- El Carmen de los Martires
What is this place? Here is what Suzanne herself answered on the Undertow mailing list in December 1998:
El Carmen de los Martires (The Carmen of the Martyrs) is a garden near the Alhambra in the south of Spain, in Granada. It is one of many gardens near the main one. In this garden are statues of saints. Many (if not most) of them are missing their heads and their hands because people have stolen them. I guess they feel it brings luck to take these pieces of the statues home.
From The Gardens of Spain, text by Consuelo M Correcher:
"The carmen is peculiar to Granada, like the can in Catalonia, the son in Majorca, (etc.)...all signify some form of cultivated land, and each has its distinguishing characteristics. A carmen (the word derives from the sixteenth-century Castilian form of the Arabic word karm ,meaning vineyard or grapevine) is a house, often well-protected and small, with a garden and a huerta attached.... Carmens can be found scattered throughout the vega and in the hills surrounding the city of Granada..."
Here is a better description, from "Guide to Granada":
"The 'carmenes' are a relic of Granada'a Arab traditions; houses with large kitchen plots and well-kept gardens that add a touch of color and of charming intimacy to the city's fascinating panorama, especially in its higher areas. According to Ramon de Ayala's definition, 'The carmen' is a closed garden, a hanging garden laid out in terraces, like those of Babylon. There is a dwelling in each one. A 'carmen' is in retreat; it has elements of a monastery and of a harem. They are sometimes very humble, like a Carthusian cell and orchard. But they are an epitome of peace, love and beauty; and in their tranquility, perhaps of restlessness.
"The most genuine, enchanting 'carmenes' are perhaps the ones spread out on the hill where the Albaicin quarter stands...Other justly famous 'carmenes' include those standing on the slopes of the 'Colina Roja' (Red Hill)... and the 'Carmen de los Martires."
Suzanne wrote, "I was there for a couple of weeks in May of 1995, and yes, I did meet someone in that garden, though if anyone were to have watched the scene, nothing exciting happened - he was someone who lived in Granada, and he was showing me the town. That is, nothing happened on the surface. "http://www.suzannevega.com/about/FAQ/carmen.htm
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xw