Spanish views from a small town

Picaresca . An old Spanish word to describe a type of novel that was developed in Spain. Picaresque. It is a word all Spaniards are familiar with. Most have indulged in it in some form. Perhaps they avoided paying taxes on something. Others might have reformed their house on the sly, without city permits. Still others might have risked their necks by undoing safety buttons on some machinery. Always behind the act is the idea of " no pasa nada ." Nothing's going to happen. Everything is under control. Until it isn't. Yesterday,  everything went out of control in a village outside Tui. At around four thirty, an explosion ripped apart a village. Over thirty kilometers away, in Vigo, and even in Cangas, across the estuary from Vigo, people heard the boom. My husband, working these days in Mos, near Porriño and closer to the site, heard it very clearly and thought it was close by. The distance, however, is bigger. Two people have died, around thirty were injured, with s...

It was a dark and stormy night, and I was driving on the highway home. The rain slashed at the car and the wind rocked it as I kept well below the speed limit. More than anything because I could only see black space around me. There were faint lines on the road, and reflectors along the guardrail reflected a memory of light. As I passed incorporations and exits, the tall streetlights might have been nonexistent, tall dark posts they were, not practicing the functions for which they had been placed there. In places, instead of wicking away the water, the asphalt simply let it lie there for the car before me to spit on my windshield, making me even blinder. And for the privilege of risking my life, when I left the highway after eighteen kilometers, I had to pay €2.25. This highway, the AP-9, is the busiest highway in Galicia. It connects Ferrol in the north, with Tui in the south. From Tui it crosses the river Miño into Portugal and connects with the Portuguese highway, A3-IP1, which g...

If you like to watch a rally, then you're in luck here. Rallies are common in some townships with the appropriate lanes. I am not a fan. I don't see the sport in it, nor the excitement of watching cars careening around curves, throwing up dirt in their wake. I would prefer to be driving, but it doesn't sound to me like something interesting to watch. However, rallies bring together hundreds, sometimes thousands of spectators, lined up along the lanes. Security has always tried to set up areas away from some of the dangerous curves, but sometimes security has had to be rethought after serious accidents. Like the one yesterday. There was a rally in the township of Carral, near A Coruña, yesterday. It had been discontinued, but this year it was reinstated after fourteen years. It was also the patron saint of the parish, so many people were celebrating. From photos that appear in newspapers, spectators were lined up quite close to the lane along a stretch of road. I suppose i...