Bat bi hiru lau
Watch your back, watch your back
Ertzaintza's gonna get you
Watch your back, watch your back
Ertzaintza's gonna get you
Watch your back, watch your back
There's a crime here
It's a coming from the Euskal Herria
Gotta wash those red hands
It's the crimes of the basquelands
Hi, I'm a little drunk today
I just wanted to make an apology
Last week I uploaded a raw version by mistake
Instead of the edited one
And, well, I haven't had time to edit
And some time again another apology
And, yeah, I hope you enjoy it
Have a good one
Hi, Dougal
Hi, Jules, how you doing?
I'm doing good, how you doing?
Good to hear
I'm recovering from yesterday
So I won't be drinking today
So, tell our audience how you're recovering
What you're recovering from
Well, I just went out for my regular social night out
On a Thursday
Which is what?
Couchsurfing meeting
We go to couchsurfing
And then whoever turns up we see what happens
And I ended up going down to the old town in LaBelle
Having some extra ones with the friends
Yeah
And?
And I'm drinking a Coca-Cola
Just recovering
Oh, oh
Intense conversations
I thought you were going to say about how you came home and you had no power
That was very stressful
That's pretty stressful
Very stressful
Especially when you've had something to drink
And you don't have time to figure out what's going on
Yeah, those logical
You just want to be in a warm house and go to bed, right?
These logical steps of turn everything off
Turn one thing on
That was very hard to do
I bet
I don't remember you at all
It seems like it's working out
So, you know
Yeah, we have power
It's warm in here
We have power
Yeah
It's been really cold in the Basque Country
It has
The last week or so
Yeah, four or five degrees
Or below
Like tonight I think it's going to get down to one degree
Ouch
So it's cold
It's cold
It is, it's chilly
It's chilly
And wet
So that adds to it too
It's like even colder
It is
It feels like it gets to your bones
But you're having a nice drink today
A nice red wine
Warm your bones up
Well, yes
I went to the supermarket
The French supermarket
Well, it's Carrefour
It's a French chain
Chain, yeah
So, it's near Douglas' house
So I often go there to see what to bring for our drinks
And unlike the white wines or the cedras
The ciders
They don't put like a little Basque flag underneath the red wines
To tell you these are Basque products
So I was searching through all of them to find a Basque red wine
Because I didn't want white
And I found this one and I found that it was bottled in Cenicero
I love the name, Cenicero
What is Cenicero in Spanish?
Literally, it is in Castilian
And it literally means ashtray
Ashtray
So there's this really lovely town
You've been there, right?
In the Rioja, yeah
It's called Cenicero
It is really pretty though
So if anybody's traveling in these parts
It is a nice town with lots of nice bodegas
And so it's a good tourist stop
And it's the wrong side of the river
It is, it just happens to be on the very border of the Basque Country
So we decided the tenuous link would be that
If you were standing in the Basque Country
You can see it
Look across the river and see it
So that's our tenuous link
Good old ashtray
But it's a nice wine
It's Gran Vendema
Gran Vendema, yeah, interesting name
It's a Crianza
Which means like young
What would they call it in English?
Crianza would be like young
Well it's a classification here
It's been in the barrel for at least
I think it was either 3 or 6 months
6 months or something?
3 or 6, I forget
It must be 6
So it's a minimum of
It has to be a year old as well at least
So and then maybe half of that in a barrel at least
What is the podcast about?
We should probably tell people
As the name says, we are a crime podcast
True crime
It's true crime, but we go out to all kinds of things that could be
We're adventurous
Crime linked
Yeah
Right? So it could be
Corruption
Tragedy
Yeah, true
Health and safety
Corruption
So it's not just murder and mayhem
Right?
No, no, there's some hashtag mom safe
Yes, there is
Speaking about that, how is today's episode?
Not hashtag mom safe
I think because this episode
My only like trigger or like warning would be that
If you are disturbed by the death of children
Then you probably don't want to listen to this episode
Okay
So moms probably don't want to
Maybe not
Hear that kind of thing
Good warning
I don't go into a lot of detail either
It's just I kind of go through the facts of what happened
And there's not a lot of detail about
Yeah
You know, any, there's no deep gory details if you will
Good to know
I'm holding on to much of that
So, you know, if that's something that disturbs you then
It's not going to happen
You know, I'm not going to give any disturbing details
Cool, good heads up
Okay
So this episode though was inspired by a
A tour that Douglas and I and Megan, our producer
Yeah
And Megan's partner Tom who does our, who produced our song
Yeah, the intro song
We went on a tour called Bilbao Confidential
Mm-hmm
Right
Yeah
Um, you know, what was it?
Criminis i castigo
No, no, castigo i crimin
Oh, what was it called?
I guess it's criminis i castigo
Like crime and punishment
Yeah
So crime and punishment would be the translation
Yeah
So we went on this tour where this very lovely kid
Brought us around
Very knowledgeable
Yeah
I remember
He knew his stuff
Yeah, inside out
Yep
And he took us around
We didn't have to go very far
It was like a walking tour
Mm-hmm
Where we stopped at different locations
And he told us about what happened where
Um, but it was really fun
Yeah
I enjoyed it
I had no idea there was like this huge prison right up in Santuchu for example
Yeah, very close by to the old town
And then like the details of the prison were like things like
The families had to bring the meals to the prisoners
Yeah
Like they weren't fed at the prison
Yeah, that was intense
You had to count on your relatives to bring you food
Yeah
And it was like way overcrowded
Yeah
That was one of the most impressive parts of the tour
Facts that we learned
That was like whoa, that's crazy
Yeah
I guess there's
Obviously this is not like in this century
Or the last century
No, yeah, no
It was the century before that
A good hundred or two hundred years ago
Yeah
So
And then like where the public hangings were
All that stuff
Yeah
Pretty interesting
Yeah
I would recommend the tour
Yeah, we do, we do
And we'll give him a shout out
It's very
I forgot his name
Well
Damn it
We could probably look on his website and give it
He's a very good one
We can maybe put it in our notes or something
Yes, yes
To put something in our notes about his tour
So we can give him some business
Yeah
We would
I definitely recommend it
Yeah, it was fun
So this was one of the stories
So anyway, this was inspired by that
Because he told us this one story
And I was like oh wow, that's pretty wild
I'd never heard of that
So this is a historical one
And it is
Oh, and I never wrote a one sentence synopsis either
Well
Oh, I got one
I can just come up with one on the top of my head
You can
One sentence synopsis
Never shout fire in a crowded theater
Oh, that's very appropriate
That's my one sentence synopsis
Right
For this crime
Right
So there you go
Came up on the top of my head you guys
Genius
Impressive
Okay
Are you going to give us the title of the episode as well?
Yeah
It's
This is the tragedy at the Ensenche Circus Theater
Okay
Yeah, I remember him mentioning that
I remember that
Yeah, do you remember anything about it?
I mean to be honest I was like okay another one
Because you know it's super common in European cities that the theater burned down
Yeah
Like it's so
Yeah
Kind of common
And I'm going to give you why
Why these things burnt down
I'm going to tell you like a little history and stuff
Yeah
So
They're all wooden
Exactly
I was going to go there
And like let you
They're all haphazardly built
Right
Yeah
They're like fly by night businesses so
Not a lot of safety protocols in place
Yeah
So in this story my sources I had a really good archival history from Biscayah.EUS
Yeah
And so it's like kind of like the city or the Biscayah municipal
Biscayah is the province
Is the province
Provincial historical
Yeah
Kind of archives
That's nice
Then I had I had a video on YouTube which the it's Bilbo Arquitectura is the channel
Yeah
So they did a story on this and they talked about the history of these types of buildings
or operations I guess
Then we have let's see see I'm sorry I have to look
It's fine I mean what is it Bilbo Arquitectura
And then I have Historia no Bilbo Servicuac
Servicuac
Punto Bilbo dot EUS
EUS is like Euskadi or
Euskadi yeah
Which is like saying
Wikipedia
Dots
Obviously
One story from El Correo
Right a typical newspaper around here
And that's about it
Okay
So this took place a long time ago so that's why there's a few like limited
Sources yeah yeah understandable
Yeah
All right shall I begin
Let's dive right in
Okay so let's talk about these the history of the circus theaters
Circus theaters began to emerge in Europe in around the end of the 1700s
Okay
They hit their peak in the last 30 years of the 1800s okay
They were all but gone by the first quarter of the 20th century
Okay
At that time they were primarily being used as cinemas
So when they when they died out their purpose or their function was as a cinema
Okay
They started screening movies right
Right
And that was the new rage
So it's
Or you know popular form of entertainment right
It's going to the movies
Yep yep
So the movies kind of ancestor
Yeah
Throughout Spain there were at least 60 circus theaters and today only five of those structures
Have survived as functioning theaters
El Algar Orihuella
Murcia and Santa Cruz de la Palma
So the first three that I mentioned are all in Murcia or near Murcia
Oh really interesting
And then the last one Albacete which is also near Murcia
Is the only one which still doubles as a host for circuses and theater productions
And maintains an original building structure of the original circus theaters
How interesting
So that's the only one that survived
Like the actual building
Like the building itself
Yeah
Yeah because they usually made of wood right you said
Yeah
That's incredible
They originated in areas with larger populations as a place where shows and performances could be held for the general public
In some cases the buildings were permanent structures
Hence why some have survived to this day
But in other cases they were only for seasonal use
And often times they would move location within the same city
So they'd throw one up over here
And then move to another part of town where maybe the land was available
Like maybe the land was available at the time
And they put one up and then the city said
No no we want that land
So they you know jumped ship and then just moved to a different little plot of land in the same city
Intense yeah
Because they had like a name recognition probably as a business or whatever
Very circusy as a kind of business structure I would say
Yeah
You said circus theater right?
Yeah
So they were multi-functional buildings and most of them had a circular or a polygonal
Polygonal?
Polygonal sorry
I can't read anymore
It's cute
I've been doing this all day so I was like
I mean I can't read so
Sometimes I can't read anymore
Because I'm also trying to like look at basket names and pronounce them correctly and then
You're doing excellent
When I'm reading English then I mess up as well anyway
Alright so they were circular or
Polygonal
So the center was where the action took place right?
