So, with the Marchena fair over, I’m back to business. This year the reportage of the fair is going to be very special. It will consist of three parts (three separate videos). Of course, first I have to finish and publish the videos of Cristo San Pedro and Santo Entierro. I didn’t want the Holy Week videos to catch up with the fair, but I couldn’t avoid it.
Searching through the trunk of memories (that is, the hard drive), recovering some photos and recordings made with the iPhone from fairs from a few years ago (especially the typical Instagram stories… should I make one again?) I found myself It seemed interesting to publish them. At the end of the post I explain some things.
Fair of Marchena 2015
Llámame Lola fair booth:
Fair of Marchena 2016
Delia Suárez with La Bejazz at the caseta Llámame Lola:
Improvised flamenco in the “botellones” (area where young people bring bags with drinks, glasses and ice):
Fair of Marchena 2017
María “La Peke” with la Bejazz at caseta El Soniquete:
Of course, improvised flamenco in the street cannot be missed after the casetas close (6 in the morning):
Fair of Marchena 2018
Caribbean rhythms with Son de Cuba:
This is where the citrus fruit joke was born:
El Soniquete is a booth created by my friends. I am not a member, but my brother, my cousin, etc. are, so I consider it my booth even if I am not a member. Many of my friends are musicians, as you can see in the videos Mane Moraza, Pablo and Javier Carmona, Kisko Hidalgo, Amaga… (la Bejazz). I have known María “La Peke” since we were kids, because she was my classmate at school. Regarding “Son del Manchón”, the two in the middle are the sisters María and Ana Dorado, I have also known them since they were little, because their parents are very friends with my uncle and aunt. On the left was their cousin Marta Ponce (blonde), and on the right Carmen Ponce, cousin of Marta but not of María and Ana. In short, I am surrounded by many artists and everything is within family. This year the El Soniquete booth has been in charge of giving the fair opening speech. Ana Martín (Mane Moraza’s wife) was chosen as the person who gives the opening speech because she was who had the idea to create the booth. She chose her cousin Leticia Martín as the host. And her son Lorca was the one who pressed the button that turns on the lighting that officially opens the fair. The name Lorca is in honor of Federico García Lorca, famous Andalusian poet. Both the poetry recited by Ana in the opening speech, and the lyrics that Son del Manchón sang during the opening speech, are by Federico García Lorca. Ah! El Manchón is the name of another booth they belong to. At the Marchena fair, unlike others like the fair of Seville, all the booths are free access, anyone who wants can enter, except during the members’ dinner on Wednesday.
For such a small town (19,000 inhabitants) it is a town with a lot of culture and history (it already existed centuries before Christ). Monuments, artists, religious processions, flamenco…. And I want to show you everything, are you coming?
It’s been a very long time since I last posted anything about Paquito, my hand-raised cockatiel, who recently turned 15. The reason is that for the past few years his feathers have been in very poor condition and he hasn’t been feeling well. Apparently, in the end it turned out to be fatty liver disease (a very common condition in this species) caused by feeding him a diet made up only of seeds. That’s the only kind of food they sell here in Marchena for cockatiels, and I didn’t know it was unhealthy for them. Since I started buying him a pellet food on Amazon (one made for budgerigars, because the one made for cockatiels is too large for him to eat, but he absolutely loves the budgie one—I buy one called Versele‑Laga B14), he has become much more lively. He chatters constantly and has started molting his feathers, so I hope that this time they will grow back beautiful and healthy.
Cockatiels belong to the parrot family. Like parakeets and other psittacine species such as parrots and cockatoos, when humans hand-feed them from a very young age with formula, they become familiar with people, very tame, and can learn words and whistles. In this particular case, I wasn’t the one who hand-fed him. A breeder from Palma del Río (Córdoba) raised him and sold him to me already hand-fed, when he was about 30 days old. I went to pick him up there on December 28, 2010—I still remember the date. His name is Paquito because he started saying it before I had even chosen a name for him. It turns out the breeder kept him in a cage with his father—what he called his “tutor”—so he could learn from him, because his father used to say “Paquito” a lot. An interesting curiosity about cockatiels is that they are the species of bird that sneezes the most. It’s very funny to watch them sneeze. It’s not because they have a cold; it’s just something they commonly do.
I made this video when he turned 10 years old to post on my social media. It’s a compilation of different videos I had of him.
