The Styrous® Viewfinder: La Paloma

Showing posts with label La Paloma. Show all posts

December 29, 2021

Ana Briongos ~ Feliç aniversari!

Ana Briongos & Toni Alsina - 2021

Today, December 29, is the birthday of Ana M. Briongos who was born in in Barcelona, Spain in 1946. It was our great fortune to meet her and her husband Toni Alsina sixty years later in Barcelona, in 2006, at a party given for her in a beautiful old dance hall from the 1800's called La Paloma (link below).

The meeting had been totally forgotten by all of us until one fateful night four and a half years later in Berkeley, California (link below) when we had dinner at a friends house and Ana happened to be there. Toni was not but later recognized Tom and me in a photo Ana took of us during the dinner. Talk about a fantastic memory! Thanks, Toni! We've all been friends ever since.

Ana received a five-year degree in physics at the University of Barcelona. She studied Persian at the University of Tehran during the time of the Shah, and has worked in Iran and Afghanistan.

She is the author of Winter in Kandahar: Life in Afghanistan Before the Taliban, which won the 2009 Annual Latino Book Award for best travel book. And her book Black on black: Iran revisited, was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award in 2001 (link below).

Ana M. Briongos ~ Black on black: Iran revisited

Both Winter in Kandahar and Black on black are fascinating and educating reading about the culture and customs in Iran.

In 2009, she won the Gourmand Award 2009 in two categories for the book Iran, receptes i costums gastronómics, written in Catalan, with Quico Alsina as co-author.

In October, 2020 she was the presenter of the program 'Va passar aquí' on the History and curiosities of the city of Barcelona, a television channel Betevé on 'La casa dels hippies, un edificio singular' built in Barcelona in 1970 by the architects Lluís Clotet and Òscar Tusquets, now inhabited by artists and liberal people who made the building a symbol of Barcelona's counterculture.

Viewfinder links:

Toni Alsina

Ana Briongos

La Paloma, BCN, or el mundo es un pañuelo!

Tom White

Net links:

Ana Briongos blog

La Paloma

Spainisculture ~ Lluís Clotet

Tom White

YouTube links:

Ana María Briongos -(the videos are in Spanish or Catalan)

Afganistán vista por viajeros españoles

Un paseo por Irán

Social mobilizations in Iran by Ana Briongos in "A minute of reality"

Grans abraçades, Ana!

Styrous® ~ Wednesday, December 29, 2021

~
Books/Authors

MAIN MENU - Blog Articles
~

July 23, 2014

Ana Briongos @ La Paloma, BCN, or el mundo es un pañuelo!

It seems another one of my life cycles has gone full circle recently. I have written in previous entries how persons, places and events of different periods of my life have been resurfacing for the last three or four years from times as much as 60 years ago and from locations as divergent as Europe, Asia, Mexico and San Francisco.

Although this account starts in Berkeley, it began somewhere else a long time ago. This last weekend was one of those events coming full cycle. Week before last, I was invited to a friend's house for dinner. I knew several of the people attending but some were strangers to me. It was a wonderful dinner during which I took photos of everyone present (typical). I emailed the photos I'd taken to the people who had been there, including the ones I didn't know.

Ana Briongos, right,
her daughter, Anna, & son-in-law, Nick
Berkeley, CA

photo by Styrous®

During the dinner one of the women, Ana, mentioned she had written books about Afghanistan and Iran and when I got home I went online and checked her out; after reading about her books, they sounded pretty interesting so I ordered a copy of one of them, Black on Black; Iran Revisited, from Amazon.

Black on Black; Iran Revisited

by Ana Briongos

photo by Styrous®

A couple of days later, Ana, replied by email to thank me for the photos and said when she showed my photos from the dinner to her husband, who had not been there, he recognized me from her birthday party which had taken place at La Paloma in Barcelona; other than the name of the place, she gave no other clue but the second I read her words I instantly recalled the exact night of the party, December 29, 2006, because it was one of those nights one never forgets.

I was totally blown away!

At the time I did not know her but a friend who lives in Barcelona had invited us to go to a party being held at the La Paloma nightclub. I had been to it a few months earlier and was delighted to go back again as the night I had been there, they would not let me take photos because it was a public event. As this was a private party, I figured this was my opportunity to take the photos I wanted. To be honest, there were dozens of people there and the place is enormous, so other than to wish her happy birthday, I didn't get a chance to talk to her very much.

