Hey hey!
It’s time for another roundup of Spanish news stories I find interesting.
Spanish politics is going through quite a difficult moment, with Pedro Sánchez losing support from his coalition partners at Junts (and credibility, what with all the corruption scandals).
Still, it seems like he’s willing to muddle through for another couple of years, if he can.
None of today’s news stories are about Pedro Sánchez. I’m pretty sick of that guy.
Instead we’ve got Himmler, Picasso and Mazón… quite a trio.
Anyway, if you want to see what I’ve been up to recently, I’ve got a new article about my trip to New York, as well as the final chapter of my “Spanish nationality” saga. That one’s called Becoming a Spanish Citizen. And if you want to learn some Spanish, you can also check out my new video about vocabulary for Spanish bureaucracy.
That video is mostly about words you’ll need to talk about visas and immigration processes – there’s a lot more, of course, to say about Spanish bureaucracy.
With that out of the way, let’s hear about…
Family Revelations and Nazi Blood
Imagine you’re watching a history documentary, and it changes your whole life – right down to who you think you are. That’s exactly what happened, recently, to Henrik Lenkeit, a Christian pastor and couples coach, originally from Germany, and now living in the Costa del Sol, here in Spain.
One afternoon last year, Lenkeit didn’t feel like reading the Bible, and there wasn’t any football on, so he put on the TV and watched a documentary about Heinrich Himmler. You know, the leader of the SS during the Nazi years, who committed suicide at the end of World War II.
(This wasn’t in Hitler’s bunker, but in an interrogation camp after being detained by the British.)
Intrigued by the figure of Himmler, who he’d never given much thought to, Lenkeit went down an internet rabbit hole. He soon found a few pictures of Himmler with his lover from the 1940s, and thought, “That woman sure looks a lot like my grandmother.”
And it was. Lenkeit ordered a copy of his mother’s birth certificate, and there was Himmler, listed as the father. So it turns out he’s Himmler’s grandson, and didn’t know it.
(All this was reported in El País the other day. Lenkeit’s grandmother, apparently, married after the war, and started using another name. Afterwards, she mostly kept the fact that her two children were fathered by a prominent Nazi to herself.)
Interestingly, none of this was new information for historians. But it was new to Lenkeit. So he’s been going through quite a crisis of identity, as he claims.
Of course, there are plenty of people in Germany (and elsewhere) who have been told dubious family histories designed to cover up their Nazi ties. And who really looks into their family tree all that deeply?
Some people do, but not a lot.
So, as of now, there’s one more German in Spain known to have the blood of a Nazi mass murderer flowing in his veins. And he’s not happy about it.
Lenkeit claims his Christian faith is what kept him on his feet during this last year. He’s currently writing a book about the experience.
Let’s move on, to our next news story…
The Lost and Found Picasso
A few weeks ago, around the time that the French Crown Jewels were stolen from the Louvre, another story appeared about a lost Picasso.
Apparently, a small painting called “Still Life with Guitar” had been in transport to an exhibition in Granada, but had been lost (or perhaps stolen) along the way.
The article I read asked the completely reasonable question of why the two delivery drivers had stopped and spent the night in a town 26 km from Granada. They claimed they’d stayed up in shifts to keep an eye on the van… but when they got to Granada, the painting wasn’t there.
It all sounded pretty heisty, if you ask me.
Well, a few days later we got an update. The concierge had the painting. Yes, the humble portera, who works in a building in a wealthy neighborhood in Madrid, had seen a package left behind in the entryway and picked it up.
The painting belongs to a private collector, and is insured for 600,000€, but apparently the delivery drivers had just forgotten to load it into the van with some others they were taking. The portera put it on the table in her flat and waited, figuring someone would come and ask for it sooner or later.
A couple of weeks passed before anyone asked around in the building. The portera (a Peruvian named Dolores who’s been working in the building for more than 20 years, along with her husband Armando) produced the package. And soon, the police arrived. No crime was committed. But the pair were separated and interrogated by the police anyway, who thought maybe they’d been involved with the jewel thieves working at the Louvre.
Dolores has been (understandably) stressed about the situation since. She’s worried that people in Peru might decide she’s a thief – but says that “a hug from the King” might work to clear her reputation.
Mazón resigns over the DANA in Valencia
Finally, some political news this week.
It’s been about a year since the Valencia DANA – the flooding that killed 229 people.
Throughout this year, one of the big questions about that event was why Carlos Mazón, President of the Valencian Generalitat (who was supposed to be in charge of the whole situation) wasn’t around.
Apparently the answer was a 4-hour lunch with a journalist named Maribel Vilaplana. But the story is weirder than that. Because his people say they were calling him constantly during his lunch to tell him something was going on, and he just ignored the gravity of the situation.
According to Vilaplana, he received several calls during lunch, but she doesn’t know what they were about. He later canceled some more calls without picking them up.
After lunch, gentleman that he is, Mazón walked Vilaplana to the parking garage where her car was parked, talking (again, according to Vilaplana) about football as he said goodbye.
There is then a gap of about 37 minutes where it’s not clear what he did.
It was after 8PM when he finally made it to work, blaming the traffic for his lateness.
Mazón has become (arguably) the most hated man in Spain since this occurred. He refuses to take any sort of responsibility, and just stands around looking like a sad Andy from The Office.
He seems self-serving and cretinous even by the standards of Spanish politicians. And the people of Valencia have been demanding that he resign basically since day one.
So finally on Monday of this week, he resigned, claiming that he’s the true victim in all of this – forget the 229 people who died while he was out socializing.
Of course, he’s still a “diputado” in the Valencian Parliament, and still “aforado”, meaning he’s largely immune to prosecution (at least as long as he keeps his public job).
So, it’s only a sort of partial resignation. Despite his status as “aforado” he can still be tried by the Supreme Court. I’m not sure if gross negligence in government is illegal. But I guess we’ll find out.
Mobile alerts and the King Emeritus
One of the big controversies in the whole DANA thing is why nobody sent the mobile alert telling residents to stay home until after more than 100 people had already died in the flooding.
I think this is a bit of a red herring: most people died inside buildings, not in transport.
But it does make it look like the government is not on top of things at all.
(Since the DANA, we’ve been getting mobile alerts for any stiff breeze or moderately heavy rain. I got one last night at 10PM, warning about heavy rains during the “madrugada” – the early morning.)
I guess the people in charge want to be extra careful to warn everyone – so they don’t end up in the news as the next Carlos Mazón.
Meanwhile, here in Spain, Caso Koldo is still under investigation. Rosalía (the most famous Catalan in history) has a new album out. And King Emeritus Juan Carlos I is visiting Spain, a visit which coincides with the publication of his memoirs and with the 50th anniversary of Franco’s death and the reinstatement of the Bourbon monarchy.
More about that soon.
For now, I hope you don’t find out that you’re related to Himmler. And I hope Dolores, the portera, gets her hug from the King. (The new one, I mean. Felipe.)
Thanks for reading, and don’t get caught in the rain.
Yours,
Daniel AKA Mr Chorizo.
P.S. If you’d like to support this project, please donate right here. Any amount you can spare helps a lot, and thanks very much to everyone who’s donated previously. And don’t forget to check out my podcast, called Spain to Go. It’s on Apple Podcasts, and on Spotify, and everywhere else. Enjoy!
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