[April 25, Granada]
Along with Sevilla, no place is more associated with Gypsies and flamenco than Granada. Well into the second half of the 20th century the Sacromonte district of Granada contained a thriving Gipsy community living much as they had for hundreds of years in troglodyte dwellings burrowed into the soft hills. Bettie remembers as a teenager visiting Sacromonte during a communal festival, enthralled by spontaneous bursts of flamenco song and dance performed by firelight into the small hours of the morning.
Few Gypsies live here as before (and that's a good thing!), but the Center for Interpretation of Sacromonte offers a museum-glimpse of the former life.
Today the Gipsies are more likely to be running restaurants or teaching guitar in what (for many) have become rather fashionable hill-side townhouses.
In a curious turn of the socio-economic mandala, some of the former rough caves higher up the hill side are now occupied by hippy squatters, children we were told of some of Spain's most prominent families, demonstrating their rejection of base material values (except for when they emerge to pan-handle the tourists).
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