Since that dinner in Berkeley, we have gotten to know each other a little more and I have met her husband, Toni Alsina, and her son, Quico, while we spent a couple of hours exploring the Oakland gardens of Marcia Donahue (more on her to come) who creates other-world sculptures.

Toni, Ana, Marcia and Quico

photo by Styrous®

Black on Black; Iran Revisited

by Ana Briongos

back cover detail & title page

photo by Styrous®

Black on Black is a memoir of Ana's studies in Iran in the 1960's and her travels there and in Afghanistan in the 1970's and after. The tales she weaves of her adventures during the times before and after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 are absolutely spellbinding. The book is not a very big one but it is packed with the richness of the culture and the beauty of the countries; however, it does show another side of both countries and also recounts some of the not so pretty things as well. I learned much about the Muslim world and what it means to the people who follow it. I feel more informed after reading it and that's a nice feeling to have at the end of a book. Also, it is about life cycles unexpectedly coming full circle.

The book is published by the Australian publishing company, Lonely Planet, which is famous for its travel books but this is not a travel book. It is a look into a world most people never experience. It was originally written in Spanish; the translation by Chris Andrews is excellent. Andrews has also translated work by Roberto Bolaño, the Chilean novelist, short-story writer, poet and essayist.

Black on Black; Iran Revisited

by Ana Briongos

title page dedication

detail photo by Styrous®

I have an article on the Art Nouveau night club, La Paloma, here on the Viewfinder, if you'd care to know about it. It's a fascinating subject: La Paloma, Barcelona.

Incidentally, Ana's daughter, Anna, had her baby, a boy, since the dinner. Congratulations to the proud parents and grand parents. As Ana said to me in the email about the La Paloma event in 2006:

¡El mundo es un pañuelo!

Gracias, Ana

La Paloma, Barcelona

Styrous® ~ Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Barcelona, España Journals
MAIN MENU - Blog Articles

July 22, 2014

La Paloma, Barcelona

La Paloma, El Raval, Barcelona

photo by Styrous®

In 1853, over a hundred and sixty years ago, Jaume Dora opened the Comas Foundry in The Raval in Barcelona, Spain, on Carrer Tigre, 10. The foundry manufactured machines, metal castings and molds; it was where the 60 meter (197 foot) bronze Columbus Monument (Monument a Colom) was constructed from 1883 to 1888. The enormous figure was completed just in time for the opening of the Universal Exhibition in 1888. The designer of the statue was Gaietà Buigas i Monravà, a Catalan, who won the competition to build it.

Gaietà Buïgas (1851 - 1919)

al 1904 a Buenos Aires

photographer unknown

Barcelona was where Christopher Columbus landed after his historic voyage to the new world. Future Viewfinder articles will cover more structures from the 1888 Exhibtion.

The foundry failed and from 1903 to 1915, renovations turned the huge complex into a dance hall of extraordinary proportions and features. The revitalized Art Nouveau dance palace was stupendous and was in operation up until 2006. I was fortunate enough to have visited it a couple of times before it closed.

La Paloma was on one of the many mysterious and incredibly fascinating passages that tunnel the vibrant world of El Raval.

Carrer Tigre, El Raval, Barcelona

photo by Styrous®

Although from the outside it didn't look like much . . .

La Paloma, El Raval, Barcelona
la esquina de Carrer de Sant Vicenç

photo by Julio M. Merino

. . . if you managed to find your way there and got in (they took care who they let in) , , .

¡Qué sorpresa!

photos by Styrous®

After a night of dancing and drinking, the exiting patrons were implored by mimes who wandered the street in front of the dance hall to be quiet (respectfully and silently of course) so as not to disturb the neighbors.

Unfortunately it didn't work; the dance hall was closed down due to complaints from the neighbors. The last night it was open was on December 29, 2006.

I was told in it's heyday (1915 - 1930's), ladies were admitted for free on Thursdays so maids from around the area would come by the hundreds; of course, would you believe it, the men would too. Ummmm . . . sounds like the Crazy Horse in San Francisco from my early days in the 60's (see link below).

La Paloma

early 1900's

photographer unknown

As I said at the beginning, I'd had the good fortune to have gone there twice; the second time was on the Club's last night while attending the birthday party for writer Ana Briongos who I actually would not meet until . . .