And then it would be surrounded by the tiered seating for the public
Right
Okay
Nice and traditional
And because of their impermanent nature they were often wooden structures with uneven constructive quality
Like a little bit over here but not over here like it wasn't
Okay
Like a
Perfect
Like this beautiful building where all the sides are even and these two sides are you
know like centric or whatever
Yeah just put another line there
Yeah we need a room over here so we'll just build another room over here right sort of
thing
Yeah
And add on they're just adding on to the building if you will
Organic architecture we could say
Yeah
In one article the architecture of these buildings mimic the spaces needed for the activities
that people already took part in in their leisure time so we think of like bull rings
Right
Yeah
Cock fights
Yeah
All that nasty shit
Circular thing
Yeah
Everybody looking to the center
And everybody sitting around it right?
So the public is seated around the action that's taking place in the center right?
Boxing I guess
Boxing yeah
So and this also you know mimics what also became what we see at circuses later
Same thing with circuses
Don't know how connected it is to the Shakespeare style theater but that was also like in a
center right?
And you had people all around it
Yeah like wasn't the Globe theater the first one?
Wasn't it circular?
I mean I think it was typical of that time I don't know if it was special but I think
it is
I don't know I felt like I heard the Globe was like one of like the first of its kind
or something it was like the original or something
Maybe then maybe
It might be because that's where the first Shakespeare stuff
I know it was written for that theater a lot of things so like the format the space kind
of was part of the play which is why it's considered so important but I thought it was
the kind of generic shape that they had before but I don't know
And it couldn't maybe it came I don't know because Shakespeare was anyway we're not going
to delve into
We won't know
We're not going to have our listeners find out what are like gaps in
Yeah historical architecture
Or about theater in Shakespeare theater and all that
But you know like we can go back to
But I do know the Globe was circular
Yes
Theater in London the original
Most the way around
And you know when you look at just a Greek amphitheater it's circular
Yes amphitheater is circular
It looks around the central point maybe it doesn't go all the way around but you know
Yeah
It's definitely an old idea
Have you ever visited a ruin?
Yeah
Yeah so have I and it doesn't go all the way around but it is circular
Yes I mean the I was like I don't know any names in my head I was like well the Coliseum
goes all the way around
I've been to one and two Coliseum there you go
And in Greece we went to visit one
So anyway anyway
They're beautiful we should go
Yeah we should do this more often
So after you know these same spaces that they would set up for these circuses or what have you
Or theater they would be used for things like not only theater but other types of performances
Like acrobatics or dance or even places for popular parties or events could be held in these same spaces
So these buildings like were multifunctional that's what I meant by multifunctional
Sure
They were very lucrative for those that ran them right and very popular among all social classes
Because usually it meant that anybody could go the prices were low
Cheap ticket
Cheap thing to go do in your free time so pretty successful okay
Good to hear
So that's the history okay in Bilbao in the 1880s Bilbao was expanding its city limits
And one area on the other side of the river so on one side of the river we've got like
The town hall and then we've got the old town
If you're the river and you're going to our desi on your right hand side
Yeah so that was kind of all that's the old town of course is the original Bilbao right
The old town is original Bilbao right
Where Bilbao was
So as the town got bigger it started expanding on the other side of the river
The left side of the river if you will right
So the land that was annexed to become part of the church of Abando
Was kind of
Just across the river from old town Bilbao
Yeah it was becoming more popular right like where that area was more populated etc.
So while awaiting the arrival of developers to do with this something with this land
There were like pop-up booths for like commercial exchange like maybe selling like farm goods or honey
Whatever people were selling in markets right eggs yeah meat sardines sardines yeah fish of any kind
Lots of fishing here
I mean it was typical to salt sardines and bring them in big baskets from Portugal that's why I mentioned
There's like songs about the ladies coming with the sardines like a very Bilbao thing
The songs of the sardines
Do you know any of these songs
I mean I've just heard it I just know of them no I don't
So also not only this but there were also like small warehouses popping up for like smaller industries
Okay so some plots were taken over by locals who would put on shows and the structures they built were you know haphazard
With little attention to like safety or stability I can only imagine because they knew as soon as the city council wanted to use or sell the land
Those structures would just be demolished taken down yeah
So the first two circus theater projects that emerged during this time were with the explicit request from the city council
Okay so they wanted them to build something for the people or the masses right yeah
One such project was that of the Gran Vía Circus Theater
The high street
Yes that's what they would call it in Britain
Sure
Main Street
In the US
In America
In the US
So records don't indicate whether or not this was ever built
This is kind of weird because in all my research everyone debates whether or not it actually existed
Wow that's so weird
Like there's all the records that show of like people bidding for the land or like bidding I'll put it here or I'll put it there
But really there's no record of it ever existing
At least in my research
One of the two
So listen I wrote this story in a week so I did not I'm not a journalist so I did not delve
Or a historian
Or a historian so I did not delve as deeply defined about this certain circus theater because it was not the focus of the story
So I just went with what I found and
If any of our listeners know better please leave a comment
Yeah
And we'll learn
Write your own story about the Gran Vía Circus Theater
We will contribute with everything we know
You want to put it on our show we'll put it on our show
In the end the closest evidence of a structure such as this was the first cinema in Bilbao called the Olympia Room
And it opened in 1905
Which stayed open until 1947
Wow
And was replaced by the Gran Vía Cinema which operated until 1996
Wow
Which was then replaced and became the Bebeka Sala
Which we all know
On the high street yeah
If you walk down Gran Vía you'll see the Bebeka Sala
So it's been an entertainment place forever
For 135 years
Wow that's crazy
Yeah
It's a lovely room these days
It's owned by as you said Bebeka which is a local bank
Yeah
And that's their cultural kind of activity place
If you haven't heard our episode about Bebeka
Yeah
This is how they launder money allegedly
They put on fucking great cinema
But they've redone it and it's very nicely done up
Yeah I mean they put on a lot of screenings of things that you would not see in a regular
Like mainstream distribution of films right
So you might see like a program
Bobby used to program
Yeah your husband
Retrospectives on different like themes cinema themes
Related to the
And he put it on at that place
Connected with the Fine Art Museum
No no no this was his
Oh was that the one
Yeah it was him and Ruben Hi Ruben
Oh nice nice
I mean the last one we went
No they just put it on by themselves because they wanted to program something cinema
And so they decided to pick a theme
And then they would put on screen films that they felt fit that theme
And they were paid by the city council to do so
Oh nice
And that was their own project
I remember going to a Hitchcock one with you guys one time
It was really good lovely space to do it
Another thing to do when you come to Boba
Exactly you guys have so much to do and see here
Not just eat your face off but actually take in some culture
Or drink your face off
Which is also very noble
Yeah you can go down on Thursday nights to the couch surfing
I'll be there
Meet Douglas
It's our meet up
First hand
We're happy to anybody to drop by
Yeah yeah if you're in town and you're just visiting and you want to meet some people
Yeah Thursdays at Nervion from 8.30
There you go
Everybody knows now
There you go
So you might get some people showing up
I mean
Let's see let's see
We're so going to talk about it
Who's listening is going to show up
Who's the first to turn up for a listener
We can't wait we should give them a prize
We should come up with a prize to give them
The first one that turns up and approaches Douglas at couch surfing
Well I
Douglas I heard about this meet up on the pod
It's excellent
I came for my prize
That's all you have to say
Well I'll definitely invite you to your first drink
No come on we'll think of a prize
But I always have also a sticker
You can get a sticker and something
We'll think of something
Suggests?
What would you like to get if you're the first one to turn show up you know
Sure
Suggests
We're open
I mean what if they want a car though Douglas
We can't swing
I mean you can suggest it
We can go
Yeah suggestions are free
Look I've had this little toy taxi car in my pocket for three months
I'm happy to give it up today
Give them a kinder egg surprise
Maybe it's a car
Maybe there's a car inside
Maybe it's a car
Okay so another project was requested and paid for to have a circus theater on Amistad
Street so that's the one you know where Amistad Street is right
So that's like right just past the Aranal Bridge
Yep
Okay so Aranal Bridge we've talked about the Aranal when we talked about the Fiestas episode
We did
It's kind of like a large pole
It's not a plaza but it's like a
It used to be a sandy area
It's a park now
Yeah it's like a big park along the river
Just next to the old town
And then there's the theater
The opera house or the theater right there
And a nice bridge
And right yeah bordering the old town right
So to go with the theme of the wine you can see the other side of the river from Aranal
Exactly
Full circle
We got it
So this project never materialized and the money according to records I was reading it was like the money was returned
Like the funny the records I was reading were just like this person paid this much for this plot of land to do this
And then the money was returned on this date because they didn't you know it was like kind of weird research I was doing
Anyway so it never materialized the guy got his money back never came to fruition
So and the reason for this I think this is what I've gathered from my research so you know I'm not a journalist I would like to make that clear
I'm like reading documents that are translated from Spanish to English so that I can read them more easily
Because if I'm reading them in Spanish I'm like what the fuck anyway so meanwhile the Aranal theater the theater that was already there in the Aranal was in poor condition
And the city knew that it would have to be demolished at some point okay
So and they knew they wanted to build a new one they knew they wanted a big theater there right
So they halted all of the potential circus theater projects for that area
So that's what I discovered
Are we talking about 1830s 40s?
