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Spain Culture Round Up - Mon Jan 16th 2006
By h.b. - Jan 16, 2006 - 12:39 PM

The translator during the presentation of the new bilingual edition of Paradise Lost - Photo EFE
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A new bilingual edition of 'Pardise Lost' has just been published
A new bilingual edition of ‘Paradise Lost’ has been presented in Madrid. The work by John Milton has been translated by Bel Atreides.

Among the new films to be shown on Spanish screens over the weekend was the story of ‘El Pera’. With the real name Juan Carlos Delgado, he was famous for being a juvenile delinquent in the Getafe district of Madrid, and the film, called ‘Volando Voy’, after a popular song of the time, it takes a look at his early life. By the age of 11 he had been detained by the police 150 times. The film is directed by Miguel Albaladejo. Juan Carlos is now on the straight and narrow, and currently works as an advanced driving instructor for the Civil Guard.

This year sees the 70th anniversary of the start of the Civil War in Spain, and the date has inspired a whole series of new books on the subject. The British writer Paul Preston launches what is described as a corrected edition of his book ‘The Spanish Civil War’, adding a new whole chapter on repression, and there are several other titles by Spanish authors which will be on the bookshop shelves during the year.

41 year old Rodrigo Garcia was born in Buenos Aires to Spanish parents and has earned himself a worldwide reputation for ‘corrosive and poetic’ theatre and performance. Subjects as diverse as infancy, death, and the family are mixed on stage with cartoon characters and animal excrement. His company, La Carniceria Teatro, (The Butchers’ Theatre) is now on a long an intense international tour, with his latest piece called ‘The Story of Ronald, the clown from McDonalds’. Despite being a cult figure in Europe and the United States, Rodrigo García is hardly known in Spain.

Soldedad Giménez, the voice which has led the group Presuntos Implicados to 22 years of hits, has announced she is leaving the band. In a statement she says that it has been the ‘most difficult and painful decision of her career’ and she has made the statement to avoid what she called ‘insane rumours’. She said that honestly she was emotionally exhausted and that this state had resulted in a change in her behaviour. She said she wanted a more sincere lifestyle and wanted to work in the future with more harmony and illusion.

With Brokeback Mountain expected to be the winner in the Golden Globes tonight, in Spain preparations are well advanced for what will be the 20th edition of the Goyas – Spain’s equivalent to the Oscars. President of the Spanish Academy, Mercedes Sampietro, has admitted that this is an important year as the academy finally has its own premises from where to operate from. The gala for the nominations this year saw the top two directors, Montxo Armendáriz, who has ten nominations for ‘Obaba’ (also this year’s candidate in the Oscars) and Isabel Coixet for her film ‘The Secret Life of Words’ which is up for five gongs. The ceremony will be on January 29th.