our wood fired oven.

So this was the third such fiesta, initiated just this week to bring together neighbors, friends and family.  It was a celebration of our time on the hill, a celebration of life and death on the rock we live on here.  Or friends from Michigan are with us, Lewis and Teresa.  Lewis speaks only English but Teresa is an interesting woman.  Teresa speaks Spanish fluently since part of her life is spent providing Migrant Aid, aid to migrants from Mexico, Central America and South America.  They come to America searching for a better life and finding themselves being taken advantage of.  Teresa also speaks French and even a little Italian!  She is an aspiring author and has lived in Spain before.

The first to arrive to our little party are Christian and Bridgittte.  They were the last to be invited late in the day before as we drove to the Arenal to have some pints of Guiness with our friend Paul. We had stuffed our invitation, written in English and Spanish, into their mailbox.  We were not sure if they were even there! But they knew my mother and we had met them at another party on the hill, for the port fireworks I think.  Christian is a photographer and we have an fun memory of him.  When part of our villa was being demolished, the walls to the pool having been torn down, he had peeked around the corner of the broken concrete and caught Vaughn and me buck naked in our hot tub.  Luckily he had no camera that day!

Christian and Bridgitte are German, both speaking some broken English and enough Spanish as well.  We know them from the party with our neighbor Sonja from up the hill.  Her husband Deiter has just died this August and Sonja is now getting a little better with her son expected to arrive today.  Sonja is German as well and speaks very good English and Spanish.  They had lived here on the hill a long time, possibly the most permanent residents of this urbanization that we know.  She knows a lot of people on our hill and is a good source for information since she walks our windy roads with her dog Clooney.

Paul is a good friend of ours who came from England and opened a fish and chips restaurant.  We first met him when we were looking for our own house here about 20 years ago.  He was providing building services in an apartment we had rented during our search and we ended up using him for similar trades at Casa Mila our rental house in Costa Nova Panoramica and also for many tasks reforming our old family villa, Quinta Quince.  Just this week he has torn down the two entrances to our villa here and replaced them with steel doors he’s built on site with his sons.  Paul speaks some Spanish after living and working here on the Costa Blanca for 30 years.  He lost his wife Janet a number of years back and the pain still survives.

Life and Death!  We toasted to life but I write about many deaths that touched us.

We also have Serge and Michelle who own the house just up from ours.  Serge and Michelle are from Belgium.  They speak French as their first language and are both fluent in Spanish having lived here 38 years.  They have built another modern villa next to us that will be for family and possibly rentals.  He is still fighting to get an occupancy permit.  They have other friends down the side road across from us who own two villas, one for renting.  They are French and own a vineyard there, probably still harvesting their fruits.  They would have joined us if here and likely speak in other tongues.

 

Our little group of friends and neighbors.  Vecinos and Amigos.  We drink white wine, beer, red wine and water.  We are speaking Spanish, English, French and German, this group of 10.  We talk little of religion or politics.  There are some passing comments about the Christians, Arabs and Jews all living together harmoniously in Toledo at one point in history.  My mother Charlene was a historian and wrote of the history of Spain from 1369 to 1516 regarding the Trastamara Dynasty that ended then.  She also wrote about Javea and the Castles of the Costa Blanca districts.  She wrote of Jews, Christians and Moors.

Interestingly, my Mother learned her Spanish in Mexico City and polished it as she migrated through Guatemala and on to Colombia.  She loved the culture and romance of the Spanish language.  After time in Burma, Singapore, Canada, the United States and finally England, she made it to her retirement in Spain spending her last 30 years writing!  Her publisher Amparo wrote an unexpected and very touching memorial to her regarding their friendship of just 11 years.  Descriptive terms…. “privileged with great courage, determination and friendliness”, “extraordinary cultural baggage”, “a woman of strong character, fit and healthy and ever expectant”, “her openness and that love of life we should all share”.