Late 1800s so like 1880s 1890s
Okay
The theater was demolished in 1885 so there you go there's your date
And then the Arriaga theater which is the one we still have
Which is there today yes that you can go see today
You know stands where a lot of these circus theaters thought to have a little theater of their own
So it was a coveted area
I think they moved it to where it is today which is just right on the other side of that bridge
You know on the same side of the river but on the other side of the Aranal bridge
Okay there was actually where the theater is
I think the original theater was on where the park is today
Okay
I think don't hold me to that okay
I mean I know there was an area because literally Aranal just means like a sandy area
Yeah
And I know that you know if we go back to the 1500s that was like a beach
Yeah
A river beach
Right because yeah
But I also know that for a very long time they had like a little circle which sounds like the saddest thing in the world
But they had a tiny little circle with like a small kind of wall is how they described it
Okay
And there was still sand in the center kind of like a sandbox
Like a sandbox
Yeah
Okay
But it was like literally it was left over from the beach
Oh so they tried to preserve the whole idea of this was a sandy place and now here's the last
It is still known as a sandy place you know Aranal Plaza
Well it's closed
So you know I thought it was I love the fact that they tried to have some sands
Yeah and then they were like this is ridiculous
But that's where you're saying the theater would have been
Maybe
Maybe maybe
But in any case one side of the road or the other
Either way it's right there it's all right there in the same area
So anyway they built this the Arriaga theater which is now a beautiful big building
Gorgeous
It's like one of the big landmarks right
Beautiful
So it's lovely and like I use that landmark for everything whenever I have videos I'm like meet me there
Yeah
There's always the big Christmas tree Christmas time
Yeah
You know I tell people meet me at the tree
For those of a more nationalist inclination there's a lovely big flag of the Basque Country right in front of it
It's there
Yeah
I never noticed
Not a big fan of flags though but
But it's there
It's there
It flies
I'm gonna look now
Middle of town
Now I'm gonna look okay
In front of the theater
Yeah
So you like the the the tramway
Oh my god I can't believe I've never seen that
The tramway goes kind of curves around the front of the theater right
Yeah
And so just right there
Where the tree is
The Christmas tree is
Yeah but like closer to the train line than the Christmas tree right
So that's
Oh my god
There's a big pole there
Oh my god I have to look
Maybe I just never look up
Maybe I'm always looking at the ground
There's a lot of Basque flags around so you know another one
It's not gonna necessarily stand out
No but also I look at the ground a lot when I walk because of dog poop
Right right
So I gotta look out for dog poop
I love the curvinha myself so
So you're always looking out for the curvinha
I do love to see it
Like you know like you might say meet me at the theater I might say meet me at the flag
Yeah
That's
But there you go
There you go
Lovely landmark
There we go
Okay so landmark
We're landmark outs
However you look at it it's a landmark
And since we're on it we're talking about the Arriaga Theater like it is modeled on
a French theater that's like modeled in a very traditional kind of typical I forget
which one but probably the main one in Paris you know and that's what they used it's kind
of like a miniature of that
Okay
And it looks gorgeous
It is gorgeous
I recommend it
It's a very nice building
Inside and out
And during fiestas that's where Marijaya
That's true
First appears
The Paragonera
And they set off the Chupinazo
Yeah
To set off the fiestas
They've got nice little balcony
All full circle man everything comes back to the Arenal, Arriaga Theater
Yeah the world map of Bilbao as they would say it here
It's like the White House
Sure
Or if you're from somewhere else it's the
The Casa Rosada if we were in Argentina going back to our last
There you go
Or the Red Square if you're Russian
Sure there you go okay I forgot this
The mall in Washington D.C. for American listeners
Brandenburg Gate for the German listeners
We've all got that
We've all got those landmarks for each country right?
Yeah but this is yeah anyway
I mean you know as far as the Basque Country goes
As far as Bilbao goes it's pretty
It's our landmark
It's our landmark yeah
I mean Guggenheim is probably more worldwide landmark-y
Yeah but that's not Basque
It's not in our souls yet
It's not Basque
I mean
People are proud of it but because it is pretty cool but it's like
I mean you know
It's not Basque
I would say it's pretty Basque because you know like there's two images that well three images really
One is the architects which is the scales of fish which he talks about going fishing with his father
And it's got ship like pictures
Basque Country and fishing is definitely
Yeah yeah so it kind of has ship like herbs and you know
And one of them is the kind of image of
It's definitely an homage to the shipping or the fishing industry for sure
And that I think is quite Basque
Sure
It does hearken back to some references
Alright so most people outside of here
Outside of here would say yes the Guggenheim is what they think of when they think of Bilbao
But it's
But there's so much more
There is so much more
From every civil wind
Go to Couchsurfing and meet up with Douglas
I'll point you in all the directions
Okay so basically where I'm going with all this is I didn't
I don't want to go too far into the weeds about all these theaters and people that applied
No
For permits to build them or actually whoever actually did build them or did not build them or who built them on provisional basis
So
Until we find
Let's just say
Until we find one of them
The theater was built and we're going to now focus on the theater that's in question okay
I just wanted to give both Douglas and our ten listeners some background to these circus theaters
We got at least fifty listeners
Fifteen
Fifty fifty
Oh fifty okay
At least once it's been out for a bit
But I was going to say
Until the day we found one of them as your ancestor or my ancestor then we'll go like wait a minute one of the people who gave money
Oh I'm sure
Wouldn't they
One of those days
I mean if they were if they had enough money
If anyone's going to give us money it's going to be a relative
No I'm saying to the theater like historically
Oh that maybe yeah
One of your ancestors from 1810
Yeah that's true
Because I have best ancestors
That's true
I'm expecting AI whenever we get you know whenever it becomes super intelligent
Douglas don't just be waiting around
You're just going to waste your life away waiting around for AI to do anything
Well maybe
But the day that it connects all the dots it's going to be able to tell us exactly who all our ancestors are
You're going to bust open that bottle of champagne
Oh my gosh
Like imagine
No cava excuse me
No
Cidra
Cidra yeah
Cidra sounds good
A nice little bubbly chacoli
Yes chacoli bubbly chacoli that's it
Alright let's take a break
Let's take a break
Aiyayayayayayaya
We're back
Here we are
Alright so the circus theater that we're going to focus on today
Is the Ensanche Circus Theater
Okay
This was built in 1895
It was a wooden structure
And it was located on a plot of land where many temporary circuses had already taken place
Okay
So like I was saying like a lot of local people would use these plots of land for various things
Until the city said we're going to use that now so get out of here
Okay
Sort of thing okay
So initially the entertainment you could find there was jugglers, comedians
Which I had to pause
Yeah
I am curious about what comedians in 1895 talked about
Do you want to take a gander?
What kind of jokes these people are telling?
Or like have you ever tried to buy a fish at the market that
I don't know what kind of jokes do you think they were saying?
Or do you think they probably weren't bashing the king?
They could have been
Maybe maybe
I mean the thing is like I'm really into comedy I listen to a lot of comedy
And there's this whole thing where like the idea of modern comedy comes really from the United States
As in stand-up comedy like observational comedy
Yeah
And so when you look at pre that what people always say about the culture before that was
That it was like a lot of like oh I heard this joke
Yeah so just like retelling jokes
So there's retelling and like a lot so a lot of people would use the same material
Yeah
But of course you could improvise like telling in a new way or something like that
So I imagine it's kind of a lot of that a lot of like that's a joke I heard
And then so like when I go back to my childhood like you know Scotland or Brazil
They would just have like a standard whoever is the stupid person right?
So for Brazilians it was always the Portuguese
Oh yes yes of course
So there would always be the boss of the joke
In America it was always the Poles
The Poles
The Polish people yeah there's a lot of Polish jokes
Okay okay well there you go so I'm imagining you know whoever was picked on in the past
Yeah whoever they're racist
Exactly probably a lot of jokes about North Africans
Yeah no I doubt it at the time
Okay so my thing was maybe it was just clowns
Maybe
Doing like ridiculous comedy sort of things
That's also typical
So I thought maybe when they say comedians that's what they mean is that people are just
Doing comedy bits that are like clown like you know silly
Oh I got hit in the face with a pie or whatever
Or the fish if it was in Bill Bauer right they'd get slapped in the face with a fish
Grab a sardine boom
Now it's a bass joke
Good way good way well I mean if anybody knows any account I'd be very interested in reading that account
Yes could anybody yeah somebody look into this for us please
I know it sounds like homework but come on
Up my street
Come on we'd love to hear it
If you know about it you're just going to send us a name of a book or a webpage
You're basically just going to give us gold
That we'd love to talk about
Sounds very criminal
You could be on the yeah you could be on the show if you want
I say I'm sure it would be a big criminal
Can you believe this was a joke?
Hashtag everything I think
Okay so other other things that they would put on at these places were like sporting events
And you know whatever popular shows that were at the time right?
Basketball
Yeah
So it was essentially a multi-purpose space for any and all kinds of entertainment
So by the 1910s its main activity was cinema
Yeah because cinema was becoming big right?
Learning things
Around the world in Europe and America at least right?
Yeah
So the structure was located on Licenciado Poza
On the block between the streets of General Concha and El Cano
The three of us, Megan, myself and you, we all know where that is right?
We do
It's still a very let's go out in that street
Like a lot of bars, a lot of entertainment
Yeah like Poza leads to the new stadium
Yep straight down to the stadium
Straight to the Atleti Stadium
So it's a huge
And there's a lot of like cinemas around there so it's probably connected to that
Yeah and there was a cinema, yeah that's true
Like two or three around there
So in the beginning it was considered like a provisional building right?
Like so many of these fly-by-night circus theaters were just temporary
Temporary right?
So it was built from wood and bricks basically
Okay
Leased some bricks
So I read in one of the archives that I found that the owner, one of the owners and you know developer or whatever you want to call this person who built the structure was Ramon Goicochea
Goicochea
Goicochea yep, the next door house
Is that what that means?
