Introduction by Pedro Ferbel-Azcarate, Professor of Portland State University.
Created by the AHA Oviedo, Spain/ Northwest Consortium for Study Abroad students of “What is a City?” class, spring term 2012: Monserrat Alegria, Ellen Fields, Lydia Gonsalves, Alex Morton, Brittany Russell, Emily Stohr-Gillmore, Connor Martin, Katie Lightfoot and Pedro Ferbel-Azcarate (professor).
“I would like to invite you to come with me to Oviedo,” proposes the sexy Spanish Asturian Juan Antonio to Americans Vicky and Christina, in Woody Allen’s 2007 award winning film “Vicky Christina Barcelona.” Christina responds, in her list of reasons why she would not fly away for a romantic weekend with a handsome Spanish stranger (though she does), “I have never even heard of Oviedo!” (To see trailer click here)
But Woody Allen has heard of Oviedo, and his desire to put Oviedo on the map for Americans is certainly admirable. Allen, who was honored
in Oviedo with the Prince of Asturias award in 2002 and, soon after, a statue of his likeness downtown, describes the city as being “like a fairy tale.” This Winter/Spring term of 2012, based in Oviedo, our class “What is a City?” reflected on the history of cities and the nature of cities. We compared our new home of Oviedo, to what we were familiar with in theAmericas. Like the focus of Italo Calvino’s book “Invisible Cities” which we read in class, we searched for the poetics ofOviedo, and attempted to find meaning in both the physical characteristics which broadly identified the city and the subtle cultural features, which we saw as larger metaphors for the city.
Studying Oviedo, we imagined to which fairy tale Woody Allen was referring, and we found that our personal experiences, grounded in the cities we called home, informed the ways we each were seeing Oviedo. In this presentation, our articulations of the city are partial, subjective, and personal. Together, we hope they will create the impression of both our diversity and our common vision, as American study abroad students from different parts of the country, interpreting “What is a city?” on our own terms, engaging in a new place we have been calling home: Oviedo, Spain! In such an exercise, imagining the identity of Oviedo, we see the city become a part of our own identity and another place we have learned to call “home.”
Oviedo and Asturian History by Pedro Ferbel Azcarate
Asturias is a semi-autonomous province located on the CantabrianSea, in Northern Spain, bordered by the Picos de Europa mountain chain to the south. The region is home to Paleolithic cave paintings and some of the earliest evidence of human occupation in Europe. Neanderthals also lived in this region, perhaps at the same time as the early Homo Sapiens “Cro Magnon” thousands of years ago. As the Paleolithic evolved into the Neolithic period, there is archaeological evidence of a Celtic culture which dominated the landscape all the way to Roman times, beginning early in the 1st Millennia. While the Romans inhabited parts of Asturias from 0 to 500 A.D., they left little physical evidence of their presence, except for the language, certain food ways, and late Roman period Christianity. Overall, a greater presence can be found in the Celtic culture. When most Americans are asked to visualize Spain, the image and culture of the southern cities immediately come to mind—flamenco, bullfights, warm climate, and Spanish guitar. The majority of people fail to recognize Spain’s northern culture, for example, the culture of Asturias, which is very different in comparison to the south.
When I first arrived, Oviedo was not different from how I imagined it would be in terms of its appearance, only because I had seen pictures from my friends’ previous study abroad experiences here. I was mainly surprised about the cultural aspects of Celtic Oviedo. I can still remember the first time I heard the bagpipes on Calle Gascona. What a surprise!
Click on the links below to read the students’ presentations for this class.
The Old Town by Connor Martin, Portland State University
The Culture of Healthy Oviedo by Katie Lightfoot, University of Oregon.
What is a Park in Oviedo? By Emily Stohr-Gillmore, University of Oregon.
Clean and Presentable Oviedo, by Monse Alegria, Western Oregon University and Lydia Gonsalves, Univeristy of Oregon
Ways of Seeing Oviedo by Brittany Russell, Ball State University.
Fútbol in Oviedo by Alex Morton, Oakland Universit
What is a City? Oviedo! by Ellen Fields, University of Oregon
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Bibliography:
Adams, Sam (2009). Portland Plan: Status Report. City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. http://www.portlandonline.com/portlandplan/index.cfm?a=246917&c=46822
Calvino, Italo (1971) Invisible Cities.
“Elcheand Oviedo: Spain’s cleanest cities .” Think Spain. N.p., 1 May 2011.
Web. 14 Mar. 2012. <http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/19527/
elche-and-oviedo-spains-cleanest-cities>.
“Oviedovoted the cleanest city in Spain.” Typically Spanish. N.p., 28 Apr.
2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. <http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/
article_30278.shtml>.
“Sistema Almacenamiento de agua.” Aqualia. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.aqualia.es/oviedo/principal/index.a
http://turismo.ayto-oviedo.es/turismo/en/mapa_casco_ampliado.htm
http://turismo.ayto-oviedo.es/turismo/en