Friday, November 30, 2007

Best of Times, Indeed.

"If you're traveling in Seville, you're bumping into "No...Do" at almost every turn. Fitted out with a "8", figure-eight-like skein of yarn in its midsection, it adorns the backs of buses and the covers of manholes; it appears on city buildings and in official documents. This No8do insignia is a word puzzle - really a rebus - that recalls old hopes of the people of this city, and the promises made to them when Seville was an outpost of Christianity in the Muslim world of the south. No8do speaks of a city not to be abandoned: The Spanish for the 8, the skein, is madeja, and so the motto reads No madeja do or roughly "I have not been abandoned," (no me ha dejado) a phrase that plays off the disconsolate cry of Jesus on the cross. This "No...Do" insignia prompts Sevillanos to raise their heads high and puff out their chests with pride. Theirs is a city that has been crucified and resurrected, seen the worst of times but rebounded and clawed its way back into the best of times."

William Washabaugh (professor at UW-Milwaukee)

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