Yep yep
The next door house
As in the house next door you can say I guess that's more natural in English
No
So this guy, he was the owner of a carpentry company
So all the wood from your own company is being used to build this structure so you know write it off as a business expense
Way to go
Very clever, what a clever entrepreneur
Yeah for sure
So this guy also had tried his luck many times as a circus impresario
I mean that's something to discover right, my ancestor was a circus impresario
Yeah
That's hilarious, no I mean I'm just saying that would be lovely
Oh if this guy was your ancestor yeah
So he had a previous project called Cerco Alegria, circus
Happiness
Joy circus or joyful circus or something
And it primarily consisted of acrobatic acts and it lasted for two years
Interesting
So when he demolished this other temporary structure, this Cerco Alegria
He reused and repurposed the wood to build this new one, the Ensanche Circus Theater
I'm all for recycling
So he's a clever entrepreneur, he's also an environmentalist
Oh yeah
Reused, reused, reused
Right
Yeah
So he formed a partnership with another businessman and circus entrepreneur, Felipe Revuelto
He had been one of the bidders on a building for a circus theater on Gran Bia
So he was one of these other guys that was trying to build another circus
Okay
That was, they were talking about building on Gran Bia
They agreed to split costs on construction and to make operation decisions mutually
But it turned out that this partnership would not go very smoothly
Because I read that Goicochea would take Revuelto to court for not ponying up his share of the costs
Oh right
In the building of this new theater
Right
He won the lawsuit against his partner, but this is beside the point, right, from this story
Sure
So aside from it being like another bass crime, right
This guy did not pay up his share of the
Right
We don't suspect foul play then
No, I was just like one businessman going, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll share the cost
And then didn't share the cost
And then he had to sue his own partner
But anyway
Business is business
There was no bad blood apparently between them because, you know, after this lawsuit
Because they just continued to run business as usual
Okay
At this theater
House civilized
Right
So the building had a circus tent-like vibe or a centralized plan
Like a lot of the old architectural circus structures or theater structures
It had a circular stage in the center with the seating surrounding it on all sides
There were two floors of seating
The upper floor had a capacity of 672 spectators
And the only access to the lower floor was a narrow and steep staircase
Which led to the three street level exits
Okay
So according to records concerning the building's evacuation drills of the time
The upper floors would consistently take upwards of six minutes to evacuate
It's incredible they have that information, that's crazy
Right
So six minutes
It's long
That's a long time
Especially if people are panicked, right
Yeah
So this is some foreshadowing
There's smoke and air
Oh man
Yep
So the building itself expanded over time
Some records speculated that Ramon had set up his carpentry business in one of the extensions
Oh my gosh
So in the photos that we'll put on social media
Hopefully, I put that in quotes, hopefully
If we get our shit together
We'll include what the structure looked like on the day in question
Cool
So it's more of a square building
Right
That fits with the block that it sits on, right
The building had a more like, you know, like I said, square shape to it
Like fits in a block of a street with two streets running perpendicular on each side, right
But inside the theater
The space where people would watch shows or they would watch films was circular
Okay
So that's to give you guys like a visual
The same records indicate that the business was granted permission to host a variety of events and shows such as equestrian performances
Wow
Horses
And gymnastics
And when they say gymnastics, I'm assuming they say gymnastics, they mean either acrobatics or perhaps like strongman performances
Yeah, I totally see that
Because in my research I did see old posters
With strongmen
For shows that like showed like a big buff guy lifting a big, you know, barbell
Little lady
With the circular weights on each end
Oh, how cute
You know those old timey looking like round balls on each end of the barbell
Make it look real heavy
Right, yeah
That's so cute
So I did see posters that were like, so I was like, that must be what they mean
That's so sweet
Right, yeah, some sort of like strongman act
Look at this guy, he can lift a hundred kilos
Exactly, like what?
Yeah
This was in addition to other shows like comic performances, like we were trying to figure out what that meant earlier
I'm so curious now
Theater, ballroom dancing, charitable events that put on shows to raise money, union and political meetings or parties
And most interestingly, a costume retail
Apparently they had like a shop that was there to rent out mask and costume rental
For mask and costume rental
Interesting
Yeah
So for carnival maybe?
Come rig your costume
I'm wondering if there's some kind of performance where you're expected to wear masks, I don't know
Maybe like the Phantom of the Opera, you could see yourself kind of putting a little mask on to the wife's door
The masquerade balls you've heard of, right?
Yeah
You have to wear a mask, yeah?
Kind of a run
Could be, yeah
Sounds like a fun kind of dance
Thursday's masks day
Don't go to couch surfing, go to the...
Thursdays, okay
My gosh
Alright, so whatever they could do to make some money
They did
Entrepreneurs, those were the days, business, business, business
Business was business, right?
So eventually, as I mentioned earlier, the venue dedicated itself to film screenings for its bread and butter
Which was extremely popular across all swaths of society
Yeah
Everybody loves to go to the movies, right?
Still do
The Biscayette Entertainment Board granted the theater its operation license on May 16th, 1908
After determining that the venue met the safety and security requirements of the Royal Decree of February 15th of that year
So
So sad
A Royal Decree
So I will mention this later because I have another story I'm working on where a Royal Decree has been mentioned
So we'll talk about it again in another episode
But I'm going to give you the Wikipedia description of a Royal Decree
Okay, so this is straight from Wikipedia
Quote unquote, do not sue me
Okay
So the King said it's fine
Then the autonomous regions have the right to say
To add things
Yes or no
Oh really, okay
That's what I gather from that, right?
I just think to get a different name
It's called a different naming
Yeah
Yeah, well so maybe they don't say yes or no
I think Mr. King
Say yes
Yeah, I think Mr. King gets this one
Say yes and you can call it whatever you want
Maybe sort of thing
Okay, so anyway, end quote, that's from Wikipedia
Okay, so
However, the safety conditions required for cinemas and circus theaters would be revised again
After a fire destroyed the La Luz de Villarreal Cinema in Castillon
On May 27th, 1912
The structure was ripe for tragedy that befell it
It was a wooden building
The audience numbered well past the capacity
Numbered well past the capacity allowed
The doors opened inwards, etc.
Like there was all kinds of things that went terribly wrong
And in the end, this awful event took the lives of 69 people and injured 150 more
Oh yeah
Okay, so this happened
Okay, before our tragedy
As a result, all cinema facilities were inspected for safety and new regulations were established
These included all circus theaters as well
Okay
Some changes included
That all the projection booths and the flooring throughout had to be made fireproof from my
Sorry, had to be made from fireproof materials
Right
So I don't know if you knew this, but film is highly flammable
Yeah
Right
So from, and I have a little other Wikipedia quote I'm going to read from, okay?
Go for it
About this
So from the 1890s to the 1950s, this film was largely what we call nitrate
It gradually decomposes, producing a flammable gas, becomes sticky, and at a late stage of decomposition
The film oozes a gooey liquid, ultimately leading the substance to become dust
As this occurs, the possibility of an auto-ignition increases further
So projection fires, projection booth fires, were not uncommon in the early decades of cinema
If a film managed to be exposed to too much heat while passing through the projector's film gate
And several incidents of this type resulted in audience deaths by flame, smoke, or the resulting stampede
Yeah, yeah, wow
So after that fire
Nice explanation, no?
Yeah, they were like, okay, we gotta make some more safety measures, right?
So
I mean, my mind kind of go back to, you know, just like what, five, six years ago
That big tragedy in Madrid, like in a big stadium, the caught fire
And a lot of people
I don't remember that, in Madrid
Yeah, it's just like not that long ago
It was like the Arena, Madrid Arena, that was the name of the Arena
Right, and they had still problems, they're not on top of it even in 2020
Yeah, I mean, this fire is crazy
I know, but you would have thought, you know
There's only so much you can
If we've been thinking about it
Well, there is a lot you could do
Since 1910s, you know
Yeah, yeah
I mean, I guess the doors would open the right way, but again, you know, they had the
I remember like one of the doors was closed, unlocked, and they couldn't get it open
You know, another typical thing that happens in those situations
Yeah
Unfortunately, I'm just saying, the Royal Decree didn't help, still not help
Sure, you can put as much regulations in place
But then people that operate these places, perhaps they cut corners on building or they
Humans
And then pay off somebody to say, yeah, yeah, it's fine
Freaking humans
Or, you know, just in the running of things
Yeah
It's following protocol, right?
Yeah
Just saying, yeah
Yeah
So bad, so bad
Health and safety is very important
Mm-hmm
So the Ensanche Circus Theater revised and updated the features of their establishment
And on October 4th, 1912, they were given the okay to continue with their cinema operations
Cool
But only a month and a half later, it would become clear that some safety precautions
Should have also been taken into account
So soon, huh?
Yeah
All right, so well, let's get to the meat of our story
So, the year 1912 was especially disastrous for Biscaya
So on our earlier episode, the Galerna of 1912, remember that one?
Yeah, same year
We covered the gale that hit the Bay of Biscay in August of that year, sinking many fishing boats
And killing 143 fishermen
116 of those came from their mail
So like basically devastated an entire town
All the male population is, you know
And their industry
Yeah
The communities were still reeling from all this when on Sunday, November 24th of that year
The Ensanche Circus Theater was projecting cinema all day long
Ooh, that machine's heating up
The weather was shit, as it's off to do in November
So the theater had films going from 3 p.m. to midnight on that day
Okay
At around 5.30 that afternoon, the film being projected was an Italian feature called
Who has stolen the million?
Released in 1911
Wow, so cute
Okay, so but as it was Italian, did not get distribution in Spain until February of 1912
Okay
So I have to wonder, in these times, so it's pre-Tockeys, right?
I was gonna ask, I wasn't sure
Isn't it pre-Tockeys?
I could
I think Tackeys came out, I don't know, I didn't even look because I was too busy writing
Like what, so you know, like with silent films you would have the action and then you would have like a little
What would you call it? Fuck, I can't remember, I can't even think of the word
1927, it's the Tarkeys
Okay, so like you'd have like the little, you'd have the action, so the filmed action of the actors and stuff doing their thing
And then you'd have a little
Band
Clip or film clip of the
Oh, with the
Dialogue, right?
So they must have had the technology to like, if they're gonna distribute it to other countries to translate
Yeah
Right, so that's what people were doing
I don't think they were reading Italian
No, I don't think so either
I don't think so either
So it's pre-Tockeys, okay, so they're like, yeah
They're reading stuff, let's hope
Yeah, the dialogue in these little, oh fuck, what do you call them? I can't remember
The little vignettes
Vignettes
We got it, we got it, look at us, look at us
At the same time, boom, we're on it, we're on it Douglas
Okay, so the theater was at full capacity
And it was accessible to anyone as the entrance fee was only ten cents
So these screenings were something that would be available to children
And to people from all social classes
Right
Everybody was at the theater that day
At dry spots in the bow
Yeah, or to go
To pass the time, right?