This was the first of two little parties we are having at the house she so loved.  I had also invited other neighbors to the gathering.  Three other neighbors could have come by this party since invitations had been delivered the previous day and also more friends, the sons of Paul, Nicholas and Philip who have families here.  They are both fluent in Spanish and Philip is with a new baby, his girlfriend Lili speaking French as well, being from Belgium.

Our next party is two days hence (now tomorrow) and I expect to invite a few more neighbors.  It will be a different mix of people since some will leave and others arrive.  The normal coming and going of neighbors and friends in our unique urbanization, Cuesta San Antonio.  I hope that the newer neighbors will come.  The newest I know now is from Argentina with a house that overlooks ours. I do not know their names or which languages they speak.  Spanish obviously!  The other also owns a house we see daily, Vista Panoramica.  We have seen them come and go for years, staying only weekends, but I did not know until talking with Jose Antonio and Pilar that he is a doctor from Xativa.  And I also do not know of names or any language information.  One assumes Spanish and Valenciano.

Jose Antonio and Pilar are Spanish from Madrid.  Jose Antonio speaks very good English from years in international banking.  Pilar speaks only Spanish.  I had expected them to be here but they had not come down to our house this time. Hopefully we will see them on Saturday.  We have known them for years and met other neighbors at a party at their house a long while back.  An Egyptian with a Swiss wife who develops land and their next door neighbor, a doctor from Denia who both live at the top of the hill we see from our pool terrace.  Maybe invite them?

 

Finally, there is Antonio, Louisa and little Pilar.  They are our closest neighbor in the round house we look over to see the Bay of Javea.  They tend to come weekends and will be here this weekend.  Vaughn and I were tending to plants last Sunday, by our olive tree which sits prominently in front of their main entrance.  Antonio came out and introduced himself (again) to us and some conversations passed between us, mostly in English.  His English is very good since he had spent a year in Michigan near Detroit.  I do not know at this point what other languages he might speak but I would believe it includes Valenciano.

 

Antonio goes inside and reemerges with his family.  He introduces his wife Louisa and daughter Pilar.  They have more recently purchased the house below ours which had previously only had one French owner.  I tell them we are celebrating living on this hill for 48 years.  Surprised, they ask me to repeat myself.  Yes, 48 years I say.  Antonio tells me that his father’s house is just below the one they are in now and that he thinks it was built in 1965. He says he will bring a bottle of wine to share the next weekend.  So it is with those words in mind that they too should join us tomorrow for our next Fiesta de la Cuesta Nuestra.

 

It is a strange but comfortable place to be when you hear different languages all around you.  Here in Javea it is a daily occurrence as tourists mix with locals.  And when your locals include not only the native Spanish, but native Europeans and the others that live here from all the continents.  We mix and mingle with little struggle.  I have always found the local Spanish people to be patient and accommodating in attempting to communicate.  A few words and a smile go a long way.

 

And here at Quinta Quince we hope to expand our connections with our neighbors and friends that we have.  Cati and Veronica did not stay but Teresa and Lewis have another week with us.  Some of our best friends, we had picked them up in Madrid and toured them to Italy to get married five years ago.  Teresa and Lewie had never even been to Italy but Teresa wanted to get married in Florence so she had studied Italian to get us around and also for her ceremony at the town hall.  I was photographer and chauffeur.  Vaughn was wedding assistant and dress poofer.  We had a great time then.

 

But here was their anniversary, October 4th, the day of our little neighborhood party and not one of the four of us remembered!  I had booked the very special lunch without any thought of an anniversary.  Both Lewis and Teresa had woken up on this beautiful day, early for them to go to the weekly market of the old town and get final provisions for the day.  Cati and Veronica drove in from Alicante.  We rendezvoused at the restaurant and were half way through an excellent meal before anyone remembered….what a laugh that was. We toasted their 6 great years and headed home to neighborhood little fiesta.

Les deseo, salut, peseta, amor y tiempo para gosarlos!

(May you have health, wealth, love and the time to enjoy them!)

Ya!  There is a healing that comes with friendships.  Family, Friends and Neighbors.  Connections.