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| Puig, December 1, 2013 |
Some people might know that the author of
the book The Kiss of the Spider Woman (El Beso de la Mujer Araña) was written
by Manuel Puig who was an Argentine author. It is most likely that I was
distantly related to the man as his Catalan surname Puig (pronounced pooch) was
the same as that of by Barcelona great-great grandmother, Vicenta Puig de Galvez, and her daughter, Buenaventura a
virtuoso pianist in Manila
who died in 1915.
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| Centre Vicenta Puig de Galvez -1888 |
Buenaventura’s favourite was my mother Filomena who had long but very thin hair.
Buenaventura
would comb and brush her hair and my mother would cry. Buenaventura would tell her, “It is painful
to be a lady and you must learn this now.”
The relevance to this slim connection has
to do with a recent arachnid inhabitant on the inside window of my front door. I
call him (her?) Puig. He (she) appeared a few days before Halloween. I thought
that this spider was awfully dumb. His (her) associates in the garden were all doing just
fine with a fine menu of insects that would otherwise be feasting on my roses’
spent flowers.
I have observed Puig now for some time. He (she)
rarely moves. His (her) associates are all gone with the recent cold spells. But Puig
on his (her) reduced indoor diet is doing fine. Perhaps I might have to find
something for him (her) so we can share our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. I
will wish him (her) well and hope that he (she) might just help us uncork the Champagne for the new
year.
I could stop here and any good magazine
editor would agree. But I can digress because as some say, magazine space is
limited but the internet is infinite.
I have often wondered why the beautiful
word for spider in Spanish araña (so close to the Latin name arachnid) has a
verb arañar which means to scratch. Do spiders scratch? In Spanish and in any
language the most adept entities that scratch are cats, or perhaps my youngest granddaughter
Lauren when she practices her violin. A big cat scratch is the fearsome arañaso!
So I finally looked it up and the verb form
arañar comes from the Latin arar and labrar which mean to work or to plow. To
furrow a land is perhaps close to what a cat may do to your face.