

Things that inspire: La Negra’s “Contigo”
Several years later, there’s still no official recording of this song. But this quick video from a concert performed sobre la marcha on a street in Madrid is enough for now. Here La Negra, a flamenco/fusion singer from Spain, lends her smoky tone to an original...
Thanksgiving en la tierra de la comida familiar
En Sevilla ya me rodea una familia improvisada. Conso y Juan Diego, compañeros míos, me llaman “hijo”. Cada vez que visito la casa de mi novia, Ana, su madre me manda a casa cargado de galletas, mermeladas y recetas para que me alimente bien. La señora con la que viví hace tres años sigue siendo mi madre española, piropeándome, haciéndome carantoñas y preparando comida rica cada vez que paso por su casa.
Things that inspire: Clara Schumann’s “Piano Variations”
After six years of piano lessons, I’d come across the name Schumann more than once. But I’d never heard of Clara Schumann, wife of the better-known Robert Schumann, until years after my lessons stopped. I was stumped writing one of my first short stories,...