The excitement of learning where that million went
So as the film was being projected, someone from the upper gallery yelled fire
Some witnesses later said it was in a woman's voice
After the initial scream, panic began to spread through the upper galleries
And people began to scramble for the stairway that would lead to the exits onto the streets below
Okay
Remember I told you, there's only one stairway
Yeah
From the upper gallery
Yeah, and it takes more than six minutes to evacuate
One child who attended the screening with her mother and her older brother recalled her experience in this way
One moment she was enjoying what she described as a thieves movie
Which was to her taste, she liked it
And the next she heard shouts and saw many people standing up suddenly
She said a man who was in the seat in front of her jumped up and dove to head toward the seats behind her
Towards the back of the theater
Or towards the exit
Yeah
As he jumped over her, he kicked me in the head and I fell to the ground
Oh man
My mother tried to catch me, but she was pushed down by a wave of people
And that came down on top of her
She was screaming in pain
Man, an uncivic dude for one
To add to the confusion and panic was the fact that the projectionist stopped the film
A signal that something was terribly wrong
The one stairway that led to the lower floor was steep and narrow
And as people pushed and shoved their way down, it created an avalanche and a pile up
Oh man
It didn't help that the majority of the in attendance were children and they couldn't move as fast
Or probably not as confident about where they were going
Yeah
Unfortunately they were easily crushed in the bedlam
Oh no
Yeah
There were three exits on the street level leading to Elcano and General Concha streets
Mm-hmm
But two of the exit, two of the three exit doors were locked
Oh my gosh
And as people kept coming, those who reached the door could go no further and were being crushed by the constant flow of people
Oh my gosh
Several adults, including a group of off-duty civil guards attending the screening, realized that there was no fire
And were desperately trying to calm people down, but to no avail
People were throwing themselves off the upper balconies down to the lower levels or falling from them from being pushed
Some people were able to open the exits that led onto the street either by force or as I read in one account
It was as simple as turning a small lock on the door or lifting a bar to get the door open
Right, like a hatch lock
Yeah
As people exited, they continued to scream fire when they ran out, right?
Right
They were aware of the confusion and the false belief that the Ensanche theater was on fire
Right
Word spread throughout the city, bringing the fire brigade to the scene
Two fire trucks arrived and started pumping water
The bystanders outside, realizing that there were people trapped and or being stampeded inside, re-entered the building trying to assist people
It soon became clear that there would be a lot of casualties
Oh man
So
I mean, it's interesting that even today we still talk about, you know, some limits of free speech
Which, you know, the classic example is yelling fire in a theater, right?
Yeah
So, I mean, at least we're conscious of this more than I guess they might have been in those days, I would hope
I imagine that still, that was kind of, the reason that that's in law, like with when they talk about free speech
The fact that that is the one thing that they bring up
It's pretty common I guess
Right, like in constitutional law, they always bring that up
Like you can say what you want
Yeah
But
Yeah
You can't do this
Yeah, I mean it's very responsible, it's logical, it makes sense
And I just wonder how many hundreds of times it had to happen
Yeah
As we were just saying, you know, with the Madrid Arena thing, it still happens, unfortunately
Yeah, and there was the one, what was it, last year, that party in, was it Taiwan?
Was it Taiwan, Megan?
There was
Where all those people got crushed
I don't remember
In the back of an alley or something or?
Oh, Korea
Was it Taiwan? No?
It was like a Halloween party or something?
That was Korea, that was Seoul
No, it was Taiwan
It did happen in Taiwan as well
Right
It's only Korea, I mean it's happened everywhere, hasn't it?
Yeah, yeah
Or concerts, happens at concerts all the time
Yeah
Not necessarily from panic, but the one I'm thinking of is when they were all like kind of backed into an alley
Was that Korea?
Yeah, it was an alley, yeah
Korea, that happens, yeah
It was like recently, it was like a year ago or something
Yeah
It was like a Halloween party and like right after COVID, sanctions got lifted
People were going out
There was a big party and all these people got crushed in a, just in a street area
Yeah, it was outside
It was not even inside a building, you know?
2022, 28th of October, the Seoul Halloween crowds crush
In Korea
Yeah, that was, the 2022 one was in Korea, but as Megan said, you know, it does happen
Everywhere, yeah
Unfortunately
All the time, yeah
But I mean, in the case of Korea, like people, a lot of people pointed out to the police mismanaging the situation
They had warnings, they had people calling and saying there's too many people and they ignored that call for like hours
And didn't start like telling people to move or to stop going this direction or that direction
So, you know, it's interesting, like we have to remember how the authorities responsible kind of have to be on top of certain things as well, right?
Like it's a moving target, like, because as we were saying, it's not in a theater in that case
It's just in the street, but you still have to manage crowds
Yeah
In certain ways
Yeah
So
Deadly, crowds are deadly
They are, they are
Should we take a break?
Let's, let's
Let's take a break
See you guys in a minute
Aiyayayayayayayayayayaya
We're back
We're back, alright
So, like many of the tragedies we've covered on this pod
Yes, the local response was immediate and people came to the aid of others without thinking twice. I love the best country, right?
Practically all of the doctors in the city converged on the scene to assist the wounded
the medical clinic of in Sanche
Which was the neighborhood?
Was so overwhelmed that stretchers lined the reception area
The army sent in additional health workers and ambulances to carry the stretchers of victims to beserto hospital
Just along there. Yeah, not far away. Yeah
Residents in the area offered up the use of their private cars to transport victims very generous much like we what we saw
With the or Twaya. Yeah case right remember all people driving
People to the hospital, right? Yeah
the mayor Federico Muiua
Which there you go. There's the name of this the
Muiua Plaza right downtown Bilbao very very
This guy Federico Muiua
He called an emergency meeting of the City Council to address the aftermath of what would turn out to be one of the most catastrophic tragedies to befall the city
So he called it like that night
Go down to him
So this happened at like 5.30, 6
Those like happening then he's like we need to meet up because this is gonna be big right?
Well, he got a Plaza named after him. So I guess he was a man of action. He deserved it then maybe even
By that point word had spread that the majority of the victims were children
Yeah, saw that coming a bit. Which further devastated the people of Bilbao. Very sad
Police and Civil Guards had to hold back desperate parents from searching for their children at Berserta Hospital and the medical clinics that were taking in the dead and the wounded
The first official number of victims came out that came out was 42 dead children
Between the ages of 3 and 15 and two dead adults
The following day two more children died
From one bringing the toll the death toll to 46
Wow
So sad, especially like considering there was no freaking fire
Exactly
It wasn't even a fire
So senseless, right?
Right
The newspaper headlines following the tragedy were dramatic and the stories included all the details of the event as it unfolded and its aftermath
On the afternoon that families were finally permitted to enter the hospital and the clinics where the bodies of the deceased were being held
One paper read, quote, entrance was not allowed to women in order to avoid the painful scenes that would occur if they had to set their gaze upon the corpses of their children
I mean, you know, it's a little bit sexist, but it's also, you know, it's also, there's a point, you know
Yeah
I'm sure, I mean, women, I'm sure
But can you imagine, can you imagine as a mother being told, I'm sorry, we're not letting women come in
Yeah
I mean, this was a newspaper
Yeah
So I don't know if that's actually what happened
It sounds very believable
But if that is what happened, it does sound like something that would happen, right?
Absolutely
Like, these delicate creatures
Yeah
These mothers, they can't, but can you imagine, like being told, I know your child is in here, but we're not going to let you come in
That's why women have been hearing her whole history
Their whole lives, yeah, you can't do this, you can't do that, that's right
That's true
I mean
So they're used to it
What are you trying to say, they're used to it?
I mean, you know, it wouldn't be a surprise, I mean, I do think
Do you think one woman turned around and went, surprise, surprise
I'm sorry, I'm not making light, but I'm saying, I couldn't imagine someone turning you away
It's so ridiculous today to hear that, I agree
Because you're a female, right?
Yeah, yeah
I mean, my comment was going to be more down the lines of, well, black women are known for being strong and more independent minded, you know, owning businesses and things like that
So, you know, I can only imagine they would be more forceful and not take it as easily as, let's say
And maybe that's why it ended up in the newspaper, because they put up a fight or something
Maybe, maybe, I mean, that would be my expectation, you know, at least they'd hear a good answer, that's what I'd expect, you know
They wouldn't shut the fuck up, that's what I would expect
They'd be like, fuck you
At least they'd hear some verdades
And there's my baby
Some truths
Yeah
But, you know, it's unfortunately not surprising to hear that
I know, no, not to me either, not to me either, but I always like to point it out
It's good
The local paper El Liberal chronicle the death notices, first declaring that 42 children had died between the ages of 7 and 17
Then adding that the two victims who died the following day were two brothers
Oh, sad
The two adults that perished were a 49-year-old widow and a 21-year-old who was later hailed in the newspapers as a hero
Oh
So his name was Florencio Gonzalez Leon
He was said to have repeatedly entered the building to bring children out
However, the media couldn't quite agree on how many children he had saved
Some stated he'd saved three to four kids and others said up to six
But what they did agree on was that after he entered the building for the third time he never reemerged
So that's fucking crazy
So he got crushed
Trying to help people
Going in
Yeah, that's wild
He probably
If that actually happened, like he was like going in to try to pull kids out from under an avalanche of kids or people
Pulling them out to the street and then going back in to get more
And then eventually got crushed himself
Imagine like it's the bottom of the stairs that's like a bad spot, right?
And you can see people getting hurt and so you go back to that kind of crucial point area
And maybe at some point
Yeah, he couldn't deal with the situation anymore
So his father, friends and neighbors of the family
They shared stories with the press about how devastating the loss of Florencio was
Of course
And as it was like another terrible blow to the family's string of bad luck
So the family was giving stories to the press about how they had struggled with poverty
And that they had just lost another son who died only three months previous
And then another one had lost a leg to gangrene
So like that was a big news story
This hero
Child who was killed or this 21 year old who was killed
Was part of this family that was also just getting all these horrible bad news
Yeah, things happening to them
Which is great press, right?
