Desesperado, Mistura y la Plaza de Santa Ana

I got up early and went straight to the Madrid History museum, which picks up the story of the city where the Museo de San Isidro stops. Nina, Emilio, and Mari joined me there later.

It was my second visit to the museum, and I took a lot of notes in Spanish. The English translation is at the bottom of this email.

In the subway on the way there, Nina got a bloody nose, and a fellow passenger shared wet wipes with her. Mari's water bottle removed bloodstains from her white skirt. I don't remember Nina ever getting a bloody nose before.

The Madrid History museum is in the middle of the Chueca barrio, which is known for its Gay Pride. It's Madrid's Rainbow Ground Zero. One of the stores we walked by sold penis-shaped popsicles.

After we went back home for lunch, Emilio took a 3-hour siesta.

We gave los abuelos a Nixplay frame. 

After dinner, cards were played. Mari won.

And we went on a night-time hunt for Mistura gelato (successful) and continued on to the Plaza de Santa Ana, which features statues of the 17th century dramatist Calderon de la Barca ("La vida es sueño ... ") and 20th century poet and dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca.

Lorca, who was murdered by Franco's forces during the Civil War, is holding a dove. This statue was placed here in front of the Teatro Español in 1996, after Mari and I had left Madrid.

The luxury hotel behind Lorca's statue above was built in the early 20th century and was known as the preferred residence of the city's best-known bullfighters..
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The Teatro Español was built here in 1859, and the plaza de Santa Ana took its current form in 1868. In 1925, it became the first pedestrian plaza in the city.

This monument to Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681) was completed in 1879.  

Translation of my Notes on the Madrid History Museum

The First Set of City Walls

1. In the 12th century, Madrid's first city walls were built.

The Second Set of City Walls

1. In the 15th century, a new set replaced the earlier set of walls.

The Hapsburgs/House of Austria

1. In the 1500s, the Arrabal Plaza was a a market abutting the older city walls. Today, it is the Plaza Mayor.
2. In 1561, Felipe II established his court in Madrid.

The Third Set of City Walls: Felipe II's (1565)

1. In 1565, Felipe II built a new set of city walls around the growing city.
2. Between 1600 and 1605, the Court moved to Valladolid (Cervantes followed the Court there and finished Don Quixote in Valladolid).
3. In 1622, Isidro (1070-1130) was canonized and a chapel was built to honor him and house his remains. In time, he would become the patron saint of the city, and that convent became the San Isidro Museum (which I visited the day before).

The Fourth Set of City Walls: Felipe IV's (1625)

1. Felipe IV's city walls were built in 1625.
2. In1644, Felipe IV's wife, Queen Isabel died. They had been married for 29 years. She gave birth to ten children, but only two reached adulthood.
3. In 1646, one of Felipe IV and Isabel's sons, Prince Baltasar Carlos, who was to inherit throne, died. He was 16.
4. In 1649, Felipe IV married his niece, Mariana de Austria. She was 16. He was 44.  They had six children; two lived to adulthood.
5. In 1665, the oldest son of Felipe IV and Mariana de Austria--Carlos--inherited his father's throne. He wsa 4 years old at the time and his mother ruled the country as his Regent until he turned 15.
6. In 1676, Carlos II turned 15 and took power.
7. Carlos II was weak and sickly. In 1700, he died without children, bringing an end to the royal "House of Austria"in Spain.

The House of the Bourbons

1. 1724: The first Bourbon king, Felipe V, abdicates so that his eldest son--Luis I--can occupy the throne.  
2. 1725: Luis I dies and his father, Felipe V, returns to the throne.
3. 1785: On orders from Carlos III,  Juan de Villanueva designs Natural Sciences "Cabinet," the building that today serve the Prado Museum.
4. 1800: A small creek runs along the east side of the calle de Toledo in Madrid (where Jaime and Maria Rosa now live).
5. 1788-1808: The Queen Maria Luisa de Parma and her "favorite" advisor, Manuel Godoy, run her husband the king, Carlos IV.
6. 1808, March 19: A mutiny at the royal palace at Aranjuez is fomented by Fernando, and Carlos IV is forced to abdicate. Manuel Godoy is transported from Aranjuez to the corps guard barracks while being barraged by blows.
7. 1808, May 7: Fernando VII cedes the Spanish throne to Napoleon in a "shameful interview" in the French city of Bayonne. Fernando spends the rest of Spanish War of Independence (which lasted until 1814) in France. Napoleon's brother, Jose I, takes power in Spain, where he is called, "Pepe Botella" (implying that he was a drunk).
8. 1813: Jose I flees from Madrid after his armies are defeated at the Battle of Vitoria (Gastez) in 1813. He eventuallly moves to the New Jersey after spending some time in Philadelphia.
9. 1813: Fernando VII, el "Deseado," (the "desired on") take power again. He refuses to honor the liberal Cadiz Constitution of 1812, which had been created by the resistance government fighting French occupation. Fernando persecutes those who oppose him.

Felipe IV's Walls are Demolished (1868)

1. 1874: The bullfighting ring near the Puerta de Alcalá in 1754 is closed.
   
2. 1875: Madrid's Salamanca neighborhood, northwest of the Puerta de Alcalá, barely exists. I lived in that neighborhood in the fall of 1987 (Castelló 59).
3. 1895-1935: Madrid experiences tremendous growth. The new neighborhoods (like Salamanca) are more rectangular.
4. 1911: La calle de los Cojos ("the street of the lame")--so-called because of the disabled people who were said to gather there--changes its name to la calle del Capitán Salazar Martínez, a 17th century Spanish general who became the first president of the Royal Appelate Court in Buenos Aires, in Argentina.
5. 1936: The rich baroque interior of Madrid's San Andres Church (near the Museo de San Isidro) is destroyed in a fire at the start of the Civil War.