Spanish views from a small town

The Spanish have a way of making the Virgin Mary the patron saint of just about everything. That is why we refer to her with so many different names, such as Virgen de los Dolores (Virgin of the Pains), etc. As a consequence, we get women's names that sound normal in Spanish but absolutely strange in English. Amparo (Succour), Pilar (Pillar), Nieves (Snows), Dolores (Pains), and Rocío (Dew), are some of those names. All of them refer to a different patronage or name of the Virgin Mary. Each of them has a feast day, too (can't live without celebrating). Fifty days after Saturday of Holy Week is the festival of the Virgen del Rocío. This saint has a hermitage in Almonte, Huelva. The festival and pilgrimage to the hermitage date back at least to the fourteenth century. There are now over a hundred hermandades (brotherhoods) of the Virgen del Rocío, mostly from Andalucía and Extremadura. They make a pilgrimage to Almonte every year for the festival. Each hermandad has a simpec...