This Tuesday Arpil 1st sees singer Mara Aranda launch the latest edition of the ‘Noches de Santa María’ Culture Festival in Plasencia, organised by the ‘El Brocense’ Cultural Institution.
Plasencia was once one of the main Sephardic settlements in the western Extremadura region of Spain. The old Jewish Quarter was to be found in the area made up by the streets Coria, Zapatería, and Trujillo. By the 15th Century Plasencia’s ‘aljama’ had a population of some 200 families and a great synagogue. It’s a place in which centuries of Jewish history can be found. For the characters in this Jewish story, this was their home, their land … the place where they raised their children and buried their beloved dead generation after generation.
This Tuesday, the music and song of this people can be heard again; a rich musical heritage transmitted from father to son down trough the generations unto this day, when we can sing the songs and share them all with you, lovers of history, of music and of tradition.
Today in Spain, awareness of this rich Sephardic history is ever more present. The present government has proposed granting Spanish nationality to all those descendents of the Sephardic Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula so long ago; a measure that may go some way to restoring this community to its rightful place in this part of the world.
