LA ROMERÍA DE VALME

Sunday was La Romería de Valme in the town where I work. It is a religious event popular among catholics in southern Spain. The festival is in honor of the Virgen de Valme. It is celebrated every year on the 3rd Sunday of October. My coworker was nice enough to invite me to the parade. It was so much more than I imagined it was going to be. I got off the train and met up with her on the road where the parade was going. Basically everyone had some type of "float". Some were intricately decorated and pulled by horses or bulls, others were pulled by car or tractor and were less decorated. They parade goes from the city of Dos Hermanas to a barrio outside of Sevilla called Bellavista.

There was close to 20 - 25 people on our float. My coworker was very nice and introduced me to everyone. I was a bit nervous because this was the first time since I have been here where I was the only American around. I couldn't believe how friendly everyone was. As soon as I met the first person they offered me a drink and told me to sit down and rest in the shade of the float for a while. We made our way into Bellavista from Dos Hermanas.

One of the first floats I passed

The Bulls and Horses all wore head pieces and decorated cloths 

It was the craziest thing to see a road full of bulls and horses

Traffic Jam

Our float with everyone piled in. 

Listening to MGMT while stuck in traffic


After we got off the main road we made it to a large field where all the floats lined up and everyone cooked food and hung out with eachother. The driver and another guy were having trouble figuring out which way to go. I am no sure what exactly happened but before I knew it these two guys were screaming at each other looking like they wanted to rip each others faces off. No less than five minutes later the problem was resolved and they were friends again. haha

Trying to fix the float

One minute they are arguing....

...the next they are hugging it out. 

Everyone hanging out waiting for the food to be cooked

While the food was cooking we walked up and checked out some of the fancier floats that were around. I couldn't believe how detailed these things were. One man said his float took around 4 months to complete and there were over one million little flowers placed on it. The flowers were made out of tissue paper material. One of my other teachers was all dressed up and on a nicer float. We went and said hello and snapped a few photos. I met her friend who was really nice. He brought me a rum and coke and wanted to take a photo in front of his float. We walked around and looked at a few other floats and then headed back for the food.

All the men riding horses were dressed like this. 

Coworkers and I in front of a float

 

Everyone was so nice 

A shot of the wheel. Crazy detail

Explaining how long it took to make. 

Lining up the bull to carry away the float

So many bulls.

Finally got the bulls hooked up to the float

..

Paella to eat - It was very good

Group Photo!

Such a cool ride - reminded me of the Midwest

Hanging out as the sunsets

Long and eventful day

As we were leaving they had the radio playing and everyone began to freak out because a song called "Papa Americano" came on the radio. Everyone started jumping and dancing around and shouting "Papa Americano!" and pointing at me. It was crazy at first because I never heard the song and I had no clue what was going on. Also, a few of the guys called me "Zach Morris" from saved by the bell. No joke, I would say my name and they would respond "Like the guy from saved by the bell!" It was pretty funny.  After a short ride back to the train station they dropped me off and I was on my way home.

His nick name was "marinero" mine was "Zach Morris"

My Coworker Lucrecia and I were the only ones paying attention

I was really glad that my coworker invited me. She was very helpful and made sure I met everyone and that everyone knew I was here teaching English. That helped a lot. All in all it was a great day, one of the best so far.