A little bit about Rota

October 14, 2010 Rota
I thought that it might be nice to share a little of the history of my little town.  Well, not that little I guess. There are 30,000 inhabitants.  The following two paragraphs are from Wikipedia:

(Begin Quote) Archaeological evidence suggests that there was a Bronze Age settlement on the present site of Rota. The current town was founded by the Phoenicians at approximately the same time as Cádiz. Rota is assumed to be the same city known as Astaroth of the Tartesian empire. It later passed to the Romans, who knew the town as Speculum Rotae.

Following the arrival of the Moors in Spain, the city became known as Rabita Rutta ("watchtower of Rota"), from which it derives its present name. From 1248 onwards, the Moors were gradually expelled from Spain, and the city became Christian. In 1297, Sancho IV awarded the town to Alonso Pérez de Guzmán in honour of his defence of Tarifa. Later, Pérez de Guzmán gave it to his daughter, Isabel, as a wedding present when she married Fermin Ponce de León, Maestre of Alcántara and First Lord of Marchena.

Construction of the Castillo de la Luna (Castle of the Moon - right outside my bedroom window) had begun in 1295, two years prior to the bequest to Pérez de Guzmán, as part of Sancho IV's effort to develop strong coastal defenses, especially near the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. During the Middle Ages, the town was an important port for trading with North Africa. In 1780 the 11th Duke of Arcos died without issue, and the city was rendered to the Duke of Osuna. (end of quote)

Today the town is heavily dependant on tourism and on the military bases of the US and Spain in the harbor.  The tourists are almost exclusively Spanish, mostly from inland.  They use Rota to escape the summer heat and so the town more than doubles in population during the summer.  The rest of the year, it is pretty quiet except for those who know where to look for action.

Below you see the whole town and the air base at the top.  My house is out on the point, at the red dot.  The "casco antiguo" or the old walled city was actually quite small and that is the part where I live.

The town is remarkably crime-free and is very safe.  There are lots of restaurants, generally standard Andalucian cuisine, because that is what the tourists like.  Andalucian cooking is not particularly elaborate - lots of fried fish, stews, and aliños (chopped up vegetables in oil and vinegar to preserve them, often with shrimp, tuna, or octopus).  I am getting good at cooking in this style.

Since I was playing with Google Earth, here is my neighborhood.  Not far from the beach, so few bugs and it stays temperate throughout the seasons.  This is one of the Southern-most parts of Spain, about 36 degrees North - about the same latitude as Oriental, NC or San Luis Obispo, CA.  The North part of Spain gets real winters with lots of snow.  Here, we almost never get that cold.

And here to give you a musical travelogue, here is a little video of Rota with Gordo Agujetas singing.  He is the father of Negro Agujetas of whom you have read quite a bit in these pages,  Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVL037B2g5o&feature=share

So, like always, I invite you to write and will even provide a link to make it easy for you: saeta@sailingflamenco.com Have a great day!