I mean, you know, it works
If you can just keep building on the tragedy
Sells newspapers
Even today
Yeah
So the city council session that was called by Mayor Federico Mollua
Concluded at dawn
And the city agreed to foot the bill for the funerals of all the victims
And to build a large mausoleum in the center of Vista Alegre Cemetery in Dereo
Yeah, still a very famous
So we talked about this in the Artoia episode as well
Because they also have a wall
Right
And it's a shame cemetery for all the victims of that tragedy
Right
And they're beautiful
So we need to make a field trip to this cemetery
Sounds like a lovely day out
It's a really crazy huge wild cemetery
It's enormous
Yeah
Just going past it you can see beautiful buildings
All the different like sculptures
Yeah, pretty impressive
It's a pretty yeah
It's a shame it's not
You always fly over it too
When you fly into Bilbao you'll see it
When you fly in because it's right there
Right by the airport
It's a shame it's like if it was like you know Paris
You'd just be able to get public transport
I'm sure there's a bus but
Yeah, there's trains
There's trains
Trains, okay
Sounds doable
Take a school train
Take a picnic
Yeah, in fact not too long ago Ramon suggested that he and I do a little excursion
To that cemetery
And he wanted to sketch
That's nice
Some architectural features
Like whatever or sculptures or whatever
He wanted to sketch things that he saw there
And then I was like oh and I want to go just look at the graves
Yeah
I was like that sounds fun
And then we had lunch and then got sleepy and we never went
So that's what happened that day
Good inspiration
But we could do it another day
Could be a
It's a good idea
Yeah, the pod excursion, a pod excursion
You in?
She gave us a thumbs up
All right, so on Tuesday, November 26
A mass funeral procession took place
Transferring all of the coffins through town from La Casilla
You all know where that is right?
La Casilla to the Lesama railway station in Casco Viejo
So I'm assuming it's like San Nicolas area
Right
Where San Nicolas is today
Yeah
Because the next stop is Lesama
If you take Ushkul train from San Nicolas
I think the next stop is Lesama
Really?
I think
I don't know
I believe you
So it's near Casco Viejo
Yes, we know that
But that is a pretty long
It's pretty yeah
I'd say more than a mile maybe
Yeah
Maybe two kilometers
All through town
Yeah, the whole town
And that's carrying all these coffins
Yeah, forty something
Yeah
Then at the station they were to be transported on two different trains
One train took all of the coffins
And the other train held everybody that was going to the burial
Right
That went to Dario where they would be laid to rest
They were finally laid to rest on November 28th
Some forty thousand residents lined the streets to mourn the victims
Forty-four white coffins for the children and two black coffins for the two adults passed through the streets on the shoulders of the young people from the sports club
So sweet
El Pueblo Vasco newspaper recounted
Quote, the parade was impressive, tender and moving. The screams of the mothers of the victims caused crying spells and fainting among women and not a few men
End quote
I like the detail that they added
That's so sad
I know
I'm not laughing
Obviously we're not laughing
No, I'm almost crying
I know, we're not laughing at the devastation that this caused
It's really sad
Gay guys gonna cry
I'm joking
It was all gay men crying, the few men that were gay
As if, as if
I'm sorry, we have to make light because this is how we deal with
It is, it is
We deal with hard things with comedy and levity, right?
Unless this is your first podcast, you know that
Yeah, so
The funerals were attended by just as many and were held on the 27th in the Cathedral of Santiago in Cascaviejo
Yeah, the main old church there
Yeah
It's very beautiful
The families signed a contract that specified that all of the victims were to be buried together and could not exercise their right to recover the bodies at any time in the future
Thus keeping intact the giant mausoleum that would be built over their graves
Fair enough
So if anyone broke the contract it would fuck up the whole mausoleum
Yeah, well, it's a bit imposy-y, but
Kind of, yeah, right?
At the same time
But I guess
I mean it's like a
The fact that you had to force people to sign a contract
To be like, okay, we know you have the right to get the body of your family member, but
We're gonna build this mausoleum to commemorate
It sounds like they're paying for it anyway
They are
The city
I guess they're trying to also get out of people suing them, you know, for the health and safety issues
Yeah, yeah
I'm not sure if that was a thing then, but
Well, wait and see
Okay
More foreshadowing
Kind of, I mean, we'll see, we'll see
We'll get your input at the end
Much like what happened after the Burmao tragedy, where all the fishermen died, the 116 from Burmao
The townspeople set up donations, not only the townspeople in Burmao, but people in Bilbao, all the surrounding area
They all set up these donations
To assist all the families that were affected by this, right?
Very nice
The charity was started by the Ministry of Government, who donated the first 1,000 pesetas
And so when I tried to look up how much 1,000 pesetas in 1912 was
The page that I always look at breaks down where are you looking?
Yeah
Like what you can buy in commodities, is it salary, is it
Okay
Like, so there's all these different like
Ways to look at
Ways to look at how much it might be worth today
Right
So I'm just going to say anywhere from 4,000 to 100,000
It's not 1,000 pesetas
Okay
Which is a huge, a huge
Span
Yeah
Right?
Yeah
Like, so I don't know
Anyway, it was a lot of money I guess
So they put up the first 1,000 pesetas
Sounds like a good decent contribution
Yeah
So then other associations and entities joined in, like schools
Because of course it was all children
Right
So schools and colleges
The students would go out and collect money for the cause
Very nice
So in the end each family received 31 pesetas and 65 cents
Okay
So when I looked up
Yeah
On this same website that I look at
It's anywhere from 140 euros
Okay
To 3,000 euros
Right
So I guess
It's not that much
200 dollars to, what was it, 3,000?
3,000
Maybe 4,000 dollars
Just make it more international for people to understand
Oh, dollars, yeah
Just thinking
Maybe, yeah
Out loud
Not an official conversion
I don't know what the exchange rate is right now
I haven't looked in a long time
So I don't know
It's very close to one
It is pretty close
But it's like 1.2
A year on the dollar
It's pretty close, yeah
Maybe I'm exaggerating still
So the pain felt by the city was immense, obviously
Absolutely
Following the tragedy
Only to be replaced by anger and outrage at the actions of the authorities
For allowing such a thing to happen in the first place
Right, yeah
Many felt that the safety and security at the theater was greatly lacking
And that someone should pay
Right
So
Would you like to take a break before we go into the investigation and legal shit?
I'm fine, we can go straight in if you like
Alright, let's do it
Alright, so
Let me pour myself a glass of wine
Please, we need some special effects
To make people join in
Well, it's not a champagne cork
So, there you go
There you go listeners
Pouring some wine
Some ASMR drinking
ASMR? What does that mean?
That's the one where you get close and you're like
I'm drinking wine
And then you get the special effects, you know
Oh, is that the
Where they do things like
Crinkle
Yeah
Paper and stuff and people get really turned on by it
Or not turned on but maybe like
Suited by it sometimes
If you're sensitive, you get brain tingles
That's what you would technically call it
I've had brain tingles
A-S-M-I?
R, ASMR
So what does that stand for?
I couldn't tell you what
Sorry, I didn't mean to call you out
I mean, I couldn't
But I've heard of it and I can't remember what it stands for
Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response
Oh, okay
So it's talking about the meridian in your brain I guess
Okay
Well, that was for you
Ten listeners who have
A-S-M-R
You got it
I, no
No I
Never mind, I can't do that
Anyway, alright
So, the Insanji Circus Theatre was ordered to be closed immediately by the civil governor
The provincial board of shows and the commission of theatres immediately issued rules on the security of facilities
And ordered inspections of all the theatres in town
One such measure outright prohibited film screenings at the Ariaga Theatre
The investigating court opened up legal proceedings that began on the day of the incident
The venue would remain closed until a full investigation could be carried out
And the city council would determine what legal action should be taken
Sounds very responsible
And prompt
The first order of business was to photograph the entire establishment and take a statement from the owner, Roman
No, Roman, Romon
Oh my god
Cut that out
Bobby's gonna kill me
Leave it in
Romon, his name's Romon
Goi Kocha
Next door neighbor or something
Next door house
Or, house next door
The families took part in the legal proceedings and would appear in the case as private prosecutors
Good for them
So I can't remember if we've already talked about this
I think we did in one of our episodes
Anybody can
Yes, be part of the prosecution
I think it was the BBK one, right?
There was a ton of odd kind of associations
So like unions could be part of the prosecution as a private prosecutor, right?
Yeah, it's very interesting
So the families demanded that the owners of the circus theatre be held responsible
Both financially and criminally for their negligence
But not only that, they wanted the officials who authorized the establishment to function as a cinema to also be held responsible
The investigation determined that the establishment did not meet the security and safety codes and conditions regulated
It's okay
Regulated at the time
And that they admitted far too many spectators on the night in question
Sure
The search to determine who had caused the panic and stampede by yelling fire was never determined
It had been speculated that the person who yelled fire did so in response to a scuffle that had occurred when a man was messing with a young woman in the upper floor seating
It has been agreed since then that the incident that had incited the yell was perhaps someone looking for assistance and not meaning to cause a panic
So that made me think
So some young lady or girl, as there was a lot of children, teenagers present, was being harassed by some probably greasy old dude
Probably, sounds like it
Fucking with her and she didn't know what else to do to get
Yeah, attention maybe
Attention or to like distract him or distract everybody around him
Yeah
Which is really sad, right?
It's very sad, I mean it sounds very plausible, as you say we can't know
I know, but isn't that awful?
It's really sad, really sad
I mean it makes perfect sense, it's like what do you do when you don't know what to do
Yeah
Interestingly that's one of the things you're told to do
Yeah
Oh really
Or more likely to pay attention
Oh my gosh, that's ridiculous
There you go
That's 2023 recommendations
Cause that'll get more attention than somebody yelling help, that's so sad
Yeah, I mean, there must be a good alternative in 2023, you know?
Yeah, what do you yell?
I don't know
A rat
Rat
Woo, that really freaks out
A rat
Cucaracha
I mean, what's a cucaracha again?
Roaches
A roach
Cockroaches
Okay
Snake
I don't know
But snake doesn't freak me out
Too much induendo in there
Yeah, anyway
Bats
Yeah, I don't know what I would yell
Crocodile
Yeah
That would be scary
I don't know, what would you yell?
Yeah, I don't know
To get attention
Maybe knife
He's got a gun
No, that would also cause panic
Yeah
Like knife is more like, you can't reach me, let's look over
Like if it's not next to me, you can't shoot at me, right?
Yeah, but if you want others to help you
Right, so you're trying to get them to help you or to get the guy to stop bothering you
You have to yell something that's going to cause almost pandemonium around you, right?
