Castillo de la Estrella, Teba, España
Castillo de la Estrella en Teba, Málaga, España
December 7th, on this day 10 years ago I would show excerpts from the movie Tora Tora Tora ! and then we’d analyze President Roosevelt’s Day of Infamy speech. I would briefly touch on the war with a much more in depth study to follow later in the school year. However, one issue I did focus on as a result of the attack was the fear Americans felt. After all, the US had been protected by the great oceans east and west, but now they felt vulnerable; technology had reshaped their sense of security. To placate that fear the US government went to extreme measures and stripped Japanese-American citizens of their constitution rights and property, and forced these American citizens into internment camps away from the west coast. In light of the current atmosphere and rhetoric in the US I feel good that I introduced my students to this. History doesn’t really repeat itself, but past themes do arise from the grave and haunt us; we are slaves to our history. Do we learn from the past?
But this December 7th was different for me and Cindy. We needed a field trip and one of our very first friends, other than the San Cayetano Hotel friends, was a young lady, Mari Carmen Fuentes who comes from Teba, about 50 km from Ronda. We’ve driven by the Castle (Castillo) many times and decided to go visit today.
Many Castles are built on hills and this castle was built to protect the western access to Granada the Moor’s stronghold and capital. This was also during the historical period when Catholic Spain was attempting to wrest the peninsula from Moslem control.
King Alfonso XI of Castile in 1330 had conquered strongholds to the west and Teba was his next focus. The ensuing Battle of Teba took place in August 1330. Thousands were killed on both side but the Moors were able to retain the fortification. However, there’s an interesting story involving the heart of the King of Scotland, Robert the Bruce. The Scottish king on his death bed asked his good friend Sir James Douglas to bring his heart upon his death on a crusade (Monty Pythonish here), since he had not been able to do so himself. So Sir Douglas was entrusted with the King’s heart to fulfill his dying wish.
Truth is stranger than fiction as they say. There’s a monument to this event in Teba, but I didn’t know the story until I started researching this. Douglas with the aid of the King of England in concert with the Alfonso XI, was granted permission to sail to Spain and join the coalition against the Moors.
Unfortunately for Sir Douglas he fell in battle and never made it to the Holy Land nor did the heart.
The monument I never found but will in the future
Castillo de la Estrelle, Teba
Looking off to the east toward Campillos. I have no idea how many wind turbines are in that area, literally hundreds. Actually the photo doesn’t do justice.
A portion of Teba. According to the census in 1950 almost 8,000 people lived here. The most recent census puts the population at just under 4,000.
3 km from Teba. Fields here are growing winter wheat or other grains.
When we left Teba we were heading home but I’d seen another pueblo in the past, Cañete de Real. The village isn’t far from the main highway A-367 and similar to others, you climb. However, on the road to the village we saw six to eight people paragliding. Ironically there jumping off point was next to the local cemetery.
Paragliding, Cañete de Real, España
Our España 