A great meal here in the Port City ....
... when Carmen and I finally decided to go out to dinner. Since it was a very Spanish hour for the evening meal, after 9 pm, we decided to go to a new restaurant called La Viscaya for Spanish food and tapas.
As soon as we walked in we ran into an old friend and her husband and mother. We hadn't seen them since the day we got married! Linda and her mother are old Ybor Spanish (if you know what that means you know a whole lot about the unnamed port city here in the south).
Across from us was a group of 14 middle-aged to elderly Spanish men, all speaking Spanish with that unmistakable accent from Spain. Carmen likes to poke fun at it. One of the older men, with a mane of white hair and a beak like nose had the classic old Iberian profile - he could do a great stand in for Don Quixote. It was wonderful to hear the Spanish accents, with the Spanish faces and the old world gestures.
Almost everyone else in the restaurant was either Spanish or Cuban (except me!). The food - we had four separate tapas - was wonderful, especially the atun and calamari. And with half a pitcher of sangria for the two of us Carmen got a little tipsy, shall we say. Meanwhile, the Spanish gentlemen were getting completely besotted and started singing. Oddly, they tried singing Cuban and Mexican songs - "Mani" and "Adelita" and "Mananitas". The last is a birthday song Mexicans like to sing.
As the place started to close up the Spaniards began to disappear out the door two or three at a time. Finally it was just Don Quixote and two friends sipping real cafe. Then they left. I thought it was awfully early for real Spaniards to be calling it quits.
When we left, there they all were, out on the porch, puffing on cigars and going strong. Carmen thought this was cute. But by this point I think she thought everything was cute, so I got her home.
I hope our blog friend Ana in London reads this!
Adios.
... when Carmen and I finally decided to go out to dinner. Since it was a very Spanish hour for the evening meal, after 9 pm, we decided to go to a new restaurant called La Viscaya for Spanish food and tapas.
As soon as we walked in we ran into an old friend and her husband and mother. We hadn't seen them since the day we got married! Linda and her mother are old Ybor Spanish (if you know what that means you know a whole lot about the unnamed port city here in the south).
Across from us was a group of 14 middle-aged to elderly Spanish men, all speaking Spanish with that unmistakable accent from Spain. Carmen likes to poke fun at it. One of the older men, with a mane of white hair and a beak like nose had the classic old Iberian profile - he could do a great stand in for Don Quixote. It was wonderful to hear the Spanish accents, with the Spanish faces and the old world gestures.
Almost everyone else in the restaurant was either Spanish or Cuban (except me!). The food - we had four separate tapas - was wonderful, especially the atun and calamari. And with half a pitcher of sangria for the two of us Carmen got a little tipsy, shall we say. Meanwhile, the Spanish gentlemen were getting completely besotted and started singing. Oddly, they tried singing Cuban and Mexican songs - "Mani" and "Adelita" and "Mananitas". The last is a birthday song Mexicans like to sing.
As the place started to close up the Spaniards began to disappear out the door two or three at a time. Finally it was just Don Quixote and two friends sipping real cafe. Then they left. I thought it was awfully early for real Spaniards to be calling it quits.
When we left, there they all were, out on the porch, puffing on cigars and going strong. Carmen thought this was cute. But by this point I think she thought everything was cute, so I got her home.
I hope our blog friend Ana in London reads this!
Adios.
posted by Clemens | 11:48 PM
7 Comments:
Yes, that´s what happens when Spanish people get together in a reunion sort of ocassion: "exaltación de la amistad" followed by " cantos regionales" from any region whatsoever.
I´m in Spain at the moment and I am indeed enjoying the Basque cuisine... yummy!
Oh, what does "Ybor Spanish" mean?
Ybor Spanish is English that starts off with a word or two of Spanish, and with the exception of profanity, the rest is in English :p
--Joey
Well, that's not quite the way I meant it Joey.
Here's what I meant Ana,
In the great port city, there were originally two settlements back in the 1880s and 1890s - one an Anglo settlement around a military fort called Tampa Town, and one settled by Spaniards, Cubans, and a few Italians who worked in cigar facoties started by a Spanish businessman named Jose Ybor. He modestly named the settlement of his workers Ybor City. So from the 1880s until around 1960 Ybor City was the home of a large Spanish speaking population that considered themselves separate from Tampa. They and their children continued to speak Spanish even as they learned English for work and school. They thought like Americans and considered themselves American and were some of the leading citizens in the new Port City (actually the city of Tampa today). But they still spoke Spanish as their native language.
So our friend Linda is bilingual, her mother who was born and raised in this country speaks Spanish and English as a second language, and her grandparents who came from Spain probably continued to speak Spanish all of their life.
But it was a peculiar Spanish - very 'Americanized' and not like Castillian. For instance few used the Usted form and would address everyone as 'tu' - which would drive more recent immigrants crazy! Someone from Ybor City usually spoke English with a distinctive accent, not quite like that of a Spaniard, so I presume their Spanish actually sounded different. Perhaps because of all the Cubans and Italians who mixed in the community.
Until fairly recently they usually referred to themselves as 'Latins' and were very conscious of their heritage. Ybor City is still there but is now an entertainment center, a little like the French Quarter in what is left of New Orleans.
Which is a long winded explanation of what I meant by 'Ybor Spanish' - the people, not the dialect.
Like Joey Sobrino, our friend Linda's children speak no Spanish at all - although some Spanish restaurants there still bring in young men from Spain to be trained as waiters.
Anyway, Carmen and I are back up in the mountains and away from the Port City to our south.
That's my brother! Always getting a history leason in there some how!
>>Like Joey Sobrino, our friend Linda's children speak no Spanish at all
Creo que la palabra "said" esta faltando porque hablo algo de Espanol.
--Joey
Lil Sis -
Well, it's what I do.
And admit it - you were entertained and educated by reading it. Just like all those other longwinded stories I've told you over the years.
Joey - yes, but you had to go to Spain as an adult to learn much of it!
8^)
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