Shit
He's shat his pants
There's nothing else to yell
Fire
Fire, that's it
That's it, that's all there is
That's not all there is, Julie
Well, you come up with one
I've been just now for about 15 seconds
And I can't come up with one
I'm going to go for crocodile, I think
Crocodile, come on
We're going to just think you're on drugs
How about pizza?
Also on drugs
Free pizza
No, it's not going to work
Anyway
So, sadly, that's probably what happened, right?
I mean, it sounds like it
I'm trying to get this old scummy guy off of her
Yeah, pretty sad
So, the city council also made up part of the prosecution, retaining a lawyer throughout the court investigation to represent them
The press also took it upon themselves to find the culprits responsible for the tragedy
Interesting
Most publications of the time held a trial by media, pinning the crime on the owners of the circus theater
Joan Coicoachea and Felipe Revuelto
Their crime was the fact that the doors were locked, preventing exit and the general state of the building
The one staircase
Yeah
For all those people
Fair argument
But the newspapers El Noticiero, El Baíno and El Liberal went after the entertainment board and the civil governor
who had inspected the venue and granted them the necessary permits to operate
Yeah, it's fair, I suppose, as well
This permission was given only a couple months before all this happened
and had come on the heels of that tragedy that befell the cinema at La Luz de Villarreal in Castellón
where those 69 people lost their lives
So it was just after that that they had granted them permission
There should have been better measures in place, protocols, whatever you want to say
So official accusations were submitted on December 17th of 1912
The defendants being Ramón Coicoachea and Felipe Revuelto as the owners of Ensanche Circus Theater
and three of their ushers who were on staff the night of the disaster
and therefore deemed responsible for the state of affairs or at least the state of the exit doors
Yeah
So they probably locked, I was thinking this, I was thinking they probably locked those doors
to prevent people from sneaking in and getting a free show
Yeah, yeah
That was probably what protocol was at the venue
Like we're going to only man this door and make sure that only the people come in have paid for their ticket
and these two are going to remain locked so that people don't sneak in
Yeah
You know, like such a fucking business-y mindset, right?
Unfortunately, yeah
So they're just, you know, these poor ushers are being accused of a crime
Yeah, that's not
When it's like at the behest of their boss
Yeah, that's not really fair at all either
I know
So in addition, a request was made to submit a petition with the Supreme Court
to issue an indictment against the civil governor, Manuel Novella
Novella, sorry, Novella
for having authorized the establishment's right to function as a cinema
when it did not meet the standard requirements
However, the advisory board of theaters and the technical commission escaped being named in the indictment
because they simply held an advisory role, leaving the ultimate decision to be made by the civil governor
This petition to the Supreme Court was denied by the Bilbao, the Bilbo, Bilbao provisional court
Provincial court, sorry, provincial court
In November of the following year, 1913, the investigating court terminated all proceedings
and did not follow through on the prosecution of the owners of the venue or their employees, the ushers
So it all came to nothing and nobody was held responsible
Yeah, I mean, they tried
They tried, I mean
So that's what happened
I mean, definitely a tragedy
Lots of people died
A big tragedy
And nobody could be pinned for it
Yeah, typically when money's involved somehow
Everybody slips through the little corners
Yeah
Very sad
I'm going to show you some pictures
Okay
And then we'll talk about them
Okay
That appeared like in the press, right, after the fact
Let's go for it
We're going to try and release these after we release the episode
To sum this up, the only other press that the two owners received after this
Was that Felipe Revuelto
So his name is Revuelto, right?
It's interesting
So he appears in the news later, the only other time he appears in the news after this
Is for selling eggs in the street
Hilarious
And being denounced or reported for not being registered to do so
As an egg seller
But I want you to explain to our listeners why that is a funny thing
Because Revuelto literally means, it can mean scrambled eggs
Yeah
Which is
Like if you order something like a revuelto, like de hongos, right?
So like a mushroom revuelto
It means that you're getting scrambled eggs with mushrooms
Yeah, exactly
So that was funny
I mean it could mean a revolt, you know, it could mean
Yeah, I mean it could be upheaval, like revuelto is just like an upheaval, right?
Like something that gets mixed up and churned
A mix up
A churning of some events or something
So it could be like a revuelto of like
People that get pissed off and start a revolt, right?
Yeah, like what you were saying
I mean it's just, I never heard that
But we also call it in like gastronomic terms
It's funny that he was selling eggs
Busted for selling eggs without the proper permits
Yeah, hilarious
I mean
There's this theory, right?
I forget how it's called
But like how people with a certain name
They end up doing professions
When you look at the name you're like
Really?
And there's an argument that you were just drawn to that
You're like born into it
It's just because of your name
I mean, because I know that your surname
Like original surnames are because of what you did, right?
Your profession
Yeah, yeah
A lot of surnames are based on
He is the blacksmith of the town or whatever
So they get names like that because of it
But then you're saying that like people that have those names
Just kind of get led into those industries
Yeah, like you know, I mean not
I mean Baker is just
The examples that I remember reading
They're just so odd, you know
But it's like I keep seeing it a lot
Like just, you know, you read somebody who's got a name related to birds
An area like studying birds, you know
And it's like, oh, that's kind of cute, you know
But you know, that kind of thing
It's just you
It's not like it clearly wasn't a profession
But like it's related so you end up
You know, it seems like you're kind of like
Drawn to
Drawn to, yeah
Like if your name is Star
You end up being an astronomer
I mean, that kind of thing
Like it's clearly they weren't an astronomer
Who knows why you're called Star
Yeah
Anyway, but that Revozdo is a hilarious one, right?
I know, right?
It's a very good one
I kind of laughed when you said it
Well, as did I
That's excellent
The fact that you came out selling eggs as well
And that's the only like that's after this
That's the only time he appeared in the papers or for anything
Seems like he felt
In the records, I should say
He felt in hard times
This is like a
This is from that archive that I found from the Biscayah archive
Oh
The news report
So and then for Ramon Goicochea
Very respectable surname even today
He basically just continued his life in show business
So from 1918 to 1923 he was named as the managing director of the Albia Society
Which operated the Colosseum Albia
So
Nice
That's the only time he ever appeared in records like official public records after that
So he continued in the business
Unscathed
Yeah
Fascinating story
I mean I you know I'm never going to go through Mojua again without remembering this story and how responsible the
The
The mayor was and
I guess it's a memory
I was going to show you
Okay so just while we're still recording and we were talking about like the press stuff
So here's the image
Wow
That was in the paper where it said that they wouldn't let women
Look at the children
Yeah
Right they wouldn't let children women in to look at the children
So that's the paper image
Very basic
Yeah very low
But you can
It's actually people
Yeah crying and
All the photos
Then they've cut it and they've put this pile of clothes so this pile of clothes
Right
Are what was found at the base of the stairs
Right
So here's an image of the stairwell where they all got trapped
Wow
If you can see it Megan I don't know if you can see it
Very sad looking just
Yeah basically
So all these clothes that were
This is what these are the photos they took the day after right
Very basic kind of hall basically
Not much detail
Yeah staircase
Yeah the bottom of the staircase
Very black and white very low
These are all the doctors that
Good selection of doctors there
That was like the ones on the scene helping everybody all men of course
12 guys I mean they're probably
They're white coats
Any female doctors at that point
Yeah probably
Yeah
I'm guessing
And then here's the children some of the children
A lot of very young kids
Great
Surprisingly they had a lot of photographs right
Like that's not very common back then right to have a photograph
I mean you know 1800s I don't know when it started but
Yeah but like
1900s
You'd have to go to a studio right
And have somebody take your photo and pay for it right
Yeah
Those are some of the pictures
The kids
Yeah
So this is a pretty cool
Resourced archive right
Absolutely beautiful images
Beautiful images
Dead child
Anyway
It's pretty cool
I'll send this to you guys so you can look at it if you want to
Because look at all these like handwritten stuff
I mean I guess we could put a link too in our social media
And people could look at it
It's all in Spanish but you're going to just Google translate everything right
Or just translate it
That's what you do
Here's all the headlines right
Of the day
The newspapers
La gaceta del norte
El pueblo vasco
Pictures of the funeral procession
Wow
A lot of people
It's pretty crazy
That looks like the
Enderio at the cemetery right
Yeah
That's them arriving in the old town
With the white
Coffin as you said for the children
Mm-hmm
Yeah
Very sad day
But you know it's interesting how it
Fills in our
Kind of impression of the bow right
We go past these places
There's a good shot
From Aranel over to Asensie
Everybody arriving from there
Yeah
That's a beautiful image
Yeah
Very beautiful
So if we can link this
Archive
Yeah just include
On the show notes for the episode
Yeah
It's pretty great
I'll add it in the Instagram
Pictures
Yeah that's the great
The tomb now what do you call it
The mausoleum so they put all the coffins there
They're just all lined up like
So the last part of my story was just to like
And I'm going to freelance this because I didn't
Write it out I didn't have time
So I'll just tell you about what they did
For the mausoleum
Mm-hmm
Let's finish it up then
Okay
So the mausoleum
Was a structure
Right like so I just showed you the image
So they basically made a mass grave
With all the coffins lined up
It's like five people
Like in a row in a row
Rows and columns
About ten people
Yeah
So 44 in total I think
Yeah
Were buried there
Yeah
Because I don't know if all of them
Went there I think it was like
46 died in total but I think
Only 44 or 42
Signed a paper
Yeah
Something like that
Something like that around there
Okay so they're all lined up and then they
Built this mausoleum on top of it
On top of like a building
Yeah
So the names of all the victims
Are inscribed on the wall
Of the mausoleum
Then there's all these symbolic
Elements that are on the
On the mausoleum
On the building
So there's a sarcophagus
Sarcophagus yeah
What is that?
