Of late I have been thinking about limelight and that will receive an explanation here in a subsequent blog. But today I thought about faroles which is Spanish for a transparent receptacle that houses some sort of light be it a candle, a light bulb, or a wick dipped in oil (be it whale or some other) alcohol or kerosene.
faro.
(Del lat. pharus, y este del gr. φάρος).
1. m. Torre alta en las costas, con luz en su parte superior, para que durante la noche sirva de señal a los navegantes.
2. m. Farol con potente reverbero.
3. m. Cada uno de los focos delanteros de los vehículos automotores.
4. m. Aquello que da luz en un asunto, lo que sirve de guía a la inteligencia o a la conducta.
~ piloto.
1. m. faro que llevan los vehículos automóviles en la parte posterior para indicar su posición.
Real Academia Española © Todos los derechos reservados
Farol is a derivative of the other Spanish word faro. To me the above definition in my RAE (Real Academia Española) is full of romance as the farol conjures galleys, fellucas and xebecs lazily (not so the galleys) sailing under the legs of Alexandria’s famous Pharus. Also interesting is that a car’s headlights are faros. In Mexico in the 50s the cheapest cigarettes anybody could buy were Faros. If I remember well some sort of Egyptian wonder advertized this terrible product in which paper was combination of rice paper and some sort of other questionable paper product. Faros were one rung under the not so delicate Delicados with their oval ends. I remember standing in line with Les Wiseman, in an extremely cold night in the late 80s, outside the Bottom Line in Manhattan. We were waiting to get into Lou Reid’s second show of the evening. I told myself that by puffing on the Delicados I would not feel so cold. If anything warmth came via the excitement of being able to listen to Sweet Jane waft from the inside.
Tow of these farol pictures I took sometime in 1963 on a trip to the lovely Mexican colonial city of Guanajuato. The third one, bottom right I took in Morelia about 20 years later.
farolero, ra.
1. adj. coloq. Vano, ostentoso, amigo de llamar la atención y de hacer lo que no le toca. U. t. c. s.
Real Academia Española © Todos los derechos reservados
I find it interesting that the adjective farolero describes a person who is vain and likes to call attention!
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| Photogravure of my negative by Ian Martin |