Juan Carlos Menendez (@juancar347)
Carpe Diem
[ENG-SPN] The Borderland Where Souls Dwell / La Frontera donde Habitan las Ánimas
Borders, whether between countries or simply between communities, are generally areas where adventure is almost guaranteed. Soria, located in the heart of that complex labyrinth of History, Traditi...
[ENG-SPN] San Juan: Gateway to Magical Soria / San Juan: la puerta de la Soria Mágica
Before venturing to the banks of the Duero River as it flows through Soria, where hermit saints, Hospitaller knights, Templar knights, and the nobility of the preeminent Twelve Lineages did everyth...
[ENG-SPN] The Templar Legacy That Defies Time / La huella templaria que desafía al tiempo
When memory, synchronicity, and anecdote converge, they form an explosive trio that, beyond the tedium fostered by mere objectivity—whose aim always seems to confine everything under the coldness o...
[ENG-SPN] La Cuenca: Where Time Gets Lost / La Cuenca: Donde el Tiempo se Extravía
Today, my intention is to talk to you about charm. And expanding the term a bit further, perhaps also about enchantment. But not the kind of enchantment that derives from the dark arts, from spells...
The City That Doesn't Exist
Although Soria is considered one of the smallest cities in Spain—so small, in fact, that its inhabitants traditionally suffer from the same syndrome of resilient institutional invisibility that als...
[ENG-SPN] The Romanesque and the Types of the Soul / El Románico y los Tipos del Alma
Written after his break with Freud and first published in 1921, C.G. Jung's work, entitled "Psychological Types," is not only an essential classic that should be in every library, but also a true p...
[ENG-SPN] The Cloister Where Tombs Gaze at the Sky / El claustro donde las tumbas miran al cielo
A short distance from the medieval bridge that rises over the peaceful Duero River, whose current in some stretches seems eager to leave Soria's banks behind, hastening its desperation to dissolve ...
[ENG-SPN] The Poet Who Listened to the Duero Speak / El poeta que escuchaba hablar al Duero
Anyone who visits Soria one day and decides to walk along El Collado Street towards the Plaza de los Doce Linajes (Square of the Twelve Lineages), the Town Hall, and a little further on, the old ma...
[ENG-SPN] The Threshold Where the Sea Awakens to Mystery / El umbral donde el mar despierta al misterio
Following the patterns established by Lord Dunsany in his fantastic literature, we might see at sunset, when the sun is about to complete its sacrifice on the altar of the turbulent waters of Finis...
[ENG-SPN] What Bosch Didn't Say... and Brueghel Painted / Lo que el Bosco no dijo... y Brueghel sí pintó
Judging by the number of imitators who echoed his surrealist vision of the world, Bosch, perhaps without realizing it, created a school of navigators of the unconscious, whose greatest talent was, ...
The Soria Spell on Bécquer
Aside from Antonio Machado, it's clear that the 'Soria effect' also deeply influenced another of the great geniuses of world literature, although, as is often the case with genius, he wasn't widely...
[ENG-SPN] The Storm That Awoke the Black Lagoon / La tormenta que despertó la Laguna Negra
One of the most captivating episodes linking the life of the Sevillian poet Antonio Machado to one of the most legendary places in ancient Soria, a region steeped in Celtiberian heritage and deeply...
[ENG-SPN] Vinuesa: Where Machado Found Legend / Vinuesa: donde Machado encontró la leyenda
In truth, were it not for a few unavoidable details, one would say that hardly anything has changed since 1910, when the 20th century had barely begun its slow, marathon race against time. The poet...
[ENG-SPN] The Secret Heart of Magical Spain / El corazón secreto de la España Mágica
It's difficult to resist its magnetic charm. Nature, history, art, and mystery, among other defining factors, could be considered a well-defined set of arguments that make this place, located in th...
[ENG-SPN] The Secret of Osma / El secreto de Osma
It is no wonder that visitors, upon crossing the bridge over the Ucero River and passing through the old gate in the medieval wall that encircles its opposite bank, first encounter the statue of th...