Andaluzas Kick Ass

During my most recent period of acute placelessness, I saw a movie that fits perfectly in my women-kick-ass series.  That inevitably kicks me out of the doldrums and into real-woman mode, which was an excellent prelude to going off to Berlin.  This blog has gone dormant due to so much travel; although I’ve been back in Spain for nearly a month, two visitors for the holiday season have dragged me all around the country: Andalucía, Castilla y Leon, and Castilla-La Mancha.  But though it’s been a month and a half since I saw it, I wanted to write about Sólo Quiero Caminar, which is still in movie theaters in Madrid.  The main character, played by Ariadna Gil, is someone you’d never want to meet at the wrong end of a baseball bat, and her supporting male star, Diego Luna, is the only of a series of Mexican thugs who seems to really know that some Andaluzas are, quite simply, not to be fucked with.

The trip with R. down to Andalucía, involved a lucky happenstance — stumbling across the Museo del Baile Flamenco in Sevilla.  They present shows every Friday and Saturday nights and we were lucky enough to catch Inma Rivero, the female singer, who turned out to be the real star. Bursting with real-woman qualities, she dominated the show; not only could she sing — and man can that woman sing — but she exploded onto the dance floor as well.  Spain as a society, I’m finding, is still sadly uncomfortable with aggressive, dominant women.  But flamenco is one place where real women can be just as tough as they want to be, kicking some serious ass, right up there on stage, right in front of everyone.  Inma Rivero, I’ll be watching for you.  Hope to see you in Madrid.  Or maybe I’ll have to head back to Sevilla to get another real-woman fix.  Olé.