It's like you know
I didn't have time to look at it
Like if you imagine the Tutankhamun sarcophagus
It's like a kind of stone made
Let's say coffin
Where you put the body inside
Or you know like the kings
They build a big stone effigy of the king
Lying and then his body is in science
That's a sarcophagus
So you know
Okay
Like a place to put a body
Okay
So I guess that image or that is
Sculpted on it
Okay
With figures of children
Surrounded, dressed in like classical attire
Interesting
Yeah
Then there is a grieving female
Figure on one side
And then the figure of the god Kronos
Right
That is
A winged old man with a long beard
Holding an hourglass
To represent the passage of time
I guess it's also how early they were taken
From life
The children right
Yeah
A bronze relief of the biblical passage from Christ
Let the children come close to me
Very romantic
And then it's framed by two columns
One of which is full
And then the other one is truncated
Truncated like a half
Truncated yeah
Half column
To symbolize that their lives were cut short
Right
Very symbolic
So that's like the imagery on the mausoleum
Interesting
We'll go look at it
See if it matches what I just said
That's what I read
Let's hope it does
I mean it's definitely
I'm being curious
We're gonna see it
Now this is nothing what I read
Anyway
If that does happen we'll make it like a special episode
We'll go to the cemetery and we'll say like listen
What I read did not match what we saw
Well I think it'll
We'll definitely find those elements
So the project was by the architect Ricardo Bastida
And it was built under the direction of master builder Benito Sumalde
And all of
The Bastida is very famous
Sumalde no
The Bastida is more famous I suppose
Bastida
Ricardo Bastida the architect
I think so because there's a number of things like the
Parque de los Patos you know
Oh really I don't know
There's like elements that he built there
Okay
I did not know
And then there's like another old building that was built by him I forget which
But I'm still standing
Okay
So he's well no
Okay
Don't recognize the other window but I'm not an expert as you say
So all the
This is the most interesting thing for me is that all the sculpting work or the sculpture work was done by the students of the school of arts and crafts
Oh that's very nice
So it was under the supervision of the sculptor
Okay
In one place I read
Can you read this
Iginio
Iginio right
And then another place
Diego
Very different
So I don't know if his name is
Iginio or Diego
Bastida
This is agreed on that this is certain
Okay
So the city spent forty thousand pesetas on building this mausoleum and the funeral expenses
There was a court there was of course a bid to design it
But they did not make it public because they didn't want to like extend the process and then make it more expensive
Sure
So they just sent had four architects present their ideas and that was Ricardo
Bastida
Bastida the one
Got the bid
So the city also allotted one thousand more additional money to share among the students who had made the sculptures
That's fair
The ones that like created the artwork right
And the only reason we know their names is because the school documented the payments out to these students
So I'll tell you their names all right
So these are the students that were the sculptors
Manuel Moreno
Jose Castrillon
Jose Maria Garros
And Juan
No sorry
Juan Lopez
And Juan
And Gerard
Gerard
Interesting
So the final the thing was completed and presented in May of 1916
Nice nice
And then all I can tell you about where the theater once stood today in Bilbao is that from 1920 to 1925
The Caja Municipal de Arroz
Arroz
God damn it
Savings Bank
The Savings Bank let's say was was there from those years for five years
And then they built 113 homes
So now it's just
Apartments
I mean it must be quite nice looking
So we have to go
Nice area
Another excursion let's go see this block where this theater once stood
Oh and I should show you before I leave
Before we move on too far
Yeah
To connect to the sculpture and the graves
My great grandfather
Was a stone sculpture and he there's quite a number of graves
Both from our family and not from our family that were sculpted by him
So one of the images I had in my mobile for years was one of his sculptures of an angel
Nice
In marble it's really beautiful so
Lovely
Little family connection there
There's a picture of the
The actual theater
The building
Wow
Yeah
It looks pretty somber for today's day but it is a black and white image
But look it looks like dirt streets right
Yeah yeah
Both of them
Both of them was dirt streets
I think it is paved but you know they had the horses so
Yeah so there's just horse shit everywhere
That's what I've been hearing more and more
That's what you're hearing more and more there's horse shit everywhere
And today just dog shit
It's just the
Because there's just so many dogs in Bilbao
A lot of people are talking from the change from horses to cars
Because we're moving from gas cars to electric
And they're just pointing out how you know these things happen
It changes from you know in a few years it's different
And then all these consequences like clean streets and stuff
And like they're saying the air is going to be so much cleaner very soon so
There's going to be a lot less like lung cancer
Yeah yeah
What do you call it?
Palombo what was that?
And they put inside gas
Lead
Lead, gas right
Yeah
This kind of shit stuff in the air
Yeah
And like it was interesting somebody was talking how like electric cars barely break
Because you've got a system where you when you slow down
You get that energy into the batteries again right
So you recover that energy
So you basically almost like they're having problems with cars that just don't use their brakes
Too suddenly or what?
No they just don't use the brakes ever
So then five years later first time you actually need to use the brakes
It's like oh they're not working now because they've never been used
Oh
Right it's a funny weird problem but one of the things that the guy was saying was
That there's all this like heavy metal in the material
And I need my remote control
Oh here it is
Wait wait wait
Okay I mean I don't think it's a real problem
But it should be fine
Just in case
Yeah yeah
We had an emergency with the TV
But with the screen
But basically like he was saying that there's this heavy metal inside the brakes
Like normal cars use all the time
And it becomes dust and this heavy metal is freaking dust now
And I'm like you know there's so many bad things with that
Yes absolutely
So I'm waiting for cars that don't need freaking brakes
Everything's bad
So
Not good for us
It's going in a good direction
Going in a good direction
Surely
Absolutely
I agree
There's no reason
That's what progress is right
It's always finding ways for better things
That's what I'm saying
Just waiting to hail that AI
Over lord am I
Or lord S
Whatever
Anyway
Douglas
Do we have a mini crime time
So
Mini mini mini mini mini mini mini mini crime time
See you can't use that song
We're gonna get like sued for
I mean I'm sure
That's the Batman after that song
I'm sure I did it wrong
I'm sure I didn't do enough bars
We're gonna have to like bleep that out
I mean exactly
So that we don't get sued
Am I backwards
It's pretty close
Thank you
I think they could reasonably
Not that we could
You know we have any money for anyone to take
You know I've been suing you
By suing us
I like that intro
And it's like
But I don't know how many minis
And then if you have to be fast with the first three minis
And then you have to go higher
Crime time
I do that
But I think
I think it's misremembered
That's why I think it's
Misremembered
You have a silly mini crime time
Yeah that's pretty dumb
You have a silly silly silly
Oh it's just you know my daily life isn't that exciting
Everybody's
So this is related to food delivery
These are the things that are crimes in my life
From the food supermarket
Yeah I went to the supermarket
And oh my gosh
Tell our listeners
So I went to the supermarket
I won't name the chain
What really
Yeah let's not
But went to checkout
First is the first thing
There's two
Is it a big PASC company
Or is it a big French company
We don't need
A big Spanish company
Nice try
Yeah
So I'm in the checkout
And I have a lot of stuff
Which was the plan
Because I wanted to have it delivered
So you have to buy enough
Right
To hit a certain money amount
Right
And so I'm in the line
And when I got up to the
Checkout
Well when you get up to
They always have a line right
And then they have a little computer screen
Or whatever
A monitor
That tells you which checkout lane is available
Go to number two
Yeah yeah
So it sent me to number four
And when I arrived the lady said
I said this is for delivery
I just told her because that's what you do
And she says
She goes
You need to tell somebody
If you want to have a delivery
And I said
Tell who
Like who was I supposed to talk to
You're telling her right now
I'm telling you the first employee I've run into
Because she's like
Because we normally do that in checkout line
Nine
And yeah when I asked her
Who I should have told
She just ignored me and started
Packing up my stuff
So that was the first one
Okay
Not to hold any crime
Well then today I got the delivery
And for some fucking weird reason
I got a little sachet of albaca
Fresh basil
Basil yeah
And it was soaking wet
Yeah
It was like completely wet
Okay odds
So maybe they put it with my frozen peas
Or something
Because it wasn't in the same bag as the frozen peas
Right
But something happened to the basil at some point
That would burn the basil
And then it was all
It was all wet
It was just soaked you know
So that's not going to keep it from more than a day
So you can't have it in the fridge for a week
Well you could probably put it like in a
You could probably squeeze out the liquid
And like put it in a sauce maybe
And save it that way
Or a dressing
Yeah I mean if you use it like today
Or stick it in freezer
That would for sure be useful
Oh yeah that might work
But still many crimes
Right
Horrified
I know
I'm not
But everybody
That's about the extent of my life
Take care of your basil
Take care of your wife
No take it home
Don't have it delivered
Is what the lesson here is
I was quoting that song
What was it
Take care of your basil
Take care of your wife
Is that what the guy said
No
He's talking about Antoine
The bed intruder
The bed intruder yeah
Song
The famous song
He says hide your kids
Hide your wife
Hide your basil
Hide your wife
And that's our mini crime time for today
I don't know if we can be Sufi Anton for that
Probably not
We didn't sing it
No we're giving him plugs man
True true
Go check it out
We're promoting Antoine
Alright well that's it for my mini crime time
It's been a pleasure listening to it
See you guys soon
Dudes
And we would like to thank you for all listening to us
Blabber on about stuff
Yes
It's always a pleasure to learn
About the Basque Country
The city I live
How stupid people are
Yeah and let us know if you want to hear anything
Actually
You can also write to us and tell us what you want to hear about
Story suggestions
Not suggestions only but like
Do you want to hear more about
The type of crime
Basque culture or
More historical things
Language or I don't know
Whatever you want to hear
We're into a lot of Sufi
Tell us what to tell you about
So we're open to all that
Not that we don't have a lot to go with
Okay
So don't worry
We still have a lot of
You know
We just like to interact with the public
It's great fun
Sure it's fun
To get inspiration from other places
Well we're here for you
We're not just here to just talk to each other
Because we do that all the time anyway
We do that anyway
We don't broadcast most of our conferences
No never
Can you believe
Of course not
You wouldn't want to hear it
I mean maybe some people would
I definitely enjoy them all
So you know
I enjoy talking to you Douglas
Me too
And like always
It's been a pleasure
It's been an absolute pleasure
So we bid you
Agur
Crimes of the Basque Lands is written and produced by
Douglas Di Carvalho
Julie Garcia
and Megan Dooley
The sound and editing for each episode by
Douglas Di Carvalho
and Megan Dooley
Theme song written by
Douglas Di Carvalho
Julie Garcia
and Megan Dooley
Sung by the choir with no name
and produced by Tom Squires
Podcast art by Distinct Signal
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook
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and contact us at
crimesofthebastelands.gmail.com
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Until next time
Agur