Utrera, Wednesday, July 4, 2007
The Lost Boy
…no not Peter Pan
We take our travel responsibilities very seriously. When Debbie read the three paragraph (five sentence) description of Utrera in the official Andalucía Guide to the Provice Cádiz, she noticed that:
Noteworthy civil buildings are, apart from the old Jewish Quarter (Niño Perdido)…
We knew we had to visit and explore on our way north to Seville.
We arrived at about 11:00 am on a very hot day with no further information. At first sight, the town looked rather depressing, but, not far from where we parked, if you looked down the correct street, you might think you were in Southern California. Or, is it the reverse?
Stumbling upon the local city cultural center, we were able to ask where we might find: el Niño Perdido. It took three people in the office checking maps and asking “What is el Niño Perdido?” before we were able to get directions to the main square where we needed to ask once again. There, someone was able to direct us through the small back streets to a little passageway…
that led…
to a sun-drenched walkway…
at the end of which was, yet another passageway…
on the wall of which was a ceramic “portrait” of “the lost child.”
Oddly enough, the little area of the portrait led directly out to one of the main commercial streets of the town, where a large street sign (reading Antiguo Postigo de la Misericordia, 16th century; Ancient Gate of Compassion) pointed directly to the opening.
The official “Mancomunidad de Municipios del Bajo Guadalquivir” map of Utrera shows the main street (the one on which the street sign stood: Alvarez) on one side, and the tiny plaza (Plaza Dr. Fed Navarro) that leads to el Niño Perdido, but has no indication that the little passageway exists.
Questions
Since then, we have spent a decent amount of time trying to track down “the lost boy” and the Jews of Utrera. We have found no meaningful further information about either of them.
- What is the story of el Niño Perdido?
- What is the relationship between el Niño Perdido and the Jews?
- Was the area now known as el Niño Perdido in fact the old (very small) Judería of Utrera, as the pamphlet suggested?
On our return to the van Mark found another “white-washed” wall. Many years ago in Tzfat, Israel he took a photo of a blue “white-washed” wall. Strikingly, among all the brilliant white and mustard of Andalucía, this one was pink:
Still puzzled, we drove on to Sevilla.
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