The most obscene gesture in Spain is the forearm jerk, known as el corte de manga, or ‘sleeve cut’. Much favoured by tantrumy footballers, this involves shooting the left arm straight up at a 90 degree angle while whacking your right palm into the elbow joint. The underlying message, which may or may not be [...]

Having married into a family of cradle-to-grave Barcelona supporters, el Barça is naturally one of the main threads in the tapestry of my life here. My sons were carted to the Camp Nou almost before they could walk and talk. During summers in the mountains, I drove 15 kilometres of hairpin bends every day to [...]

If you’ve ever wondered why Sevilla’s second football team is called Betis, then this is for you. Recently an online magazine called Subbética News started running our themed Taste of Garlic mini series. I had never heard of Subbética anything before, but soon recognised the ‘bética’ part, and discovered that La Subbética is a comarca [...]